2 I was standing in line for Pirates and talking about Fantasmic. I commented to my daughters that Fantasmic officially surpassed Les Miz as my favorite show of all time. Bold statement, one that should rattle the nerves of any theatergoer.
3 We fell into conversation about coincidences, most of which my daughters are happy to blow off. Fair enough.
4 Within seconds a pirate boat floated by. The name of the boat?
5 Fantine.
6 Not much has happened since. Normal day, yesterday. I talked to my classes a little about Julius Caesar and the Ides of March, laying the groundwork for my Shakespeare unit that begins in February.
7 Keep that in the back of your mind. This is headed somewhere.
8 Caesar was killed on the Ides of March, which is March 15, for the layperson.
9 This was the drizzle of what turned into downpour of coincidences yesterday. Let us continue:
10 The night before last the T-O-S-H-I-B-A I bought in April was given a death warrant by the Geek Squad.
11 The sound had gone out, and when I brought it in the kid working there told me they'd need to keep it "for a few weeks."
12 I asked if I could just get a replacement, since it was clearly still under warranty.
13 He put his head down, like a doctor who had tried but failed.
14 He asked if I wanted to send it out and I said, "No." I then took it and tried booting it up and it froze.
15 I know that I could have gone over the guy's head, but I decided to bring it home and try to get it working enough that I could pull everything I needed out of it.
16 I got it home, turned it on and it lit up. The sound returned. Everything worked!
17 I'm not stupid. I still grabbed everything I could get out of the thing, put it all on flash drives and into Clouds. I saved pictures, docs and all the rest. Took some time but now it can't hurt me too much. It is cleaned out.
18 Living with my primary computer running on a wing and a prayer was challenging, but I was ready. When break hit yesterday, right after my diatribe about the Ides of March, my phone rang.
19 "Mr. Harrington? This is Irene." Irene works in the front office. "Yes?" I asked. "Your Apple Pro laptop is here. Would you like to pick it up?" I SWEAR to you! I had NO idea they had gotten me a brand new laptop."Yes!" I said. I swiftly moved down to the front desk, picked it up and flew back to my room. I hooked it all up excitedly, but got stopped hard when it asked for my Apple ID and password.
20 I called District tech, but got no answer. In the past I have gotten a hold of our own good old reliable Nathan Nimori, who works tech for the District. He was absent yesterday, but he has been my "go-to" guy for years. I thought that all of this would make for an interesting DN, since we have an anniversary coming up this Spring.
21 It occurred to me that the Daily News is going into its eighteenth year, and that at some point this week I should acknowledge that. I think of DN items all through the day, every day. It's dumb, but it's my dumb. I don't write it, never have. It writes itself.
22 Got it?
23 I briefly taught about the Ides of March, which is March 15, the day Caesar was murdered. My laptop all but died on me two nights ago. I went in yesterday morning and a brand new laptop appeared before me. I just couldn't access it.
24 I called tech. Nobody home. I thought about calling Nathan today, and went home.
25 I checked my emails when I got home and had nothing from District tech, but I did have an email from Jenny Valdez. I had anticipated hearing from her at some time this week. While writing her back, I noticed some TCM film blasting from my teevee, and in the film some kid said the words "pretty good." I was answering an email from Jenny at that moment and had typed the words "pretty good" just as they were being said in the film. I looked up and smiled.
26 It seemed like the first real coincidence since Fantine in Disneyland, although the timing of the new laptop couldn't go unnoticed. But it wasn't hooked up, which made it not quite a good coincidence, since I couldn't use it yet.
27 I spun a lot of this around in my head while thinking of things to write for today's DN. One other thing I wanted to write was the piece about the eighteenth anniversary of the Daily News.
28 After I sent a response off to Jenny, I needed to hunt down any article about Guys and Dolls. I Googled my own name. Ever do that? I was specifically looking for news about the history of the DN. I put in my name and Guys and Dolls. The two are historically connected. A link appeared.
29 Without thinking, I clicked on the link.
30 It took me to a Daily News from...March 15, 2013, The Ides of March! The entire article centered upon the seventeenth anniversary of the Daily News. Here's the link to one of the last Xanga Daily News pieces:
http://bharrington.xanga.com/2013/03/15/61/
31 If you haven't time to read it, here is as brief a history as I could muster regarding the roots of this nonsense: The Daily News began during rehearsals of Guys and Dolls, in 1996. In order to communicate with the cast, crew, musicians, singers, etc. I began posting the DN in the hallway of the Performing Arts Department at Yerba Buena High School.
32 The Daily News's name is of course a reference to the New York Daily News, but it was also referred to in the song Guys and Dolls "What's in the Daily News? I'll tellya what's in the Daily News..." etc.
33 I instantly called the thing The Daily News. I posted who was to be where and when, and then I would muse on other thihgs, maybe ten or twelve items originally.
34 The DN became a daily ritual for all of us, myself included. I never claimed to write it; it just wrote itself.
35 Those are the basics.
36 Oh.
37 Yeah.
38 Right after that movie was on I heard music. TCM had up next Guys and Dolls! Last night. No lie.
39 I smiled because when the song The Oldest Established...came on, it sang about "Good old reliable Nathan!"
40 I wasn't going to write any of this last night, but I also felt a thunderstorm of coincidences pouring down. I tried catching them like rain in a hat. Impossible.
41 I was finishing item 39, above, for example when the next TCM film, Sunrise at Campobello had a scene in which people were preparing a reading from...Julius Caesar.
42 Et tu, Brute?
43 It is all happening too fast at this point. I talked to my students just yesterday morning of how the coincidences had slowed down, and within seconds of mentioning this the skies opened and this stuff poured all through my living room.
44 You can't make this stuff up.
45 Sunrise is still playing, and they've yet to play out the scene from Julius Caesar, a play that has a soothsayer warn, "Beware the Ides of March!"
46 I just heard thunder. A downpour is happening in the film as I write. Thunder, lightning, a perfect background for a recitation of Julius Caesar.
47 I already know what scene is to play.
48 The thunder cracked again.
49 Remember that this was being written live last night.
50 They're all saying "Good night."
51 I think I'll end this.
52 Even though it is morning now, it wasn't. It got a bit scary.
53 Don't get me wrong; I love the coincidences, the same way people enjoy thunderstorms.
54 I don't particularly want to watch the Caesar scene, which hadn't played when I decided to stop writing.
55 Anyway, fun DN, at least to me. Any time the coincidences stack up I smile. There is a sort of psychic pleasure I get from being connected with all of that.
56 So I smile today. I smile about all of it. You'd have to re-read it and break each coincidence down to see that they are indeed extraordinary.
57 As always, I'm the only one who really gets that one. If it doesn't happen to you, you don't get it.
58 The whys, wherefores and all the rest matter not to me.
59 I just calls 'em as I sees them.
60 More tomorrow.
61 Have a lovely day. This stuff is more special than most could ever realize.
62 See you again.
63 Peace.
~H~
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