daf bit: Pesachim 49

The g'mara on today's daf discusses priorities in marriage. Our rabbis taught: let a man sell all that he has and marry the daughter of a scholar. If he doesn't find the daughter of a scholar, let him marry the daughter of one of the great men of the generation (this probably means civil leaders, a note in Soncino says). If he doesn't find one of those, let him marry the daughter of the head of synagogues (a leader over all the synagogues in town). If not, let him marry the daughter of a charity treasurer. If not, let him marry the daughter of an elementary-school teacher, but let him not marry the daughter of an 'am ha-aretz (an ignorant and unobservant person) because they are detestable. (49b)

(We got here from a mishna that discusses cases where you belatedly realize, on erev Pesach, that you still have chameitz (forbidden leaven) at home but you're not there, and what to do about it. Whether you have to go back or can just annul it in your heart depends on why you're not home; attending certain wedding celebrations is one such case. And from that a broader discussion of marriage arises in the g'mara.)

Pennsic 42

This was my 32nd Pennsic. As best I can recall, we had the best weather I've ever had at Pennsic. That is the opposite of what I was anticipating; late July in western PA is usually hot and sticky, except for brief interludes where downpours turn dirt roads into mud (but with no lasting relief from the heat and humidity). And yet, the weather was nearly perfect -- highs mostly in the 70s (sometimes low 80s), lows mostly in the 50s (maybe upper 40s one night; you did bring blankets, right?), a little rain but nothing severe or that killed a whole day. Nice!

Several friends I enjoy hanging out with didn't attend this year for various reasons, and I never managed to connect with osewalrus (who was there) and his family. Drat!

Attendance was just under 10,000 this year, for the first time in (I'm told) almost 20 years. Between being a week earlier and being truncated (see later in this post), I'm guessing that people for whom it's a significant effort or expense decided that this was a good year to skip.

There were some fun moments and "quotable quotes" in camp this year, all of which I am currently failing to remember. Maybe later.

Performances

I saw performances by three commedia del'arte troupes this year. I Verdi Confusi, the newest (I think this was their third Pennsic), had an ambitious plot. It's good to reach beyond your grasp; it's how you grow. I look forward to more growth. Their Capitano had the audience reciting his trademark long name along with him (multiple times), which is a good sign. I Sebastiani went in a different direction than I'm used to from them -- more slapstick and an all-out food fight at the end. The chef was a new character and well-done; did they invent that character or is it a stock commedia character I haven't seen before? I'm guessing the former. I Genesii gave a really good performance, and I'm not just saying that because they're the local troupe. They've really gelled as a company and their show was a lot of fun.

The Debatable Choir concert went well, I thought. (There exists a recording, though I haven't heard it yet.) We had one song that, in its original form, was theologically problematic for me (a messianic text in past tense, from some gospel), but fortunately we were able to change two syllables to make it future tense instead. (Thanks baron_steffan for the Latin assist!) I figured that was a good solution as everybody who believes in a messiah at all believes one's coming in the future, though it might have offended some Christian purists. Since it makes the difference between me being able to sing it and not, I can live with that.

I've never sung in the Known World Choir; there's almost always at least one religious piece that I would have a problem with, and while I can negotiate such things with the choir I sing with every week, I'm not going to try to deal with that for a once-a-year choir. It turned out that this year's concert, as best I could tell, contained absolutely nothing objectionable (some pieces weren't translated but sounded secular). And they even did a Salamone Rossi piece! (Though not one of his better ones.) So I should have sung, had I but known. But on the other hand, this year's director made the justifiable-but-inconvenient decision to forbid gender-inappropriate voice parts, meaning no women singing tenor. (I get it; it's a timber thing. Male and female voices just plain sound different, with vanishingly few exceptions.) I usually sing tenor because that's where my comfortable range is, but also because many alto lines are uncomfortably high. (Why is it ok to expect altos to hit a high D but not ok to expect a high A, a fifth higher, from sopranos?) So eh, but lesson learned -- I'll check out the music next year and consider singing. Meanwhile, I enjoyed this year's concert.

Last year I sang in Chorulus Pennsicus, a new, by-audition small group that practices and performs at Pennsic, so I was minded to sit out this year (not be greedy) unless this year's music really grabbed me. It didn't, so I sat out, which should let me join next year (depending on music, of course). I enjoyed listening to them, though I don't envy them trying to learn that big long French piece with animal sounds in just a few practices. :-)

Scheduling

In addition to being a week earlier (one-time change) this Pennsic was also shortened by a day at the end. I failed to judge just how much this would affect things; by the time I got there (Thursday of the first week -- only Thursday!) classes that looked interesting had already been taught and wouldn't be taught again. It used to be that many classes taught in the first few days were repeated later.

There were also effects at the other end. Since the event closed (a) on Saturday and (b) at noon on Saturday (rather than the 3PM that is the traditional close time), a lot of people left on Friday, some on Thursday, and even on Wednesday the patches of brown grass where tents had been were appearing. (Noon isn't late enough for canvas to be dry before packing -- no small matter if you're going to drive all day to get home.) I always leave on Friday due to Shabbat, but this year we packed the camp on Friday. It felt weird.

There's also something abut this change that angers me (even though, as noted, I wouldn't be there on Saturday anyway). Everybody has been assuming that this one-day shift came from the Coopers, because of the convention coming in after us (that also led to Pennsic being a week early). But no, that's not it at all -- the Pennsic staff decided to end the event a day early, and did nothing to correct the popular misimpression. That's poor form: they should own their decision, first off, and I think they also owe the attendees and all the people who work hard on the event an explanation. There is a rumor going around that they intend for this to be a permanent change; I'll be writing to the seneschals of the three governing kingdoms about that, and I hope others will join me.

Finally...

There was a really gorgeous sunset one night in the second week. These photos don't do it justice (there was less yellow and more orange), but have some pictures anyway: