Donizetti, May He Rest in Peace

Finished the book, and it wasn't a happy ending. He died of Syphillis, you see, and it was a pretty awful way to die. Leeches to the head, hot mustard packs on the neck, and catheters up the (ahem) to help with the digestion. A couple of years of that and I guess you'd be ready to meet the hereafter.

It's interesting that his decline so closely matched the ascendancy of Verdi. In fact, he was quite impressed with the Verdi's work and staged a couple of his operas before he becamed mentally incapacitated. I think they were Nabucco and Jerusalem, but I can't remember. Anyways, Verdi seemed grateful to Donizetti for his support and came to visit him in his dying days, though nothing of consequence seems to have come from the visit.

If I ever get a chance to go to Italy I'll have to make it point to stop in Bergamo and pay my respects to the great master. It's funny how so many people tried to knock him down (Berlioz and Bellini to name two) and how gracious he was to others. Especially Berlioz who wrote scathing reviews of his Paris operas and yet received letters of recommendation from Donizetti when he was trying to get his own works performed. Seems Donizetti just never took the criticism personally.

Well, I've had this Donna Tartt book sitting on my desk for a while now and I guess I'll crack that one next. Addio Donezetti...

Bureaucrats!

I called to get a payoff figure for a loan I took out on my 401k. The customer service rep told me that she couldn't give out that information on the phone and I would have to call our Company Rep and have her request the information. I called our Company Rep and she called the Plan and they told her to tell me to call this other rep who would give me the information. I called the rep and she told me she couldn't give me the information and I would have to call customer service. I told her that I called customer service already and they told me the Company Rep would have to call the Plan and the Company Rep called the Plan and they told her to have me call you. She said, well, she was sorry but she couldn't help me. I would have to have the Company Rep call the Plan and the Company Rep would have to get the information for me. So I called the Company Rep back and told her that the rep she told me to call told me that she couldn't give me that information and I would have to call the Company Rep. So, the Company Rep called the Plan again and they wanted to know who was this person that kept calling them about payoff information. She explained that I was an employee trying to payoff my loan and they said "Oh, tell him he needs to call this number."

So, I called the number and got my payoff information. Sheesh. Which brings me to the point that in any given organization there are 10 people who know how to transfer calls for every 1 person that knows what they're doing. It's a mathematical fact.