Pimp My Assistive Device
The Basic Ride
Ecstatic as I was to climb behind the crossbars of my shiny new standard walker,1 I soon lamented that it was - well, so standard.
Of course, this conveyance is only a tool, an adjunctive ambulatory apparatus to which I will bid good riddance after a month or two. Clearly, the reasonable course of action is be to limit any efforts on its behalf to maintenance, keeping the thing clean and its moving parts lubricated.
Yep, that would be the reasonable way to go.
On the other hand, …
Furry Dice, Suicide Knobs, and Spinner Hubcaps
On some level, there seems little difference between this walker and my first car - a turquoise and white 57 Chevy my daddy sold when it was brand new eight years earlier to a local farmer whose first choice of options was plastic seat covers.
While furry dice never dangled from the mirror of my car as they do in 
this photo, I managed to scrounge from my father’s and grandfather’s car lots a set of spinner hubcaps, chrome cylinder covers, and myriad other adornments.
Well treasured, for example, were a collection of those driving implements officially classified as “steering grips” that were, in my neck of the woods, known only as “spinner knobs,” “suicide knobs,” or “necker knobs.” The Eight-Ball model shown to the right is a classic.
Consequently, I’ve been looking at what’s available to jazz up the walker and impress the chicks.
The Aftermarket
Readily available form various medical supply stores and bike shops are a number of affordable enhancements.2
The flag on a whip is a much needed safety feature for ATVs, bikes, and, of course, my walker.
I’m leaning, however toward something more patriotic.
For the safety of others, these mountable bicycle horns are possibilities.
As are these mountable truck horns.
Go ahead - try ‘em out. The catalog site points out that the sample sound file is representative of the tone but not the volume of the actual horns.
Click here to hear truck horns
Also falling in the audiovisual alert category are these nifty lights
Which can be matched with these equally nifty siren variations:
Click here to hear the Euro
Click here to hear the Hi-Lo
Click here to hear the Wailer
Obviously, cupholders and carriers are necessities these days.
I’m especially excited about the prospect of slapping on a set of way cool mirrors, such as those shown in this grouping along with a light (for walking after midnight) and a couple of the many bells available.
Here’s Something That Seems Odd
One can even buy “Tennis Ball Glides” for $15 (with a $19 savings).
Or one can, as indeed I did, buy authentic tennis balls at an even greater savings.
The Vision
I’m now envisioning a final version of the walker as a combination of this
And this
With just a tad of this
The Rebels
These accessories only scratch the surface. In my searches, I stumbled onto Blue Cross Guidelines on reimbursable and non-reimbursable options for assistive devices. The interesting stuff is the long list of “Not Reimbursable” item. Check out these samples:
- Ice chest holders
- Snow tires for the assistive devices
- Holders for cellular phones, CD players, and such
- Towing packages3
- Firearm/weapon holder/support
So, if you hear the blast of an air horn and turn around to see a walker equipped with, say, a pirate flag and cupholders filled with vodka tonics, just recall I may have opted for the firearm/weapon holder/support.
Footnotes
- The official designation for “walker,” according to the signage in the Physical Therapy Department, is Assistive Walking Device. Upon actually using said device, one realizes the more accurate appellation would be Assistive Hopping Device or, for more adventuresome user, Assistive Lurching Device. ~back~
- While not my focus, I am taken by the technological capacities available on assistive devices that not only offer way cool functions but names that are just as cool. For example,
-
Tilt-in-space: Individuals who are wheelchair confined and cannot reposition themselves can operate a manual tilt-in-space feature to medically manage pressure relief.
Hemi-height: Many standard and most lightweight manual wheelchairs have an axle or base option that allows the wheelchair to be converted from standard to hemi-height positions. Hemi-height allows the user to use one or both feet to self-propel the manual wheelchair.
Swing away hardware: Swing away, retractable, or removable hardware is used to move the component out of the way to enable the individual transfer to a chair or bed.
~back~
- It is unclear to me what is being towed by what, but I like the concept regardless. ~back~
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Sick Call III
The Long Version
The Diagnosis
After two or three weeks of Physical Therapy for a vacation injury initially diagnosed as an adductor strain (AKA groin pull), treatment with which DrHGuy was, of course, fully compliant, brought about no symptomatic improvement, a second appointment with the primary physician seemed prudent.
