At last she bent forward to place a drink on my tray and I could not help but surreptitiously glance down into her blouse, and saw something hilarious. In the vee at the top center of her bra she had attached a small piece of bandage tape so that it stood up prominently but was not visible from outside. On the tape in red block letters she had printed “HI THERE!”!! Now even without her little sign it was obvious that she enjoyed flirting, so with a big smile I immediately said “Well, hi there yourself!”

She gave me a wink and a big smile, reached into the drinks trolley again, and gave me two extra shot bottles of Johnny Walker! She obviously admired bravado!

Obviously I mean the English lyrics. We are speaking English here, Van Dyke is a writer of English, and even the words “Ode to Joy” are English.

Actually, to be technical, it was Schiller who had penned the words that were later used in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, a part of which uses choral singing based on an already-existent poem by Schiller entitled “An die Freude.” So if you really want to be precise about it, it was Beethoven who wrote the music as part of his Ninth Symphony, which used Schiller’s already-existing poem “An die Freude,” not the other way around.

And it was indeed Van Dyke who later wrote the words to the already-existing Ninth Symphony of Beethoven, penning the song we English speakers know as “Ode to Joy.”

Welcome home!

“Joyful, Joyful We Adore Thee” is my favorite hymn.

While the words just might be somewhat over-the-top for
non-Christians, the music by Beethoven is sublime.

I don’t know about that. JetBlue is quite popular, and one of their selling points is their roomy seats. I often fly JetBlue, in part for that reason.

I know the seats are tight when removing the magazine from the seat pocket provides noticeable relief.