News Flash: Life Not So Bad After All

Today started crappily. Between the rain and cold, the early morning with little sleep, all the stuff I have to do, and my impending doom, I was not the happiest camper. Compounding my sorry state, The Issue got dredged up before the day was 45 minutes old and I was again explaining things with as little bitterness as I could manage to folks who didn't know the tale.

Thing is, I instantly had a good 20-25 people incensed on my behalf, to the point of bellering about starting petitions. They talked about how good I was at my job and how good I was for them specifically.

It was nice, and... well... sweet, really.

So I leave that little enclave, admittedly fairly close to teary, to go to onto my next mission of the day and I ran into my boss in the hall. We talked briefly about the big work thing I'm running over the weekend, and darned if she didn't wish me luck and give me a big hug.

*sigh*

Apparently I do some good in the world after all.

Bang on the drum all day

Today, I was at work for 13 hours straight. Yay! And much fun was had by all.

You do see the sarcastic slant of my handwriting there, don't you?

Much of the time was spent answering questions and trading rumors about the upcoming reduction in force. The place is going to look like a ripped open anthill; a third of us dead and the rest all scurrying around in an unreasoning panic. It has not been a good day.

It has not been a good few weeks. I can't focus. I wonder why. And I can't make myself plan ahead and do work for too much in advance, I mean, what's the likely hood that all my planning is for naught? Pretty darn good, I'd say.

Although it was nice to hear several people say that they were sorry, the place wouldn't be the same without me, I'm an asset, thank me for my work, etc. Silver lining. Silver lining.

This weekend will be work-filled as well. Am in charge of a fairly massive undertaking from about 6:45 Saturday morning through 'til Monday night. That too will be fun as all heck - acting peppy through all this has not been my favorite. I generally am better at focusing on other things and just letting stuff go but that hasn't been happening recently.

Need to stop brooding and get to bed. Bah. Humbug. Need to read more comics and get myself in a better mood.

Conspicuous Consumerism

I have way too many CDs.

Well, really I don't. But I do. But I don't.

I generally feel my CD collection is pitiful. Just pitiful. I have no Nepalese music in the stacks, for instance. Buddhist monks and Catholic monks chanting (2 separate disks, natch), folk music from Uganda, the Wisconsin Badger Marching Band, and the Minnesota Orchestra's recent recording of Beethoven 1, but nothing from Nepal. This may seem silly to most folks but it came back to haunt me at work today when I got caught a bit flat footed knowing nothing about music from Nepal. Long story.

(http://www.ccoder-usa.org/, if you must know)

Anyway, that was fairly fresh in my mind when in a fit of work avoidance this evening I decided to put my CDs in some semblance of order. Hence the "too many CDs!" "not enough CDs!" plaint. In the too many category: What a storage nightmare. Not enough shelf space so things are jammed in every which way and I can't see what I have. I ran across at least two CDs that I'd totally forgotten I own. They're sorted loosely by category, but with lack of space I can't do much more than that. ABC order might be even too anal for me, but I'm getting to that point.

But yet. No music from Nepal. One lousy CD from Australia. One! Only one CD of Japanese music as well, and it's orchestral - no folk music. I still don't own U2 Joshua Tree or Beatles Sergeant Pepper, which is a travesty. I mean, really.

CD thoughts remind me of a stand partner from long ago. Professional ensemble, but this was a young kid with much to learn. Much. OK, middle of rehearsal, swear to God:

"I have 200 CDs."

Really? Wow. Amazing. Now:

KEEP YOUR MOUTH SHUT DURING REHEARSAL, FOR GOD'S SAKE!!!!! WHAT ARE YOU, TWELVE?!?

He was annoying in many ways, but I really coulda smacked him after that one.

Freakin' phone was out much of yesterday which also meant no internet; drat you Qwest.

Random thing that has nothing to do with the previous (two) rant(s): My loud upstairs neighbors reached a new low today. Beautiful out there this evening (i.e. up above 60) so I opened my patio door to let in sun and air and let the cats smell smells and see sights.

Problem is, the neighbors thought the same way. They sent their two elephants disguised as small children out to their deck just above mine to go play. Lovely.

SQUEEEE! BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM SQUEEEEEEEEE! BOOM BOOM SQUEEEEEEEE!

