20 July—Today is the first anniversary of The Litchfield Monitor—of LitchfieldMonitor.com, anyway. Every day, except for one or two when Altice’s internet was to blame.

Left-wing radio newsreaders must forgive me for not hailing the occasion as the one-year anniversary. Four-and-a-half years ago, NPR’s managing editor admonished his troops, “‘First Anniversary’ Is OK; ‘One-year Anniversary’ Is Not.” But evidently they’ve been so busy bending objectivity leftward that they’ve conveniently forgotten Mark Memmott’s dictate. And NPR doesn’t really give a damn anyway.

To save you the trouble of looking for other Litchfield Monitors, here’s what I posted last year on the subject:

“26 July—For the record, the original Litchfield Monitor was a short-lived newspaper in town around the turn of the nineteenth century, thus predating the fairly recently euthanized Litchfield Enquirer, which hit the unpaved streets in 1829. There was also a Monitor published for several years at the end of the nineteenth century in Litchfield, Illinois, a town somewhat smaller than Litchfield, Connecticut. And another Monitor was published in Litchfield, Nebraska, a village with a population of a few hundred, from the late nineteenth century all the way to the middle of the twentieth century, evidently a long life for a Litchfield Monitor.

“And who can forget The Bantam Bell in the twenties or Rosenberg’s Rag in the eighties? Who can remember them?”

More to the point today, you read about Pavarotti the rooster on the 17^th and 18^th. Now, thanks to ramblin’ wreck Hugh Schoelzel, who keeps on top of everything (especially when he’s flying), here’s a video of a magnificent cock who can really hold a note. This gallinaceous Jussi Björling (the finest tenor ever) isn’t the one who performs 24/7 in Kent, however, and, while always doing his best, he must learn to control his breathing.

It’s possible that Pavarotti and Björling are simply asking for more food or better treatment. But in all events Björling certainly is a cock to be proud of . . .