This clinical visit occasioned an x-ray to rule out a hip fracture prior to an anticipated referral to an orthopedic/sports specialist. It required, however, only one glance at the completed X-ray to transform the rule-out into a confirmed diagnosis.
The Treatment - AKA “A Chance To Cut Is A Chance To Cure”
A few minutes after the hip x-ray viewing, the Mesomorph was chauffeuring DrHGuy to the hospital with a referral to an orthopedic surgeon. Quick as a wink,1 DrHGuy was domiciled in a room, ownership of impressive quantities of his bodily fluids transferred to a variety of laboratories, and his signature affixed to multiple pieces of paper which must be read by someone someplace sometime.
Most significantly, he and the surgeon completed a physical examination, review of labs, and a diagnostic interview notable for featuring the refrain “And you continued X’ing (where “X” walk, exercise, riding the recumbent bike, …) on that leg with the broken hip for how many weeks?” as a Greek chorus. Numerous staff seized upon the subsequent opportunity to offer comments to DrHGuy along the lines of “Well, I’ve never seen an order for “Strict Bed Rest” with seventeen underlines and 8 exclamation marks. See that, where the Dr’s pen has ripped through the paper?”
In any case, the expected clinical intervention, surgery to pin the fractured bones, was indeed recommended, and DrHGuy awaited his fate, as ordered, abed.
DrHGuy’s Hospital Wish List
In reconnoitering the scene from his semi-recumbent position, DrHGuy discovered that while the hospital was, in many respects, a fine and dandy place, Internet access is not one of their patient services.
DrHGuy, being email-dependent, was bummed.
Said hospital could also use a spin doctor among its medical specialties. DrHGuy’s first regular meal was this no doubt nutritious nursing home cliché.
Yep, stewed prunes, green gelatin, soggy spinach, stuffing, generic tea, and the other white meat. Yum.
DrHGuy’s Op and Post-Op Report
Thanks to a some fortuitous cancellations on the O.R. schedule, DrHGuy’s hip pinning became a late morning matinée rather than a special midnight feature.
The Operation
After a couple of whiffs from a mask, DrHGuy found himself gazing at the walls of a recovery room cubicle, his hip well on the road to recovery.
The Post-Op Hospital Stay
The remainder of Friday was a trip to the spa. From that point on, for example, no knives violated DrHGuy’s integumentary integrity, no metallic rods were hammered into the shafts of any of his bones, and no paralyzing chemicals were were introduced into his central nervous system.
And, the dinner delivered that evening not only corresponded to the dinner ordered (roasted chicken) but was both aesthetically pleasing and tasty.
Nor were luxuries withheld. DrHGuy was not, for example, required to make that annoying jaunt to the bathroom; instead, such bodily necessities were executed without leaving the bed with implements emptied by a grateful and worshipful staff.
Why? Because.
The day after the operation, DrHGuy passed along the news to his mother, who had undergone the same procedure a few years previous. Her question had to do with why the hip fracture occurred, a fine query given that there was no traumatic event, and DrHGuy is far, far younger than the modal hip fracture patient.
Well, none of the possible reasons are happy ones. The smart money (i.e., the surgeon’s) is on a lifetime of hypothyroidism leading to osteoporosis, but that’s only a guess, That diagnostic conundrum is DrHGuy’s next medical adventure.
Although DrHGuy’s preference is focusing his worries on long-term, catastrophic problems, just now he is most concerned about how he is going to take a shower with his walker and the a lump of dough into which he will transform now that he’s restricted from exercising for 4-6 weeks.
Given that DrHGuy is forbidden to exercise - and he asked about every option in every way until the folks in charge began giving off signals of being miffed - becoming a lump of dough is a given. Diet remains, at least theoretically, under DrHGuy’s control so just how huge a lump of dough he is to become is unknown.
Regardless, underlying disease will just have to wait a bit until DrHGuy can free up enough angst to properly address it.
The Final Discharge Criterion
The final step to discharge was the requirement that DrHGuy demonstrate to Physical Therapy2 that he was capable of locomotion without re-injuring the fracture.
And thus it was that yet another narcissistic defense bit the dust when the young, vivacious Physical Therapist stuck with Saturday inpatient duty suggested that a walker might prove easier to use and more efficient than crutches.
Being of the manly man persuasion, DrHGuy informed the young lady that he would indeed keep an open mind toward both methodologies but frankly saw himself more the injured jock on crutches than the crazy old codger with the walker adorned with a macramé pouch dangling from the crossbar.
