Tchaikovsky's Head

Montessori is so great! The children learn about environmentalism. Monet. And Tchaikovsky. Which makes me feel a lot better about letting Jack check out an Early Reader book about the X-Men, which features superheroes with unnaturally muscular frames, and superheroines with Barbie-esque proportions. Oh yeah, and guns. Guns. I looked at the cover again, yep, it said "Early Reader," clear as day. It is "disappearing" from the house today. You can't let your guard down anywhere, even in the "Early Reader" section of your local library. Oh, and isn't it strange that unnaturally large boobs and guns are always in the same story?

But thank goodness for Montessori. In the car yesterday, Jack burst out with "Do you know what Peter Tchaikovsky did when he was a boy? In school one day, his teacher told him the top button on his shirt was unbuttoned, and he fell on the floor and screamed, "It's all my fault." In the next breath Jack asked, "Do you know who his favorite composer was?" "No, who?" (I really did not know.) "Mozart." "Wow. Really?" I looked it up and he was right!!! The Mozart part, anyway. Although Tchaikovsky was a bit foggy on his Beethoven.

The unbuttoned shirt incident is more elusive. I do notice in every photograph of Tchaikovsky that his shirt is fastidiously buttoned indeed. In a Tchaikovsky admirer's website it claimed, referring to T's wife, that "Antonina Ivanovana Milyukoff hurled herself at his head, declaring in a letter her love for him." Ouch. She was quite the multitasker. I assume she missed his head, unless she was airborne. Or maybe he was lying on the floor, having noticed his shirt was unbuttoned. Or maybe his hair was uncombed. That must be it.