Elizabeth and Alex spent the night last evening. Elizabeth had her first art class and it sounds like it went well to me. One of the things I like about when Elizabeth visits like that is that I tend to get up and have coffee with her. This means good conversation first thing in the morning if she is amenable. Also I don’t have to face exercising and stretching right away upon arising.

I picked up a couple books on hold at the library today. Fanny Hensel: The Other Mendelssohn (2010) by R. Larry Todd is probably a book I am going to want to own. Hensel (as Todd refers to her to distinguish her from her brother whom he calls Mendelsohn) has continued to intrigue me. I only own the Dover edition of her piano music which is all Lieds for the piano. I want to get more music by her but Eileen and I have decided I should hold back on purchases for awhile so I’m not very quick to buy things as I was.

A quick glance at her page on IMSLP reveals quite a few titles that are available there so I’m not that limited.

In Todd’s introduction to his book, he mentions an essay by Virginia Woolf that interests me. It’s called Three Guineas (link to the 132 page pdf of it). It was written after Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own. He observes that Hensel is an example of what Woolf called “women who were denied their own creative space—of how in effect, history erased their voices, their identities.” Todd also says that Hensel is now “widely regarded as the most significant female composer of the nineteen century.” Cool. She definitely has chops, both as a composer and virtuosic pianist.

The Supreme Court Loses Its Chief Pragmatist – The Atlantic

Jeffery Rosen, the author of the above article, continues to provoke my amazement and admiration. His organization, National Constitution Center, which is funded by Congress, continues to be a platform for excellent conversations from scholars and others. Rosen’s moderation of conflicting understandings of his guests is a wonder to behold.