Oh. My. God. Cats were looking at me like the world was going to come crashing in on us at any time and I was fairly certain they were right. The "BOOM BOOM BOOM" noise was familiar to me as that's the soundtrack to my life on a regular basis - I think they may be interior designers as they're continually doing something that sounds like moving furniture - but the "SQUEEEE!" is usually more muffled.

Almost makes me wish for cold weather again... but not quite...

Update for D...

...who is likely the only person who reads this.

*grin*

Let's see... what's new around here? Just my typical social butterfly weekend: Am going out to dinner tonight to some new place with an old friend. That'll be fun. Tomorrow am heading to B&Cs new place for dinner and cards, not that I know where they live. Best get on that. Need to do some hard core cleaning as might have something for work at my house Monday night. Cat peed on my sweatshirt again, so I'm thinking the litter needs to be on the list.

Have big stuff for work next weekend and need to make sure I'm ready for that as well... it's one of those projects where I'm sure I've forgotten something and that's what's making me crazy - that I can't recall what I've forgotten.

Speaking of work, it's been a bit rough lately. A HUGE reduction in force is coming. My building alone is losing somewhere around 29%. I'm quite likely to be on that list. Can't say as I'm so pumped about that. Rumors are flying - got a call last night from a colleague who was pretty irate that she was told her job would be changing. Used quite colorful language. One hopes she'll be OK. One hopes we'll all be OK. But it's not going to happen. Best case scenario: I'll still be there and my job will change. Much more likely: do you want fries with that?

There's not a ton that can be done about it. We don't have as much money coming in, costs have to be cut. That's simple economics. What pisses me off is that my department seems to be getting hit the hardest. Hard to tell how much of that is perception and how much is The Truth. It's also a bit rough that I work my butt off, am good at my job, am well liked, my bosses want to keep me, but I am likely to get cut anyway. Seniority hurts sometimes.

Have been thinking on how to make economies myself. Smaller apartment, no garage, cut out internet, no home phone and just keep the cell. But I don't want to do any of that. Shop more at Goodwill and consignment, which I tend to do anyway. Car is almost paid for, which is nice. Had a haircut today - which costs and arm and two legs, every 6-8 weeks. My cosmetologist said to let her know, and she and I can talk about how we can make things cheaper. I promised her I'd never fall in with evil companions and go to Great Clips. She laughed and said she'd hunt me down if I did.

Funny how a tiny little thing like that can make me feel better.

Anyway. That's depressing. What else...

Changed my computer wallpaper to a picture of my cats. Can't "p" again. Need to replace this keyboard but am too cheap, especially now. They're changing the carpeting in the hallways of my apartment building so my whole apartment smells like glue. The cats are going to get high pretty soon, unless they are already - L is already attempting to modify my post with her attention to the mouse and the keyboard. Already deleted several sentences; yay for the inventor of "undo." Designed a card for the selling crafts stuff thing I've been toying with. Dunno how serious I am about any of this but it's an exercise. Don't like the look of them but not sure what's bugging me. They look amateurish. paper is decent; maybe it's how they're cut. Idunno.

Went to the big jugglefest last weekend and got closer to learning to juggle. That's just about the best people watching on earth. Anything that includes combat juggling and unicycle hockey is bound to be good. I even got up on a unicycle myself and with C's help managed to get at least a half turn of the wheel before I fell off. Good times. And J didn't knock himself in a particularly sensitive place so hard he fell over and curled into a fetal position, like what happened last time I went. Life is good.

Enough babbling for now, doncha think? I'd best pet the cat and distract her before things really get out of hand...

Chair Model

Aaannnnddd... this is why I love The Office: episodes like tonight. Funny, romantic, sad, awkward, and pathetic, all in 22 minutes.

Sumer is a cumin in

Went to a tiki bar today after work and...

Got. To. Sit. Outside.

Can you believe it?! Finally. FINALLY. The weather is nice enough to actually be outside for more than 30 seconds, and without a coat, too. Granted, we did bag it and go inside within an hour or two, but still.

And I am now the proud owner of a new tiki mug, whom we have christianed Mr. Smead. He's going in my office with the naked lady swizzle stick. A profitable evening.

Deregulation

The whole thing with the FAA and the airlines and things not being inspected....

"It's all sort of ironic, when you think about it. When you fly, YOU are inspected quite thoroughly, whereas the plane itself is, perhaps, occasionally vacuumed. See, with this administration, if a passenger blows up a plane, it's a 'failure in the war on terror,' but if the plane just blows up on its own, it's 'the market self-regulating.' '' - Jon Stewart

Lightbulbs?!?

