"We'll tak a cup o' kindness yet..."

From the Norton Anthology's biography of Robert Burns:

Burns is not only the national poet of Scotland but a song writer for all
English-speaking people. Wherever in the world they may be on New Year's Eve,
when, helped by drink and the reminder of their bondage to time, men and women
indulge in their instinct of a common humanity, they join hands and sing a song
of Burns.

Me, I was in bed at midnight. Exciting. (Come to think, the rest of the day was interesting and enjoyable, so that's OK.) But I appreciate the sentiment. (And that's the second New Year's running I've quoted that song in the title of the post.) Even though I missed their event last night, I do hope I can catch something of Gilbert & Sullivan this season. And, for that matter, Coliseum Books before they close, and the model trains at the Transit Museum Annex. (Hmm. I was just at the main branch, but it's looking interesting too.) Busy January, I hope!

On a completely different note, I was reading a bit of R' Schachter's MiPininei HaRav yesterday, and came across this at the end of an anecdote:

('שמעתי מרכ”ב, שיחי)

You gotta love rabbinic writing, huh? Unless you knew (from its being told elsewhere, by the source) that said source is R' Kenneth Brander, and unless you knew that "Kenneth" is, in fact,"כתריאל”, wouldn't you be lost?