As others much more qualified to comment on than I will surely point out, today is the Mexican holiday Cinco de Mayo. It is not the Mexican Independence Day (that’s September 16). It commemorates the Mexican victory over the French in the Battle of Puebla in 1862. I’ll have recipes up later.
This is quite an eventful day: Napoleon Bonaparte died on this day in 1821; Karl Marx was born on this day in 1818; this is P. D. Q. Bach’s acknowledged birthdate; and Cliff Hillegass, the inventor of Cliff Notes, died on this date in 2001 (I met Mr. Hillegass once—his daughter married a college friend of mine).
But the event that I think we might reflect on today is that on this date in 1955 West Germany gained full sovereignty. This was nearly ten years after Germany’s defeat in World War II. Ten years. Even in West Germany in which civil society had not completely collapsed following the war and in which there was no substantial post-war resistance it took ten years before full sovereignty could be restored. Something to think about.
UPDATE: Bloggledygook notes that it is also Holocaust Remembrance Day. Joe Gandelman of The Moderate Voice has commentary.
Great comment at the end. I wonder how many other people will make similar observations?
Also, it’s nice to see someone who knows the Master Bach.
I linked but didn’t trackback. (Can one trackback a trackback? Is that proper blog etiquette?)
One of the greatest evenings in the theater I’ve ever had was watching (in a small theater) a live performance of Hansel and Gretel and Ted and Alice with Schickele and company.
My fellow music students just didn’t get him. Their loss, I suppose.
From time to time,I can still get my wife to listen to Schikele Mix if we’re home Saturday night. It’s fun. The faces she makes at the radio are priceless.
Schickele’s treatment of Beethoven’s Fifth in PDQ Bach on the Air is probably one of the greatest extant examples of musical analysis. It should be required. Then, I’m also a fan of Gerald Hoffnung and Anna Russell.