We would not for one minute dare to equate the profound emotional agony of anyone involved in the recent mercy killing of a Kentucky Derby racehorse, whose ankles broke, with our recent experience, pursuant to prolonged podiatric agony, of having to say goodbye to a pair of bright purple high heels. That would be callous, and callouses are exactly what-if only we’d had them-would have saved us from that heartbreaking moment of turning away for the last time from those gently-used fuschia pumps, now nestled comfortably, we can only hope, in the arms of Mann School Girl Scout Troop 2787, which is conducting a Shoe Drive through May 9, titled Soles 4 Soles, a not-for-profit organization that provides shoes to those in need (ldowningmiller@comcast.net). Allow us to urge you to consider a similar retirement of any shoes in your closet whose days on your own appendages are numbered-or possibly gone forever.
Mother’s Day is almost upon us, and we have to figure out what we want to do. Our husband, in a cowardly attempt to avoid being groused at afterwards, always makes us create the day’s agenda ourself. This year we’re prepared. Dominican University is hosting a concert on Sunday at 2:30 p.m. by Chicago Sinfonietta (www.chicagosinfonietta.org) that sounds better than lysergic acid: Portraits of the Blues/Back into Space, a multimedia collaboration with Adler Planetarium and the Chicago Blues Festival. Apparently, Adler astronomer and digital artist Dr. Jose Francisco Salgado has created a visual extravaganza to accompany Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition by means of which “audience members find themselves ‘falling’ through pictures and into the universe, flying past Earth, planets, black holes, stars, and other galaxies.” Now that sounds like a good way to spend Mother’s Day.