Two thoughts while driving to market

last November,
while listening to the radio.

1. People, especially women.
do not pass other people
going in the same direction
and cut in front of them on foot
the way they do in cars.

2. American music is brash because
in the 19th century the music that Americans imported
and enjoyed on Sunday afternoons 
was mainly the (German or English)
marching music of local brass bands -
hence John Philip Sousa (of Portuguese extraction).
who influenced the compositions
of Charles Ives and early Jazz
(which in turn led to those of Steve Reich),
and (via Franz Lehar and Gilbert & Sullivan)
Ziegfeld Follies, Showboat, the torch songs,
Oklahoma! and strident bellowings of
Annie Get Your Gun and similar razmatazz.