“Long Live Emma Thompson” (… no disrespect, dear lovely Elizabeth II, you have a few grand Dames in your realm and did honor most of them so far …) … and I can only second every single word of praise expressed here so far!

… some of the new (‘o8) books I have enjoyed so far: “Gardening at the Dragon’s Gate - At Work in the Wild and Cultivated World”, Wendy Johnson … a gardening book not just for gardeners “The Open Road”, Pico Iyer on HH the 14thDalai Lama … Iyer is one of my favorite writers /journalists and this weekend it’s “Lavinia”, Ursula K. LeGuin’s newest, … and I know already I won’t be able to put it down … for all you mystery fans out there: just saw at B&N that the French mystery writer Fred Vargas (a woman, as in Frederique …) is translated and out in paperback … great writer, wonderful weird characters … so, and now I’ll have to get myself to The Strand and stock up on some of the fab recommendations here … thanks?!! ;-)

hi Phyllis, Sandra, Elisabeth … “A Fine Balance” has been slowly moving to the top of my pile, now I am really looking forward to it! also: Vikram Seth wrote a fabulous book about his uncle “Two Lives”, and my current favorite Indian writers are Arundhati Roy, Anita Desai … also came across a compilation by Pankaj Mishra “India in Mind” (interesting literary explorations about fascination with India) … another great compilation of India stories is the “Traveler’s Tales - India” … and with all my great admiration for so many Indian writers, I’ve always had a hard time with Rushdie … hmm?

hi De Burca … re. Irish writing … try Colm Toibin “Mothers and Sons” and “The Master” … he his such a great writer! also most of William Trevor, but particularly ‘The Story of Lucy Gault”, and Eilis Ni Dhuibhne “Midwife to the Fairies” (rather dark, but amazing short stories, US distributor is Dufour Editions) … but possibly you know all this already … happy reading, from another fan of all things Irish …

hi De Burca … Marie Brenner had several articles, and yes, promoting her book, on wow in 5/08 … you can just check back by clicking on her name …

sorry, I can’t resist … you are astonished that J. Frey got another book deal ?! … what country do you live in? … the past eight years I have been astounded at the ethics of the American public and administration …

… had never heard about this horrible person M. Savage … hope he will be fired asap … tonight the news anchor at NY’s CW11, Jim Watkins (who has at times commented on his own family’s autistic child, and is active here for autism organizations) spoke on the news and also wrote very eloquently on their website about those insensitive, hurtful comments (www.cw11.com) 4jAjL … my best friend’s son was diagnosed with Aspergers’, and it is a very delicate, difficult and often desperate situation for any family to try to find their way and balance between a difficult diagnosis, too easy ‘labeling’, and doing the very best for a child … these families and children need all our compassion

Great Question, Christina! and as to the WHY … I think there have been a few good explanations in this thread … I have tried to define it as ‘purity’, which seems to converge with other descriptions, such as: the transporting moment someone described at Vespers in St. Paul’s Cathedral with the angelic voices of the boy’s choir, or the lone bagpipe, or the thrill of an Irish ballad sung a capella, certain concert pieces or arias, a tango, a blues … all those seem to be very ‘pure’ musical forms with the power to touch and create an intense emotional and even physical reaction …

Oh yes, Astor Piazolla … when I moved from Berlin to NYC to get married, a friend of mine made me tape (don’t laugh, that was a good 20 years ago… we still made mix-tapes then …) of Astor Piazolla tangos (she had a very romantic view of my future then …) … I know it’s still somewhere, have to find that … a few years ago I heard an Argentine bandoneon player in Costa Rica play some of those … don’t know Giora Feidman, have to check on that …

… fabulous quote! gotta love that Fran L., … and of course Ms. Lily for posting this, smart and subtle as always!

Liza Donnelly … I really appreciate your article and review of the NYer cover … but: if a ‘satirical image’ needs that much explanation, something just didn’t work … even the auto-response from the magazine (to mail re. the cover) contained a lengthy explanation … in three decades of reading the NYer I have never written to the magazine, but this was just too stupid … you say that “what good humor is: comment on society. An image can take on a life of its own” … in this case the image may take on a very unfortunate life of its own … and from the many reactions (here and elsewhere) it is obvious, what little trust we all have in the ability of the American public to deal with this kind of ‘satire’ at this time … and talk about timing (another important ingredients of good comedy/satire) … totally tone-deaf … sorry, but I was deeply disappointed by one of the (usually) better publications in this country

;)

Wishing them all the best! Another thrilling episode (reality-show this time…) of a favorite show from sooo way back … PS. Oh dear Liz Smith, not only do I some times buy that horrible NYPost because of you, now you make me watch Fox News … oy vey, the corruption …

I agree with JMK Singer: ” it is mostly about the voices” … this past Friday I heard a young woman at a memorial service, she sang Schubert’s “Ave Maria”, and not only wasn’t there a dry eye in the house, but that music combined with the purity of her voice was creating that intense physical reaction (goose bumps, hairs on the back of the neck standing up…) … it’s an amazing phenomenon that some music and pure voices can do this to us … another voice that can do this for me (among many others), is Cesaria Evora, totally different (‘non-classical’) but the same effect of purity …

PS. watched the report … and it was excellent, mostly because it was so personal, so focussed on the person … but also: how great of you all to film that segment at home, no make-up, no ‘set’ … just three women, best TV in a long time … I really admire you, Cynthia McFadden, many thanks!