The "Sage of Baltimore," H. L. Mencken was born on this date (in Baltimore...duh!!) in 1880.
It would be interesting to have the old cynic writing in the blogosphere today (he said "the cynics are right nine times out of ten"). One of the many subjects he touched on was music.
"The opera is to music what a bawdy house is to a cathedral."
"Opera in English is, in the main, about as sensible as baseball in Italian"
"There are, indeed, only two kinds of music: German music and bad music."
He also said, "It is impossible to imagine Goethe or Beethoven being good at billiards or golf."
Hmmm. Well, Mozart liked billiards, anyway, even if he wasn't necessarily good at the game.
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