Training for the Mister Babel Competition

My strength has always been languages, ancient or modern (although I did drop and run from the Russian orals), but it took me a while to formulate the most effective plan for acquiring new ones and resuscitating old ones. Ever since I went into business with Aidan, I've thought that I needed to learn Spanish as a business skill (he certainly won't), but was too preoccupied with amending my dearth of business courses.

When I was a little kid at Cathedral, I did learn some Spanish, albeit in a disorganized fashion, but when I received a choice, I chose to take French instead; in those days, not everywhere offered Chinese. I have forgotten much.

Some of you may have noticed my abortive attempts to jump start language acquisition. This was the case before I got a new public library card and discovered the foreign language CDs. I concede that these might not be the highest-rated programs, but I can't justify the expense of buying the more extensive programs such as Rosetta.

So here's the plan as it stands: I will learn to speak Spanish as a business skill, at a micro and macro business level. I will learn to speak Mandarin Chinese, because China is one of the big economies, and it might be useful in Berkeley and San Francisco. I have studied some Sanskrit, but learning Hindi, while potentially fun, is not a priority since Indians who are businessmen (no, teledrones don't count) already speak English, and frequently do so better than some of the riff-raff littering American cities. So what's language Number 3? That would be Russian - one of the sources of labor at Tahoe; last summer I surprised one of our Russian employees by spelling her name in Cyrillic! French, sadly, does not pass the expediency test, since I also need to review my Latin and Greek.

New Digs

I fear I may have confused some people at church today, so I wanted to avoid that situation in a broader context. I am moving to a cottage at Tahoe because my brother has moved to his new house with his wife, but it's a bit more complicated than that. Aidan and I own a property maintenance business at Tahoe: we provide maintenance and supply and manage the summer recreation staff for the homeowners' associations. On one of these properties is a cottage, in which one of the owners of the company may dwell. Aidan has been living there with Kacie, but they have bought a new house and moved into it; so now I am living there when I am at Tahoe - working. When I am in San Francisco, I will still be the smartest man at 8th Avenue.

Evie's Waltz: Come Already Down

Evie's Waltz, the newest play by Carter W. Lewis examines the intersection between the stresses of society and family. The dialogue is sharp and dark, and the final reveal is well-hidden, but its performance within sight of the Obama presidency somewhat tempers the bite it would have if there were more years of neo-conservative rule anticipated. An angle involving the dark secrets which the relentlessly chipper father holds is a cliché , but the jaded mother's response is refreshing and it does provide a red herring before the final reveal. The overall experience was intellectually stimulating, but perhaps the alumni reception which I had attended previously that afternoon was buoying my spirit too much for me descend to the level of grimness necessary to appreciate on an emotional level modern playwrights; perhaps I did not require catharsis. I heartily encourage all who have not seen Evie's Waltz to do so, but it would be prudent to avoid an excess of joy prior to the experience.