Friday!

And what a week it's been!
I'm downtown working a project that is staffing weekend hours, but I'll still have time to honor my tickets at Orchestra Hall tonight, Merry and Bright.

I was always one to partake of the community concerts in rural Wisconsin, but the truth is:  you don't get this level of entertainment except in the Cities.  Ended up on their mailing list when I bought the Lily Tomlin tickets, who played here back in June...

Now I'm living more in the heart of things, and am still finding myself pleasantly surprised to be home 10 minutes after I exit the bus; an hour after leaving work downtown...  (instead of having a 45-minute drive over the Hudson bridge and down winding County Road A, passing through the woods with deer in rut running out along the way...)

Life is Good Here.
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Happy Friday to our reader friends.
May you too have a big brassy Christmas, then.
(*I hope it's as good as the copy sounds...)

From Latin to lounge, groove to gospel, Merry and Bright is already inspiring a new Twin Cities holiday tradition with gems ranging from an intimate version of Christmas Time is Here to a New Orleans-style Frosty the Snowman.

Acclaimed soloists Tonia Hughes and Bruce Henry deliver soulful and sassy vocals, while Lazarus’ seasoned rhythm section and the Lazarus Brass— stellar Minnesota Orchestra brass players—brings energy and excitement to everyone’s holiday favorites. Baby, it may be cold outside, but the Hall will be glowing with the warmth of this bright, brassy collection of talent!

** Call me, if you're local and want to go...   I've got an extra ticket. 

Graphics by Garan Ipsen

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ADDED:  United in Death.
Don't bring religion and politics into the workplace, period.  We're allowed to retreat into headphones, but that's my personal rule.

Nicholas Thalasinos, 52, one of the victims, and Mr. Farook were part of the same “little group” of employees, his wife, Jennifer Thalasinos, said on Thursday. She said she had never heard her husband say anything “negative” about Mr. Farook during the time they worked together.

 
Ms. Thalasinos said she and her husband were Messianic Jews, a faith that incorporates elements of Judaism and Christianity, and that her husband wore traditional Jewish tassels, called tzitzit, over his pants. He enjoyed talking about politics, his wife said, and on Facebook he was not shy about expressing his views.

“My husband was very outspoken about ISIS and all of these radicalized Muslims,” she said, adding, “If he would have thought that somebody in his office was like that, he would have said something.”

Nicholas Thalsinos

A friend of Mr. Thalasinos’, Kuuleme Stephens, 41, said that during a phone call with Mr. Thalasinos while he was at work two weeks ago, she overheard him arguing about Israel with Mr. Farook.

“It wasn’t like he was shouting,” Ms. Stephens said, noting she did not think much of it at the time. She said she could hear Mr. Farook saying Israel was not the Jewish homeland and that Jews did not belong there. She said it was not out of the ordinary for Mr. Thalasinos to argue about politics. 

“Nicholas always talked politics, and it seemed like just another passionate conversation about politics,” she said.

...

Bennetta Bet-Badal, 46, grew up in Iran but fled to the United States to escape the persecution of Christians under its Islamic regime when she was 18 years old, according to a fund-raising website...

She landed in New York but made her way to California, where she studied chemistry at California Polytechnic State University and married a police officer. ... On the day of the shooting, she left home excited for a presentation she was planning to deliver at the department’s annual meeting, an event that included the holiday party.

...

The Facebook page for Robert Adams, 40, another co-worker and victim, shows several photos and videos ... He recently posted a quote from Albert Einstein to his profile: “The world is a dangerous place not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing.”