TURN OFF THE LIGHT, DEAR

Save water -- DO NOT leave the faucet running while brushing your teeth! (See my post, "Doodler Hints").

Clearing the table after dinner, oif course, go ahead and rinse dishes before loading them into the dish washer. But DO NOT walk away and get more dishes with the water running!

These are small ways of saving water in a household where one of the occupants loves to learn his lines, practice his songs while taking a long long shower.

So, what about turning off lights?

Both my guys were always light-leave-on-ers, even before the days of energy saving bulbs. Both invariably groaned when Mom/Wife would invariably remind them to turn off the light please. And in the way irritants progress, when Mom/Wife could later be seen turning off a light in a closet, the light over the chair, or the light on the desk that no one was using -- of course they would quietly groan.

So what did I do Friday night? I didn't exactly nag, but in a semi-nagging, wifely tired-tone, I reminded JC that he'd left the lights on in his closet, and bathroom.

This after he'd been rehearsing, then performing "Scottsboro Boys" at the Vineyard Theatre, then rushing off to perform in his show at the Music Box Theatre.

The staged reading was Friday afternoon ... (A hellish day -- One Glove Michael would have hated the hullabaloo over how he died, but loved the evocations of him, praises, touching elegies and tributes by celebrities.)

The Scottsboro boys were the focus of a powerful race prejudice case in 1931. (I used it in Somebody, Book 1, p. 296.) Nine young blacks were found guilty and sentenced to death for raping two girls, retried, convicted again, and only years later found innocent and released from jail. Composer John Kander (who wrote the song "New York, New York" and created "Cabaret" with Fred Ebb) has turned the story into a minstrel show, and JC was playing the interlocutor for the reading.

But the moment they started the reading, some of JC's music pages got stuck on the glue he used to patch in some changes. Joel Grey was part of the invited audience, which included producers, backers, and JC's manager. Paranoia momentarily flared. Joel and JC are friends, but if the musical gets done, one never knows what will happen with the casting.

And Em at bed time mentions those lights ...

JC, who grins and bears it usually, said, "One of these days I'm going to remind you about your inconsistencies."

"The curfew tolls the knell of parting day ..." And parting at night, saying goodnight when you're pooped and somewhat frayed ought to be sweeter ...

The subject was dropped. "I wanted to say "You hurt my feelings" -- thought about saying it, was ready to say it, but he was asleep the moment his head hit the pillow.

Marital trouble? A spat?

This morning he made me my coffee. I buttered his bagel for him.