Miscellanea

There's this, to begin with:

February 13, 1867: Johann Strauss's Blue Danube waltz premiered in Vienna.

It shouldn't take too much effort to guess what we'll be listening to come Happy Hour.  I've mentioned this to several people over the years: there's just so much excellent classical music out there that it's hard to choose favorites.  That said, I have a very large warm spot in my heart for the Strauss family.  One of my better memories of the way-back was a New Year's concert The Second Mrs. Pennington and I attended when we lived in London.  The London Symphony Orchestra used to do an all-Strauss performance for New Years in times past (they might still do so) and we went.  Wonderful, in a word, and we saw them in their then-new home at the Barbican Center, which has a very nice bar that we patronized at the interval.  I'd still like to be in Vienna for New Years at some point, but my dreams is fading down the railway line.  (That's an obscure reference to an old Stones tune.  Which IS my favorite song of theirs.)  (Yet another parenthetical: you get a LOT of hits if you search for "Blue Danube" by the Vienna Philharmonic.)

In other news... we began our day by downloading about a dozen "important" updates from Microsnot and three "optional" updates, one of said options failing which completely HOSED my audio system.  We finally got stuff restored after about an hour of work, but now I have to download all those "important" updates yet again.  Which I may or may NOT do.

Were you expecting some sorta comment on last night's SotU extravaganza?  Don't hold your breath.  I didn't watch it, I don't care about it, and I'm sick to DEATH of BarryFuckingObama.  I would watch his resignation speech, if that should come to pass.