Moving to Connecticut also caused my introduction to the bizarre concoction known as "fritters," which in retrospect was the very first encroachment of the now-wide variety of inappropriately-fried objects into my consciousness.

N.b.: Fritters are nasty and who thought it would be a good idea to put cooked corn into a doughnut in the first place?

I played violin as well (for ten years before switching to viola), though I was full time viola by the time I hit the university symphony. The violinists were notoriously snooty about the whole 32nd note thing, so I got no sympathy there, lady. NO SYMPATHY!

t waves viola bow threateningly

Actually, the first piece we played when I hit the university was Stravinsky's "Firebird", so that pretty much took care of my "playing harmony is boring" issue. Phew, is that piece hard, no matter what part you're playing. The speed is difficult enough, but it's the counting that's really brutal.

Ha! Amazingly enough, I have a cousin in the Navy. But I have never quizzed him about modern rank. (And until two years ago, he did not work on a ship anyway, just fixed things right next to the ocean.)

See, sadly, my brother is in port at the moment, so if I make the mistake of being in the same room as him, everything is "blah blah blah boat, blah blah blah captain, blah blah blah boatswain, blah blah blah stupid asshole head engineer, blah blah blah whatever."

stupid asshole head engineer

I'm pretty sure I don't remember this one from any nostalgic seafaring yarns I've read. Are you sure he's really in the Navy?

May I still join the We Hate Pizzicato! club?

But yes. You may, so long as you have been a second violin.

In England, yes. The Tems. In CT? Thhhhhhhhames.

The main drag in Newport is pronounced Thhhhhhhhames Street, too, so not just a Connecticut thing.

Fritters are nasty and who thought it would be a good idea to put cooked corn into a doughnut in the first place?

I stand in kernel-free (as opposed to colonel-free) solidarity with Nutty on this.

and a Buena Vista ("BYOO-na". I shit you not)

There's a Buena-pronounced-BYOO-en-uh right down the road from me too. (Also back in NY a Berlin pronounced BER-lin, just to be difficult.)

Alibelle, you can totally join the We Hate Pizzicato Club. I bitched about boring parts, but honestly I didn't envy the melody people most of the time. That stuff looked hard.

And my irritating song is Canon in D

Oh, I liked Canon in D--yeah, yeah, I'm a plebeian--but the cellists all hated practicing it. Poor cellists. It was like they wanted to change notes every now and then or something.

Fritters are nasty and who thought it would be a good idea to put cooked corn into a doughnut in the first place?

I stand in kernel-free (as opposed to colonel-free) solidarity with Nutty on this.

I have to agree.

Fritters are nasty and who thought it would be a good idea to put cooked corn into a doughnut in the first place?

I would never put corn into a doughnut. Apple fritters, however, are nummy goodness.

Stravinsky's "Firebird"

God, but what a gorgeous piece. Particularly the finale.