When I was a kid I used to have a cd that was basically "classical music for assholes" with the aforementioned canon on it, that also had a really really fantastic piece that I can not identify in any way except that if I would know it if I heard it. I lost the thing, and it's been pissing me off for years now. Unfortunately, there are like 83,576 cds with Canon in D on them, so I have virtually no way of finding the damn thing. It was by someone I'd never heard of.
What instruments?
We can play the music store guessing game!
Blank books on tape? What was he actually looking for? Did he explain?
I had some random crap Christmas album as a kid that had a song on it that I liked that I couldn't remember the name of. And I often tried to find it on other random crap Christmas compilations, without success. If there are 83,576 cds of Canon in D, there are 83,577 million Christmas albums. So it seemed a hopeless task.
Eventually a strain of it came into my head very clearly and I managed to hum a bit of it to a musician friend of mine and she identified it as "Myn Liking."
You should have offered the deaf guy a discount on blank books on tape.
2: Actually, when I think about it, I can still sing the thing. It was some singing - two women at first, then some others joined in. Of course, the lyrics are totally unhelpful; 'magnificat anima mea..' is all I can seem to remember.
It weird, I remember it moved me almost to tears one day when I was like 13. I was a weird kid.
Re 5: googling brings up Bach's Magnificat.
And I see now it was by someone you never heard off. Still, it must be somebody else's setting of the Magnificat.
Putting "manificat anima mea" in quotes turns of sheet music for Magnificat Anima Mea Dominum by Giovanni Battista Pergolesi.
My preliminary conclusion after some searching last night is that it's actually a cantata by Dietrich Buxtehude. But until I can get my computer to download win. media player so I can listen to the sample, that can't be verified.
Blank books on tape would have been easily solved - blank tapes. Likewise picking out a book and sending it to a friend for friend's birthday. The only question there would have been how much damage to do to the customer's credit card. The bookstore I used to work for had a whole notebook full of whack customer requests, alas lost to posterity when the store went out of business. One of my favorites, though, was for the Hebrew translation of Ollie North's book. Of course we also had a clerk who, legend had it, asked a customer to sit somewhere else because the customer was "standing on her aura." Not all of the nut cases were on the other side of the counter.
Now I'm feeling a little guilty. I went to the local Kinkos to have a newspaper page laminated and the (presumably) HS kid who did it was great. He was very anal and meticulous and spent much work and effort on what was going to be about a 50 cent job.
When he finished I kidded him by saying "Uh oh - its upside down" while holding it upside down and his face fell. You can't undo laminate. I'd crushed him.
No amount of apology or explaining could ease my guilt. I'd really nailed the poor guy who had done a great job.
I work at a small public library. Most of the patrons are quite nice and fun. A few are a bit challenged in various ways. We have several computers available for use by the public. This lady walked in once, pointed to the computers and asked, 'Are those yours?' I said yes, but I wanted to say, 'No, lady, I got no idea how those got there.'
I love the discount-on-blank-books-on-tape-for-the-deaf-guy idea.
I worked in the music department at Borders in Boston a bunch of years ago, and here's how it would go, every time:
Me (answering phone): Borders Music, this is Joe.
[pause]
Me (sighing, rolling eyes): I'm going down to shoot my old lady...
Hey Tripp, where you goin' with that gun in your hand?
See, he caught her messin' 'round with another man. And that ain't too cool.
I worked in the music department at Borders in Boston a bunch of years ago
How many years ago? You didn't happen to know a certain Gregory G., did you?
Brave of Joe never to go down to Mexico.
A quick language usage survey: is it normal or abnormal to describe as "corrupt" a wrongfully-acting non-governmental actor? E.g., Jeffrey Skillings, Armstrong Williams.
Normal, although there are usages in which it wouldn't make sense.
"After lying dead in the forest for three weeks before a group of hikers found his body, Jeffrey Skillings was so corrupt that investigators said very little useful forensic evidence could be recovered."
Thanks Ben. Now I'll never win my argument with J/ack Bal/kin.
That was a surprisingly unsucessful survey, but thanks LB. I am making this comment entirely to get back into most recent comments and hopefully get more answers.
It's normal. Otherwise we'd have the bizarre implication that public officials are the only people with integrity to lose.
Is the question whether it is possible to have, for example, a corrupt businessman?
My answer is "yes".
washerdreyer: Absolutely. Those folks had some sort of trust--to the shareholders/corporation and journalism (or the public)--that they betrayed for money.
How many years ago? You didn't happen to know a certain Gregory G., did you?
I don't think so, but it's possible -- I don't remember. This was back in 97-98.
I think his time there was over by then. Anyhoo . . . just thought I'd ask.