That notion persisted for perhaps 3 nanoseconds, which is coincidentally the length of time required to make the preparatory move preceding the preferred swing-through crutch maneuver.
DrHGuy is now aiming toward a less athletic, more dignified man of a certain age image - think Maurice Chevalier with a limp - and a walker.
Put a smile upon your face as if there’s nothing wrong
Think about a good time had a long time ago
Think about forgetting about your worries and your woes
Walking In The Sunshine, sing a little sunshine song
From Walking In The Sunshine by Roger Miller
Footnotes
- 1 Healthcare System Wink = 8.5 Earth Hours ~back~
- Astute readers will note the ironic symmetry PT provides for this tale ~back~
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Mom Turkey and the Brood Make An Appearance
Ah, How Quickly The Kids Grow Up
Last week, before my recent (hehehe) break, the Heck of a House back lawn turkey family (the hen and three poults) showed up for breakfast. Those who saw earlier video of the poults may be impressed with their growth.
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Sick Call II
Recovery Is A Walk In The Park
The Fundamental Info
DrHGuy’s right hip fracture was pinned sometime around noon this Friday past. With the cooperation of the orthopod on weekend call, the hospitalist, an especially competent nursing staff, and the perpetually perky physical therapist assigned to Saturday inpatient duty, our model patient successfully completed the transition from inpatient to outpatient by noon Saturday.
What with the cognitive deficits consequent to the intake of pain pills, the exhaustion that is the cost of portraying a compliant patient, the numb fingers caused by use of the above pictured assistive walking device, and the obligatory family crisis awaiting his return home, DrHGuy is only now returning emails, thinking about the blog, and resuming other elements of the semblance of a normal life.
Heck of a Guy posts may be sparse and sporadic for a few days, and subject matter is likely to focus on orthopedic techniques, hospital food, and wild, sexy nurses.
OK, two out of three isn’t bad.
Besides, who really cares about orthopedic technique?
Obsessively detailed, arguably entertaining account to follow.
A Big Ol’ Special Hunk-O-Gratitude
Thanks to Lady Lawanda for entering the previous post while I was Internet-deprived, transporting me from the hospital, running 3,228 errands for me, and taking care of many, many other details necessary for my survival thus far, giggling only occasionally over my efforts to make nice with my new best friend, Mr. Walker.
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Sick Leave
Funny thing. Turns out that on x-ray a groin pull looks a lot like a fractured hip.
DrHGuy is scheduled for surgery tomorrow, July 26. And if all goes well will be back on line early next week.
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Take This Waltz: The Supplement
Notes On Leonard Cohen’s Take This Waltz
In my two preceding posts on The Unrealized Potential of Cohen’s Take This Waltz in The Gin Game,1 the specific content of Take This Waltz was a secondary consideration.
Some readers have expressed interest in the song itself. While my own need to analyze2 Take This Waltz has been adequately sated by those last two blog entries, I can offer some notes and direction.
Leonard Cohen On Lorca
Take This Waltz is an especially important song in the Leonard Cohen canon, in large part because the lyrics derive from Pequeno Vals Vienes (”Little Viennese Waltz”), a poem written in Spanish by Federico Garcia Lorca (pictured on right).
Cohen has commented on his discovery of Lorca’s poem and its significance in numerous concerts and interviews. These quotations are representative.
From the Reijkavik Concert (24 June 1988)
From the Nurnberg Concert (10 May 1988)
From the Austin Concert (31 October 1988)
From a 1997 Interview, “Morning Becomes Eclectic”, KCRW Radio
LC: Unfortunately, all my efforts are painstaking. I’d prefer it if I were gifted and spontaneous and swift, but my work requires a great deal of painstaking. That’s no guarantee of its quality, but it does. With the Lorca poem, the translation took 150 hours, just to get it into English that resembled–I would never presume to say duplicated–the greatness of Lorca’s poem. It was a long, drawn-out affair, and the only reason I would even attempt it is my love for Lorca. I loved him as a kid; I named my daughter Lorca, so you can see this is not a casual figure in my life. She wears the same name beautifully; she is a very strange and eccentric soul…
Leonard Cohen’s affection for the poet led him to name his daughter after him.
