Words, Words, Words...Hamlet

Did you ever think about how many words you know? Well, here is a way to find out. Not very scientific, but what the hey.

First, get a dictionary. Second, count the words in the dictionary. Huh, hard you say? Not really. Do this: Count the number of entries on a page. Take a couple of samples and get an average. Then multiply that number by the number of pages. The result will be close to the number of words in the dictionary. Third, and this is the fun part, look at the first word on the page. If you know the meaning give yourself a check. If you don't then give yourself an x. Fourth, repeat this 100 times. If you get 50 right, then you may know about half the words in the dictionary. The more times you repeat this, say 1000 times, the more accurate this will be. The % you get will probably be on the high side, since you may come across some words that are stems of other extended words. But that's okay.

Try it!

Remember the Alamo

March 6, 1836, Mexican dictator General Santa Anna and his army of about 5,000 overwhelmed the defenders of the Alamo. The fort in San Antonio, an old Spanish mission, was occupied by 189 men under the command of Colonel William Travis. Every man was killed that day, but Texans under the leadership of Sam Houston struck back on April 21, routing the Mexicans with the battle cry "Remember the Alamo!"

John Wayne made it into a movie, most of which is pretty accurate.

Here Now

"We are here and it is now. Further than that, all human knowledge is moonshine."

H. L. Mencken

Bernard and Mrs. Madoff

I have continued to follow the Bernard Madoff case as he approaches being sentenced or facing a Grand Jury. Recently his wife has claimed that her fortune, some $50 million or so, is separate and apart from her husbands, that she somehow was able to accumulate this wealth outside of Mr. Madoff's Ponzi scheme. Okay, if she says so. But what strikes me about all of this, and Mrs. Madoff, is the complete lack of a humility, sorrow, and conscience these "people" possess. Now, as for the alleged vicitms, do they deserve the public's sympathy? I am not referring here to the charities that invested in Madoff's investment and securities firm, but rather the millionaires and billionaires who are no less dispicable in their dealings than is Madoff. How exactly did most of them obtain their bulging bank accounts? And perhaps if they weren't so suseptable to collecting even more money they would not have invested with him in the first place. His scheme was to present his investment firm as an exclusive club. Only the high and mighty were allowed in this club. In the end most of them got exactly what they deserved. Greed is a mighty thing. So I don't picture myself shedding a tear for the victims, but I am outraged that the SEC could allow this to happen. Not surprised, mind you, but outrraged.

Happy Birthday Florida!

March 3, 1845, Florida became the 27th state in the Union.

Boredom

Some time or other boredom may occupy your mind. Today that happened to me. So I began to think (always a dangerous thing) about breathing. Yep, breathing. At the same time my bored mind drifted to James Madison, probably due to reading, "James Madison and the Struggle for the Bill of Rights." So, I wondered about Madison and tried to calculate the possibility that the same molecules that Madison breathed, or at least a couple of them, may now be inside my lungs. Is this possible to calculate? Hmmm. Let's think about this. First one must accept the fact that the Earth's atmosphere contains the same molecules that it did during Madison's lifetime. That is a fact, since everything on the Earth is recycled, even the air. Next, one would have to know how much air there actually is. This is not easy to do, but it can in fact be done. The volume of the Earth is 4 pi r squared. That's about 200 million square miles. The atmosphere is not so easy since it thins out as you go up. But through a little searching I found that the volume of the atmosphere in liters is 5,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 or 5 times 10 to the 21st power. If the capacity of a lung is one liter, then the amount of atmosphere in your lungs is 1/5,000,000,000,000,000,000,000. Now, how many molecules are in that amount of atmosphere? One liter of gas contains 27,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 molecules. So it would be 27,000,000,000,000,000,000,000/5,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 or 5.4. So one Madison breath would be 1/5,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 of the atmosphere. On an average there is the possibility of breathing in 5.4 molecules that Madison breathed out.

Aren't you happy to know this? I am.

See what your mind can do when you are bored.

Music Day

Around the first of each month I plan to say a few words about some of my favorite music and musicians. I have been a jazz fan for many years, going back more years than I care to or can remember. But there will always be the first listen that sticks in my mind.

Back in the day everybody, and I do mean everybody, read Rolling Stone. So, when I read a review about an album, actually a double album, called Emergency by the Tony Williams Lifetime, I bought it. Played it. Hated it, thinking WHAT IS THIS?

Well, some time in '70 or so I picked up a copy of Rolling Stone and read about a new Miles Davis LP called Bitches Brew. So, being curious about this highly praised work, but being totally clueless about jazz in general other than the Tony Williams Lifetime Emergency LP, I bought it. Played it. Hated it, thinking WHAT IS THIS?

To make a long story short, 40 years later I still listen to these two groundbreaking works. First impressions aside, Bitches Brew is and probably always will be my favorite jazz album. It has perhaps gained in stature for me over the years. Jazz fusion's major artists were all part of this classic music: John McLaughlin/Mahavishnu Orchestra, Weather Report with Zawinul and Wayne Shorter, Chick Corea/Return to Forever, Dave Holland, Jack DeJohnette, Bennie Maupin. Years later my interest was renewed when I heard Bobby Previte and his band "The Horse" playing Bitches Brew, similar to the original but with a modern edge to it. It had been a few years since I listened through to all these great compositions, but to me they sound as fresh as when I first hated then loved them.

Now there is a Tony Williams Lifetime Tribute band with Vernon Reid, Cindy Blacman, John Medeski and Jack Bruce. Bruce was a member of the original band, and appears on the second Lifetime LP, Turn It Over.

It's good to know this music is still around and appreciated by fans like myself. Too bad that Miles and Tony aren't around any more.