Trombone is Big, Big, Big

This was in yesterday's Wall Street Journal: Who’s Sliding Into a Big Role on Broadway? Trombonists

Before we get going, let's consider that headline. It absolutely doesn't work without an exclamation mark after "Trombonists". But exclamation marks in headlines might seem effusive and tabloid-ish, so editors opted for nonsense in accordance with their august and stately image.

It reminds me of the time I described a wild ride of a dish as "an Everlasting Gobstopperish experience," and my NY Press editor changed it to "an everlasting, gobbstopperish experience."

Reading this article, I feel like a retired talented 1975 chef - who maxed out at $30,000/year in a low-status industry, and who cooked his heart out while remaining under-appreciated by all but his peers and while receiving knocks for not keeping his head down and simply grinding out the standard calamari - watching 90s chefs get elevated to superstar status.


Me playing back in the day, fwiw:



In other topsy-turvy news making me wonder whether I'm actually dreaming this entire week in a hospital bed somewhere while I slowly expire, this just opened in Jersey, recalling the beloved Hamburger Choo-Choo of my youth in Huntington, Long Island, where I ate burgers as a child - and, though enjoying the choo-choo trains which delivered the food, was much more involved with the hamburger quality, which I still haven't seen matched anywhere.