From the concert at The Hague 18 May 1993)
Pequeno Vals Vienes and its Translations
A side-by-side comparison of Leonard Cohen’s Take This Waltz and a more literal English translation of Lorca’s Little Viennese Waltz can be viewed on the Speaking Cohen site and Lorca’s original poem, Pequeno Vals Vienes, in Spanish is available at Pequeno Vals Vienes
Analyses
The 800 Pound Gorilla
While I lack statistical evidence, the most frequently referenced analysis of Take This Waltz appears to be Re-membering the Love Song: Ambivalence and Cohen’s “Take This Waltz” by Charlene Diehl-Jones. This is a dense, sometimes abstruse, often challenging, and consistently impressive piece of scholarship. I’ve excerpted the opening,
After the opening four-measure instrumental lead of “Take This Waltz,” we hear Cohen’s voice, earthy, sometimes unbeautiful, with that lingering possibility of a sardonic undercurrent:
Now in Vienna there’s ten pretty women. There’s a shoulder where
Death comes to cry. There’s a lobby with nine hundred windows.
There’s a tree where the doves go to die.Add to that voice — and its conspicuous hyperbole — the thumping insistence of a barrel-organ oom-pa-pa background, and you wonder what you might salvage, if there’s anything to remain after the acid has pocked the surfaces here. Still, there’s something disarmingly direct about this stylized waltz, something potent and compelling. It is, I would say, a love song. Or perhaps more accurately a love song from the other side: it doesn’t pretend another Edenic beginning, but assumes — and even advertises — the borrowed nature of the lover’s position, the conventions that make a love song possible. The necessary ambivalence, you might say, of the lover’s stance in a textual/musical world which admits to its multiple layers of inscription.
Unfortunately for those uneducated in musicology, such as me, much of the paper deals with major and minor cords, tonality, and similar language that is, in effect, indecipherable. An example follows:
The structural ambivalence is echoed by the more immediately perceptible tonal ambivalence: “Take This Waltz” can hardly resist the lure of its own relative minor, and constantly swings between major and minor modes. The introductory four measures are securely positioned in the major, and though the voice enters in that key, by midway through the first line it is sketching the possibilities of the relative minor (Figure 1). (I have, for ease of reading, transposed these passages up a semitone, and sketched in the bass-line movement; for clarification of labeling techniques, and concepts of tonality and chord function, see especially Piston, 47-63.)
Well, thank goodness that she “transposed those passages up a semitone” for “ease of reading.” Otherwise, I might have been up the proverbial creek. Clearly, I am unqualified to judge those music-centric portions of the essay.
My recommendation for those with a casual interest in Take This Waltz3 is to read through this work, blithely skip the music discussions unless those terms are familiar to you, and take the time to puzzle out portions that grab your interest.
Also Of Interest
Translation with a clamp on its jaws is actually a post about literal and free style translations that opens with a consideration of Nabokov’s literal translation of “Eugene Onegin” and his free style translation of “Alice in Wonderland” and ends with the example of Federico Garcia Lorca’s “Little Viennese Waltz,” the literal translation by Greg Simon and Steven White, and the free translation by Leonard Cohen. It is well worth reading on its own merits as well as for a better understanding of Take This Waltz.
Finally, I recommend this excerpt from the Stylus Magazine article, Leonard Cohen: Take This Waltz.
“Take This Waltz,” also from I’m Your Man, is about as close to singing as he got in the late 80s. Rare for Cohen, the lyrics are not his own; they are adapted from “Little Viennese Waltz” by Lorca. As with all of Cohen’s work in this period, the backing is almost chintzy, especially the section where he and Jennifer Warnes start singing “this waltz, this waltz, this waltz.” It sounds like something out of a bad Disney movie. Mostly Cohen just purrs over muted violin and beatless ambience. As is usual with his later work, it’s hard to describe without sounding vaguely contemptuous. It shouldn’t work, and it almost doesn’t.
