"Why would I want a leprechaun ice sculpture? I'm not even Irish."

"Why would I want a leprechaun ice sculpture? I'm not even Irish."

-Tess Coleman, Freaky Friday (2003)

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Yes, like Tess Coleman (Jamie Lee Curtis), I'm not even Irish, but sadly, that quote was the first thing that popped into my mind this morning.

So I have a few questions I'm going to research today about St. Patrick's Day--to enlighten myself and any other readers out there in the world today.

Who was St. Patrick?

-Born in Roman Britain in the 5th century

-Kidnapped by Irish raiders and taken to Ireland as a slave at 16

-Told by God to flee from slavery to the coast and sail back to Britain

-Once home, joined Church of Auxerre in Gaul and studied to be a priest

-Returned to Ireland, as a bishop, to save the Irish

-Converted all classes of society

-Endured as the principal champion of Irish Christianity

Why March 17th?

-March 17th was the date of St. Patrick's death (461 a.d.).

Why the shamrock?

-Folklore claims that he used the shamrock to explain the Trinity (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) to the Irish.

Why green?
-Prior to the 17th century, the color associated with St. Patrick was blue.
-Green ribbons and shamrocks became typical attire on St. Patrick's day in the 1600s.

-In the Irish Rebellion of 1798, on March 17th, Irish soldiers docked out in full green to make a political statement.
-"The wearing of green" means to wear a shamrock on one's clothing

Why corned beef and cabbage?

-Cabbage has always been an essential of Irish diet, but it was traditionally served with Irish bacon.

-Irish immigrants coming to America substituted corned beef for bacon (because it was cheaper).

-They learned about corned beef from the Jewish people.

-St. Patrick's Day was created also as a break from the 40 day fasting period of Lent; thus, they indulged in meat and alcohol.

And where did leprechauns and their pots of gold at the end of rainbows come from?!

-Probably came from ancient Irish "lobaircins," meaning "small-bodied fellow."

-Stemmed from believing in fairies (Celtic folklore)

-Lobaircin were cranky cobbler fairies.

-They were mischevious and deceitful, using trickery to guard their treasure.

The end.

***

Oh yeah, totally unrelated, but the pi song composed for violin by Steven C. Rochen that I mentioned in my blog on 3/14/2010 came in the mail today!! I was very excited and did not expect such a nice copy of the song, professionally published, and mailed to my house--all for free! I can't wait to play it!!

DST Rant

DST - Daylight Savings Time.

For most, all it means is gaining an hour of sleep in the fall and losing it in the spring.

In this day and age, however, the original reason for suggesting DST no longer makes sense.

Let's begin by jumping back to the source of the problem in France, 1784. At this time, the man famous for saying "Early to bed, and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise" -- yes, Benjamin Franklin -- suggested that, to reduce the use of candles, people should awaken earlier and make use of the natural sunlight.

However, modern DST wasn't even suggested until 1895 (by New Zealand entomologist George Vernon Hudson) and wasn't put into use until 1916. In 1916, Germany and its allies and occupancies in World War I used Daylight Savings Time to conserve coal. Britain, its allies, and neutral states followed shortly, as did Russia a year later. By 1918, the United States had accepted DST as well.

But is it really worthwhile today? DST was created to conserve energy, primarily household lighting. Nonetheless, household lighting only consumes 3.5% of U.S. and Canadian electricity. (This may seem significant, but think about how many people this includes, 307,006,550 in the U.S. and 33,311,389 in Canada -- for a total of 340,317,939 people!)

Some studies...
-The U.S. Dept. of Transportation (DOT) concluded in 1975 that DST might reduce the country's electricity usage by 1% during March and April, but the National Bureau of Standards (NBS) reviewed the DOT study in 1976 and found no significant savings.
-Although a 2007 study estimated that introducing DST to Japan would reduce household lighting energy consumption, a 2007 simulation estimated that DST would increase overall energy use in Osaka residences by 0.13%, with a 0.02% decrease due to less lighting more than outweighed by a 0.15% increase due to extra cooling; neither study examined non-residential energy use. DST's effect on lighting energy use is noticeable mainly in residences.
-A 2007 study found that the earlier start to DST that year had little or no effect on electricity consumption in California.
-A 2008 study examined billing data in Indiana before and after it adopted DST in 2006, and concluded that DST increased residential electricity consumption by 1% to 4%, primarily due to extra afternoon cooling.
-The U.S. Dept. of Energy (DOE) concluded in a 2008 report that the 2007 U.S. extension of DST saved 0.5% of electricity usage during the extended period. This report analyzed only the extension, not the full eight months of daylight saving, and did not examine the use of heating fuels.

