The Saunterer

Victor F. Weisskopf on asking stupid questions

    Asking stupid questions is a way of getting at the depth of things, Victor F. Weisskopf explains:

    But there was one older physicist who made a greater impression on me than any of the others and shaped my attitudes toward physics: He was P. Ehrenfest . . . [and he] taught me for the first time to distrust the complicated mathematics and formalisms that were then very popular in Göttingen. He loved to ask, and encouraged others to ask, “stupid” questions; he refused to admit that something is understood if one understands only the mathematical derivation. He showed me how to get at the real physics, how to distinguish between physics and formalism, how to get at the depth of things: “Physics is simple, but subtle,” he used to say. The older I get, the more aware I am of his influence.

    (Quoted from page 331 of The Life of the Creative Spirit, by H. Charles Romesburg. Xlibris, 2001.)
    For a brief biography of Victor F. Weisskopf, click here. For images of or relating to Victor F. Weisskopf, click here.

William Wordsworth on thinking and theorizing about beauty

    Don’t is Wordsworth’s advice:

    Our meddling intellect
    Misshapes the beauteous form of things—
    We murder to dissect.

                Wordsworth, “The Tables Turned”

    For a brief biography of William Wordsworth, click here. For images of or relating to William Wordsworth, click here.

Louise Bourgeois’ test of being

    René Descartes’s test was "I think, therefore I am." We like Louise Bourgeois’ better:

    I am what I do.

    (Quoted from page 200 of The Life of the Creative Spirit, by H. Charles Romesburg. Xlibris, 2001.)

    For a brief biography of Louise Bourgeois, click here. For images of or relating to Louise Bourgeois, click here.

Bryan Cranston on what “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance” taught him

    When he was twenty, Bryan Cranston read Robert Pirsig’s book, “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.” Recently he read it, with half a lifetime behind him. “I didn’t know it then,” he says, “but I was ripe to receive what the book has to offer,” which he sums up as:

    Many times I felt the narrator was speaking to me personally: Get your head straight. One of the characters didn’t really want to learn how to repair his motorcycle; he just wanted the bike to work so he could ride. Reward without the work. That was me too. I recognized myself, and knew I had to change. And although I couldn’t articulate it then, the lesson—that work has the power to transform and lift you up—underpins the meritocracy that I fully believe in today.

    (Quoted from page 14 of the December 25, 2016, The New York Times Book Review.)
    For a brief biography of Bryan Cranston, click here. For images of or relating to Bryan Cranston, click here.

Marcus Tullius Cicero on libraries

    Cicero’s remark on the importance of having a library could double for the definition of the word “soul”:

    To add a library to a house is to give that house a soul.

    (Quoted from page 82 of the North Carolina Library Bulletin, Vol. 3, Dec. 1915—Sept. 1918.)
    For a brief biography of Cicero, click here. For images of or relating to Cicero, click here.

Corey Mead on the glass armonica

    About Benjamin Franklin, player and devotee of the glass armonica, Corey Mead writes:

    Eventually Franklin’s instrument fell out of popular favor, partly due to claims that its haunting sounds could drive musicians out of their minds. Some players fell ill, complaining of nervousness, muscle spasm, and crams. Audiences were also susceptible; following an incident in Germany in which a child died during an armonica performance, the instrument was even banned in several rural towns. Some people thought the instrument’s ethereal tones summoned the spirits of the dead, or had magical powers. Franklin himself ignored this controversy, but the armonica never regained its early status as one of the eighteenth century’s most celebrated instruments.

    (Quoted from page xxiii of Angelic Music: The Story of Benjamin Franklin’s Glass Armonica, by Corey Mead. Simon & Schuster, 2016.)

    FOR SOMETHING WONDERFULLY DIFFERENT— HEAR "DANCE OF THE SUGAR PLUM FAIRY” PLAYED ON THE GLASS ARMONICA BY CLICKING HERE.

    For a brief biography of Corey Mead, click here. For images of or relating to Corey Mead, click here.

George J. Annas on the story of Prometheus

    The story of Prometheus has a real basis which today threatens to play out in many levels of decision making, such as that of the problem of climate change caused by overpopulation. In an article reviewing the book Modern Prometheus by Jim Kozubek, about the novel gene-editing technology named CRISPR, George J. Annas summarizes the story:

    Modern Prometheus references the subtitle of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, which cogently tells the story of a scientist who is incapable of controlling his creation: a humanoid life-form brought into being through artificial means. Prometheus—the mythological Greek Titan—brought useful arts to humankind but could not prevent his brother’s wife, Pandora, from opening a present from vengeful Zeus. Pandora unleashed Zeus’ “gifts,” including sickness, insanity, old age, vice, and passion.

    (Quoted from “The mythology of CRISPR,” by George J. Annas. Science, 14 October 2016, page 189.)
    For a brief biography of George J. Annas, click here. For images of or relating George J. Annas, click here.

Albert Schweitzer on the purpose of reverence for life

    He tells us:

    The idea of spiritual solidarity with the world through reverence for life is the goal of everything I write and do.

    (Quoted from page 323 of The Life of the Creative Spirit, by H. Charles Romesburg. Xlibris, 2001.)

    For a brief biography of Albert Schweitzer, click here. For images of or relating to Albert Schweitzer, click here.

John Powell on how lyrics and the music they are set to affect emotions

    As John Powell points out, the effects of the two can sometimes run oppositely:

    The power of lyrics to alter our response to a tune was demonstrated in an experiment carried out in 1994 by the psychologists Valerie Stratton and Annette Zalanowski, who played the song “Why Was I Born?” (written by Oscar Hammerstein and Jerome Kern in the 1920s) to two groups of listeners. When the tuneful, pleasant music was played by itself, it cheered people up, but when the lyrics (a sad refrain about unrequited love) were included, it had the opposite effect.

    (Quoted from page 21 of Why You Love Music by John Powell. Little, Brown and Company, 2016.)

    To hear Helen Morgan singing “Why Was I Born?” click here.

    For a brief biography of John Powell, click here. For images of or relating to John Powell, click here.

Andrés Segovia on the similarity between the guitar and the dog

    Andrés Segovia has suggested this light-hearted comparison:

    It is amusing to recall the many bizarre forms and changing number of strings which this long-suffering instrument has been forced to endure. Once I said jokingly that the guitar and the dog, in order not to be separated from man, have submitted themselves with resignation to the worst alterations of size and appearance. A whole scale of dimensions has been imposed upon the faithful animal, from the tiny dogs which ladies carry in their muffs, to the powerful Saint Bernard. Similarly, from the small ukelele of four strings to the swollen guitar of comic equatorial latitude to which have been added four thick tongues, in no way resulting in a more melodious, robust and eloquent voice.

    (Quoted from page 3 of “More Strings?” by Andrés Segovia. The Guitar Review, Summer 1974; published by The Society of the Classical Guitar.)

    To watch and hear Andrés Segovia playing Asturias, click here.

    For a brief biography of Andrés Segovia, click here. For images of or relating to Andrés Segovia, click here.