But then, you hear the way he sings “Oh my love, oh my love! / Take this waltz, take this waltz / It’s yours now, it’s all that there is.” He sounds helpless, like a supplicant. And you think back to the weird fantasia of imagery, as much Cohen as Lorca:
“There’s a piece that was torn from the morning, and it hangs in the Gallery of Frost”
“On a bed where the moon has been sweating, in a cry filled with footsteps and sand”
“And I’ll dance with you in Vienna, I’ll be wearing a river’s disguise”
“Take this waltz, take this waltz, take this waltz with the clamp on its jaws”And it becomes clear that the singer is hiding something. And, if you’re me, you think back to “Chelsea Hotel #2”, where Cohen was at his most forthright, singing “I need you / I don’t need you / And all of that jivin’ around.” And suddenly, in those swirling six minutes as Cohen waltzes ’round Vienna, I see, clearly, that Cohen really hasn’t changed, that he’s still singing of the same old hurts and balms. There’s still the push and pull of “I need you / I don’t need you,” but now there’s this towering, Gothic edifice erected over it. Part of it is boredom, I imagine—when you keep your hand in for as long as Cohen has, you have to vary things a little. And part of it is probably protection, the sadness in Cohen’s voice only tolerable for short periods.
But all that can be figured out. The beauty, the genius, the true devastation of the love song that is “Take This Waltz” is that as Cohen sings to Her “And you’ll carry me down on your dancing to the pools that you lift on your wrist” (and it’s always Her of course, the same Her), you really feel it, you feel all the ways that this massive construction doesn’t just hide the deeper issues, but amplifies them, renders them rich and strange. I can hear now that Cohen’s earlier work is necessary to understand his later, but it’s the dream-like potency of those later excursions that have me addicted.
Footnotes
- See Part 1: The Basics of the Play and Its Add-on Dance Scene and Part 2: The Tragic Poignancy Of Love Touched But Not Grasped ~back~
- The “need to analyze” is listed in a special edition of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs between the need to distinguish between sierra gold and amber sunshine and the need to catch a bowling ball dropped from a five story building in ones teeth ~back~
- ”Casual interest” in this case includes the range that begins with curious and ends just before writing ones University of Chicago Ph.D. dissertation on The Conflicted Psychosociomusical Elements of Take This Waltz. ~back~
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The Unrealized Potential of Cohen’s Take This Waltz in The Gin Game Part 2: The Tragic Poignancy Of Love Touched But Not Grasped
Introduction: The Gin Game & The Dance Scene
In Part 1 of this post, The Unrealized Potential of Cohen’s Take This Waltz in The Gin Game Part 1: The Basics of the Play and Its Add-on Dance Scene, I provided basic information about D.L. Coburn’s “The Gin Game” and its dance scene as groundwork for an explication of the bipartite thesis I stated in that preceding blog entry:
Today’s post will focus on the specific uses of the dance scene and its music as well as my argument that the music could have been used to greater effect.
The Significance Of The Outcomes Of The Gin Games
At the center of “The Gin Game” is the cruel cosmic joke that we humans cling tenaciously and desperately to the very flaws that can destroy us - even when those faults are made all too apparent. Psychiatrists call the tendency of individuals to repeat a traumatic event or its circumstances over and over again “repetition compulsion.” Fonsia and Weller are the elderly poster children for Repetition Compulsion.
In “The Gin Game,” Weller, who cajoles Fonsia into playing gin and teaches her the rudiments of the game, becomes increasingly frustrated to the point of apoplexy as Fonsia wins hand after hand, all the while maintaining her veneer of sweetly innocent decorum to the point of apologizing for winning, further antagonizing Weller.
This repeated scenario of Fonsia’s victories over the pompous and laughably over-reactive Weller is initially pleasing and genuinely funny to the audience, providing more than enough cues for anyone familiar with movies or TV to infer that “The Gin Game” is a romantic comedy with the familiar Katherine Hepburn-Spencer Tracy story line in which the sweet but shrewd - and a tad shrewish - female wins the the crusty male curmudgeon’s heart, which on analysis, turns out to be composed of gold.
A sense of hope is boosted, for example, by the contrast in appearance of Fonsia and Weller before and after their first meeting. When first seen, Weller wears “terry-cloth slippers, khaki pants, a pajama top and an old brown wool bathrobe” while Fonsia is clothed in “faded pink slippers, an old housecoat, and a cardigan sweater.” Encouraged by their first contact, Weller next appears in “a jacket and tie, khaki pants and loafers,” and Fonsia “looks like a different woman [in] a print dress, a rose-colored cardigan, and open-toed sandals.”
What was comical and hopeful, however, turns threatening and tragic as Weller proves unable to tolerate the assault on his brittle ego caused by the ongoing losses at gin. His increasingly lurid language and escalating violence (e.g., throwing over the card table after yet another loss) drive Fonsia (and likely the audience) into a psychological retreat.
