Terri Schiavo's Brain

The autopsy released this week stated that Terri's brain was only about half the weight of a normal brain. She had suffered brain damage due to an accident fifteen years earlier. In the ensuing years very little progress was made in any kind of rehabilitation. Brains that lose their function also lose their need to maintain normal size.

However one other large factor must have had a tremendous part in the low weight - dehydration. Try this experiment. Take your brain out and weigh it on a meat scale. Then put it back in and go without any food or water for a week. Then weigh it again. I'll bet it will weigh considerably less the second time than it did the first time.

Best Protection for Grand Piano

For several years now I have been recommending that owners of grand pianos purchase and install a string cover. This is a piece of (preferably wool) material that fits inside the top of the piano completely covering the string and tuning pin area. It keeps out dust, and many other damaging things that shorten the useful life of the piano.

More information at: http://www.angelfire.com/biz6/afinetune

Then click on the link about the Edwards String cover.

Strange Piano

I was called in to check out a couple of pianos at a retirement home recently. One was a nice Yamaha GH1 with a player system. It was TERRIBLY out of tune.

The second one was a "Knight" console piano (I had never heard of that brand.). The piano was in great tune, but as I played I noticed something very STRANGE. I looked down and noticed that the pedals were installed UPSIDE DOWN! Never had I seen such a thing, or even imagined it. Later as I considered why this would be, I reasoned that possibly someone short was playing it and his feet would not reach the pedals. Upside down, they were about 6 inches higher.

Piano tuners often have strange tales to tell!