Programming note: Tomorrow, Sunday, I'll be hosting another audio edition of Steyn's Song of the Week on Serenade Radio in the UK at 5.30pm British Summer Time. You can listen from anywhere on the planet by clicking the button in the top right-hand corner here.
If that doesn't sate your Steyn-hosting appetite, join me for a full hour of telly every night across America on Fox News Primetime. The fun starts Monday at 7pm US Eastern.
And ahead of either of those I'll be checking in with my longtime Rush comrade James (Snerdley) Golden on 77 WABC New York this morning at 9.30am Eastern.
~In our ongoing serialization of Mark Steyn's Passing Parade we're currently featuring heirs and relicts. Today's episode begins with John F Kennedy Jr, and what's less a eulogy for him than for all the eulogies he prompted from a deranged media driven to greater depths of driveling mawkishness than for Kay Graham last week. By way of contrast, we then spend some time with Kay Swift, a fine composer in her own right but better known as George Gershwin's best girl.
Members of The Mark Steyn Club can hear me read Part Nineteen of Mark Steyn's Passing Parade simply by clicking here and logging-in. Earlier episodes can be found here.
Thank you for all your kind comments about last week's episode. Texas Steyn Clubber John Weatherford was surprised to find one of my lines from the book preserved at Wikipedia:
Another great Passing Parade. Many of the folks Mark so eloquently presents in this series I had never heard of. Often, I enjoy searching further into his subjects on the web. There, in the middle of an otherwise dry Wikipedia biography on Romano Mussolini, is the priceless gem from Mark (duly footnoted):
His playing style has been described as '...like a slightly melancholic Oscar Peterson. Occasionally inspired, he was always efficient; he made the refrains run on time.'
It is always puzzling to me the quotes that wind up in wide circulation. But James Laurie, a 2021 addition to the Steyn Club ranks from the corrupt precincts of Philadelphia, also liked it:
'Always efficient, he made the refrains run on time.' Said in reference to jazz pianist son of Benito Mussilini, that was Steyn wit at its best.
I do hope not, James. Still, my old editor at The Atlantic thought enough of that somewhat contrived if not desperate pun to make it a headline. One never knows.
Maryland Steyn Clubber Gregory Harper was more tickled by other allusions:
I learn more about history from the Passing Parade than in my entire public school education. Plus a Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band reference to my second favorite song of theirs (after Big Shot). Well done Mark!
I'm fond of the Bonzos, Gregory. One of their ranks, Roger Ruskin Spear, was the son of a pal of my dad's - and, indeed, there is a subtle Bonzo connection to our theme music for Animal Farm.
Speaking of which, we're now in our fifth season of Tales for Our Time and have built up quite an archive. So, if you've a chum who's a fan of classic fiction in audio form, don't forget our Mark Steyn Club gift membership.
And do join me next weekend for Part Twenty of Mark Steyn's Passing Parade.
