February 19th, 2009 posted by Bender Rodríguez
So opera singer Frederica von Stade was the "not my job" guest on NPR's quiz show Wait Wait, Don't Tell Me. Very funny over all and informative to be sure, but what caught my attention was her confession that she used to consider opera depressing because while growing up in New Jersey her mother used to listen to opera on the radio on Saturday evenings, and when the opera show came on that meant that the weekend was almost over.
Not very note worthy, I admit, but I had the same feeling about Saturday nights when I was growing up. Add to the weekend over syndrome the fact that the next day was Sunday, which meant church, Saturday nights for me just sucked due to the impending doom of it all.
In fact, at one point during elementary school, I wrote something in passing about how I hated Saturday nights. My young teacher, who must have thought that this was an anathema to all that was good and holy in the world, asked me to explain, as I had not wrote exactly why I did not like Saturday nights in my report. So I told her my theory about the next day being Sunday and I hated going to church and Sunday school, and the end of the weekend and all that. I remember specifically that she just looked at me, speechless, and did not say another word.
"Many are concerned about the monuments of the West and the East- to know who built them. For my part, I should like to know who in those days did not build them- who were above such trifling."
Henry David Thoreau