16 November—It’s good that Kamala Harris and Tim Walz weren’t elected. But it’s bad that Donald Trump and J.D. Vance were elected. It’s worse that the Trump party scored a trifecta. And it’s even worse that the Trump party has a majority in the U.S. Senate.

It’s certainly depressing and catastrophic that the overriding qualification for the complaisant flunkies Trump has been hiring to wreak vengeance and otherwise screw the country is loyalty to him. It’s even more depressing and catastrophic that in many instances that’s the only qualification.

To mercifully divert your attention from the cesspool the voters have democratically flushed the republic into, then, here’s a delightful little chamber piece for five fiddles. Well, two violins, one viola, one cello, and the solo double bass. It’s Giovanni Bottesini’s Fantasia sulla La Sonnambula di Bellini.

Vincenzo Bellini, you may recall, was one of the most lyrical of operatic composers and died at only 33 in 1835. Giovanni Bottesini was a composer, conductor, and bull fiddle virtuoso, known as the Paganini of the Double Bass. He died at 67 in 1889.

So since we have to face the music, we may as well enjoy it . . .