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Unforeseen Hardship

Friends and Family

I have sometimes, I think, referred to my “adopted” daughter — the quotes because she isn’t legally adopted, but I treat her as my second daughter for all sorts of reasons:  difficult parents, occasional bad health and so on.

It all started when she went on our last great overseas adventure, the “Great Catholic Trip” wherein we visited several of Europe’s great cathedrals, basically as an excuse to go to Vienna (Stephansdom), Rome (Vatican) and Paris (Notre Dame v.1).  Here are a couple of pictures of the family in those cities — Lily is the short redhead:

Heidelberg (our start-off city)

Paris

Rome

Paris

Since then (over a dozen years ago), Lily has been as close as a daughter can be without actually being one.  She found the guy of her dreams (a mechanical engineer, gawd help us), and they set about building their lives together:  working hard, building careers, saving money, buying a little house and so on.

Let me say that in the past three months, all that has come crashing down, leaving her and David in a deep pit.

Read all about it here, and please help her if you can.  Her needs are modest, but critical.

I would regard it as a personal favor from my Loyal Readers.

Same Ol’, Same Ol’

History, War Stories

I see that the Russians are reverting to type:

RUSSIAN soldiers are reportedly using rape as an “instrument of war” in Ukraine, a prosecutor has warned.

Putin’s savages are also believed to be executing civilians in cold blood amid the evil invasion which entered its 28th day today.

Shades of Berlin 1945, for us students of history.

Not An Earworm

Music

But… just brilliant.  Quite possibly the best performance of this piece ever, in terms of its individual virtuosity, the timing and pacing and the superlative mix of the instruments — thank you, Maestro Slatkin.  And Miss Khatia ain’t too bad, either.

The best 20 minutes you’ll spend all day.

Ungrateful

Immigration, Mocking Furriners

I see that the “goodwill” visit of the future King of Britishland to Jamaica has been anything but, as the rather churlish response shows:

Jamaica ‘ready to move towards removing the Queen as head of state and becoming a republic as soon as Kate and William get on the plane’

See, in the days of yore, the monarch would respond by forcibly repatriating all UK-based Jamaican residents to their homeland — along with any progeny.  (Britishland does not have a U.S.-like “citizenship through birth” policy, so they could kick out anyone they want to, pretty much.)

But these are not the days of yore, sadly, so that won’t happen.  Instead, the U.K. will have to brace itself for a flood of Jamaicans arriving in London ahead of their “independence”, as Jamaica slides into the usual Third World pit, and those left behind will discover that freedom from the yoke of British paternalism (born of slavery) will have some extremely nasty consequences.

And I hope they get it, good and hard.