Yesterday was unusual in that I heard someone say “Hot damn!” in choir practice for the first time ever.

The director also announced that we were going to “work on attacks, cutoffs, vowels … and all the things that make music music.” I have forgotten all the things he listed, but they were things this choir used to ignore completely. I am very happy. What’s more, the old guard of the choir seem happy, too. And the choir is growing.

The older gentlemen in the back row continue to talk nonstop. I did whisper to them at one point that the second sopranos couldn’t hear their notes, but I don’t think they heard me. I’m glad of that. I don’t want to spoil the fun, and I shouldn’t have fussed at them. But I think the fact that they didn’t hear me says something — I think perhaps they are a bit deaf. Maybe they don’t realize that there is music going on while they’re talking, Maybe they think they are speaking so softly that no one else can hear them.

Here is an impressionist toy camera picture of the prayer shawl. It doesn’t really matter how the picture is, because it continues to be a large blue rectangle, made apparently of muppet pelts. I am finishing up the second skein. It is measured by holding it between outstretched hands — when it goes from one hand to the other, it is finished. This is a nice way of measuring.