Today’s observation is that chairs are for humans. William doesn’t agree:

Well Cherry says she’s gonna walk
’Cause she found out I took her radio and hocked it
But Eddie, man, she don’t understand
That two grand’s practically sitting here in my pocket

We don’t know how the speaker is expecting to get his two grand — drugs? gambling? weapons deal? — but we definitely get a sense of what he is like and what Cherry is like, all from four short lines.

We don’t even know where this is all taking place, although the line “Gotta make it through the tunnel” and the fact that Springsteen is from Jersey certainly suggests that he’s talking about the Lincoln or Holland Tunnel and therefore the deal is in New York City. (Of course I might be biased, since I’m from Jersey myself.) Some of the authors follow up on this idea, some don’t. For instance, here is the opening of Eddie Muller’s contribution:

…He just stares straight ahead at the lights on Canal Street and aims the Cadillac toward the tunnel, getting us the hell out of Manhattan and back to Bayonne.

No doubt about the setting in that story, is there?

Perhaps the most creative setting is found in Eric Garcia’s story: a Monopoly board! Well, actually it’s the fictionalized Atlantic City featured in Monopoly, but Garcia’s characters are, of course, the Parker brothers, and we get paragraphs like this one:

So Jimmy kept walking. Past Eddie’s place on St. Charles, past the new hotel on Tennessee Avenue, past the free parking, Marvin Gardens, the old waterworks, and the rest of the chichi suburbs on Pacific and Pennsylvania Avenues. Jimmy kept moving because he had no choice. Soon he was past the high-rise towers on Park Place and heading for a walk on the boardwalk. After that, he figured he’d start all over again. Maybe find someone else to loan him two hundred bucks.

Other stories in the collection were written by William Kent Krueger, Pam Houston, C.J. Box, Gregg Hurwitz, Michael John Richardson, and a host of other authors. The stories range in length from six pages to 18, but the average is only ten, so the book is easily digested in bite-sized chunks. In order to avoid the easy trap of confusing one story with another — given the similarities of names and themes — I listened to them one or two at a time, spreading it over a period of many months. But of course it wouldn’t be hard to go through all 20 stories, one after another. Try them out in whichever manner you prefer, and be sure to listen to the song at several points along the way.

In other news, since today is Friday the 13th, we had to have a pop quiz in Honors Geometry. For only the second time in the past decade a Weston student managed to lose his quiz while taking it.

Anyway, back to Friday cat blogging: here is today’s picture, showing Timothy in one of his favorite spots: sitting atop Fred, the Footrest:

It occurred to me that I had already dealt with this issue four years ago. So read that link if you want to read the mathematical arguments (actually, not too much math!) for or against bullet voting, depending on the situation.

Dedham Health is different. Although there is indeed a sprinkling of young people in great shape, the majority of members are older and initially out of shape. Just as important is the medical emphasis: through its affiliations with the Joslin Diabetes Center, New England Baptist Hospital, and Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital, Dedham Health has a medical emphasis that emphasizes lifestyle changes to combat obesity, high blood sugar, high blood pressure, and/or high cholesterol. They have a nurse on duty much of the time — a nurse with a speciality in those areas and their relationship with exercise and nutrition. They are exceptionally well-staffed with professional exercise physiologists (who knew that there even was such a profession?); not only are they experts, but every one of them is also a low-key, caring, supportive personal assistant. Although their regular membership is a bit pricey, they offer an introductory 60-day plan for $60.00 (with a doctor’s prescription). Both the 60/60 plan and the regular membership include a personalized fitness regimen that ranges from the big picture to the small. As you can tell, I am surprisingly enthusiastic about this place!

Today, of course, these topics aren’t shocking. I suppose that’s why the producers made no attempt to translate the play to modern times. The audience is always conscious of the time and the place, despite the presence of rock music — which somehow doesn’t seem out of place. One oddity is that they’ve cast a single actor to play all of the adult male roles, and another to play all of the adult female roles. I assume that this is trying to convey a message — something to the effect that the adults are all interchangeable, and only the kids have individual personalities. Fortunately it’s not as confusing as it might be, since the contexts are clear and the characters are often addressed by name.

Some bits of trivia: How often do you hear quadratic equations and lines from Vergil’s Aeneid mentioned in a musical? They probably didn’t register on most of the audience, but the math references were appropriate and the Latin class convincing (though terrifying). Also, I can’t find anyone else who was aware of this play in the ’60s, but I first became acquainted with it in 1966, when my roommate was reading it (in the original) for a college freshman German course. So I knew it as Frühlingserwachen, and it clearly made an impression on my impressionable roommate, who had a lot of related issues. For similar reasons, I thoroughly recommend it to my high-school students, most especially if they can later have an in-depth discussion with their parents and/or teachers. I was glad to hear that a couple of dozen Weston students will be going to see it next week on a field trip.