I came across part of a sentence today that struck me as very interesting. The sentence was part of a description that Thomas Pynchon wrote about a novel published in 1966 by Richard Fariña. Richard Fariña’s book is titled “Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up To Me”. A portion of the sentence that Thomas wrote is, “…coming on like the Hallelujah Chorus done by 200 kazoo players with perfect pitch…”. I love that! What an image it conjures!
How I got there:
I have been listening to several podcasts, one of which is “Freakonomics Radio” by Stephen Dubnar. Stephen Dubnar recently produced a three-part series on his Freakonomics Radio podcast about Adam Smith. Adam Smith was a philosopher who was born in Scotland in 1723 and died in 1790. Listening to these three episodes has made me a bit more aware of and curious about Adam Smith and what he believed, taught and wrote.
Adam Smith’s second, and most famous book is called, “An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations”. I studied economics in college, or more accurately, I attended economics classes, did the homework and passed the tests. As a result of some of that effort, I became familiar, at a very high level, of Adam Smith and how he is regarded as the Father of Economics, and I always thought that the full title of his second book (I didn’t know it was his second book) was just, “The Wealth of Nations.” Yes, I am very ignorant.
I learned that the first book Mr. Smith published is called, “The Theory of Moral Sentiments”. It’s this first book that intrigues me. I’m somewhat lazy, and even though I purchased a copy of the book, I haven’t been able to get myself to read it (yet). But I did find a book that Russell D. Roberts wrote that summarizes Adam Smith’s book. Mr. Roberts’ book is called, “How Adam Smith Can Change Your Life: An Unexpected Guide to Human Nature and Happiness“. I bought the Audible version of this book and started listening to it this week. I also discovered that Mr. Roberts has written several other books and has his own podcast. I’ll be looking into those other books and his podcast (eventually).
In Chapter 4 of Mr. Roberts’ book, he tells the story of Richard and Mimi Fariña. His telling of their story piqued my curiosity, so I did what I am want to do and searched the interwebs for information about Richard and Mimi. I followed all sorts of links as I stumbled through the interwebs. It was this stumbling that lead me to finding Thomas Pynchon’s interesting description. I like the idea of listening to 200 kazoo players with perfect pitch doing their rendition of the Hallelujah Chorus. Would someone work on putting that together?
Thanks to Stephen Dubnar for getting me started on that little journey!
What Finn and Leon thought:
Finn heard the talk about kazoos and asked Leon what a kazoo was. Leon, being the know-it-all that he is, said that a kazoo was a special kind of handle used by firemen for opening fire hydrants. Finn then asked Leon if he could show him a kazoo, so they both went outside to look for a fire hydrant. “Why a fire hydrant?”, asked Finn. Leon, being a little bit bothered by the fact that Finn didn’t understand, told Finn that the firemen always leave a kazoo next to each fire hydrant so that they don’t have to spend a lot of time looking for one, “because firemen are always in a hurry to get a handle on the fire hydrant”, said Leon. “Oh”, said Finn.
I overheard Finn and Leon talking about kazoos and fire hydrants, so I followed them outside. “First, we’ll find a fire hydrant and then we’ll see the kazoo right next to it”, said Leon. “Hallelujah!”, shouted Finn. Well, they did find a fire hydrant, but they didn’t find a kazoo next to it. Disappointed, Finn wondered if the firemen would be mad that the kazoo was missing. Leon admitted that he wondered, too. Then Leon, trying to save face, suggested that the firemen probably forgot and took it with them. “We can only hope”, said Finn.
Finn and Leon noticed me following them outside and asked if I would take their picture in front of the fire hydrant. I said, “sure” and asked them if it would be ok if I posted the picture on Nicolesy‘s community page. I explained to them that Nicolesy was sponsoring a second photo challenge, this one for 2023, called the 52 Photo Challenge, with a different photo topic each week of the year. I then went on to tell them that the first challenge topic was “bokeh“. Finn asked me if bokeh was another type of kazoo, and if so, if firemen could use one to get a handle on the fire hydrant. Leon looked at Finn with mild annoyance and said, “no, it’s not like a kazoo.” He went on to explain that bokeh is what came out of a fire hydrant after the firemen used a kazoo handle. “Oh”, said Finn, “you know a lot of stuff”, he added. Then Finn looked at me and said, “Sorry we don’t have a kazoo for the picture”. “That’s OK”, I said, “there’s plenty of bokeh already”.
The Finn and Leon portion of this post is inspired by Nicolesy’s 52 Photo Challenge topic, “bokeh”.
