Literally millions of us love them–and they don’t love us back.   In fact, mostly, I’m pretty sure they don’t even like us.  (warning, that last link contains extreme profanity.  Appropriate to the situation, but be forewarned, in case you have a delicate nature.)

This rejection of our love is a cruel truth, but a truth, nevertheless.  I may have to spend the entire night (I surely will not be sleeping peacefully), listening to this.  Or, it might be nice to have Fraulein Maria show up and sing something comforting.

Not that I’m feeling, you know, bitter or anything, after spending the weekend in Baltimore.  I did, at least, enjoy a delicious Cobb salad this afternoon, so, all was not lost. 

Since I am now thinking about jazz, it goes without saying I love Mr. Coltrane, but for my money, this is The Guy.  You can scarcely go wrong with any of his albums, but this is a good place to start.  Especially Skylark, which is wonderful in any form, but Jug’s version is almost as good as the one by The Honest and True Queen of All Music on the Johnny Mercer Songbook.  I had the tremendous good fortune to see what happened to be her very last concert at Radio City, and despite the fact that she had to be helped out onto the stage, and we were near the back of the highest balcony, it was absolutely excellent.  Her performance of “Night in Tunisia” (a song I love so much I once used it in a book) is something I genuinely won’t ever forget. 

There was an elderly woman, dressed in her Sunday best, sitting next to us, and she literally spent the entire concert with her hands clasped together and with so much joy on her face, that everyone who saw her smiled, too.  The whole time.  During the intermission, she told me she had been saving up for her ticket for weeks, and that the last time she had seen Ms. Fitzgerald sing in person had been–in the 1930s, at the Apollo.  Wow.  How cool is that?! 

And if this leads you to believe that I was standing a few feet from the Oval Office on Saturday morning, that is because I was.  However, I feel confident in saying that this fact will lead to no policy changes whatsoever.