I first read Stoppard in high school -- liked R&GAD a lot, but Arcadia felt truly transformative in demonstrating what a stage play could really *do*

Thanks to the great @oliviagiovetti.bsky.social, here’s the cricket bat speech. Henry has been asked to evaluate a play by a young guy fresh from prison, whom his very leftie wife has sort of adopted as a pet -

And today all three of them are diehard Trump supporters. Go figure 🤷

They had one more lucky break in the US: a federal judge they knew (prob via granddad's job as a luxury car mechanic) told them he'd be officiating a citizenship ceremony on a certain date. When the day came my grandparents brought their forms and basically snuck in through the back to take the oath

My dad was born in 1965 -- the same year that the Immigration and Nationality Act was passed, abolishing nation-based immigrant "quotas" and giving preference to refugees (among others). Before 1965 the US admitted 100 Bulgarians annually; by 1970 that number had increased approximately fivefold.

Sir: my father and his parents emigrated from Bulgaria in the 70s. Not being Party members, their "escape" was in itself quite the ordeal. They settled in a Turkish refugee camp and might still be there if not for the Catholic Church sponsoring their resettlement as "persons displaced by communism".

it's been posted before but perhaps it's worth repeating: youtu.be/HnZ53lPPsF0?...