As the votes came in on November 8, almost everyone in the country got caught by surprise.  No one, not even Nate Silver (he the famed poll tabulator of fivethirtyeight.com fame), gave Donald Trump more than a long-shot’s chance of winning the presidential election.  To be specific, on the morning of Election Day, Silver […]

              Hillary Clinton won the presidential election last week.  In fact, she will have won it by well over a million votes (when they are all ultimately counted).  Donald Trump will be the next president because he prevailed in an archaic and absurdly undemocratic method of selecting the nation’s presidents.               Yes, I know.  The […]

              Over the years, we have attended hundreds of symphonic concerts, and more than a few stand out in our memory as wondrous experiences.  But we had never experienced anything like the overpowering moment that Gustavo Dudamel provided a packed-house at the Mondavi Center (on the campus of U.C. Davis) earlier this month.                Maestro […]

              In most presidential election years (six out of every seven to be precise), we all would have voted by now.  By law, the election of the country’s president is held every four years on the first Tuesday after the first Monday of November.  That formula is why we are voting on the last possible […]