There’s a brazen little 1968 cult movie from 1968 about a young, fresh-faced pair of serial killers: in it, the psycho-boy, played by Anthony Perkins, exclaims to the psycho girl, played by Tuesday Weld, “Boy, what a week. I met you on Monday, fell in love with you on Tuesday, Wednesday I was unfaithful, Thursday we killed a guy together. How about that for a crazy week, Sue Ann?”

These words came back to me as I lived through our most recent news cycle. Boy what a week. Commoner Kate married Prince William on Friday. Donald Trump got roasted in our nation’s Capitol Saturday and lost fans because he sulked. Osama bin Laden got killed on Monday by elite American special forces.  How about that for a crazy week?

So many Americans fawning over the royal couple, as though they were still little colonials watching their betters show them what real civilization is. So many Americans crowing over the takeout of Osama Bin Laden as if the nation’s status as global gladiator number one had been triumphantly restored. An NPR reporter remarked that the task for Republican Presidential candidates now is to show voters they could have done what Obama did. So we’re in for a public affairs version of that old Saturday Night Live skit, Quien Es Mas Macho?  in which a sleazeball Bill Murray made eager contestants choose between absurdly vacant icons of virile manhood like Jack Lord, Ricardo Montalban  and  Lloyd Bridges.

Is there no rest for the weary? Recently I heard a disc jockey who deems himself a scholar and connoisseur of American popular music declare rapturously that he knew, absolutely knew Frank Sinatra would be listened to 100 years from now. There was a chance, for Ella Fitzgerald he added, but  -- and here his voice grew deliberate and pontifical -- he thought it was a  faint chance.    

Ella Fitzgerald’s birthday was April 25th.  My friend, scholar and gentleman Robert Stepto, sent me, and many others a video to mark the glorious day. The year is 1966.  Ella is at the Cote’Azur. She comes onstage in a black sheath and white pearls, holding that large white handkerchief she’ll use to wipe her sweat away as she gets to work. She swings into “Satin Doll.” It’s joyous and resourceful. It’s earthy and airborne. You can find in at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DDyMe3T9LA. And for 2minutes and 54 seconds, it will redeem the follies and brutalities of the way we live now.