by Paul Maxim
Mario Biaggi
Republican Congressman MARIO BIAGGI (a former cop), running for mayor of New York City on a Law and Order platform, climaxed his campaign by telling a group of Harlem democratic voters (with apparent sincerity) "Bless your black hearts!"
PS.: Yes, this really happened...
P.P.S.: No, he didn't win...
P.P.P.S.: Long live democracy!
by Paul Maxim
Albinone wrote fifty-three operas,
none of which survived,
while Beethoven wrote only one,
all of which survived,
including four overtures,
three entr'actes, two intermezzi,
and one horrendous climax,
in which a caste of singers clambers back onstage,
and helps extract the tenor from his queasy cage.
But Rossini, nimble tunesmith,
outdid them all
by writing only half an opera
- called Semiramide* -
about an ancient Babylonian Princess
(or maybe she was just a Quean)
who thought she could reshape the course of history -
but why she thought so still remains a mystery.
Now, had that tunester only written
one whole Ramide
- it might have seemed a trifle overlong,
- it might have lacked a dance to fleshify its song,
but still most likely it would not have made him smirk
(as rumor swears he did):
"Half an opera she is better than none,
and mine have coined more lira than yours
have ever done!'
* Pronounced Seh.mee.RAH .mi.day
by Paul Maxim
French Romantic composer
Vincent d'Indy
(pronounced "Dan - Dee")
worshipped his mentor,
the saintly César Franck,
with what might be called
Franck adulation,
D'Indy loved the countryside
so much he dubbed himself
"the French Mountain heir,"
wrote his master's biography,
and quoted snippets of Franck's
music in his own. In fact,
had he only been American,
we would today be calling him
"Yankee Doodle d'Indy."
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