It's good to be a nice person--to say nice things, to do nice things, to write nice things--but I declare an end to the use of the word nice. Nice is what you say when you can't think of any other adjective. Someone shows you a picture of their back yard--that's nice. Someone tells you about their afternoon adventure--that's nice. Or someone describes their childhood in great detail and sometimes with painstaking effort--that's nice. It's a lazy word, and it's non-descriptive. Nice is like mashed potatoes with noodles and chicken gravy all in a big pile on one plate with some canned corn for garnish. Everything is the same color and texture and base substance--starch (this is a favorite Amish dish). Nice is like a partly cloudy day in April when outside feels like inside, and you can't tell a difference between the lighting and the temperature of your living room and the lighting and temperature of your front yard. Nice is a glass of lukewarm water. ...

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Thanks for the reminder, Robyn; Peanuts isn't syndicated in the Guardian so I've not had Schröder marching up and down with placards counting down the days.
The "Pastoral" is blaring through the house at the moment. I'll put the 9th on later and do the obligatory karaoke "Ode to Joy".
Happy birthday, Ludwig.
The 9th is a pounding wonder. When we performed this last year I was seated as 4th horn, so it fell to me to play the extended solo in the adagio (3 movement), and it was the highlight of my short career. I'm sure I have mentioned this here before and will mention it again.
That is a great picture. I'm with Kim.