Miscellany

Random thoughts and trivial concerns:

Ever listen to a commercial (I’m sure you have) where the advertised stuff is claimed to perform better than the leading brand? Ever wonder why is it still the “leading brand”? Then, there is a product which has been “clinically proven”. What does that mean? When I was a kid, a clinic was a place where poor people could see a doctor.  What is it now?  Where is the study data? How was it measured? Does it even exist?? Would some advertiser lie about something like this? Ya think?

Back in the day (I mean, waaaay back when I was in high school), I took lessons on the piano accordion.  Both my mother and my Uncle Alfred were talented musicians (indeed Uncle Al was trained on the piano, and taught himself to play the accordion).  I even got to play a few gigs for ethnic French dances after the war.  My uncle taught me some valuable insights: There are musicians, and there are technicians.  A technician can be taught to play competently, but largely devoid of emotion.  A musician, on the other hand, tries his/her best to get into the songwriter’s head, and to play the piece with feeling.  Another tip: I complained to him once that cigarette smoke gave me headaches during gigs.  His solution? Light up at the beginning of the night and chain smoke at least a couple.  Inhale, the whole bit.  It worked like a charm! 

I still have a few copies of sheet music of these old hits.  I’m talking stuff from the 1930’s.  Does anybody still use sheet music? I learned how to read music (for the accordion, which is not quite the same as piano), but, for the most part, I played by ear, so to speak.  Among God’s many gifts to me, I have my mother’s and uncle’s ear for music.  In my salad days, my favorite phrase was “hum a few bars and I’ll fake it”.  For what it’s worth, for my money, the 1930’s were the golden days of popular music. 

I knew a few musicians who got prosecuted (persecuted?) for compilation of “fake books”.  These were collections of sheet music assembled without approval (and payment of fees, more to the point).  Your FBI in Peace and War,  Don’t the feebs have more pressing things to do? 

Oh, by the way, many of these pharma ads promise that the product is “guaranteed” to do whatever the ad says, promises, etc. etc.  What does this mean, anyhow? Do you get your money back? Who returns it? This is not limited to drug ads, BTW.  Just saying.

Just a few items I have wanted to get off my chest, so to speak, while I still can.