Play On!

Je ne sais pourquoi, but I have not recently visited the popular Winter Park French restaurant Chez Vincent. The fact is that I love French cuisine and for years sang as leading tenor in many French opera houses: the Paris Opéra, as well as those of Strasbourg, Lyon, Bordeaux, Nice, Marseille, Nancy, Lille, Toulouse, etc. — what’s more, I stared as “Hoffmann” in a film of that opera made in France. Now back in my home town with my b.w., I shall surely gather a small throng and wend my way down West New England Avenue to enjoy a French treat at Chez Vincent!

Bad-weather friends

Some years ago, I read in the newspaper the account of a man who seemed to have been ill-treated and had reason to be in need of encouragement.

I sat down and wrote this man I did not know a strongly uplifting letter expressing my hope that his future would be a happy one if he stuck to his guns and fought the good fight. This man told me that he had never received a letter that had meant so much to him as mine, and that it had strengthened his will to win his personal battle. My letter had, in short, changed his life. I introduced him to friends who might help him. Curiously, now that his problems seem to be behind him, I no longer exist as far as he is concerned. I hear little or nothing from him. My usefulness to him has come to an end. Oscar Wilde said it best: “No good turn goes unpunished.”

Invest = spend

Most of us now know that when President Obama says the word “invest,” he actually means “spend.” Would that he had truly invested the money he has thrown far and wide in his record-breaking spending sprees.

Flag mentality

Studies reputedly report that people who are brought up with the American flag on display in their homes and/or classrooms are more likely to develop into responsible voters.

Overconfidence

Our high school football coach used to hold “skull practice” meetings with us players the night before games. The meetings always warned against overconfidence, an attitude that can beat you against a weaker opponent. Overconfidence can defeat you in almost any hard-fought competition in your life.

‘Up and doing’

No matter how you slice it, the best part of life is in the first half, and the rest is a downhill slide. Cotton Mather, the Puritan sage, advised, “Let us now be up and doing.” It was by “up and doing” that America became a world leader. Those who wish to bring us down to the level of a Third World nation — such as George Soros — know full well that the way to do it is to destroy America’s active “will to win.” Our White House all too often exudes a feeling that our best days are over. There is damn little sign of “up and doing.”

War and police

President Bush saw Sept. 11 as “war.” President Obama strangely sees it as a “police action.”

Putt-putt

The biggest earthquake on the East coast in 100 years, and the president of the United States is doing what? He’s “putting around” on the golf course in Martha’s Vineyard!

Forget me not

I chide my b.w., “How can you suddenly forget what I was supposed to remember?”