Politics Plus

Yesterday, the radio opera was “Elektra” by Richard Strauss. Itis based on te Greek myth, but I have only ever seen it in modern dress. (The first time may not have been intentional – bot when Chrysothemis had her back to the camera – it was televised – viewers could easily see the zipper in the back of her costume.) It’s one of his early operas, like “Salome,” and, like Salome, it’s all in one act and the heroine dances at the end and then dies. Aside from thet, they’re very different. It was under 2 hours, so when it ended and I turned the stream off and the radio back on, I got to re-listen to the last third of “Rheingold” again.

I like cats (and most other animals.) I don’t like climate change. We used to have permafrost in the Rockies. Back in the late seventies, when I was still living in Alamosa, a former Marine Corps colleague visited with his wife and two kids (who must now be in their late fifties) who had never seen snow. I was able to call the local paper and get directions to a glacial permafrost area within easy driving distance. It wasn’t really snow, but the kids were thrilled. There are concerns about thawing permafrost releasing CO2 – but it’s also known there are viruses in there. I don’t see why this one would not spread to humans, though it hasn’t yet, thankfully.

This by Robert Reich could be very depressing. But it also could be very motivating – it puts additional faces on “We must avoid this at all costs.” If you find that depressing, and don’t need any more motivation, you may want to skip it.