Anna Magdalena Bach

August 18, 2020, 10:37 PM · The number of homeless people in America is a disgrace. When are we going to just decide to be civilized and make sure that people have a place to sleep and enough to eat?

August 19, 2020, 2:20 AM · @Paul.

The aspect that scares me the most in the story of Anna Magdalena Bach is that a woman's livelihood was not only dependent on the success of her husband, but also dependent on the husband not dying too much earlier than her. If the husband dies, you are entitled to nothing he leaves behind and you are at the mercy or charity of your offsprings entirely (and this does not end well with Anna Magdalena Bach).

August 19, 2020, 6:06 AM · Very sad story, this is the first I've heard of her.

August 19, 2020, 7:03 AM · As a European who frequently visited various USA cities for my job (at least, before the corona era :-( indeed I never could get used to the so explicitly numerous homeless people you encounter there. For me the biggest difference between USA and Europe, next to completely insane airconditioning :-)

Edited: August 20, 2020, 4:53 PM · Jean - and thank God for that! Our weather here is terrible and getting worse all the time - and so is yours.

I was so grateful that I had an air conditioned room in the Holiday Inn Swindon, Wiltshire, UK (the only AC hotel in the city at the time) in late Spring 1989 at the (then) RCMS, Shrivenham. Temperature at Heathrow was over 100°F when we landed and was close to the same our entire stay. The RCMP had AC.

Edited: August 19, 2020, 11:27 AM · @Andrew. My birthplace doesn't often get a mention on this site so I won't let my opportunity go to waste. It was there one of the first concerts I ever heard was of Constantin Silvestri conducting the Bournemouth SO. On a different plane entirely, in 1971 probably desperate to escape from the house I made a surprise appearance at a Swindon Symphony Orchestra rehearsal where the conductor handed me the solo violin part in VW's Serenade to Music. Nice.

Edited: August 19, 2020, 9:19 PM · I know what Jean means about insane air conditioning. For some years I was given the task of managing the orientation and entrance examinations, etc., for all the new graduate students in our department (in Virginia in late August). After the first year I learned to advise the folks just arriving from other countries to bring a sweater or a light jacket to wear for the meetings. My parents grew up in St. Louis and moved to suburban Detroit, where I grew up, in the mid-50s. We never had air conditioning, and it wasn't until they were in their 80s that they finally had a heat pump installed. None of the public schools that I attended had any air conditioned classrooms. When folks get older they need more protection from the heat but we're perfectly fine with our AC set to 80 F (27 C). If we feel like we want it extra chilly for a short time, we'll set it down to 78.

August 20, 2020, 4:39 PM · As a career computer programmer, I've seen many instances of ridiculous air conditioning. Many people seem to believe that the purpose of air conditioning is not to make a room comfortable, but to make it cold. I've gotten into many a thermostat war with people like that. (On the other hand, it's been said that under the false floors of those computer rooms was a good place to store your beer.)

As for making sure people have a place to sleep, I fear that no solution is forthcoming as long as people see housing first and foremost as an investment, and only incidentally as a place to live.

Edited: August 20, 2020, 6:18 PM · @Steve. Nice indeed!
But I would sure have to perform that solo part as a sight read!