Today is the five hundred and twenty eighth anniversary of Christopher Columbus first spotting Puerto Rico.
His sponsors were hoping the voyage would bring them wealth and spices, but, as with all human activity, the sight of that first mountain peak caused a spring to ping inside the great pin-ball machine of the universe, and by the time it had finished ricocheting around off a guy called William who was trying to scratch a living writing plays in Elizabethan London, and then back to America to knock together the son of a Ukrainian Jewish couple and the son of a New York Jewish dress-maker and designer (Leonard loved music and Stephen loved musicals) it was 1957 and we reaped the rewards in the glorious West Side Story.
This is the opening of the 1957 stage version of the song Gee Officer Krupke.
Dear kindly Sergeant Krupke,
You gotta understand:
It's just our bringin' upke
That gets us out of hand.
Our mothers all are junkies,
Our fathers all are drunks.
Golly Moses, natcherly we're punks!
Gee, Officer Krupke, we're very upset;
We never had the love that ev'ry child oughta get.
We ain't no delinquents,
We're misunderstood.
Deep down inside us there is good!
There is good!
There is good, there is good,
There is untapped good.
Like inside, the worst of us is good.
**
Half way through writing this post the news broke that Stephen Sondheim had died.
He is gone from the world, but the pin-balls he fired into motion will bring us wisdom and delight for centuries to come.
Rest in Peace.
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