Wow.

This woman is a lunatic and an embarrassment. I wouldn't believe this except, knowing her track record, it makes a sick kind of sense. With all the things in this world she could spend time - and taxpayer dollars - on, she chooses to fight the good fight about light bulbs. Light bulbs!

This of course begs a comment about her being a dim bulb herself, but I'll refrain.

Please, oh please, vote her out of office. Someone. Anyone.


http://www.startribune.com/politics/national/house/17002506.html?page=1&c=y

Bachmann is pro-choice on bulbs

By KEVIN DIAZ, Star Tribune

March 25, 2008

WASHINGTON - How many members of Congress does it take to change a light bulb? Americans may soon find out, courtesy of a contrarian piece of legislation introduced this month by Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota.

Titled the "Light Bulb Freedom of Choice Act," the bill seeks to repeal the nationwide phase-out of conventional light bulbs, the kind that have been used for more than a century -- pretty much since the invention of the incandescent light bulb.

Bachmann, a first-term Republican, is challenging the nation's embrace of energy-efficient compact fluorescent lights, saying the government has no business telling consumers what kind of light bulbs they can buy.

"This is an issue of science over fads and fashions," Bachmann said in an interview Tuesday.

"Congress tends to jump on whatever the current buzz is in the 24-hour news cycle, " Bachmann said.

Her bill, the first challenge of its kind, raises safety questions about the small amounts of mercury in fluorescent lights. It also lands her squarely in the middle of the debate over global warming. In recent remarks to a gathering of Sherburne County Republicans -- reported in the West Sherburne Tribune -- Bachmann called any human connection to global warming "voodoo, nonsense, hokum, a hoax."

"By 2012, incandescent light bulbs will be no more," Bachmann said. "Fluorescent bulbs are more polluting because of their mercury content. We are working on a light bulb bill. If the Democrats can hose up a light bulb, don't trust them with the country."

The electrical and manufacturing industries, in a rare alliance with environmentalists, portray Bachmann's mercury concerns as overblown. They argue that fluorescent lights actually reduce mercury emissions in the long run. That's because the new bulbs use so much less electricity, much of which is produced by burning coal, which emits greenhouse gases and mercury.

"That's not just the industry talking," said Mark Kohorst of the National Electrical Manufacturers Association. "That's an accepted aspect of these products, and that's why they've been promoted so heavily."

Whatever one's views on global warming, Kohorst said, the energy savings of fluorescent lights are real. "The lamp thing has merit," he said. "Unfortunately, [Bachmann] has lumped it in with this whole conspiracy thing."

Environmentalists are more emphatic in downplaying the mercury hazards of fluorescent bulbs, which they say are minimal.

"There is 200 times more mercury in each filling in Congresswoman Bachmann's teeth than there is in a compact fluorescent light bulb," said Julia Bovey, a spokeswoman for the Natural Resources Defense Council.

The federal government is also on board, with Congress' last energy bill, signed by President Bush in December, having mandated a phase-in to energy-saving bulbs starting in 2012.

But in a letter to congressional colleagues earlier this month, Bachmann asked for support of her legislation to reverse that mandate, unless a comptroller general report shows clear economic, health and environmental benefits from the switchover to fluorescent lights.

Her letter says that the energy bill "forces consumers and businesses to use only light bulbs chosen for them by the government" and that further study "is simple due diligence."

Mercury disposal an issue

The mercury content of fluorescent light bulbs has long been a concern of federal and state regulators. Minnesota is one of a handful of states that ban the disposal of fluorescent lights as general waste, and Xcel Energy, the state's biggest utility, actively reimburses many customers for recycling them.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) outline a series of steps that homeowners should take to clean up broken fluorescent lights: Open windows, use rubber gloves, dispose of all material in sealed bags and remove it to a hazardous waste facility.

"It's almost as if you have to call the haz-mat team out to your home," Bachmann said.

Environmentalists argue that most of the steps are the same as cleanup from any broken glass accident, except for the special disposal requirements.

Industry experts say the amount of mercury in new compact fluorescent lights -- about 5 milligrams, on average -- is small but significant enough to warrant common-sense safety precautions and consumer recycling efforts to keep it out of landfills.

"There are minuscule amounts of mercury, but it's a hazardous waste, and we want to take it seriously," said Kim Sherman, product portfolio manager at Xcel Energy.

