Are cellists careless, forgetful, or just newsworthy? That article about the LA philharmonic: one of their cellists has a Stradivarius cello worth US3.5 million (!). So one day recently he went home, opened his front door, and left his 3.5 million dollar cello sitting on the porch (!!). Next thing he knew somebody was carrying it away on a bicycle.

A few days later a lady found it by a dumpster. She was going to ask her boyfriend to cut it up to make a CD shelf out of it, but fortunately, he recognized it as the cello everybody was looking for.

Can you imagine? A 3.5 million dollar CD shelf? No, I mean, can you imagine being so careless?

But a couple years ago Yoyo Ma left his cello in a taxi in New York. How can you do that? It's not like it was a piccolo and it slipped out of your pocket or something, a cello is a large instrument, something you'd think you'd notice if you left it in a taxi.

Of course it was a cheapo cello, only one million US, which may explain his negligence. But still, hey, you can get a LOT of recorders for one million NT, much less US!!

當警惕
From The Anatomy of fascism, by Robert O Paxton: a mobilizing passion of facism is "the belief that one's group is a victim, a sentiment that justifies any action, without legal or moral limits, against its enemies, both internal and external."

As punishment for my sin of not backing up my files, last week a virus destroyed my hard disk. If you have not heard from me, I am not ignoring you, my entire e-address book is gone with the wind, so you're going to have to write to me. My apologies.

My apologies? Hull, my sniveling tears.

I have firewalls and anti-virus, but the virus still got through. "A warning by me take," and remember to back up your files.