Posted a new Play in a Day project, Plautus’ Menaechmi, at http://scribblers.us/nhtj/?page_id=1500

Been meaning to mention that, on a winter vacation trip to visit our Vermont in-laws, we insinuated ourselves into an article in The Barre Montpelier Times-Argus (for Monday, Feb. 20, 2012) about the prominent lack of snow in that state this past winter. (The girl in the pink jacket sipping cocoa is Mabel and Sally’s cousin Kiki.

Happy Easter! Smithsonian Magazine goes right to the scientific heart of the season, here.

Of course, if you want scripture on that, try Colossians Chapter 2, verse 8:

See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ.

Three tulips came up in our backyard. Sally, 7, commented on the phenomenon thus:

“It reminds me of boys and girls. There are two red ones, which are girls—Betty & Veronica—and a white one, which is a boy:  Archie!”

Think I am deeply affected by the heating system in the house.

A clever college band, Conflation of Misspent Youth, had the bright quasi-theatrical idea of reciting a short story to instrumental backing at the Bullfinch last Thursday. Unfortunately, there had been no rehearsal beforehand, and the recitation/recital went overlong.

The playing got repetitive. Yet the story—an original, we’re told, by Curt Wain, boyfriend of Cam Greenberg, who read it—was riveting.

The set went scarily into overtime, nearly bumping middle band No Pimple in No Time, who settles for four songs in 10 minutes on the first band’s equipment so the show could get back on track. When headliners Relief Pod, from out of town, began, they were so shaken by the reading that the singer was practically sobbing, and asked Curt if he had “a poem of something WE could jam to.”

He did.

Tonight, the Bullfinch has Emergency Backpack and Home Car Work School Travel. The band could probably fill a D’ollaire’s with enough notice, but is old pals with Bullfinch booker Q so didn’t even look for elsewhere to play. Organized Color Coded Compact opens…Makes a Great Gift at Hamilton’s, rescheduled from some time ago, now alongside RP114… The Probiotic Mints, at D’ollaire’s, have a zillion festivals on their plate following this gig. What do you bet that next year they’re opening stadium shows for the top touring bands and we’ll never ever see the likes of them in this town again?…

My reading list of books about walking around New Haven (for Daily Nutmeg), with a photo of Arnott/Rooney family dogs Annie and Tommy, is here.

My profile of the new director of the New Haven Museum is here.

New Haven Theater Jerk, with over a dozen new posts in the past few days, is here.

I’m doing one of my Play in a Day children’s theater shows today (Friday, April 6) at Neverending Books, 810 State St., from 2 to 5:15 p.m. The Play in a Day page of New Haven Theater Jerk is here.

I’m the only one in the household who eats marmalade (British parentage, forsooth), It feels like a personal luxury to buy it when I’m in charge of the food budget.

So I’ve just learned to make my own, and am embarrassed to have spent so much money on it in stores over the years.

Here’s all that’s in it:

• An orange (preferably an organic one, so you don’t have to worry about pesticides in the peel).

• Half a cup of brown sugar

• two or three tablespoons of water.

Seriously, that’s it. It doesn’t need to be brown sugar; that’s my own variation. Any sweetener will do.

One orange makes quite a lot of marmalade, and it’s a great smell to have wafting through your kitchen.

I have a small Teflon-coated slow cooker which is ideal for this; I don’t have to keep stirring and scraping a pot on the stove constantly until it’s cooked down. I just set in on high and check it every 15 minutes or so. But that’s all that’s required, anyhow—boil it down until it’s thick but not burned.

Since I’m now making my own peanut butter as well (recipe forthcoming) and have baked all my own bread for years, I am at the peak of self-sufficiency regarding sandwiches.

Cracked.com ran an Archie-friendly piece by Luke McKinney last month, How Archie’s Gay Friend Proved the Internet Can Do Good.

It says things which the Archie comics can’t really say for themselves about inclusion, challenging assumed social norms and responding to over-the-top agitations and accusations of anti-gay activists.

The piece incited its own debate about gay rights in its comments section, so that’s good.

Not so good are the frequent easy swipes at the Archie style and traditions. It’s too easy to make fun of something for maintaining family-friendly values for so many decades, tougher to respect how difficult it is to roll with so many societal changes over that time and still endure as essentially the same American teen character.

But Cracked.com is a contemporary humor site, and that’s what they do: mock things. Nice of them to mock Archie’s tormentors more strongly than Archie itself.

What I’ve come to respect most about the Kevin Keller phenomenon is how the character’s not just been incorporated so easily into the Archie universe as a progressive modern-day character, but how he’s also figured into the ongoing Archie nostalgia kick, where the company has dredged up dozens of characters from its distant past and framed new books in designs evoking classic Archie titles of the ‘60s and ‘70s.

Truly, Everything’s Kevin.

Woke up in the middle of the night, parched and dried out. I’d only had four or five drinks, so it wasn’t that.

Downtown was a beacon for their big sports-event show at D’ollaire’s. a trainload of frat bands rented a spotlight. The big, calling-superheroes kind.

The idea was to shine a team symbol into the heavens, but that didn’t happen. Just diffuse light.

The beam was all the buzz a few blocks over at the Bullfinch, where certain scenesters were hiding out rather than get bullied by those musclebound collegiates.

We jested that the drunken oafs would probably try to climb the light beam as if it were a ‘phone pole. Next day, we discovered somebody actually had. They failed, of course, breaking part of the sensitive lighting equipment and setting higher education back to the dark ages.

The Bullfinch has Long Lasting Results, Pain Free and Facial & Body Hair. LLR and F&BH share a rhythm section, PF & F&BH share a vocalist, and all share the same three gloomy chords… May even set foot into Hamilton’s tonight for Live Ready, a mercenary suypergroup made up of musicians we like in their uncommercial (read: Bullfinch) projects. Two sets, no other bands; they’re really working this in-it-for-the-money thing… Large Emergency Kit and Left in the Dark at D’ollaire’s. Shouldn’t that have been the sports-night bill?…