Today in History: May 1

Posted on by Mark Aldrich

Today is May Day. Much of the world celebrates the day as a festival of spring, with colorful things like maypoles (see above) and other expressions of joy at the season’s general Spring-ness. Much of the world also celebrates May 1 as International Workers’ Day, a form of Labor Day.

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Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s opera The Marriage of Figaro received its premiere 230 years ago today at the Burgtheater in Vienna. Mozart conducted the first two performances himself. The Overture (below the fold):
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Off the Shelf

Posted on by Mark Aldrich

Today is #IndependentBookstoreDay (‎@BookstoreDay). Here is my ode to booksellers, and here is a map to find an indie near you: http://indiemap.bookweb.org/

Mark Aldrich's avatarThe Gad About Town

My girlfriend says it is like watching a kid in a candy store when we visit a book store. I suddenly appear to have multiple arms, like a Hindu deity, and my stride becomes a purposeful lurch.

Any purpose to my stride can be attributed to my knowing that she is not much of a fan of shopping at all, and less of a fan of browsing, of idling, in a store whose shelves are taller than six feet and could crush us.

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Take the Stairs

Posted on by Mark Aldrich

My least favorite cases are staircases. My least favorite ways are stairways. My least favorite air is a stair.

The photo above (not at all) accurately depicts (for reasons of comic exaggeration) what every staircase resembles in my mind’s eye. Including the one in my home. It is life with mobility impairment. Once upon a pair of teenage legs ago, I took stairs two at a time.

In 2012 my first neurologist, Dr. M, diagnosed me with late-onset Friedreich’s ataxia, or at least he reported that he felt I have a form of spinocerebellar ataxia (SCA), a disease that has dozens of forms and is genetic in origin.
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