MPCA spokesman Sam Brungardt said the use of compact fluorescent lights, which use one-fourth the energy of regular bulbs, should certainly be encouraged. If new legislation is needed, he said, it should be to encourage consumers to recycle. "You have to make it easy to do this," he said.

Growing market

With or without the help of Congress, the market for compact fluorescent lights is growing. They are now more than 20 percent of the consumer market in the United States, up from 1 percent in 2001, according to Steve Rosenstock of the Edison Electric Institute.

"These bulbs use significantly less energy, so consumers can save lots of money by switching over," said Jason Mathers of the Environmental Defense Fund.

Fluorescent bulbs, however, cost several dollars more than regular household light bulbs, a factor that Congress failed to take into account when it passed its new mandate, Bachmann said.

For her, changing a light bulb should remain a matter of personal freedom.

"I was just outraged that Congress would want to substitute its judgment for the judgment of the American people," she said. "It struck me as a massive Big Brother intrusion into our homes and our lives."

Kevin Diaz • 202-408-2753

© 2008 Star Tribune. All rights reserved.

Happy Easter to all, and to all a good night.

One of my all time favorite songs: The Vatican Rag

Dammit.

http://www.startribune.com/lifestyle/16853741.html

Minnesota novelist Jon Hassler dies

By SARAH T. WILLIAMS, Star Tribune

March 20, 2008

Beloved author Jon Hassler, whose unconquerable will to write became as much admired as his novels steeped in small-town Minnesota, died early Thursday of Progressive Supranuclear Palsy, a Parkinson’s-like disease. He was 74.

Hassler, of Minneapolis, battled PSP for almost 15 years, a disease that progressively stole his ability to write, to speak and, finally, to walk. But, fueled by the sheer force of will and the love and support of his wife, Gretchen Kresl Hasssler, Hassler devised ways to keep at it.

A spirited problem-solver, Hassler wrote his most recent few novels by “typing.” His fingers, however, would fall randomly on the keyboard, and only he could read the resulting “gibberish.” He’d translate the typewritten pages to Gretchen, who would then retype them.

“Through all this, I loved him for his courage and his pluck,” Gretchen Hassler said. “He just kept going and going. He had a book to finish, and, by golly, he finished it, too.”

A new novel, “Jay O’Malley,” was finished in the weeks before his death.

Hassler was born March 30, 1933, to Leo Blaise (a grocer) and Ellen (a teacher), of Staples, Minn. His career path took him from schoolteacher in Melrose to a regent’s professor at St. John’s University in Collegeville.

Along the way, he published more than 15 works of fiction for adults and young adults, including “Staggerford” (1977), “The Love Hunter (1981), “Grand Opening” (1987) and “The New Woman” (2005).

He is survived by sons David Hassler (Joyce), of Alexandria, and Michael Hassler, of Brainerd; daughter Elizabeth Hassler Caughey (Lonnie), of Brainerd; stepdaughters Catherine Cich (Geoff), of Robbinsdale; Elizabeth Seymour (Chris), of Richfield; stepson Emil Kresl, of Austin, Texas. and five grandchildren.

Sarah T. Williams • 612-673-7951

© 2008 Star Tribune. All rights reserved.

A Three Hour Tour

Geez, but I'm tired.

As a civilian, I kind of like Holy Week. As a musician, I can't stand it.

Am on hour 18 since getting up. Been one of those days that you run from the minute you leave bed. Got back about an hour ago from a three hour rehearsal for the church gigs I have for the whole Triduum. Three hours. This is on top of the regular work day, plus the weekly guitar lesson. And I've been up for the past hour since I got home sorting through the music folder for the three days and trying to figure out what the heck is going on. Not my favorite.

(Side note - a blog post from my cat: 52222222222222222222222222222223)

And I have to work again tomorrow - the alarm is ringing at 5:15, same as always. So I'm going to have another glass of wine and hit the hay.

Most people like holidays. Musicians learn early on to hate December and March - or April - whenever Easter is.

There goes the neighborhood

In oddities for today, was noodling around reading the news online and saw the headline for an article I figured I should read - two candidates vying for the Democratic endorsement for an open House seat. So one of the guys looked a little familiar... turns out he graduated from my high school. But I didn't know the name, and we were enough apart according to his age that we weren't there at the same time. So why did he look familiar? I went to his web site, read his bio, and the description of where he lives matches my area. Hm. I went back to the article. Another candidate is quoted mentioning he lives in an apartment. Double hm. I couldn't stand it. I went to Anywho.

