• A fun fact inspired by a recent Globle answer

• Answers to last week's games

Ukranian lullaby, or the great American song?

Considered one of the greatest songs ever written, “Summertime”, the opening ballad from American composer George Gershwin’s 1935 opera Porgy and Bess, has not only become a jazz standard but also holds the title for being the most covered song in the world. Sometimes referred to as “the great American song,” “Summertime” has become famous the world over, with more than 25,000 versions of the song recorded to date. It might be a surprise to learn that the great American composer took his inspiration from a lullaby he heard performed by the Ukrainian National Chorus (Ukraine was the Globle answer for May 2).

Under the direction of Alexander (Oleksander) Koshetz, the melancholic “Dreams Drifting By the Windows” (Oy khodyt’ son, kolo vikon), performed in NYC’s Carnegie Hall in the late 1920s must have touched a nerve in George Gershwin, as his composition not only captured the imagination of lyricists DuBose Heyward and Ira Gershwin to pen a song that the great songwriter and composer Stephen Sondheim considered among the “best lyrics in the musical theatre”—it has gone on to inspire so many rich and layered interpretations through the decades since its premiere onstage in 1935. From American soprano Abbie Mitchell’s debut recording of 1935 to Willie Nelson’s soulful and easy conversational version, the song not only retains its power but seems to grow as it continues to inspire the world through the good times and the bad. In a world where dreams live on forever, it should be no surprise that the dreams that pass by our windows not only inspire us but are worth hearing again and again.

Answers to last week's games

Monday, April 29 to Sunday, May 5.

Linxicon

The following are the shortest paths from last week:

• #77 guest -> faux -> fake -> false -> true

• #78 wait -> patience -> maturation -> biological

• #79 professor -> historian -> history -> before -> already

• #80 basically -> summary -> response -> decline

• #81 historic -> historical -> happen -> act

• #82 singer -> audition -> exam -> test

• #83 boom -> impact -> affect -> sustain

• #84 Play now!

Forgeous

Greuze, Jean-Baptiste. Charles Claude de Flahaut (1730–1809), Comte d'Angiviller. 1763. Oil on canvas, 64.1 x 54 cm. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. The Met ID 436581.

Play Forgeous for May 6.

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