18 thoughts on “Sunday Serendipity”

  1. thank you, jace, just right for the holidays

    more about Maggie from her website:
    Maggie has been featured on CBS-TV Sunday Morning, and NPR’s All Things Considered, Performance Today, and The Thistle & Shamrock. As producer and performer, Maggie has performed at the Kennedy Center Concert Hall, National Geographic Grosvenor Auditorium and many other venues; from the large stage to small town fairs, Renaissance and folk festivals, special events and weddings. Maggie brings her unique vision and virtuosity to music of the ancient Celtic lands and more.
     
    Recent awards include:
     

    WAMMIE award for best Irish/Celtic instrumentalist from the Washington Area Music Association (DC’s answer to the Grammies);
    ANNIE Award for Performing Arts from the Anne Arundel Country Cultural Arts Foundation.

     
    Maggie is the author of hammered dulcimer music books published by Mel Bay Publications. Mel Bay included Maggie in their Hammered dulcimer Anthology Series featuring America’s finest performers and teachers. http://www.maggiesmusic.com/products/mmmusicbooks.html
     

     

    and from wiki:
    Sansone started recording her music in 1984. Since then, she has made over a dozen recordings, both solo and as a guest artist or in collaboration with numerous recording artists such as Bonnie Rideout, Al Petteway and Ensemble Galilei.
    Although she is perhaps best known for her hammered dulcimer recordings, she also plays the piano, guitar, mandolin, and Northumbrian small-pipes.
    Sansone has performed at the Maryland Renaissance Festival for more than twenty years. She currently resides in Maryland.
    Sansone operates her own music label, Maggie’s Music. The label features over fifty recordings of Celtic and contemporary acoustic music featuring twelve recording artists….

  2. Agree with PatD, thank you Jace!

    Renee  – continuing from yesterday, belated congrats on the Red Sox! At the risk of being a cynic: I think they overpaid for Eovaldi the next 4 years but maybe they’ll get away with it.

    Jamie – Yes, definitely Glenn Close’s year. I want to be her in 2019. (just in some respects).

  3. the guardian: 
    Comey transcripts: …
    Republican oversight and judiciary chairs release document
    [….]
    Comey said the FBI launched investigations into four Americans in July 2016 into whether they helped Russia’s alleged efforts to interfere in the 2016 US presidential election. He did not identify the people being investigated but that they “had some connection to Mr Trump”. He confirmed Trump was not among the four.
     
    Republican Congressman John Ratcliffe asked Comey whether the FBI had “any evidence” of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia when agents briefed Trump as a candidate in 2016 about foreign intelligence threats.
     
    Comey said the probes into the four Americans began in late July but that he was not sure when agents briefed Trump. “If it was after July 29th, then the answer would be, yes, we had some reason to suspect that there were Americans who might have assisted the Russians,” Comey said, according to the transcript.
    The transcript of the nearly seven-hour hearing runs to 235 pages and was released as part of a deal reached after Comey attempted to quash a subpoena ordering him to testify in private, expressing concern such testimony would be selectively leaked.
     
    Afterwards, Comey described the hearing as a “desperate attempt to find anything that can be used to attack the institutions of justice investigating this president”.
     
    There are expected to be two days of hearings with Comey, who was fired by Donald Trump in May 2017, due to appear again on 17 December.
     
    As reporters pored over the transcript on Saturday, seemingly bizarre exchanges emerged.
    Sixty pages into Friday’s hearing, New York congressman and the likely judiciary chairman Jerrold Nadler raised a striking claim made by Trump about Comey’s relationship with Mueller, his predecessor as FBI director.
     
    “On 5 September,” Nadler said, “President Trump brought up special counsel Mueller in an interview with the Daily Caller, stating: ‘And he’s Comey’s best friend, and I could give you a hundred pictures of him and Comey hugging and kissing each other. You know he’s Comey’s best friend.’”
     
    Nadler asked: “Are you best friends with Robert Mueller?”
     
    Comey replied that though he admired “the heck out of the man”, he did not know his phone number or the names of his children.
     
    “I think I had a meal once alone with him in a restaurant,” he said. “I like him … I’m an associate of his who admires him greatly. We’re not friends in any social sense.”
     
