What a Wonderful World

What a Wonderful World

And what a thrill to see Hershey Felder play Irving Berlin on Friday night at Westport Country Playhouse! I can’t describe it better than the Playhouse did on their website:

“His songs captured our hearts. Featuring Berlin’s most popular standards including the Great American Songbook classics “Blue Skies,” “There’s No Business Like Show Business,” “White Christmas,” and more, Felder’s one-man show celebrates Irving Berlin, the composer, and reveals the inspiration for Berlin’s countless hit songs.”

All the music and lyrics were by Irving Berlin. The show is based on Hershey Felder’s book, and the production was directed by Trevor Hay.

I came home and told Clem all about the show. Especially fun, I said, was that Felder had the audience sing along for a few of the best-known songs, like “White Christmas” and “What a Wonderful World.”

Then to cap off the amazing performance, I sat down to watch the last episode of Season 15 of Grey’s Anatomy. The opening music? “What a Wonderful World!”

Continuing the Conversation About Race

I spoke to David, the Social Justice Director at The Unitarian Church in Westport, about the idea Sonja and I had on a Conversation About Race. He said, instead of proposing it as a class in the adult education series, we should contact our intern minister Margolie. She is planning a related project for the fall and winter.

She is looking at the IDI, or Intercultural Development Inventory methodology and program. I spoke with her at church yesterday. We will have a conversation soon to see if our ideas fit with hers. I’ll keep you posted.

Let the Voters Decide 

I will write about this documentary film I saw on Friday night in my next post. Remind me if I forget! It was powerful.

Lights Out

With no internet since the power went off a few minutes ago, I can’t send this blog post to you. I can’t add pictures either. Let’s see what happens in the next half hour or so. If no power, maybe I’ll go to bed! Or read on my Kindle. I think that will work.

Meanwhile I’ve put a candle on my desk to help my writing process, though I probably know the keys well enough to type without a light.

The lights came on again at 10:30. So with a few quick additions this will be on its way to you, dear readers!

First Permission Response and Other Book Progress

I’ve written to three authors or publishers to ask to use their recipes in my new book on Nigerian cuisine. The most recent was last week to the author of the blog Afrolems. She responded today with her signed permission form and apologized for taking so long! I assured her she had not taken too long. She answered in less than a week! I still haven’t heard from the others.

It was exciting to get the completed and signed form back from her. I want to use four of her recipes. Fanta Chapman is one – do you know what that is? A delicious orange drink made with bitters. Another is a northern dish I hadn’t heard of until I read about it on her blog. You’ll be able to read and follow the recipes when the book comes out.

In searching for the history of milk in Nigeria for the beverages chapter, I found a wonderful report. It was a study of a small group of Fulani families, describing the ownership of cattle, how they divide labor, and who sells the milk, called nono.

I found that the milk is sold either fresh or fermented. The women also make butter and sell it. So I was able to add to the section on dairy products.

Saying for the Day

I keep a Daytimer on my desk. I usually write down my tasks for the day. I try to write them down the night before, though that doesn’t always happen. Then I keep notes during the day on the right hand side of the Daytimer pages. Those pages stay empty when I don’t have to record any phone numbers or new passwords or other bits of vital information that I might otherwise lose. Sometimes I still lose them when I can’t find the page where I wrote them down!

I often look at the sayng for the day, at the top of the right side. For July 17 it was “Aging is not lost youth but a new stage of opportunity and strength!” from Betty Friedan. Yes!