Thursday 6 June 2013

Thursday.


Very brief blog:- went to Felixstowe today and had lunch at the Orwell Hotel. Afterwards saw the above sign on the front of the hotel. Loved it! Sort of knew what they meant - I think. Live music as opposed to canned music. In this case they boasted a live pianist as opposed to a .............

26 comments:

Sir Bruin said...

If it is the same guy as they had a few years ago, I think there may be a trading standards issue.......

Rog said...

I'm more incensed about lack of apostrophe....

Unknown said...

Hello Sir Bruin. If the issue is whether the pianist is alive or dead surely a simple medical test would settle the matter beyond doubt? Or, if he's that bad, you could defy the placards in old Westerns "Don't shoot the pianist- he's doing his best" and shoot the pianist anyway, and that WOULD place the matter beyond question.

Unknown said...

Think I agree Rog. You'd expect a decent, old fashioned, county hotel to know better than that.

Sir Bruin said...

If the pianist were placed in a box, he could be deemed to be both alive and dead until the box were opened.

Crowbard said...

Schrödinger's pianist would certainly be easier to detect if he was still present when the box was opened. But I can't think it would resolve the issues of quantum theory as effectively as the CERN accelerators. But it would be considerably cheaper!
Nice thought Sir Bruin.

Unknown said...

I think one of the two last commenters will have to do a little explaining here. I got lost somewhere.

Unknown said...

P.S. Please.

Sir Bruin said...

Schrodinger's cat was a thought experiment, as Crowbard says, it is to do with quantum theory. The cat was placed in a box with some poison that would be released by a random event. Therefore, contrary to logic, the cat would exist in a live or a dead state simultaneously until the box was opened. At that point, the state of the cat would collapse into one or the other states. Apparently, sub atomic particles behave in a similar manner. Hope this helps. Suggest further reading on the subject would be an effective antidote to insomnia.

Unknown said...

Thank you Steve. Only really understood the last sentence and I thoroughly agree with that.

Crowbard said...

I think this raises issues of faith Sir Bruin, if you believe in universal causality (as suggested by the possibility of an event causing the release of poison) then this raises the question 'Can there be a random event?' since events can only originate from a cause produced by preceding events.
Perhaps the answer lies in the possibility of intermittent logical causality interspersed randomly with 95.147% dark philosophy as our 'normal' universe is interspersed with a similar proportion of dark energy & matter?
PS. this may be a random ramble or a causative event or a load of rose and rhubarb fodder.

Sir Bruin said...

Ah, we seem to have hijacked Mike's post and digressed a little from the subject of lunchtime events. However, perhaps my use of the word "random" was slightly incorrect. I take your point that every event is the result of a preceding one. This, ultimately, takes us to the question of the first event. I suggest that that is a topic for another day. The method of dispensing the poison the cat was an arrangement that was triggered by a radioactive particle (such as occur naturally) striking a sensor. The "random" element of this is the fact that it was impossible to predict whether or not this would happen within the time frame of the experiment. Many apologies Mike, you can have your post back now.

Unknown said...

Gee Thanks, Steve. Do remind me never to introduce you to my younger brother. I couldn't achieve the intellectual level of the conversation or generally stand the pace!!!!!

Sir Bruin said...

I wouldn't worry, Mike. We'd probably just baffle each other with that bull stuff.

Crowbard said...

I concede your point Sir Bruin, we quite reasonably use the word 'random' when we mean 'unpredictable in our present state of knowledge'. I'm just glad the pianist didn't die of radiation sickness, cooped up in that box with a chunk of polonium-210 and a censor... Was the censor a music critic by any chance? I'll shut up now Mike, promise; as soon as I've said sorry to you and your readers. Sorry!

Unknown said...

Thank you Carl. Perhaps I will introduce you to Steve eventually; but a while after that I'll probably turn me hearing aids off if things get too much for me.

Unknown said...

P.s. Crowbard, sorry to have to remind you, but you've forgotten something :- not only was the Felixstowe fellow (the pianist) shut up in the box with a chunk of polony(or was it boloney) and a censor, but he also had a piano and Herr Shrewdinger's cat for company, and almost certainly a group of Austrian loony doctors listening at the keyhole of the box to hear if the cat was still playing the piano. I apologise to both you and Sir Bruin, but I suspended belief some comments ago. From now on any scientific subjects discussed on this blog will be limited to gun locks and clock movements. Cats and pianos indeed !!!!!!!
Taradiddle!!! as cousin Robert would have put it.

Unknown said...

P.p.s. You must think I'm in me dotage! Which I may well be, but there are limits to how far we may go, and you have jolly well gone them!

Unknown said...

P.P.S. Dear Crowbar - word of warning- Ann has just read this and says that neither of us sounds at all ill physically. (The way she stressed the last word- and remember her medical training- means that she now has doubts about our mental capacity - I think. In view of this, do try, the next time we all meet up, to sound reasonably compos mentis.

Z said...

What a brilliant comment stream, I've been chortling away happily.

Crowbard, not sure how far away you live, but you'd be most welcome at my blog party at the end of the month, and then you'd meet Rog and Sir B (and their other halves) in person. I'm a very poor pianist, so you could always shut me in a box and take me out at the end of the do to check whether I'm alive or not (though I'd prefer the poison was left out of the set-up).

Unknown said...

Thank you Z.
I think that if I were shut up in a box with Herr Shrewdinger, his cat, a piano, plus Crowbar and Sir Bruin (all in philosophical mood), I think I might feel a little happier to have the hemlock there just in case.

Crowbard said...

Bless you Z,
Thank ye most kindly for your invite, I sincerely regret I'm rather like an old claret, a bit cloudy at times and I don't travel. I only put in the contentious comments to keep Mike's blood pressure up to speed. As for Ann, she clocked that I was as loony as a dingbat half a century since - and I have the highest respect for her medical acuity.
I like your idea for party games, Blind Piano-Man's Jill-in-a-box, but all the bets would be on your survival - you have a very lively personality! There! Now you've gone and made me break my promise to shut up!
~(;¬o}>

Unknown said...

Ref your last paragraph, Crowbard- it was only a matter of time, dear boy.

Pat said...

Sounds a good outing - more expensive than Minehead but you did have the pianist - and he was alive.

Unknown said...

Hello Pat. Glad to hear that Minehead is still affordable as we were thinking of spending a day or so in your area, when the Doctor will allow me to travel.
Yes, our day out in Felixstowe was very pleasant.

stigofthedump said...

I like cats (and pianists).
Pa - as it is getting late (apologies, late supper) I will call you tomorrow re the cross word.
Love you
Stig
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