IT WAS IN C-MINOR

You know, the four most famous of Beethoven's notes. Da-da-da-da. That's what I learned last night at a Hershey Felder concert.

He also does Chopin and Gershwin. Beethoven lived to be 56, but for perhaps 20 of those years he was deaf, possibly due to beatings his father gave him as a child.

It was an excellent one-man show. Of the trilogy, Gershwin was my favorite, but all three are worth seeing. I learned some other stuff last night, too.

Number 1, I stayed too long at the fair as my wife says. I was watching the Cardinals whip up on the rival Cubs and had to leave for the show. Which I thought would take us 20 minutes to get there. We left 45 minutes early and barely were parked and seated by showtime.

Also, the glare of the sun at that time of day for my drive is getting harder and harder on me. Maybe it's my sunglasses. You see, I go back and forth on sunglasses.

As one who shunned them for years, I now embrace them and wish I had always done that. Maybe those crows feet, that murder of crows feet that line my face wouldn't be quite so deep. But back to my back and forth. I used to buy cheapo sunglasses and abuse them, lose them, forget them.

Then I bought semi-expensive ones and abused them. Now I buy Maui Jim, definitely expensive. I take care of them. But I don't know if they help the glare anymore than the $10 ones.

I'm always learning. And that's good. I know a little more about one of the famous B composers. I know to leave home earlier. (They usually just walk Pujols when the game gets interesting anyway.) The jury's still out on the sunglasses.