(no subject)

From Raymond's blog:

This week is Share Our Strength's Great American Dine Out. Dine out at a participating restaurant and support efforts to help children at risk of hunger in the United States.

There are participating restaurants in the Seattle area. Didn't check other parts of the US.

[curmudgeon] Of course you could also donate directly to the charity. Donating less money than you'd spend in a restaurant could end up being more for the charity, depending. [/curmudgeon]

It's nice to know there are crazier fandoms than mine

Such as "Ring" aficionados. The Seattle Opera stages the Ring frequently, which is to say, Seattle folk aren't just crazy when it's raining. A NY Times travel writer discusses this and other Ring quirkiness.

From the sidebar at the end:

• Know that Tchaikovsky once wrote of the “Ring”: “After the last note, I felt as though I had been let out of prison.”
  
  
• Consider the gaucherie of going out for dinner during the long second act of “Die Walküre,” as some do.
  
  
• Delight in the fact that, in his conception of the ideal production of the “Ring,” Wagner wanted the theater burned down at the cycle’s conclusion.

To which I would add: According to my high school German teacher, one percussionist noticed he was only needed during the 1st act and the end of the last act of one of the 4 or 5-hour long operas. So he told his jazz band buddies he was available that night. He'd play the first act at the opera house, play with the jazz band -- and as long as he was back by the crescendo of the last act he was fine ;)

(When I was in high school The Ring was an annual production. Now it's every-n-years.)