Motus Mentis

Well, it appears from yesterday’s referendum that the people of Crimea would rather be Russian. Vladimir Putin is glad to welcome them back to the Motherland.

The Obama administration, which didn’t want to see the referendum happen at all, imposed some punitive measures on a few Russian big-shots, but nobody over there seems to mind much.

Here’s one reaction, from a Russian television personality:

“Russia is the only country in the world realistically capable of turning the United States into radioactive ash,” anchor Dmitry Kiselyov said on his weekly news show on state-controlled Rossiya 1 television.

No need to bother, tovarich. Just leave that to the Democrats.

[rimshot]

Meanwhile, local self-determination is busting out all over. Can’t imagine why.

In other news, it was a big day for astrophysicist Alan Guth, whose brilliant 1979 insight — that in the earliest moments after the Big Bang, the universe expanded, very briefly, at a staggeringly enormous rate — has received dramatic confirmation in recent observations. Learn more here.

Mitch Leigh has died. He’s the one who wrote the music for the 60’s Broadway hit Man of La Mancha, which featured a song I know you know: The Impossible Dream. (For the fullest possible effect, here’s Robert Goulet singing it at a Jerry Lewis telethon!) You can read his New York Times obituary here.

One thing about that obituary: Mitch Leigh started out as a composer of music for advertising. He was very good at it, and anyone my age who grew up in America will remember a lot of his melodies (this one, for instance). In my own eclectic recording career, I worked with many of the best jingle-writers in the biz, and I came to realize that there was generally more creative spark at any of the major New York jingle houses than in the whole Top 40.

So it got my Irish up to see this in Mitch Leigh’s obit:

He never apologized for working in advertising…

“Apologized”? Excuse me?

Oh wait, it’s the New York Times. Right. Never mind.

I knew Mr. Leigh slightly; he had a nice office, with a very serviceable little recording studio, on 57th Street in Manhattan, and sometime back in the mid-90’s I spent a month or so doing synth programming and mixing for a personal project of his, called Changing Times: a Jazz Symphony. (I still have a copy somewhere; I should give it another listen.) Mr. Leigh treated me very well, and paid me handsomely. He was an artist and a gentleman. May his heart lie peaceful and calm.

Finally, that Malaysian airliner’s still missing. Theories abound. Here’s mine: some people wanted a jet, and now they have one. I wonder what they’re going to do with it.