Via (always awesome) Follow Me Here, a nifty article on the acoustics of concert hall design. Creating a large space suitable for classical performances of all kinds is a task that seems more of an art than science. The career-denting tale of Beranek’s failure at Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall is told. During my tour of Lincoln Center (that would be a regular tourist type tour, not, alas, a concert tour), the guide explained how the hall was encapsulated away from the outer walls so that street noise would not penetrate. And she also described the various solutions they had tried in their attempts to fix the acoustical problems, one of which was a set of “clouds” hanging from the ceiling. Controlling reverberation is the key to a good hall design. At MIT’s Kresge Auditorium, they have a system of microphones hanging from the ceiling on long cords above the orchestra. The microphones were spaced only a few feet apart and there were a lot of them. And we often set them swaying back and forth with an accidental (usually!) whack of a violin bow. The sound gathered by the mikes was played back on a slight delay to create an artificial reverb. Supposedly it worked quite well, but I haven’t been in the audience for a concert to hear it myself. I just remember thinking “it figures that MIT used an electronic solution.”

Does this ring any bells? “Now you know my name is Simon, and the things I draw come true.” And no, I’m not talking about the Saturday Night Live parody with Mike Myers in the bathtub. “Simon in the Land of Chalk Drawings” was first shown in the U.S. on Captain Kangaroo. I’ve had the theme song stuck in my head on and off for 25 or so years. Simon would draw people and other things on his special blackboard and then climb over the garden wall and interact with what he had drawn. Simon himself was animated, but he looked more 3-D than the characters he drew himself. Plus they were more chalky looking. Over the years, Simon and Harold (he of the purple crayon) got a little mixed up in my head, but the theme song stayed true to Simon.

Bay Area residents take note: the Palo Alto Square Theatre has received an eviction notice from their landlord, Equity Office Properties. This is the theatre on the corner of El Camino Real and Page Mill which shows excellent non-mainstream films (and is currently showing the almost mainstream “Crouching Tiger..”). Equity tried to evict the theatre in 1996, but the public fought back successfully. They have been in a month-to-month situation since then. The theatre is one of the most successful in the Landmark chain. According to the Landmark Northern California district manager: “There’s not a theater in the United States that pays market rate for rents. Landlords either want to be in the movie theater business and contribute to the culture of the country or they want to make a buck.” The complex is zoned for a theatre, so I don’t know how Equity plans to get more money by evicting a paying business and letting the site sit idle. Surely they weren’t losing money on it? Are they going to replace it with a higher grossing chain? Or battle the zoning and try for office space? Have they seen all those “for lease” signs appearing up and down El Camino Real? A Save the Square web site has been set up where patrons are encouraged to send their comments to Equity.

Seth has photographed a very Silicon Valley bird. Yes, if I were a nesting bird, I’d find a coil of coax to be the perfect shape for a nest. I wish I had a photo of the bird’s nest I saw in a traffic light.

Rule 240 is an important term for airline travelers to familiarize themselves with. It defines what rights a passenger has when delays and cancellations occur. And these days it seems delays are inevitable. Prior to deregulation, Rule 240 was a federal requirement, nowadays airlines keep it as a good business practice. However, it’s up to the passenger to know what he or she is entitled to, since the frazzled airline agent might not be forthcoming with help unless you mention the magic words. Each airline has their own version, but in general you may be entitled to rebooking (on another airline if necessary), meals, hotel rooms, and phone calls if your flight delays were the fault of the airline. Unfortunately, weather and strikes do not qualify. But most of the recent delays I’ve encountered have been classified as “mechanical problems” which were actually the result of mechanics “slow downs”, so those would probably qualify. OneTravel.com has even more airline specific details in their Rules of the Air section.

Who makes fire engines? You can’t just run down to the Chevy dealer, pick between red & yellow, choose a tank capacity and then finance it with GMAC. Or can you? Every community needs fire engines, tankers, pumpers, hook & ladder trucks, rescue vehicles, and so on. There are fire fighting museums and web pages devoted to antique fire trucks. But where do new ones come from? American LaFrance Corporation. Digging a little deeper, I found, as I semi-sadly often do, that it is a small part of a much bigger deal: DaimlerChrysler. Strictly speaking, it is a subsidiary of FreightLiner, LLC, which is in turn a “DaimlerChrysler company”. American LaFrance is headquartered in Cleveland, North Carolina and has ten manufacturing facilities. They offer free training courses (with purchase!), including “the science of magnetism“. And they list their most recent deliveries on their website. The company started in 1832, making hand-pumped fire engines, went onto steam fire innovations (“We guarantee 80 pounds of steam in five minutes from cold water.”), survived a monopoly restructuring in the 1890s and became the industry leader. So, no you can’t just waltz down the street to get a fire engine, but it appears that you can finance one with DaimlerChrysler Financial Services. Which leads me to wonder: how much do these things cost?

Why didn’t someone think of this sooner? Or maybe they did. Pledge Grab-it Mitts look so very handy! You wear them on your hand and dust dust dust. More control, more fun, less dust in those nooks and corners! These are throwaways, though. I suppose I can take my reusable dust attracting cloths and sew them into gloves. Then I can have washable dusting gloves. Hmmm. Perhaps I can sell those and make my millions.

One of Powell’s current Great Deals is the trade paper edition of “Cryptonomicon” by Neal Stephenson for $6.98. Not bad, considering they list a used copy for $10.95. I’m still kicking around a hardcover copy in the stacks by my bed and I was surprised to find that it’s worth in the ballpark of $70. Powell’s is listing a first edition, first printing, standard condition hardcover at that price. I’ve verified that the one we have matches those parameters. That means this book has increased in value more than certain stock purchases made in the same timeframe. Eeek! For a contemporary (modern? current?) author, Neal Stephenson seems to have pretty decent resell value on recent first editions. Alibris has a useful article: “Identifying First Editions for Beginners”.

I couldn’t figure out what was making me feel uncomfortable about Williams-Sonoma’s current seasonal color, jadite green. Then I suddenly realized — it’s the Martha Stewart-ubiquitous green! (I actually own a lot of light green things … it happens to match my carpet. Which came with the condo. Maybe a Martha or green glass fan used to live here.)

I have a bookmark folder for home and kitchen websites and the list keeps getting smaller. I just noticed that Tavolo.com now redirects to a section in OurHouse.com. I missed the December acquisition announcement.