The Legislature is expected to get down to more serious business this week, after an opening week marked more by ceremony and celebrations.
Which is not to say some work wasn’t accomplished in Week 1, but if there was a highlight reel from the first five days, it would be most likely to include:
• Judy Collins, a certified rock star no matter what that museum in Cleveland might say, singing “The Star Spangled Banner” to open the inaugural ceremony on Wednesday, and “America the Beautiful” to close it. Dressed in white, Collins proved she still has pipes with an extended note on “… land of the freeeeeee …” on her first number, and running through verses one, two and four of the closing song.
Without the lyrics. Think that’s easy? OK, what’s the starting line from the second and fourth verses? You probably could have guessed she took a bit of artistic and political liberty with the chorus of the fourth verse when she sang “… and crown thy good with brother and sisterhood, from sea to shining sea.”