Saturday Rave: the sound-writing.

 One hundred and forty five years ago today, Eddison patented the phonograph. He wasn't the first person to make a machine that recorded sound or played it back, but he was the first to make a device that did both.

It was an invention would make the world at once a smaller, and a infinitely more varied, surprising, and delightful, place.

Mr Putin, the president of Russia, is not currently making the world a more delightful place,* but here's something to remind us that Russia is a wonderful country, full of people just like the rest of us - brave, generous, and loving enough to live their lives quite happily without hurting other people.

(That's Rimsky-Korsakov's The Young Prince and Princess from the Scheherazade Suite.)

Here's to the phonograph and all its technical descendants, and to the beauty of all the peoples of the world.

Word To Use Today: brother. This Old English version of this word was brōthor. It goes right back to the Sanskrit bhārtar. 

*Actually, I can't say that I've ever noticed much sign of his even wanting to make the world a more delightful place.