If you could host a dinner and anyone you invite was sure to come, who would you invite?
Close friends and the little bit of family we have are welcome to join.
Dinner is to be served promptly between 6 o’clock and 7. Dress is optional by which we mean that of course you have to be dressed but wear what you like.
See you then.
The term we use when we experience horrific destruction is ‘Acts of God’. It’s a term of convenience for insurance agents who don’t want to fund natural disasters.
Sometimes, in a more neutral frame of mind, we blame Mother Nature. As if your mama would inflict that upon you.
Of course, the God-fearing among us still turn to prayer when unthinkable catastrophe hits.
I, as usual, turn to a favorite atheistic catchphrase: God has a lot to answer for.
What is your favorite genre of music?
🎼Classical music, big splashy symphonies, and intricate piano works are wonderful.
My teenage years played out mostly to Brahms and Bach and Mozart, and Liszt and some more obscure and lesser composers. 🎹*
In college, I bopped to classic Motown and R&B repertory.
As I grew to young adulthood, I started grooving heavily to country tunes.
Yes, folks, let’s sing along with Miss Barbara Mandrell. “I was country when country wasn’t cool.” 🎵🎶🎸
I love the great American musical, like Pajama Game or Hello, Dolly, to name a few. It’s billed as The Great American Songbook and
Jazz was an eye-opener when I was introduced to it. Over the years, I went to many a jazz concert and a few jazz clubs.
Let us not leave out Big Bands and blue grass for a full roster of favorites
*Classical music and the classical music station were part of the family dynamic.
On what subject(s) are you an authority?
I am a jack-or rather jill-of-all-trades, master-of-none, I suppose.
I like to dabble or perhaps babble about a widening range of subjects.
My authority on the things upon which I choose to expound is unquestionable.
I ask you not to question it.
It’s the season in which we are called upon to be patriotic.
It’s the 4th of July, or thanks to the quirks of the calendar, the long 4th weekend.
This year, like any other, our allegiance to this country and its democracy should come from the heart. I know it comes from mine.
There was a time when patriotism had a rhythm. And, of course, a rhyme.
George M. Cohan gave both to the songs he wrote to honor the USA; he waved the flag hard.
The myth of his being born on the 4th makes for good storytelling, but he is really the son of the 3rd.
Watching that myth unfold is an annual tradition in our house.
It is such a thrill to sing-along with Yankee Doodle Dandy.
A truly patriotic buzz runs over me as I belt out She’s a Grand Old Flag and harmonize to Over There.
If you were forced to wear one outfit over and over again, what would it be?
My husband has a favorite shirt, which he prefers to all others. I think we all have outfits, which we pick to wear over others.
Sometimes, the outfit is best suited to a particular occasion. Sometimes, it’s the easiest one you run into when you open the closet.
How important is spirituality in your life?
As a devoutly atheistic person, I tend to treat questions of spirituality as code for queries on religion.
I realize they are not the same. If asked if I were religious, I would say that God has a great deal to answer for. Am I spiritual, perhaps just the fact that I reference God suggests my ambivalence.
You are religious, aka one who takes all matters at faith value, but maybe you don’t connect closely with the greater universe.
You don’t follow the Bible or the Quaran or some other text from the annals of religious time, but you are literally in sync with the moon and the stars. Pagan and spiritual.
Spirituality has its limits if you are seeing ghosts, naive about good and evil, or indulging in reverential fantasies
Believe or doubt. You can still have a sense of kindness and respect for the forces of man and nature.
What are you passionate about?
Can it be relative?
Passion, for instance, like a love for Tide detergent vs. Percil is relative.
I’m thinking “no” because that relativity dilutes passion into just a liking. It cools it.
I take many things seriously enough to be passionate in my thinking. That extends from food to politics with stops along the way to consider climate issues and civic discord.
Taking the day’s question in its best light, I have to admit to a passion for my friends and their friendship.
I am certainly passionate about the love of my life. After over 30 years together, I am still mad about him.
Passion has many guises.
If humans had taglines, what would yours be?
Are we defined by the things we say about ourselves? A tagline can be a limiting description.
I am going with The Real Tamara.
Use that both for my tagline and my nametag.
Here at All The Best, this is a positive lifestyle spot, so the pros will be of the “all in favor” variety. The “cons” will not be akin to those who offer us fraudulent claims to entice us to part with our money.
Simply put, Pros stand for yes and Cons for no.
So, you ask, what are we voting for?
Well, let’s see what we can say about immigrants that meets my positive take.
The fact remains that mass migration and nativist backlash have stalked one another for more than a century.
Idrees Kahloon, Economists Love Immigration. Why Do So Many Americans Hate It? in the New Yorker
Full disclosure is warranted: I was 6 when I arrived in Jackson Heights. My parents applied for political asylum when I was nine.
My expectation of growing up in the land of my birth was replaced by my life as an alien in America.
Oh, of course, I adapted to my new home, sporting a Queens accent with ease. For many years under all that Americanization, I still felt like a foreigner.
The plus side of immigration coming from inside the immigrant experience is the opportunity it offers to those of us “yearning to breathe free.”
It may sound like propaganda, but we of the alien persuasion tend to be extreme in our patriotism. We are filled with the desire to make sure America meets all of its promises.
Patriotism, like all things in the great divide that America has become, is a fraught subject.
Let us stipulate that the grateful immigrant is a good citizen. We work hard as a rule. We pay taxes. We act in accordance to our civic obligations.
I’ve listed four reasons to honor the contributions immigrants make.
They also often pick up the slack jobs that the second or third or tenth generation won’t work.
Jingoist considerations are the first things that come to mind. You know, retorts like “they are different” qualify.
There’s reason one through twenty to turn immigrants away.
All The Best