As Time Marches On

Well, the morning break is just about through. I'm reading a Grade 8 science and technology textbook, learning all about levers, wheel and axle, pulleys and gears. I was all geared up for that this morning, wheely I was, I find it so axle-arating, I wouldn't pulleyour leg about that. Someone come here and take me away?

National Anthems

So I'm listening to the hockey game a little bit last night. American National Anthem is sung. Someone tell me, please, I know I'm a Canadian so I may just not understand these things. Is the level of patriotism, for an American, determined by how many completely extra, unrelated, and unhelpful notes he or she throws into the Anthem when singing it? I understand embelishing a piece a little with trills and runs and so on, there's a place for that, but in my view it's gotten beyond ridiculous lately, the notes being added having no bearing on the rest of the song and seeming to give the impression that the singer is trying to "sound impressive", more than anything else. A bunch of my Canadian friends will tell me that I'm being anti-American, but that's not it at all, I just think some singers of your anthem are getting very full of themselves.