Scarlet Pimpernel

Thank you for sharing that!!

Haha, well, he really didn't care for Maazel at all! My dad definitely knew his music. I don't think he would have really boycotted going to the orchestra, he more or less "put up" with Maazel at the time. His feeling was that the Cleveland Orchestra was still so well disciplined and good, despite him! As I understand it, Lorin Maazel was controversial and not overly liked at least initially but he sort of improved over time before he left.

He definitely is the Gold Standard for a chorale orchestra! When I was in Atlanta in the late 1990s into the 2000s, as I probably mentioned before, I had the good fortune to hear the ASO and chorus do a Christmas concert, and was able to hear the chorus for Beethoven's 9th. Though he wasn't there anymore (sadly passed away in 1999), you could STILL hear his influence on that magnificent choir! And on the subject of orchestras and Beethoven (who else!!)...I have a recording of all of his symphonies and piano concertos, recorded when George Szell was director of the Cleveland Orchestra. And a copy of the 9th when Christoph von Dohnanyi was music director. My dad gave me those years ago. He was a BIG orchestra buff, especially of the Cleveland Orchestra, and heard both Szell and von Dohnanyi when they conducted. But he couldn't stand Lorin Maazel (he was director after Szell and before von Dohnanyi), found him a travesty in his interpretations, and damn near stopped going to the orchestra during those years. Anyhow, Szell and von Dohnanyi are both amazing!!! It's interesting comparing von Dohnanyi to Szell for the 9th...both are very fine in their own right; von Dohnanyi's version, however, has a bit more "pep" to it I find (especially the 2nd movement).

Took these today. I think my camera handled the cold better than my hands, it was brutal in the wind! Blowing in the Arctic wind... Cold evening, warm glow...

@Maestrobjwa, thought you would appreciate this. Currently listening to one of my favorite Christmas CDs, "A Festival of Carols", with the great Robert Shaw as Chorale director. He was with both the Cleveland Orchestra and Atlanta Symphony. His chorale direction was impeccable!

Burst of snow here in Bethesda (upper Bethesda or lower Rockville, take your pick!), with some decent size flakes! First flakes I've seen all season, other than some members of this forum!

LOL!! By the way I was going to reply on a comment you made the other day, when someone showed one model's radar simulation with the rain/snow in a near-perfect straight line north-to-south over Ohio. You said something like "Even snow doesn't want to go to Ohio!" Too damned lazy to go find the exact post...but as a native Ohioan, I found your comment particularly funny!! Now, not to get overly controversial or political here, but I will say I AGREE!! My home state has gone cuckoo nutterville in a lot of ways over the years, and I just shake my head!!

Maybe I'll just invest in black paint and paint over the windows for good! Hell, that might keep the sun from beating down inside during the summer...an extra benefit!!

Interesting you mention this. I take it you mean that this Arctic blast isn't something that will be ushering in a week or so of good cold but that it kind of retreats pretty quickly (like shortly after this Christmas weekend). Why I said it's interesting is because it's not just here, but even those areas out in the midwest that will be even colder than us, they look to warm up soon after as well at about the same time as us.

Good points. I'd be curious how many of those December snows you list were very discrete single events that occurred at just the right time in an otherwise crap pattern, but we lucked out, as opposed to a good stretch of decent cold and we at least managed something.

Yeah those December snow events tend to stay in one's memory and perhaps exaggerate the possibilities every December from then on. We've certainly had some good ones, like the "Dec. 5 snows" around here and of course the HECS in 2009 (a highly anomalous event to be sure). We've also had some good cold, like 2009 and 2010, and at least this upcoming weekend this year. But we've also had lots and lots of "blah" with 40s and 50s, and the unreal April-like December in 2015 (still recall it being almost uncomfortably muggy out on Christmas Eve that year!). Others can chime in on what particular Nino state we had or the specific pattern, but surely that played a role too of course. I've found March has been a surprisingly wintry month here in a lot of years. I know most around here don't care for snow in March because it doesn't normally stay around, but it is cool when it happens. 2014 comes to mind as perhaps the most with 3 solid events that month (Mar. 2, Mar. 17, Mar. 25) and even a quick inch on Mar. 30. But we've had several other March events that were advisory to warning-level criteria. Even the one last year, it wasn't a lot of snow (~2-3" where I am), but it occurred in rapidly falling temperatures along with some wind; I was out taking photos during that one, and believe me, it was quite cold!

How are the Flyers doing???

If the power goes, you might not have to "work" anyhow!! But seriously, I really hope power doesn't go tomorrow, and if so that the worst it does is cut in and out now and then for only brief moments.

I know we're not really looking at much snow tomorrow as the Arctic front blasts through, and it would have been nice to score a couple quick inches as it breezes through (like Feb. 14, 2015). Maybe we can get an hour of some snow showers though? But still, I strangely find myself pretty interested...even kind of excited...to experience such and event. Just hoping the power doesn't go out. I've almost been preparing today as I would before a snow event, making sure the car is fueled up (just in case), getting things done shopping-wise before the weekend, etc. Of course, some of that is due to Christmas; tomorrow and Saturday would be an absolute mess regardless of the weather, so best to get that completely done now! If you think of it, outside the disappointing lack of snow, this should be very impressive. Dropping from the 40s-50 or so into the teens by early afternoon, and even into the single digits overnight in the metro DC/Balt area (with no snow cover), then two days of rather bitter cold (again with no snow cover). The temperatures indicated in the official forecast and in the models are numbers I haven't seen around here in some time, and even then maybe once or twice since I moved here (2001). The temperature drop expected tomorrow morning, as well as the literal blast of wind and cold we're looking at, remind me of the Ohio Blizzard of 1978. In that amazing storm, temperatures dropped 30 degrees in a two hour period (from mid 40s to mid-teens, eventually dropping into the single digits), along with a huge blast of wind and blizzard conditions.

So catching up here, and...what the hell?? Here's a summary of the events, it seems:

Right. And I think this gets back to the point you made once that many of these older analogous that come up are simply not really applicable anymore in today's climate.

I think it was 2017 Could have been then, too. So many of those years they seem to blend together!

Could be now that you mention it. The year that Texas had bitter cold and those awful power outages but none of the cold air really ever moved east toward us.

Yeah I remember something about that too. It was literally perfect track rainstorms with zero cold air anywhere. Seem to recall it was a situation with a good setup but previous Pac puke had vacated all the cold air. Something like that.

Wait... So Voldemort is causing global <shall not be named>?

Aveeno Warnings guaranteed to be issued for this weekend!

The difference is, we have Ji. So all our meltdowns follow from there. We could do a forum trade, if you take up the rest of Ji's contract and give us a player to be named later!

Indubitably!!

Seems there's talk of a kerfuffle in the main medium range thread!!