Carb-14 Freebies

There appears to be a predictable, asymptotic rate of consumption when free food is left among people who share an office or living space, given the unspoken rule that the person who eats the last bit must be the one to clean the mess up.

Consider: a plate of bagels and a knife is left in the office kitchen. On my first few passes by the kitchen, they appeared to be disappearing rapidly, two or three at a time. Then, for awhile, a lone bagel sat on the massive plate. The next time I walked by, someone had taken the top half. Later, the bottom half, too, had been halved. The resemblance to the half-life of radioactive substances was both startling and amusing.

Knowing this rate of carbohydrate "decay", one could theoretically predict the original number of bagels. Except for that pesky tendency of certain humans with low tolerance for messes who'll grumble to themselves and just clean the damn thing up.

Idle Ponderment

A couple of questions that have broken into my idle or distracted moments:

- Regarding Wikileaks' recent publication of secret diplomatic cables - Has anyone else been struck by the strange lexical anachronism of "sending cables" in today's age of texting, Twitter and posts?

- Why do garlic, onions and coffee smell so delicious, yet produce the most foul breath?

Pithy Bits

I'm a theatre fanatic. Particularly musical theatre. Therefore musings pertinent to the aforementioned will abound.

So, for today: Sweeney Todd by Stephen Sondheim. Considered by some to be the greatest work of musical theatre in the 20th century. Winner of eight Tony Awards in 1979, and two more for the 2006 revival. Songs considered to be some of the most difficult in vocal repertoire. The movie adaptation by Tim Burton starring Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter set to hit theatres this December. You get the drift.

So of course I'm going to show my reverence by being irreverent:

Sweeney, baby, you need to get some real friends, not the razor-and-chair variety.

For information on awards, songs, and productions: http://www.ibdb.com/show.asp?ID=8451.
The libretto: http://libretto.musicals.ru/text.php?textid=516&language=1

Launch

Well, here it is, the result of spur-of-the-moment inspiration put on hold. I don't expect this place to have much of an effect anywhere, or to accomplish anything magnificent. Hope you enjoy your stay, whatever it was that led you here.

Wondering about the title? It means a choice or chosen landscape in French, and this blog will be such a place for my thoughts. The source is one of my favorite poems, Clair de lune by Paul Verlaine:

Votre âme est un paysage choisi
que vont charmant masques et bergamasques
jouant du luth et dansant et quasi
tristes sous leurs déguisements fantasques

Tout en chantant sur le mode mineur
l’amour vainqueur et la vie opportune
ils n’ont pas l’air de croire à leur bonheur
et leur chanson se mêle au clair de lune

Au calme clair de lune, triste et beau
qui fait rêver les oiseaux dans les arbres
et faire sangloter d’extase les jets d’eau
les grands jets d’eau sveltes parmi des marbres

My adaptation:
Your soul's a chosen landscape where lightly
dance charming masquèd figures side by side
playing the lute while a melancholy
beneath their fantastic disguises hides

While they sing in a minor mode about
victorious love and gracious life's boon
their own happiness they appear to doubt
mingling their song in the light of the moon

The calm moonlight, whose sad beauty aches
and sets to dreaming the birds in the trees
and among the marblèd statues makes
slim fountains sob in ecstasy.