By way of The Rap Sheet, I have just learned of the passing of Joan Parker, “tireless fundraiser for a host of different charities” and wife of the late great mystery writer Robert B. Parker.
I want to believe the two of them are sitting at heaven’s bar: Mrs. Parker taking small, careful sips of her drink, and Mr. Parker drinking Amstel. (If you can’t get Amstel in heaven, where can you get it? I mean, other than the Netherlands?)
I was out with my mother yesterday afternoon, and we stopped for lunch.
Something about the juxtaposition of the “this way to the bathrooms” and the Emerson quote kicks over my giggle box. I mean, what is the message they’re trying to send here: don’t follow the path to the men’s room, but instead go outside and…shall we say, leave a trail to mark your territory?
(Pieous, Dripping Springs, Texas.)
(By the way, the Bacon Bleu pizza and mozzarella plate were both really, really good.)
It is a well known fact (at least among those interested in copyright, those obsessed with trivia, and those who wonder why restaurants make up their own birthday songs) that “Happy Birthday to You” is under copyright until 2030 in the United States (and 2016 in the EU).
But there is a significant dispute over whether this copyright is valid. Jennifer Nelson, a filmmaker working on a documentary about the song, has filed a lawsuit seeking to have the song declared to be in the public domain.