Once again, coninkidinks, (Jimmy Durante lives still) point the way to today's entry. Coincidences, you say? I think not! When the Fates and the Muses speak, one must listen or pay the consequences. For today, it is trying to learn to play the guitar. Johnny (http://annoiato.blogstream.com/) has Roy Orbison and “friends” in the “Black and White Nights” version of “Pretty Woman”.

Hawk (http://isntlifestrange.blogstream.com/) has a video guitar lesson, Santana, and Chet Atkins. A couple of comments have been from bloggers learning it.

At an advanced age (at this age I do not know if I am advancing or not), learning a musical instrument is a lengthy process. Helps keep the Alzheimer's away, however. I can follow the written notes – slowly. And a couple of the easy chords. One problem is that the strings are wire and they are pretty tight. Holding it down to get a decent tone really cuts into my sof' finger tips. They are getting better. And then I ran across a chord where it says to hold down a bunch of the strings at a time with one finger across them. Now it is not the finger tip but the whole &%(*# finger that has to get hardened up!

The chord is an F chord. It is the first chord in a song I found along sith “Detour” in a bunch of old sheet music. “Three Little Fishes”:

Some really neat kids doing it:

A stage act including it:

Itty Bitty Poo:

Determned to do it, however. But don't look for me on YouTube. And in time, I , too, can be Santana or Chet. But, time is the problem.

Thanks to the Encyclopedia Britannica thingy on my Yahoo home page, it came to be known that today is Tycho Brahe's birthday, 14 December, 1546. That would make him ............well, really old. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tycho_Brahe)

The chain of events that led to the overthrow of the Ptolemaic, Earth centered universe, has always fascinated me. Kepler (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kepler) and Brahe pretty much started the revolution. Continued by Copernicus (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copernicus) and Galileo (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galileo), and others. And, now we know that not even Sol is the center.

And Brahe might very well be the most interesting of them all. A Danish nobleman ( my wife is half Danish so that gives him a good head start in my book), Brahe noted the great differences in astronomical measurements at the time. He constructed several observatories, 1500's, pretelescope, style, to try to get more accurate and precise values. He and his assitant, Kepler, noted that things did not seem as they should and that the only way to make them work out was to make the sun the center. Brahe was more the measurer and Kepler the geometrician.

As a student at the University of Copehagen, he got into an enebriated rapier fight (Brahe was enebriated, not the rapier) and got his nose pretty much cut off. “For the rest of his life, he was said to have worn a replacement made of silver and gold blended into a flesh tone, and used an adhesive balm to keep it attached.” (Wikipedia) Tycho for a period of time had a clairvoyant dwarf and a pet moose. But the poor moose drank too much beer and fell down the stairs and died. The dwarf just stayed under Brahe's table.

Tycho had a good relationship with King Frederick II but disagreed with the new King Christian IV and he and Kepler moved to Poland. He probably died of mercury poisoning. Since he was also a chemist (alchemist), he messed around with mercury salts. But also should have known better. Rumors that Kepler poisoned him (possible but doubtful) and took all his data and equipment (which he did). In physics classes in 2007, we learn Kepler's laws. Not Brahe's Laws.

They don't make Danes the way they used to.

The second entry for today is about a great blog I ran across while I was surfing through the comments at Whit's whittlings (http://bushsyndrome.blogstream.com/). There was a comment by Johnny Pazzesco (http://annoiato.blogstream.com/). Went to his webiste and found a couple of treasures.

One is the embeds he found at YouTube.

Go see all of them on Johnny's blog and at YouTube. They are great.

The second is a link to a new religious movement sweeping the land.The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster (http://www.venganza.org/).

Sign me up. Ready to be touched.

When the Muse strikes, or the finger probes, things need to be said.. So significant that I alsmost did not get my 'maters and dinner plates cut down this morning, chores procrastinated much too long already. Two entries for today. In chronological order.

At about five this morning, got awakened by a real charley horse in my left calf. It still hurts a little at almost noon In these days of miraculous medical advances, why do we still get charley horses? “The exact cause of a leg cramp is not well understood.” (http://orthopedics.about.com/cs/sprainsstrains/a/legcramp.htm) Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charley_horse) (Note the exhaustive research) says they have “many possible causes including hormonal imbalances, dehydration, side effects of medication, or more seriously, diseases such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and neuropathy.They are also a common complaint during pregnancy.” Pregnancy and dehydration are defintiely out. I hope that ALS and neuropathy are out, those are nasty. Certainly not from any kind of physical exercise. I guess that leaves hormonal imbalances. Maybe they signify a change of life. At 71, I am sort of late for that – or middle age crazies although I really feel deprived that I have not had those.

Yesterday, The Oprah held a big rally for Obama's Presidency camapign. The straw that broke the camel's back.

Romney made his speech about being a Mormon. Religious preference is not particularly bothersome. I would not vote for or against a Mormon. Would like to say I would not vote for or against a Moslem. But there is always that subconscious little cave man in the back or my brain that stirs up a lot of dust at things like that. My tribe is better than your tribe. I think I would vote against someone who did not believe in any deity or religion. The problem with Romney's speech and religious beliefs is that he did not go far enough in “separation of church and state.” JFK, TJ, and GW would shiver at his speech.

Huckabee and Fundamentalism. Would not vote for or against a Baptist. How about a Fundamental Baptist? That depends. Does not belive in evolution – that's a killer. A definite NO. It is not religious, it is whether the man is an idjit. And AIDS as God's curse. Another NO. Double idjit.

Now, for Obama and The Oprah. As you might guess, I am not an Oprah fan. An Obama fan? Could be. Would not vote for or against a candidate who is not Caucasian. The problem with Oprah and a lot of blacks I run across is their racism. Why celebrate Martin Luther King Day and not Lincoln Day? Who contributed more to racial freedom? Why teach about George Washington Carver and not George Washington? Why did The Oprah chose another black to endorse? Could be a bunch of reasons but I suspect it is not completely because she likes his plank. If she had endorsed Hillary, would I suspect gender racism? If the election were held today and McCain were not the Republican candidate, think I would vote for Obama. The lesser of a bunch of evils. A website that asked what I believed on a long list of issues said Obama is definitly my candidate. But Oprah did not do him any good in my book.