Back in the Saddle!

It’s January 10, so here ends my brief hiatus! As I get my bearings again, here are some links to things:

::  First, I have no idea how long this may last online (copyright holders may squash it), but here’s the BBC telecast of the 2022 New Years From Vienna concert. If you’re familiar with the version that runs every year on PBS as part of Great Performances, you’ll note differences: this is just the concert, recorded live, with none of the “Vienna travelogue” stuff that forms much of what Americans see. There is some Vienna travelogue stuff, during an extended film in the middle of the program that pairs some lovely chamber music with some wonderful photography of Vienna and surroundings. (This takes up the concert’s intermission period.) Still, since the featured attraction here is still the great Vienna Philharmonic and the music of the Strauss family, you’re in good stead if you watch this!

::  I thought about writing an essay about the 1-6-21 Insurrection, but really, there’s nothing I have to say that Jim Wright, John Scalzi, and Kevin Drum didn’t already say, so check them out. (And if you’re looking for “debate” on what was most certainly an attempt to set aside the results of an election to reinstall an authoritarian President, go somewhere else. I do not value “debate” and I will not even approve any pro-insurrection comments to appear on my site.)

::  It was Elvis Presley’s birthday two days ago. Sheila O’Malley has this covered, here and here.

::  I’m not generally a big fan of “Why I hate this person” pieces, but…well, here’s a gem of the form, if you feel like hating on soon-to-be-retired Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger.

::  Are you following the ongoing developments in the deployment of the James Webb Space Telescope? You should be! Space.com has you covered. Spoiler: So far, it’s going pretty well. Note the body language from the folks actually running the mission:

::  I have not yet seen the movie Licorice Pizza, but Roger has. I do want to see it.

::  I made Cioppino the other night!

What’s Cioppino? It’s a fish stew invented in San Francisco, and it is delicious. I found an easy recipe for it in one of my Instant Pot cookbooks, and I have fallen in love with this stuff. (It’s a little pricy so I don’t make it too often.)

::  And winter finally showed up in Western New York…though as I write this on Sunday morning, it’s all melting. (And will apparently be replaced tonight and tomorrow, as we’re on a temperature roller-coaster.)

That’s about it for now. How are things in your necks o’ the woods?

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