But no, unsurprisingly in a Scientific American article it’s a legit use of the word.

I did not know that.

As you can see, I have my online access back.

Yesterday was my 61st birthday and it was a good day.

I was happy to discover that my favorite Michigan mustard

is being carried by a local shop, The Shaker Messenger.

I had ordered it from Traverse City through the mail previously having discovered it at Zingerman’s in Ann Arbor. Yesterday I had decided that the S & H was too expensive and poked around and found that The Shaker Messenger carried it. They also stock lots of local goods. Eileen and I will return to spend money in the future!

I returned to the French Baroque yesterday and rediscovered the pleasures of playing Couperin. I miss my harpsichord literature. The interpretation is very similar in the organ works from the period. After listening to some recordings, I found some ways to register these pieces on my very small inferior organ that I can stand. Cool Beans.

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Correcting Creativity: The Struggle for Eminence | Guest Blog, Scientific American Blog Network

Here’s a link. The picture of it above is linked but just in case you didn’t notice I thought I would put it here as well.

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Glen Doherty, Killed in Libya, Led Life of Risks Overseas – NYTimes.com

Tragic loss.

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More Soot Than Sparks From Amazon’s Kindle Fire HD – Review – NYTimes.com

I thought this comparison in this article was interesting:

Fire still lags the iPad in Web browsing. It took my Fire one second longer than the iPad to pull up nytimes.com or ESPN.com (seven seconds versus six), four seconds longer for People.com, three seconds longer for Cracked.com — and, amusingly, 1.5 seconds longer to pull up Amazon.com.

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Google Blocks Inflammatory Video in Egypt and Libya – NYTimes.com

Man o man. Companies are the new governments and not in a good way.

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The iPhone Stimulus – NYTimes.com

Another argument for lack of demand not supply as the driving force in keeping the economy slow.

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In Libya and Elsewhere, Our Diplomats Deserve Better – NYTimes.com

An inside look from a former U.S. ambassador to Kenya and Guatemala.

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I then took a job in Fenton Michigan at Roman Catholic Parish which paid a bit more and worshiped in a converted Gymnasiam (with a lowered tiled absorbent ceiling) and had what was basically a electronically simulated theater organ as its main organ.

That was one of the worst instruments I had to use. Friends told me that in the U of M organ department I was known as the organist who played in a gymn. Nice.

When I worked here in Holland at Our Lady of the Lake for many years, I presided over the purchase of an excellent used grand Bösendorfer piano. This was (and still is) a very fine piano and inspired me to learn and perform piano literature at Mass.

Yesterday after rehearsing all my upcoming organ music, I still had a bit of energy left and turned to a French Baroque composer whose music I have purchased but not performed: Nicholas LeBegue.

I played through his entire Suite on the First Tone. Here is a fine recording on YouTube of it.

This player is playing this organ:

This instrument hails from 1746 according to the YouTube info. There is a link to a cool web site about it and upcoming concerts.

LeBegue died in 1702, but his tradition (the French Baroque) extended for at least another fifty or seventy five years.

I love this music. When I studied with Ray Ferguson, he made sure I learned how to play the music of Louie Couperin, Francois Couperin, Daquin, and many others.

He himself studied with Marie Clair Alain, Kenneth Gilbert and other big kids.

I heard Gilbert play and lecture and was very impressed.

Yesterday, I played through this same suite then came home and listened to a (different) recording.

This led me to think about my Facebook “friend”‘s comment. He is probably right to some extent. But I am unfortunately under the influence of hearing a religious story told by my Dad to a congregation when I was a kid. It was something about a man trying to auction off a violin that was old and in bad shape.

No one was interested in it. Then an old man came up and gently picked it up and played. His playing was transforming. The audience was rapt.

After he put it down, the auctioneer said something like “Now who wants to open the bidding on this instrument?” And of course the bidding began.

Dad’s punch line was predictably that the instrument had been transformed “by the hand of the master.” I seem to remember another of the zillion altar calls of my youth followed.

Goofy story. Nevertheless it is lodged in my brain. And I am influenced to adapt excellent music to inferior instruments trying to recreate them without the available sounds you can hear in the YouTube above.

I don’t regret that.