The masquerade ball dates probably back to the 15th century, and indeed it figures in such things as Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, if we are indeed to believe that the protagonists really cannot recognize each other because they are wearing silly (and possibly quite flimsy) masks. But, I guess sometimes people just did not want to be seen or recognized, so that’s okay. It did neither Romeo nor Juliet any favors in the end.

We had our own involuntary masquerade of sorts when a rather noxious virus rampaged through the world. Most of us here (in the US) masked up; some did not because the virus was purportedly some kind of hoax. Some places pretended like there was no virus in circulation at all. The whole thing was ripe for politicization, and that too did happen.

This piece has nothing to do with that virus, masking, or any of that sh•t. It’s just a cute title reminiscent of Leon Russell’s great song of similar name—the one that George Benson made famous in 1976, even though Karen Carpenter covered it three years earlier, one year after its initial release on Russell’s album Carney. Did you know all that stuff?

So then I found some videos of people wearing masks and hazmat suits, spraying disinfectant on everything, and decided to go with it, because music is so much easier to understand if you have something to watch. Am I right?