    Nadler said he would not “ask whether you’ve ever hugged and kissed him”.
     
    “A relief to my wife,” Comey said.
    […continues…]

  4. Jace,  Absolutely beautiful and a pleasant change from the usual Christmas music.

    DaveB – I’ve been a fan of Glenn Close ever since seeing her on stage as Charity in the musical Barnum in 1981 with Jim Dale as Barnum.  Truly fun show and the lady can sing as she proved again in Sunset Boulevard.  Now that is a musical that should have been filmed.

  5. fun from mr. Kellyanne this morning in wapo:

    […]
    Trump tweeted that the investigation “Totally clears the President. Thank you!”
     
    But Conway was among the most vocal in pointing out how wrong the phrase “totally clears the president” is.
    [george tweeted in response:]

    “Except for that little part where the US Attorney’s Office says that you directed and coordinated with Cohen to commit two felonies. Other than that, totally scot-free.”

    For Conway, it was a particularly Twitter-winning moment. He received a marriage proposal from comedian and Trump critic Kathy Griffin and the adoration of liberals shocked they could have such tender feelings for the man married to a high-level White House adviser.

    Conway then proceeded to spend the rest of his Friday night focusing his Twitter on the Trump-as-potential-felon theme.
    He retweeted a link from satirical site the Onion: “Giuliani Insists Breaking the Law Not a Crime.” He shared a Nixon-era headline “President: ‘I’m not a crook,’ retweeting presidential historian Michael Beschloss’s analysis: “What’s old is new again.” He also retweeted former acting solicitor general Neal Katyal, who said “The real news . . . is about the conclusion by federal prosecutors that Donald J. Trump has committed a serious felony.” And he shared a lengthier take by former assistant attorney general Jack Goldsmith: “One struggles to see how a document that alleges that such conduct took place at the direction of Individual-1 ‘totally clears the president.’”
     
    Even Conway’s correct spelling of “scot-free” may have been a dig at Trump and his head-scratching use of the phrase “Scott Free” earlier in the week.
    […]
    But Conway’s words on Friday weren’t all doom and gloom and indictments and impeachment. He also included a sardonically inspiring tweet from Preet Bharara, the fired U.S. attorney from the Southern District of New York:
     
    “Inspiring reminder: In America anyone can grow up and become Individual-1”
     

  6. Donald Trump Jr. (Mikey Day) puts Eric Trump (Alex Moffat) to bed when an unexpected vistor, Robert Mueller (Robert De Niro), stops by to chat.

  7. Weekend Update anchors Colin Jost and Michael Che tackle the week’s biggest news, like Chief of Staff John Kelly leaving the Trump administration.

  9. I wish that comey had considered gowdy’s 100,000,000 – 0 Q and answered,

    “You are a lame duck with a majority that will disappear in 2 1/2 weeks, mr gowdy. You lost your power in the November landslide. If you are going to ask silly childish Qs, I have Christmas shopping to do.”

  12. HOUSEKEEPING: I just installed the latest version of WordPress — 5.0. Let me know if any hiccups, so far I don’t see any. However, for those of you who contribute thread posts that has changed a bit, supposed to be easier for adding images and some other stuff.

  13. Today’s Favorite Tweet:

    France is on fire, England is in chaos, America is divided, Russia is a dictatorship. Meanwhile, I’m sitting here in Norway, eating gingerbread dough and reading an article on how the White House warns against “Nordic socialism”

  15. trump now hates lily white Norwegians, too. Is there anyone he likes, besides his un-natural love for jared, ivanka, and brat kavanaugh ?

  16. wapo:  
    Russians interacted with at least 14 Trump associates during the campaign and transition
    […]

    “It is extremely unusual,” said Michael McFaul, who served as ambassador to Russia under President Barack Obama. “Both the number of contacts and the nature of the contacts are extraordinary.”

    […continues…]

     

  17. It’s incredible that SFB didn’t have knowledge of the “interactions” with the Russians.  After all he paid for it

  18. He also said he didn’t know about the Daniels and McDougal payments – which based on Cohen’s  information to Mueller was a lie. I don’t believe a word he says.

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