Fonsia, however, cannot ultimately withdraw from the battle, even when it is clear that the only victory she can win will be Pyrrhic. She is herself rigidly insistent, because of her embedded history of unfulfilled hopes, on protecting her own facsimile of self-esteem at all costs and consequently approaches every interaction with the presumption that others, especially men, will attempt to attack, cheat, or abandon her.
This combination of traits prevents Weller and Fonsia from achieving more than a momentary connection and ultimately dooms their chance of forming an enduring relationship.
Because both characters are locked into their self-sabotaging personalities, conditions deteriorate until the final game turns into a furious no-holds barred battle that leaves both contestants dismayed, mortified, and - rightfully - frightened.
The Waltz As Redemption
The counterpoint to the mutually assured destruction, to use an especially appropriate Cold War term, of the card games is the dance Fonsia and Weller perform which offers the sole glimpse of genuine joyousness and selfless human connectedness in the universe created in “The Gin Game.”
Or, as Coburn puts it,
The dancing demonstrates, in fact, a number of qualities that make it a remarkably apt means of portraying a potential route of rapprochement standing in contradistinction to the battleground of the gin games. For example,
- The card games separate the players by a table and the cards while the dancing demands a physical embrace. In an early scene, in fact, Weller moves from sitting on the side of card table adjacent to Fonsia to a chair opposite her to prevent his seeing the cards in her hand. The card game exists in the antagonistic gap between the individuals; dancing exists in the coordinated touching and transient union of the two individuals.
- The card games are mechanical, governed by a list of rules and regulations while the dancing is lyrical, allowing and encouraging variation from the standard format.
- The card games position Fonsia and Weller as opponents, exacerbating their conflicts, while the dancing positions Fonsia and Weller as partners, permitting them to (temporarily) shift their behaviors to act in concert, benefiting themselves as well as their partner.
The mood shift from the card games to the dance is brilliantly clear-cut. The card games are filled with rancor, bitterness, attacks, insults, and rage. Compare that with this storyboard view of the dance scene.
The Dance Sequence Storyboard
From left to right,
Frame 1: Fonsia hears the music begin and is caught up in a revelry.
Frame 2: Weller allows that the music is “all right, but it’s too long.”
Frame 3: Weller complains that “Those lyrics, they’re crazy.”
From left to right,
Frame 4: Fonsia pleads/lures/entices Weller to dance with her.
Frame 5: Weller accedes to her wishes.
Frame 6: Fonsia reacts with delight to Weller’s agreement to dance with her.
The dance begins at the point portrayed in the graphic atop this post. Just prior to this, Weller motions Fonsia to him when they step together to dance, reciprocating her motions enticing him (see Frame 5).
From left to right,
Frame 8 & 9: After beginning with a standard, cautious box step, Fonsia and Weller accelerate, twirling and spinning youthfully and happily.
Frame 10: Fonsia and Weller gleefully take each other in, joyously celebrating their dance.
From left to right,
Frame 11: Immediately following the joyful moment, Weller’s leg gives out.
Frame 12: Fonsia commiserates with Weller’s lament that he “used to dance all night,” responding “so did I.”
Frame 13: Weller invites Fonsia back to the card table.
The sequence is also nuance-suffused with multiple details highlighting or reinforcing motifs. Beyond those mentioned already, one notes, for example, that Weller’s leg doesn’t buckle during the spinning and twirling but surrenders to fatigue immediately following that glimpse of happiness, emphasizing that, while old age may have intensified their weaknesses, the cruxes of Weller’s and Fonsia’s problems are their characterologic flaws rather than their physiological or intellectual deficits secondary to aging. Again, quoting from Coburn’s commentary on the PBS web site,
In fact, one of the few instances of true empathy between the two characters is Fonsia’s observation that she too used to “dance all night.”2
Timing
The entire dance scene, from the time the two characters appear on-screen until the segment ends with them returning to playing cards, is less than three minutes. The dancing itself lasts less than 30 seconds. Yet, as the author intended, the scene opens the audience’s eyes to what is possible for Fonsia and Weller and develops an empathic bond between the characters and those watching the play.
That, my friend, is dramaturgic efficiency.
The Use of Take This Waltz in The Gin Game
That Take This Waltz serves as a fitting accompaniment for a waltz, a dance step appropriate to the