The Straight Dope 07/28/2006

The Straight Dope -- By Cecil Adams
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THE STRAIGHT DOPE 07/28/2006

Dear Cecil:

I've been doing some research on the great American songwriter Irving
Berlin and something struck me as odd. Several sources claim he never
learned to read or write music. While this is certainly believable for
later songwriters with easy access to recording equipment, how was
Irving Berlin able to pass his songs along to live Broadway orchestras
without a transcription? Is this folklore, or did he come up with some
way to write music without writing down the notes? --Patrick Gary,
Dallas

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Cecil replies:

Yes, it's true. The composer of countless beloved standards and show
tunes including "Alexander's Ragtime Band," " White Christmas," and "God
Bless America" couldn't read or write music. As you rightly suppose,
neither can lots of modern songwriters, but here's the thing: musical
illiteracy wasn't all that rare in Berlin's day either. Fact is, if the
music industry thinks you've got enough commercial potential, it'll
likely figure out a way to compensate for your technical deficiencies.
All you need to do is come up with the hits.

Born in Russia and brought to the U.S. at age five, Irving Berlin
dropped out of school in his early teens and taught himself to play the
piano while working as a singing waiter from 1904 to 1907. He played
almost entirely in the key of F-sharp, allowing him to stay on the black
keys as much as possible. This wasn't unheard-of for a self-taught
musician, since it's easier for untrained fingers to play the black keys
(which are elevated and widely spaced) without hitting wrong notes. In a
1962 interview, Berlin said, "The black keys are right there, under your
fingers. The key of C is for people who study music."

So how did he write music if he couldn't write music? 

For more, see:
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/060728.html

STAFF REPORT

Dear Straight Dope:

This is a question I have often pondered . . . how does glue work? What
makes it bind things together? --Randy Jones, Tucson, Arizona

SDSTAFF Una replies:

We're not entirely sure.

That's a little surprising, I know. Glues (more properly called
adhesives) have been around for thousands of years. Beeswax and tar were
among the earliest--there's an extensive archeological record of their
use. Later came adhesives derived from plants and animals- -for example,
carpenter's glue made from slaughterhouse leftovers such as hides and
bones. Modern manufactured adhesives arrived on the scene around 1910,
when phenol formaldehyde adhesives were developed for making plywood.
Next came acrylic adhesives, cyanoacrylates (also known as "super
glue"), epoxies, and so on.

A good adhesive has excellent properties of adhesion (the ability to
stick to the surfaces to which it's applied) and cohesion (the ability
to stick to itself). When you pull apart something that's been glued
together and the glue comes right off the pieces, that's an adhesive
failure. If the glue itself splits apart, leaving glue on either side of
the joint, then that's a cohesive failure: 

For more, see: 
http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mglue.html

STRAIGHT DOPE CLASSIC - 12/08/1989

Dear Cecil: 

What's the origin of the word "buck," meaning a dollar? --Anonymous,
Denver, Colorado  

Cecil replies:  

Lots of speculation, no firm conclusions. Next time we start a language
we have to keep better notes. The leading theory at the moment is that
buck comes from an old practice in poker. Evidently in the 19th century
frontier card players were so thick they couldn't remember whose turn
it was to deal from one hand to the next. So they placed a counter or
token in front of the dealer du jour. This token was called a buck,
since it was commonly a buck knife, whose handle was made of buck
horn. When the time came for the dealer to surrender the job to
someone new, he (you saw this coming) "passed the buck" to the
new guy. Uh-huh. 

For more, see:
http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a3_179.html

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