THE WEISS CHRONICLES

Ann and I were at the Strathmore on July 30 (first image). The concert included Dvorak's New World Symphony (the post intermission piece) which was a delight.

It also included the overture to Barber's 'The School for Scandal' which was forgettable (1930s piece with themes piled close together, minimal thematic development and jagged transitions, some atonal, between themes).

The highlight, however, was Ariel Horowitz (second image), an 18 year old violinist playing Mendelssohn's violin concerto (also known as Op 64 in E minor). After her performance (during intermission), she changed from her concert gown into a blouse and skirt and went into the audience and hugged dozens of people.

Years ago, Ann and I heard Izak Pearlman do the same piece and, perhaps in my imagination, there was some stylistic similarities. Ariel studied briefly with Izak according to the program guide so I might have brainwashed myself.

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posted by Martin Weiss # 7:02 PM

Top image is after about a half inch rain (July 30).

In the top image you can see some flower clusters that droop to the Y branch in the trunk.

Second image is the next day (but in the am when the sun wasn't high).

Not so much droop in the 'next day' image.

The rain added to the soaking summer we've had. There isn't a brown drought patch anywhere and its a time of year when usually there are many such patchs.

The third image is two days after the second image taken about 6pm so the sun is in back of the crape myrtle.

I think the third image shows even more recovery from the rain produced 'droop'

posted by Martin Weiss # 6:57 PM

It was a bizarre day in sports (image is of an event in Spokane not relevant to the post but a nice image that goes with the title of the post).

- The games in San Diego (Colorado visiting) and in Anaheim (Boston visiting) were both rained out. This was the first time two S. California MLB games were rained out on the same day.

- The Mets and Cardinals played an 18 inning game in which the Mets stranded 25 runners and went 1 for 26 with runs in scoring position (Cardinals stranded 14). The Mets won the game 3-1 with the first 12 innings scoreless for both teams.

- Cleveland beat Cincinnati 5-3. All five Cleveland runs scored without a hit on the play (4 on walks, one on a sacrifice fly).

posted by Martin Weiss # 6:41 PM

I bought a bottle of fairlife earlier this week. It is an 'improved' milk which has more protein and calcium and less sugar than regular milk.

Coca Cola, Inc. bought the fairlife company in early 2015 and has bringing the product to chain stores (that's Coke Bear in the image admiring his product) using the well honed company distribution system.

I had read about the product and the reviews were, among other things, that the milk is more creamy than regular milk. From my tasting, this is true. The bottle (about 52 ounces) in the image cost about $4.50 at Shoppers.

The product should help us get thru the meat restrictions of the 10-days of Av which began last night and ends Sunday night the 26th (wine&meat are generally restricted except they are permitted for the two sabbaths in the period - also, this year the fast of the 9th of Av is observed on the 10th of Av because the 9th is a sabbath).

Since it is similar to chocolate milk, I didn't say the blessing for 'bringing me to this occasion' when I had my first taste.

Back in Feb, a number of nutritionists had negative things to say about the product. A more balance view of the product is here.

posted by Martin Weiss # 7:43 PM

Back in 2011, Drake University published George's article on Prosecutorial Accountability after Connick v Thompson (the article was motivated by, among other things, some egregious prosecutorial misconduct that was in the news at the time).

Recently, G got a request from a company in Beijing China to publish a Chinese language version of the paper. Today, he got a copy of that publication. The original is on the left; the Chinese version on the right.

Question by Ann: Why are the Chinese interested in that subject?

M's speculation: Maybe they want to use it as a "How to..." type manual.

posted by Martin Weiss # 12:05 AM

Today is a fast day so I took a long mid day nap.

I had a dream.

I had some kind of assignment in Miami, Fl. I was on Amtrak and was carrying some twice or thrice wrapped packaged food, undoubtedly for a kosher event.

The train derailed and I had to exit the train. I was going to have to carry the packages across a river when I woke up.

posted by Martin Weiss # 3:26 PM

Some of the lilly tree flowers are out and the second blooming of roses has begun.

This (first image) is the front yard today.

The second image is from July 2013.

The third image is from July 2014.

This year was the least flowery year for this lilly tree by far (all but one of the lilly trees are smaller than I remember them from last year). Having done some reading on the issue of lillies, one problem this year is that we have had far too much rain. We probably had (I'm basing this on Kevin Shaw's measurements in Gaithersburg) over 12" of rain in June and over 6" in May.

Click on the images 1 and 3 to enlarge (for some reason this doesn't work on image 2).

posted by Martin Weiss # 2:39 PM

I go to the Jewish Community Center Gym to exercise a few times a week. Typically, I begin with stair climbing. Recently, they replaced their old stair climbing machines with new machines with more stability (looking at this on the internet, it seems the new machines, made by the Star Trac Corporation, are several thousand dollars each).

The new machines also don't require an electric outlet to light the exercise information screen because the motion of the steps generates electricity which charges/recharges the battery in the stair climber. This works partly because the screen using LED lighting which uses very little electricity.

posted by Martin Weiss # 3:11 PM

G and his doctor decided today to eschew additional chemo courses.

This was on the basis that his cancer marker antigen count post chemo was 9.9 (same as before chemo but after surgery) and longitudinal studies indicate that at this level, the outcome is fairly low (1% or so) for recurrence but that although additional chemo decreases the recurrence of testicular cancer further, it increases the chance of leukemia/lymphoma.

I told George "Nice Haircut" as he was leaving the house today.

"No Dad, its the chemo" was G's response.

posted by Martin Weiss # 2:24 PM

THE WEISS CHRONICLES

Friday, July 31, 2015

Young Violinist Does Mendelssohn

Crape Myrtle Trees just after rain and next day

Monday, July 20, 2015

A Bizarrre Day in Sports

Friday, July 17, 2015

The 'New' Milk

Sunday, July 12, 2015

Chinese Use of G's 2011 Law Review article

Sunday, July 05, 2015

Fast daymare

Friday, July 03, 2015

Independence Day Flowers and Flag

Thursday, July 02, 2015

Saving electricity at the Gym

Wednesday, July 01, 2015

Nice Haircut -- post chemo

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