Darned if he doesn't live in the building right across the courtyard from me.

So is this a good or a bad thing?

Welcom to Teh Holiez Bibul

This has to be fairly close to the funniest thing I've ever seen online: LOLCat Bible Translation Project

It's the entire Judeo-Christian Bible, translated into lolcat speak. Srsly. Don't read if you're easily offended.

But then, if you're easily offended, what the heck are you doing reading this blog?

Linkage a-go-go

This has got to be about one of the funniest darn websites I've seen in a long time: Garfield Minus Garfield. It takes standard Garfield comic strips and removes the title character, making for these odd existential comments on modern life. I truthfully haven't had much use for Garfield for years now, although I really liked the strip at first, but these lend a whole new meaning; make the strip entertaining again.

Ran into the site through a new favorite: MinnPost. MinnPost is a new online only newspaper that conveniently hired many of the castoffs of the local papers, the ones more-or-less forced into retirement to save money, the ones who are smart, knowledgeable, really can write. There's a fair amount of thought in the articles, which is what I like. Besides having Uncle Al, whom I have loved for years, the paper can claim John Camp, more commonly known as novelist John Sanford. Camp wrote a series of pieces from Iraq, which are quite good.

Went out tonight with T and S. Idiot me forgot until S called me; thank goodness she did. We're planning on going out once a month. As they're two of my oldest friends, I'm glad we're making the effort.

Darn tired now, though. Daylight savings or something... I just can't get it together...

Idiots in Sports

Anybody who knows me can tell you I'm no more a sports geek than I am a gamer. I grasp neither concept, really. But I did manage to run into the sports blog:

http://www.firejoemorgan.com/

Oh my.

What's likely my favorite recent post encapsulates quite well why I don't really care for football or anything else other than baseball, really: idiots. And I quote...

Sunday, February 10, 2008

This Might Be Dangerous

On a slow Sunday, Vikes' fullback Tony Richardson talks about his long-term plans:

"I don't want to move at this point in my career. I had a good meeting with the owners. I've got some gas left in the wheel and want to keep playing."

One assumes there is a corresponding tread in his tank. Both problems should be fixed post haste.

posted by Ken Tremendous # 12:56 PM

There's been yet another school shooting. Seven dead as of this morning.

I think that the most depressing thing might be how little news coverage it's getting. We're getting used to this type of tragedy; immune, somehow. It gets talked about briefly during newscasts, we see film of people on stretchers, loaded into ambulances, huddled together in shock, then go on to something else. Last night, Nightline led with the story, but promptly went on to a fluff piece for Valentine's Day about two married police officers in San Francisco. I seem to recall there was yet something else on after that, but I got irritated and turned it off. The other newscasts I saw last night were the same. Most didn't even lead with the story.

What does this say about us?

I dunno, maybe it's cause I'm so stressed. But this song makes me cry every time. Every single one.

Song of the day: Death Cab for Cutie, "I Will Follow You Into the Dark".

Schoolsville - Billy Collins

Glancing over my shoulder at the past,
I realize the number of students I have taught
is enough to populate a small town.

I can see it nestled in a paper landscape,
chalk dust flurrying down in winter,
nights dark as a blackboard.

The population ages but never graduates.
On hot afternoons they sweat the final in the park
and when it's cold they shiver around stoves
reading disorganized essays out loud.
A bell rings on the hour and everybody zigzags
into the streets with their books.

I forgot all their last names first and their
first names last in alphabetical order.
But the boy who always had his hand up
is an alderman and owns the haberdashery.
The girl who signed her papers in lipstick
leans against the drugstore, smoking,
brushing her hair like a machine.

Their grades are sewn into their clothes
like references to Hawthorne.
The A's stroll along with other A's.
The D's honk whenever they pass another D.

All the creative-writing students recline
on the courthouse lawn and play the lute.
Wherever they go, they form a big circle.

Needless to say, I am the mayor.
I live in the white colonial at Maple and Main.
I rarely leave the house. The car deflates
in the driveway. Vines twirl around the porch swing.

Once in a while a student knocks on the door
with a term paper fifteen years late
or a question about Yeats or double-spacing.
And sometimes one will appear in a windowpane
to watch me lecturing the wallpaper,
quizzing the chandelier, reprimanding the air.

Included in the book, Sailing Around the Room: New and Selected Poems.

