Bits and Bobs

Brian Schirmer brought this to my attention. Good lord. It is official U.S. policy that we can go to any country and kidnap people and bring them back to the U.S. without the permission or sanction of the country that they are in. Now, I don't particularly like the idea that someone can embezzle a billion dollars and get off scott free simply by hopping the border, but I like it even less that as a country we've taken the stand of "If we want you, we'll get you, and damned be the laws or rights of any other country that wants to stand in our way." Basically, we've once again given the finger to every other country on the planet. I swear, I wonder why we have any allies left at this point.

Becky Haycox made me aware of this debunking of a myth I had never even heard of: that candy canes are rich in religious symbolism and were developed out of piety. The more likely version, based on evidence, is that the only thing religious about them was church leaders taking the existing candy and having them made into shepherd's crooks in order to keep the restless children occupied during holiday mass. What I find rather disturbing about the whole thing, however, is the historical retrofitting of something highly banal to make it spiritually profound.

It's much like an article that one of Neil Gaiman's readers pointed out, detailing the numerous "authors" of the poem "Footprints" and what has become practially a sub-industry of legal wrangling, chest puffing, and positively hallucinatory arguments of asserted authorship. Absuridty of the highest order.

As for me, things are moving along. Sweetie Tanya continues to move forward. In some ways, it's all golden. In some ways, shakey. Yet, the shakey things aren't about the quality of the work that's being done. I am still having casting issues, or might be. I'll know for certain tonight. I've stepped into the role of the Boss after holding auditions, offering the role to two people and those people having to turn it down for reasons either mundane or heartbreaking. I'm not prepared to enter the Equity waters at this stage of the production (Equity is the Stage Actor's Union for those of you not in the field), and I don't want to keep hunting endlessly for an actor when we should be rehearsing. So, unless a "Boss" falls into my lap (so to speak), I'll be performing in January. What this means, however, is that if I can't resolve this other casting issue by tonight, I need to look for another performer again. I can't step into both roles.

The lesson to be learned, boys and girls, is never to rehearse a show over the holidays.