CHEERS AND JEERS

It is after midnight.
And it is raining.
Thunder boomers.

And it has been a good day.

We arrived in The North yesterday, Monday, and were up till 2 a.m. reading.

Good grief.

And today up to Omena Bay for a 45th Anniversary dinner, ½ the tab on the house.
We belong to the diners’ club of the establishment.

But we arrived too late to do a wine tasting in the adjoining tasting rooms.

But the meal was superb – walleye and trout; a beautiful bay to eat beside; cocktails; a superb and attractive wait staff; and many memories.

We have lots of nice things on our minds right now, but a new item has inserted itself in the last few days.

Detroit, of course, is largely a lost cause. But it is a study in lots of what is wrong with our nation today.
I know that sounds hopelessly, nonsensically, unfeelingly, cruelly in the clouds, but it is nonetheless true.

And that pathetic city’s newspaper noted a few days ago that the Detroit Symphony Orchestra may become a thing of the past in that woebegone city.

And that wreck of a metropolis boasts no less than four professional ball teams –– activities that children play.
Grownup people pay tens of millions of dollars a year to watch grownup people play with balls and pucks.

But they cannot support an adult classical art form.

But boy, are the people of SE Michigan in the 21st Century superior to those benighted folks of the 19th and 20th who supported the arts.

Now, make no mistake.

This is not an essay which claims that taxes should be levied to pay for the arts.

Rather it is a condemnation of the dumbing down of the American people which has taken place since the 1950’s.

And the dummies are so dumb that they have no idea how dumb they really are.

Sorry about this negative note.

But so be it.