Dr. Rice

Since somewhere in the Jan/Feb range I'm going to paint a series of nipple paintings featuring those members of the Bush Cabinet who annoyed me the most (the word "annoyed" here represents the degree to which these individuals, to my mind, wrought mischief on the fundamental nature of Mom, apple pie and the American Way), I thought it would be nice to say something nice about Condoleezza Rice.

As near as I can tell, her last international gig, conducted yesterday, was to play piano for the Queen, accompanied on violin by the wife of the British Foreign Secretary and three members of the London Philharmonic. For those of you out of the classical music loop, Condi played with the Denver Symphony Orchestra when she was fifteen and has accompanied Yo-Yo Ma.

She played Brahm's piano quintet, whatever that is.

Which reminds me of Potter Stewart, the Supreme Court Justice who said, in this case about pornography, "I know it when I see it." So when I tell you that I'm not familiar with Brahm's piano quintet that doesn't mean that I don't know that sitting down with some cats from the Philharmonic and banging it out in front of The Queen Elizabeth isn't something ordinary folk just can't do.

So, I mean, really. That is something. Wait til she sees her painting.