Friday 19 April 2019

I Tried to Make Sense Out of This

Apparently, some kind of dinner or reception occurred at the White House.  A couple of reporters were in the attendee group.  There in the background....the WH staff were playing the song "Edelweiss".  The New York Times WH reporter....Maggie Haberman....went into some type of reactionary state, then blazed away on Twitter that the WH was playing Nazi songs. 

Did the song Edelweiss even exist in the 1930s and 1940s?  No.  It came around in 1959. 

Did the song come out of Germany?  No.  It was a piece from Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein, from their musical production....'The Sound of Music'.

Was the song sung by Nazis in the movie?  No.  On the evening when the von Trapp family are about to leave Austria because of the Nazis.....dad (Captain von Trapp) plays out the tune.  So it's kinda a anti-Nazi song in the midst of a anti-Nazi musical. 

This brings me back to Haberman and the New York Times.  I tried to imagine how Haberman would be this weak on entertainment history, or just plain regular history.....but that pondering came up empty.  I tried to imagine if Haberman had ever even watched The Sound of Music, but I have serious doubts that she has ever done so.  In fact, I have doubts that she's watched or attended any Rodgers and Hammerstein production. 

So here  we are, in some meltdown stage with marginal reporters interpreting things with the eyes and understanding of a 12-year-old kid.  We deserve better.

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