Is it me or has the standing ovation become a meaningless show of approval at entertainment venues? Just as a person can’t just order a “small” coffee at Starbucks, people can’t just clap without standing at a show anymore. It’s worse than grade inflation at Harvard. Last Friday, Melody treated me out to a showing of Les Miserables, which despite being one of my favorite musicals, I’ve actually never seen before. The show itself was well done, but the true star was Randal Keith who played Jean Valjean, the role for which he was also chosen for the final Broadway cast back in 2003. Of course, despite our hopes of reserving our standing ovation for him, we found ourselves sitting among a sea of standing audience members clapping and cheering loudly. And since we couldn’t SEE anything sitting down, we both stood up, and so goes the entire theater giving a standing ovation. Nevertheless, the show’s popularity is well-deserved, and I was glad we caught it before its limited 2-week engagement at the Opera House was over. My parents also visited for the weekend, resupplying us with more delicious home-cooked goodies. Unfortunately, the comments for our manuscript has just been returned, so I’ll probably be quite occupied for the upcoming weeks.