The Boy

Brendan and I are having a great weekend. He has been so good and lots of fun. Yesterday we stayed around the house and then went to Mother's for lunch and the afternoon. We stayed outside all that time since the weather was gorgeous. It was a wonderful day. On the way home around 5:00, he wanted to go to Yarn Frenzy to see Tina, but when we went there, she'd already gone home. Diane, the owner, and Yvonne, a master knitter and friend, were there, so we visited with them for a while. Then back to my house for dinner I cooked, bath, reading, singing, and bed. Today is going well, too. I'm going to meet Brian in Bellevue and will not lock my keys in the car this time. Let's not have another week like that one that began with the call to AAA before!

I played him Tom Lehrer's song about the Periodic Table of Elements since Brendan has a chart at home and has been learning them because of a They Might Be Giants song about them on a science DVD he likes. He noticed that some were missing, but updated animations on YouTube list seven that were discovered since 1961 when Lehrer wrote the song. He said Copernicum was not included. (Good grief! What a freakishly good memory!) It was discovered in 2009, so it wasn't on the updated versions. (I googled it - keeping up with him is daunting in several ways!) As many chemistry courses as I took (5), I never did learn the whole Periodic Table - just some of them.

Speaking (typing) of Tom Lehrer, have any of you heard "The Vatican Rag"? That was a favorite of mine back in the 60's when I bought his album and listened to it over and over. It had the "Element Song," "New Math," and "So Long, Mom" on it among others. He taught math at MIT and Harvard and wrote for "That Was The Week That Was" (TW3) which is before your time for most of you readers and was a satirical show that lampooned the establishment. David Frost was on it.