Constitution Day, An opera in Klingon, and the end of an era

Happy Constitution Day. We celebrate on this day the United States Constitution's 223rd birthday, and before we start with this train of thought today, let's celebrate by reading an important article that I had to learn in my fourth-grade history class. I don't think today's liberals want us to learn it, considering they want us to use foreign law instead.

We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

But do people actually know it?

An Opera in Klingon? We here at this blog are aficionados of opera. But this article from Space.com really is over the edge. A while back, Renée Fleming had recorded a cut in a pop culture-invented “language” (“Elvish”) for the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Now in The Hague, a new opera designed for Trekkies (the fans of “Star Trek”) has been released, “u”, with it sung in the “invented” language of “Klingon,” dedicated to fans of the series and resulting movies. What is expected next? An Ebonics opera? Or afterwards, how about a Gullah opera? We've gone over the edge there.

The Bubbles Blow Out on the Last Soap. Today marks the end of the end of a true genre of television. When As The World Turns signs off its final episode after 54 years, the last “soap” goes off the air. It brings to an end of a long affiliation of daytime drama with soap companies (which is where the term comes); the only two daytime drama companies left are Disney (all three ABC dramas) and Sony (NBC and CBS all use Sony dramas).

At one time we saw shows from Lever Brothers (now Unilever), Colgate-Palmolive, and Procter and Gamble. But in the past ten years, we have seen Procter and Gamble, the last of the soap companies that did their own shows, lose all three of their daytime dramas. Truly this is the end of the soap companies' affiliation with daytime television. ◙