It's an ugly day off the eastern coast of Greenland as evidenced by the view I had at breakfast this morning in the Oceanview Cafe. You can see the rain coming down at the far left side of the photo.
You can't really tell from the picture but the seas have not been all that friendly since last night. The Captain called the storm correctly and we are feeling the motion of the Ocean. I could also tell by the small breakfast crowd. A comment about breakfast - I usually like to get that second cup of coffee and read my magazine and check out the sea. However, with the early schedule, I have just enough time for the coffee and have only finished four pages of the New Yorker I started on this cruise. Not really a complaint - it is what it is.
By they way, this is where the ship is at the moment.
Today I am presenting “Forensics and History: Identifying the Famous and Infamous”. The turnouts are increasing daily – today the theater is about 60 percent full (Note: the photos were taken before the talk and the audience always miraculously beams in just at the start time).
I spent a few minutes at the beginning re-explaining X and Y Amelogenin. I also added some slides on mitochondrial DNA since this was the first lecture that really got into this stuff and none of the material covered in this lecture would make any sense without the background slides. The lecture went well and actually finished in 43 minutes even with the new material. I don’t feel I was talking to fast.
Because the weather outside was inhospitable, passengers were hanging out inside at the Cafe al Baccio and other places with windows. Not being able to get a window view and not wanting to go back up to the Oceanview Cafe, we instead went to Deck 11 overlooking the Foyer. Although we don’t have outside views, the little cubbies there – private with only two chairs overlooking the central core – are really quiet during the day. No music no games. So perfect for reading or just vegging out.
We went up a little early to get a seat for lunch - salad bar, tuna salad, egg salad, and pizza - the standard easy to get lunch. The most important thing is getting a seat and that we did.
Yesterday, we contacted a suit about ordering a kosher
meal for tomorrow in the Dining Room. The menu is pretty big (frozen airline
type meals) and there are lots of options there. Ellen ordered the roast turkey and I ordered
two hot dogs (of course). He took down
our room number and the details on his official pad so we will see how it turns
out.
They did have our meals in the Moonlight Sonata Dining Room and we did get a nice table along the railing overlooking the dining area below (the best seats in the Dining Room). I think Ellen's meal was OK; my hot dog was a huge, almost black, dog, which tasted OK. The biggest problem was an inability to get just plain old yellow mustard (and certainly no relish and onions) The waiter had English Mustard and French Mustard (Grey Poupon) - they were both the same - mustard with horseradish I assume. They have yellow mustard in the buffet and out at the Mast Grill but not in the Dining Room. The best part of the meal was the Rugelach. We had six of them as dessert (along with tea and decaf and soy milk) and they were just like the ones you would get back home. Delicious. We couldn't finish them all and took a couple back to the room for later. The meal was OK and a nice change of pace - not sure if we will do that again.
Tonight's Showtime looked very interesting. It featured vocalist Elizabeth Ward Land in a show called "Still Within the Sound of My Voice" and it is a tribute to the music of Linda Ronstadt. We had never seen her before.
Land is a few years younger than Linda and has had a long career in Musical Theater in all sorts of venues. She has also done a lot of TV guest spots including "Elementary" so I'm almost sure I've seen her before.
In 2020, she won "Best Tribute" so I was all excited for a great performance. Besides, Linda Ronstadt is one of my favorite singer from way back when she started with the "Stone Ponies".
I was somewhat disappointed. While I don't expect tribute singers to do impressions, I like when they capture the essence of the artists. She did get to Linda's big hits including "Different Drum" and "Long Long Time"
but I didn't feel Linda in either of these iconic songs. Land was more like a vocalist singing these songs instead of trying to channel a little of her tribute artist. Other passengers probably loved her but I was looking for something else. She was very personable and knew what she was doing on stage and for the most part, entertaining. Here are some more shots from her performance.
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