One perk of being on the SCOTUS is, evidently, an annual concert in the spring of each year. At this year’s SCOTUS spring musicale a few weeks back, the star entertainer was no less than Yo-Yo Ma. Heck, if he can play for the POTUS at the 2009 inaugural, no reason he can’t do the same for the 9 SCOTUS justices (diverse ideologies aside).
Except that not all 9 Supremes were there. One was missing, per a report from the Associated Press. Wonder if you can guess which one before going below the flip…..
For the record, self found the report not directly from the AP, but through the blog of NYC classical music station WQXR 105.9 at this link. It's a very short report, so I’ll come very close to quoting the whole report, though not all at once, of course. It begins:
"Yo-Yo Ma has played his 300-year-old cello for eight of the nine Supreme Court justices.
Ma entertained Wednesday at the court's annual spring musical concert in an ornate conference room beneath portraits of Chief Justices Warren Burger and William Rehnquist."
After elaborating on the program a bit, the report notes the "six degrees of Kevin Bacon" connection between YYM and one of the Justices:
"The current chief justice and Ma were classmates at Harvard in the 1970s. Chief Justice John Roberts jokingly said they had much in common, including that neither took Music 101 in college."
The report then reveals the missing SCOTUS justice:
"Clarence Thomas was the only justice absent."
If one wishes to be charitable (granted, a huge, if not impossible, stretch regarding Clarence Thomas, especially on this blog, admittedly with great justification – but 3CM digresses, as usual), Thomas may have had good reason for missing this concert, such as:
1. Schedule conflict
2. Medical emergency
3. Family issues
4. Not in the mood
5. Doesn’t care for classical music
6. Wants to get away from the office for at least some part of the day
And ultimately, it's none of my or anyone else’s business why he absented himself, especially if it’s for very personal reasons like a medical or family emergency.
But here's the point, and what makes this a loserly situation on Thomas' part. Yo-Yo Ma is one of the very few classical music artists who sells out concert halls just about everywhere he performs. And even if he doesn't 100.000% sell out the hall, available tickets will likely be pretty few and far between. So the chance to see Yo-Yo Ma, most probably for free (I would hope that this is a gratis concert for all those working at SCOTUS), is not one to be tossed away by anyone with a brain. Yet here…..
You can contrast this with Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who is scheduled to give a talk at the Castelton Festival (led by conductor Lorin Maazel) on June 29, an event called "Law in Opera". Unfortunately, for anyone who might want to get tickets, this talk is sold out. Good for the Castleton Festival, and for Justice Ginsburg.
With that, time for the usual SNLC protocol, namely your loser stories of the week, which I hope don’t involve lost opportunities to hear star musicians live……