A study that no one asked for

Mad Scientest · � #1 � 11-23-2006, 08:21 PM

I get a monthly newsletter called AfterDark and there is a section in it each month for unusual stories, well actually most of their articles are about the unusual, but that�s another story. The following is a sample.

Quote:

In a new study that no one asked for, the University of Leicester claims opera goers prefer magic mushrooms over cannabis. While more then a quarter of classical music fans enjoy marijuana, the study says, 12.3% of opera goers prefer psychotropic substances as their musical enhancement of choice� Could magic mushrooms possibly account for the strange activities of historians and researchers who recently exhumed the mutilated body of the world�s most famous dead castrato. Farinelli (b. 1705 D. 1782 e. 2006)?

The New Scientist reports that Nicholas Clapton of London�s Handel House Museum, fascinated with castratos, er, opera singers, wants �to see how childhood castration, performed on prospective singers to stop their voices from breaking, affected bone structure.� (Insert gratuitous bone structure joke here) Castratos, whose voices were prized for unmatched power and pitch, were popular during 17th and 18th century Italy. Four thousand boys a year were captured, castrated and forced to sing opera until they cried, until the practice was banned.

Facing facts, operas still aren�t all that popular these days unless they�re about Richard Nixon, Pamela Anderson, or Jerry Springer. But in order to bring opera to the masses, London opera singer Bryn Terfel plugs his new album, one taxi ride at a time, Terfel�s operatic arias are piped throughout a specially designed taxi fitted with speakers and album art. �I apologize to those who aren�t fans and face a long trip with Mozart arias blasting in their ears�

EarlyBird · � #2 � 11-24-2006, 05:29 AM

I enjoy most of the older and more well-known operas
and frequently listen and watch them on PBS. But then I
was raised with them. My Mother and I used to listen to
them on radio, every Saturday, when I was a child and
teen.

just me · � #3 � 11-24-2006, 09:33 AM

(LOL) Sooooo, Earlybird, does that mean that you prefer your shroom tea over your joints?????

��Useful Links

Site Navigation