No symptoms of COVID so far. I'll test again in a few days but I think the odds are pretty low that I was infected. But since they aren't zero, I shall continue to isolate from others for a while.
I was so busy here the last few days that I didn't get around to noting that Dick Van Dyke turned 97 on Tuesday. Dick has long been a great role model for being friendly and nice to people. Now he's a great role model for staying active in one's later years. Too many people I've known hit a certain age and think they have to act like…well, like Dick Van Dyke playing an old guy. He's a reminder that you don't necessarily have to surrender to the age your birth certificate says you are.
Hey, remember the piece I had up here the other day about seeing the national touring company of My Fair Lady in 1961 when I was nine years old? I said in it that "A gentleman named Michael Evans — who spent much of his career playing Henry Higgins in various productions — played Henry Higgins, while research has suggested that Liza was played by either Caroline Dixon or Anne Rogers." Well, I finally found my copy of the program book for that show and, assuming an understudy didn't go on for her, Liza was Caroline Dixon. And I see that Freddy Eynsford-Hill (the young gent who sings "On the Street Where You Live") was played by Reid Shelton. Mr. Shelton understudied that role in the original New York production, appeared in many, many stage productions and later originated the role of Daddy Warbucks in Annie. I saw him in other shows and on TV and never realized I'd seen him in my first musical.
For a long time, Amazon was saying they'd be shipping copies of the new Pogo book out on December 13…and indeed, a number of folks have written me to say they received theirs before that date. No one has told me why they're now promising delivery December 27-28 but I'm guessing they've committed their first shipment and are anticipating another shortly. Or something. In any case, it is out and you can order it here or you can order it and the previous volume in a neat slipcase here. I still highly recommend you do one or the other. Some who ordered the two volumes in the slipcase have taken delivery also.
Lastly for now: Not only am I back to isolating but I'm back to not following the news too closely. That said, I do think that the Respect for Marriage Act, while cause for some celebration, ain't all it should be. It might be all it could be. Politics is, after all, The Art of the Possible and a compromise is usually better than a total loss. But the act is still not all it should be.