Not quite a joke, and not quite funny

A couple of excellent belated April's Fools posts plus various exchanges about Chopin (dead or alive?) on The Amazing Race (I might be the only person still watching this, I know) happened to remind me of a true--honest!--incident which took place several years ago of which I learned second-hand, in which a pop music exec (one well known within industry circles) called his classical colleagues, wanting to set up a meeting with Puccini.

And a further word about Sanjaya: someone of my acquaintance is absolutely convinced that his presence on our TV screens week after week is not attributable to Howard Stern or to Vote for the Worst (or even the hotly sought-after tween audience), but rather a secret cabal of South Asian aunties heating up the telephone lines. Edited to add: And despite whatever else I could (or shouldn't) say about Michael Buble, I will say he can pull off one helluva Dean Martin impersonation. If only he slurred a tiny bit more...