The audience is the best judge of anything.

"They cannot be lied to. Truth brings them closer. A moment that lags - they're gonna cough."

The fact that I've used the above quote is an example of how easily I'm distracted. Oh, for the record, it's by Barbra Streisand.

I was looking for quotes about  congestion, believe it or not. I'm rotten congested at the moment and I was comparing it in my mind to a sort of writer's congestion, when all my words are phlegm and they take a lot of coughing up.

...so I came across the quote.

Yes, an audience is the best judge of anything. Not of singing, in my case, though more of that later, but of my writing. "A moment that lags - they're gonna cough." Figuratively so, if my words aren't compelling enough to make them want to bother to read on. It could be my mantra.

Back to Barbra Streisand. A confession: It has always been a secret ambition of mine to sing Barbra Streisand's part in the duet with Neil Diamond - You don't bring me flowers.

Confession Number Two. I've practised so much that I can actually sing Neil Diamond's part too - and both in the right octave. Scary, eh?

I think there might be an awful lot of coughing from the audience.