Grazie, Fred!

This weekend I travel back to UC Riverside to attend a reunion of members of the Collegium Musicum in honor of the retirement of our dear friend and professor, Fred Gable. Dr. Gable was inspirational to me and to myriads of other students who loved early music, and many of them have become successful professional musicians.

We will be playing, singing and giving a free concert at 3:00 PM on Sunday in the Arts Building at UCR, room 166, all to say "thank you" to a man who has touched many.

They say "Snail!"

Languages are wonderful. The way people around the world express themselves has such incredible variety. I've been spending some time watching RAI International in preparation for an upcoming trip to Italy in June, and am really enjoying the Italian language programming. I don't understand very much of it, but I'm getting better at it.

I've noticed that at least one announcer - Francesca Alderisi, of "Sportello Italia" - uses the term chiocciola for the @ sign in the e-mail address. It is the word for "snail" or "spiral." I like it!

"SportelloItalia chiociolla Rai punto I - t !"

Untimely Passings

Many friends and acquaintances have shuffled off their mortal coils in the past couple of years, the bulk of which have been untimely. The most recent is an online acquaintance who succumbed to cancer last week at the age of 56. It seems that I am always buying sympathy cards. Each passing is a reminder as to how precious life is, and how we need to actively live it every day.