All in all, I have two beliefs that maintain my belief that DST is now outdated:
1) If people don't use electricity in the evening, they'll use it in the morning.
2) If people are up and about more during the summer, they'll spend more money on cooling.

Maybe it's just my lack of an extra hour on my already sleep-deprived body, but Daylight Savings Time is really no longer beneficial to present-day America.

π day! (3.14)

HAPPY PI DAY! (March 14th = 3.14)

Yes, besides being a music enthusiast, I am also a math eccentric, especially for irrational numbers... like Pi! In fact, I am a proud owner of a Pi t-shirt. I was so happy to wake up to see Google's new logo for Pi Day!

Now for some Pi facts:

-Not only is today Pi Day, but it is also Albert Einstein's birthday.

-Most ways of celebrating Pi Day include eating pie and discussing it.

-The first Pi Day celebration was held in 1988 at the San Francisco Exploratorium.

-The founder of Pi Day was Larry Shaw, a now-retired physicist at the Exploratorium who still helps out with the celebrations.

-MIT mails its acceptance letters on Pi Day.

-On 12 March 2009, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a non-binding resolution (HRES 224), recognizing March 14 as National Pi Day.

-Akira Haraguchi, a Japanese mental health counselor recited pi to 100,000 decimal places from memory in 2006. It took him over 16 hours.

-As of January 2010, the record of computed digits, aided by a supercomputer, is almost 2.7 trillion digits.

-The "π" constant is so named because "π" is the first letter of the Greek words περιφέρεια (periphery) and περίμετρος (perimeter), probably referring to its use in the formula to find the circumference, or perimeter, of a circle.

...and perhaps my favorite.

-One man composed a song, "Piece of Pi" that uses the first 220 digits of pi and converts them, using a formula to a violin solo!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whG11u457fo

Well, hopefully you learned something about Pi today, so while I go make my celebratory peanut butter pie, get memorizing those digits!

3.

14159265358979323846264338327950288419716939937510

58209749445923078164062862089986280348253421170679

82148086513282306647093844609550582231725359408128

48111745028410270193852110555964462294895493038196

44288109756659334461284756482337867831652712019091...

The Meaning Behind the Name

The Meaning Behind the Name.

I came across this idea to blog on while eating my bologna and cheese sandwich with spicy mustard. Why? Because bologna AND sandwich are eponyms. (An eponym is a name of something, after which something else is is named or thought to be named.) Bologna is the capital city of Emilia-Romagna in Northern Italy. It was in this city that the original bologna sausage was made. Likewise, sandwiches were named after John Montagu, the 4th Earl of Sandwich. One day, he ordered his valet to bring him meat tucked between two pieces of bread. The Earl liked this kind of food because he wouldn't be impeded by greasy hands while playing cards. (Unfortunately, my bologna sandwiches don't look near as lucious as the one in the picture.)

I've always found word origins fascinating, and as I mentioned earlier, it is the inspiration for today's blog.

So what's the meaning behind the name of my blog, "the perfect fifth"?

Honestly, it's just my favorite musical interval. Its tone is immaculate. And, being a string player, it is crucial to have perfect pitch, especially for a fifth. This concept my persnickety violin and I have been battling out for many years, but we'll make it through... eventually.

So what's special about the perfect fifth?

It is the most consonant (stable) tone than any other interval, except unisons and octaves and occurs in all major and minor chords and triads. In fact, it was the first accepted harmony in early musical composition. Also, for non-music-y people, it's not hard to recognize. The first jump in pitch in Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star is a perfect fifth.

All in all, after pondering a name for my blog for about an hour yesterday, I finally settled on "the perfect fifth."

"I could write a blog. I have thoughts."

"I could write a blog. I have thoughts."
-Julie Powell from Julie & Julia

And believe it or not,
So can I.

I have no idea where it will start.
Nor where it will end.

So here it goes.
Welcome to my world!