WERN is not getting any pledges out of me this year

…You’re just too dismal over there in Public Radio land. I gave you another chance this afternoon. I am dragging here today and I expect help from friends like you. Some pal you turn out to be. I, too, think Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet is lovely, but understand: I was in no mood for the Death of Juliet scene – a tear jerker even without the haunting melody, so why did you pick exactly that segment to play today at noon? Something chipper and bold like the Dance with the Mandolins would have worked, but no, you went for the drama.

Well you’re on your own now. I can’t deal with your perpetual grief music. And no, it did not help to run errands to the strains of Verdi’s Othello. [Yes indeed, I’m in the car, it’s 1 pm, and there it is: “Venga la morte! E mi colga nell’estasi Di quest’amplesso…” Let death come! Let it take me in the ecstasy of this embrace…]