Included in the book, The Apple That Astonished Paris .

New Year music

Happy last day of 2007.

It's snowing again.

We've had... I dunno... maybe 17 inches so far this December. That's close to normal, but less than the past few years. I somehow think maybe I've forgotten how pretty it is when there's fresh snow, when there's snow all the time. It just keeps coming and coming. Instead of getting all depressed about it, I'm enjoying sitting here, staring out at the big puffy flakes as they drift down to join their mates.

Songs of the day, or rather song versions of the day:
Fields of Gold
Time After Time
Somewhere Over the Rainbow
What a Wonderful World

These are all Eva Cassidy's versions. Just lovely. That woman had some serious pipes. Really serious. Damn.

Here's some stuff from Nightline about her:
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

More in the Songs of the Day category - the Minnesota Orchestra's versions of the Beethoven symphonies. I've heard and/or performed these things... I don't even know how many times. But these recordings are different. Non-musicians, and even some musicians, may wonder why on earth we need yet another recording of any of these. Non-musicians don't always get what any good classical musician knows immediately: there ain't ever going to be two interpretations that are exactly the same. I don't even know how many versions I own of the Bach 'Cello Suites, for example. So new versions of old pieces can be great. But just like any remake, you have to ask yourself - is it worth it? Is there anything new being said? I hate note for note, exact interpretation remakes. What's the point then? Studio time is expensive, and for an orchestra, out of this world (see the Mpls St Paul mag article below for deets). So do we really need another recording of the Beethoven symphonies? Oh yes. This one... mmm... I just purchased the 1 and 6 one, which is brand-new; don't yet own the others that have been released (4-5, 3-8, 9).

Nice stuff. Really nice stuff. Osmo has a tendency with his musical interpretations to stick close to the score. He has a reputation as a perfectionist and taskmaster. He pushes his musicians. Hard. Thing is, they like him, and they work for him, and you can really tell. It's hard to play softly well. It really is; much harder than louds. The piano quality the Minnesota Orchestra is achieving these days... really masterful. Unbelievable. I haven't been fortunate enough to hear a ton of world class orchestras live, but these days I think Minnesota is up there with the best of them. There's a just flat out LIFE to this recording I can't remember hearing from others. These people aren't going through the motions. They're laying it all out on the line with all they've got. I noticed things I never noticed before. Amazing.

Brief historical info
MN Orch Archives and pictures
Mpls St. Paul Magazine article
St. Paul Pioneer Press article
MPR Article - "Does the world really need another Beethoven's Fifth?"

A Christmas Carol
Charles Dickens, 1843

I have endeavoured in this Ghostly little book, to raise the Ghost of an Idea, which shall not put my readers out of humour with themselves, with each other, with the season, or with me. May it haunt their houses pleasantly, and no one wish to lay it.

Their faithful Friend and Servant,
C. D.
December, 1843.


Marley was dead: to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that. The register of his burial was signed by the clergyman, the clerk, the undertaker, and the chief mourner. Scrooge signed it: and Scrooge's name was good upon 'Change, for anything he chose to put his hand to. Old Marley was as dead as a door-nail.

Mind! I don't mean to say that I know, of my own knowledge, what there is particularly dead about a door-nail. I might have been inclined, myself, to regard a coffin-nail as the deadest piece of ironmongery in the trade. But the wisdom of our ancestors is in the simile; and my unhallowed hands shall not disturb it, or the Country's done for. You will therefore permit me to repeat, emphatically, that Marley was as dead as a door-nail.

Scrooge knew he was dead? Of course he did. How could it be otherwise? Scrooge and he were partners for I don't know how many years. Scrooge was his sole executor, his sole administrator, his sole assign, his sole residuary legatee, his sole friend and sole mourner. And even Scrooge was not so dreadfully cut up by the sad event, but that he was an excellent man of business on the very day of the funeral, and solemnised it with an undoubted bargain.

The mention of Marley's funeral brings me back to the point I started from. There is no doubt that Marley was dead. This must be distinctly understood, or nothing wonderful can come of the story I am going to relate. If we were not perfectly convinced that Hamlet's Father died before the play began, there would be nothing more remarkable in his taking a stroll at night, in an easterly wind, upon his own ramparts, than there would be in any other middle-aged gentleman rashly turning out after dark in a breezy spot -- say Saint Paul's Churchyard for instance -- literally to astonish his son's weak mind.

.........