Reasons why I’m generally pleased with myself tonight

Today I helped someone track down information about a University of Virginia alumnus who came here in the 1850s and who was known by his middle name, which, of course, wasn’t listed in full in the University catalogues. But after much searching I found him nonetheless. By the time I was done answering that question, I felt like a History Detective.* It was very exciting.

Also, I have scored a ticket to the first concert of the sold-out Tuesday Evening Concert Series next week. On the program: Vivaldi, Corelli, Geminiani, Telemann, and W. F. Bach. There’s a John Ashbery poem that begins "It was a night for listening to Corelli, Geminiani, / Or Manfredini" ("Someone You Have Seen Before," in April Galleons), and next Tuesday will be such a night, even if I did get a seat with a partially obstructed view of the stage.

* One of the earliest things I wanted to be when I grew up was a detective, but I grew discouraged when I realized that my neighborhood didn’t offer any mysteries that an eight-year-old could solve. I remember being annoyed that the gang on Scooby-Doo stumbled upon mysteries everywhere they went, they couldn’t even go on a vacation at Velma’s uncle’s place without running into something to investigate, and it just wasn’t fair that such luck never happened to me. Then I transferred my career aspirations to archaeology instead.

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