Welcome to Letters from Quotidia 2026 Weekend Supplements Revisited As you may know, in Quotidia, ordinary people lead ordinary lives, who, from time to time, encounter the extraordinary. You may also be aware that, in Quotidia, the Irish concept of the crack is especially esteemed. Long-time followers of the Letters will be aware that, in Quotidia, time doesn’t follow the graceful arc of an arrow but twists and turns like a demented mouse in a quantum maze.
The final tally of 300 Letters, was an amalgam of music, literature and anecdote, incorporating some aspect of the Irish concept of crack. I pray these have added, however infinitesimally, to the store of hopefulness in the universe. Why am I re-visiting the Weekend Supplements?
First, all the other Letters have had a return visit- so why not the Supplements? Second, why does stuff always have to make sense? Lewis Carroll of Alice in Wonderland fame gives an example of this in his poem Jabberwocky and it will serve as an introduction for the re-run of the Supplements, as, indeed, it did for the rerun of the Letters:
’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves/ Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:/All mimsy were the borogoves,/And the mome raths outgrabe.//“Beware the Jabberwock, my son!/The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!/Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun/The frumious Bandersnatch!”//He took his vorpal sword in hand;/ Long time the manxome foe he sought—/So rested he by the Tumtum tree/And stood awhile in thought.//And, as in uffish thought he stood,/The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame/,Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,/ And burbled as it came!//One, two! One, two! And through and through/The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!/He left it dead, and with its head/ He went galumphing back.//“And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?/ Come to my arms, my beamish boy!/O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!”/ He chortled in his joy.//’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves/ Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:/All mimsy were the borogoves,/And the mome raths outgrabe.
Nonsense like this is far superior to the sense spewing from various digital orifices that threatens to engulf us. My final reason for this podcast is that it provides an excuse for presenting a song that has stayed with me from the first hearing in the late Spring or early Summer of 1964.
Here I refer to the Rolling Stones first LP- also, incidentally, the first LP I bought with my own money as a 14-year-old pimply teenager. And the song that captivated me way back then: Route 66- the opening track of that LP. Now, I’ll proffer my homage to that great song and group. [insert song]
To recap: the Letters were blogs I originally put together to help assuage the boredom I felt after retirement. I had 120 songs, written and recorded over previous decades. I had also recorded music and songs from the folk tradition of the English-speaking world- Irish, American, Australian, Canadian, Scottish, Welsh, English- many with the folk group Banter formed in Western Sydney in 1995.
These also numbered 120. So, when the pandemic struck, I used them as the basis for podcasts I started rolling out. I had the material for thirty weeks ready by January 2021 and that accounted for 150 podcasts. After this, my output was not quite so prodigious but I managed, by the end of the process, to double this number for a total of 300 podcasts which included the odd special thrown in on particular days such as Remembrance Day, which falls on November 11th, Anzac Day (which is observed in Australia and New Zealand and which falls on April 25th) and New Years Eve, which, of course, falls on December 31st.
When I reprised the Letters, I numbered them 1-300 and reposted them in order five days a week. So, the calendar for the roll-out of the Letters and Supplements will not align with any specific-day references found in the original posts. I’ll give an example, My New Years Eve post for 2022 was reprised on 24th November 2025.
On the off chance that previous listeners to the Letters may wish to hear again the rerun of the Weekend Supplements or, who knows, a new seeker of Quotidian inclination may happen upon these Supplements and wish to follow the series, I have decided to play them again; to give them another shot; to gift them another lease on life. Yeah, another lease on life which can mean, an opportunity for renewed enjoyment in, enthusiasm for or appreciation of one’s own life, OR, to make someone feel happy or healthy after illness or sadness, OR, to improve or refurbish something that is worn or old.
Am I referring to the Supplements or to myself? Or both? Uncertainty rules as Heisenberg, or Schrödinger’s cat, would undoubtedly tell you. You’ve got to take silver linings where you can find them! I wrote the closing song of this podcast very recently. Just when I thought the well was dry as dust, well, it wasn’t. Here is the result, called My Saving Angel. [insert song]
Leucon, no one’s allowed to know his fate,/Not you, not me: don’t ask, don’t hunt for answers/In tea leaves or palms. Be patient with whatever comes./This could be our last winter, it could be many/More, pounding the Tuscan Sea on these rocks:/Do what you must, be wise, cut your vines/And forget about hope. / Time goes running, even/As we talk. Take the present, the future’s no one’s affair. Horace, with his unsentimental eye, says it so well. Although, I don’t know about you, but I find it impossible to forget about hope. Farewell.
Route 66 (Bobby Troup)
Well, if you ever plan to motor West
Jack, take my way, that’s the highway that’s the best
Get your kicks on Route 66
Well, it winds from Chicago to L.A
More than 2000 miles all the way
Get your kicks on Route 66
Well, it goes from St. Louie down to Missouri
Oklahoma City looks oh so pretty
You’ll see Amarillo and Gallup, New Mexico
Flagstaff, Arizona, don’t forget Winona
Kingman, Barstow, San Bernardino
Well, do get hip to this kindly tip
And go take that California trip
Get your kicks on Route 66
Well, it goes from St. Louie down to Missouri
Oklahoma City looks oh so pretty
You’ll see Amarillo and Gallup, New Mexico
Flagstaff, Arizona, don’t forget Winona
Kingman, Barstow, San Bernardino
Well, do get hip to this kindly tip
And go take that California trip
Get your kicks on Route 66
Get your kicks on Route 66
Get your kicks on Route 66
My Saving Angel (Words and music Quentin Bega)
D, A, G, D-2; Bm, F#m, E-1; A, D, A, G, D-1
I first wrote you when I met you, I wanted to impress you girl
With the passion in my writing set down in fiery words
What my heart felt, how my soul yearned, then I crashed back to earth
And you murmured don’t you worry everything will be all right.
And since then you’ve been with me, picking me up off the ground
When I fall down want to stay down but you get me back up on my feet
Why you do this I can’t work out, but I’ll take it without questioning
My good fortune, saving angel, all I need to feel complete
You’ve been with me; you reassure me in my times of dark and doubt
In my lifetime, you’re my lifeline helping me to work it out
You’re the sweetness that I needed to overcome the bitterness
Of the setbacks and the wrong tacks I took into the wilderness
(Instrumental verse)
I first wrote you when I met you, I wanted to impress you girl
With the passion in my writing set down in fiery words
What my heart felt, how my soul yearned, then I crashed back to earth
And still you murmur don’t you worry everything will be all right.
And still you murmur don’t you worry everything will be all right.
Credits: All written text, song lyrics and music (including background music) written and composed by Quentin Bega unless otherwise specified in the credits section after individual posts. Illustrative excerpts from other texts identified clearly within each podcast. I donate to and use Wikipedia frequently as one of the saner sources of information on the web. Copyright Credit: Horace, Ode I. 11, translated by Burton Raffel, from The Essential Horace.(1983)
Technical Stuff: Microphone-songs Shure SM58; (for the podcast spoken content) Audio Technica AT 2020 front-facing with pop filter); Apogee 76K also used for songs and spoken text. For recording and mixing down: 64-bit N-Track Studio 10 Extended used; Rubix 22 also used for mixing of microphone(s) and instruments. I use the Band in a Box/RealBand 2023 combo for music composition.
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