I came across a fascinating article this morning on the Reuters News Wire.  Scientists have reconstructed what Johann Sebastian Bach may have looked like. Read the article below and check out this photograph.     Oh, and we’re planning our annual Bach tribute on his birth date of March 21st.  He was born on the first day of Spring in 1685.

By Sylvia Westall

BERLIN (Reuters) – Experts have digitally rebuilt the face of 18th century German composer Johann Sebastian Bach — and say the results may surprise his fans.

Using his bones and computer modeling, they have come up with an image of a thick-set man with closely-shorn white hair.

The new Bach face, the creation of Scottish forensic anthropologist Caroline Wilkinson, will go on display at the Bachhaus museum in the eastern German town of Eisenach, Bach’s birthplace, next month.

Eighteenth century portraits show him very differently. “For most people, Bach is an old man in a wig, it is a stylized image, we have no realistic portrait of him,” Joerg Hansen, managing director of the museum, told Reuters.

“We know he was a physical man, that he danced, that he stamped his feet when he played, that he sang. He was a very dynamic man — with this reconstruction you can see it.”

Bach’s bones were excavated in 1894 and sculptors first used them to help create a bust in 1908.

But it was mainly based on a portrait of the composer and contemporary critics said it was so inaccurate that it might as well have been the composer Handel.

“It’s not really that important to know what he looked like, we love Bach through his music, that is why people come to the museum, but they are also interested in the man,” Hansen said.

Researchers at University of Tokyo have concluded that ethanol, an intoxicating agent in alcohol, doesn’t cause memory decrease, as widely believed, but instead locks it in place. The researchers gave lab rats (why do they always stand in for humans?) mild shocks to condition them to fear. As a result the rats would freeze with fear the moment they went into their cages. The researchers immediately injected the rats with either saline or ethanol.. The rats with alcohol froze with fear longer than those who had no ethanol.
So how do rats, uhm, humans forget something you dislike? Replace the bad memory with a  positive memory at an early stage and leave out the booze.

While we’re talking of adult beverages how about the Askmen.com list from their readers of weird beer names. Would really enjoy a drink called “Moose Drool” or “Sick Duck”? How about “Dogfish Head Snowblower Ale” or “Santa’s Butt Porter”? That last name isn’t exactly as wrong as it sounds. It’s actually in reference to a large (108 gallon) barrel referred to as a butt.

Twenty minutes of this a day increases our productivity about 30%. That would be one of my favorite moments of any day…napping. Nancy of Larkspur knew it because she’s a napper, too. Nancy is heading to the Stravinsky Project next Friday night as our final winer this week of the Commuter Quiz at 6:30am. A new prize on the table come Monday.

Maurizio Pollini played Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 2 in our BLind Date this morning. That music is from the year the United States Senate opened to the public…1794. Another Blind Date mix of music and history comes up every weekday morning around 8:30.

Have a great weekend.

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 A huge thanks to everybody who sent me birthday wishes. And from all over the country too!  Thanks to Stephanie in Des Moines,  Jean in New Hampshire, and Te in Oregon.  We had some fun with palindromes today on the Lunch Box trivia.  You remember palindromes, don’t you?  Words, phrases, even numbers that are the same coming and going.  Examples include: race car, kayak, radar.  You get the idea.  Well, my Oregon friend, Te, sent a very elegant and perhaps unintentional palindrome from northern California where you can visit the Yreka Bakery.
And one classic palindrome about Napoleon:  Able was I ere I saw Elba.  Sacre bleu!

I’ve never had a “desk job” per se. I have a desk here that I work at after my time on the air, but I’m hardly “chained” to it. I don’t know if I could be because I’m a bit to AD/HD . If you’re looking to escape the cubicle culture, Yahoo Jobs had an article today on “Five Lucrative No-Desk Jobs”. I’m not sure they are all that lucrative. Nurses can do pretty well in the pay department as can Vets and construction managers. The other two listed in the article I’m not too sure about. Teachers generally don’t make enough for all they do. I know from personal experience that the fifth and final example, Flight Attendant, is not the way to riches. They have taken a hit in salary in recent years, especially the ones who fly for formally bankrupt carriers like United. But if you like to travel and are friendly, flexible, tactful and endlessly patient with cranky frustrated passengers you serve in a tin can at 40-thousand feet, go for it. Read the full article here.

Who does the orchestra turn to when they need a tune up? Fred from Sunnyvale, an amateur violinist, knew it was the oboe so he is off to enjoy the Stravinsky Project at Stanford next Friday the 7th of March. You could win Friday in the Commuter Quiz at 6:30am

In our Blind Date year forward thinkers were flying to South America in zeppelins while Ottorino Respighi was looking back a couple of centuries for inspiration for his Ancient Airs and Dances. That all collided in the year 1932. Another Blind Date puzzler every work day morning at 8:30am.

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I was not born during a Leap Year.  That’s always the first question when someone finds out my birthday is February 28.  Had I been late, my birthday would have been boring old March 1st.  My grandfather was a Feb. 29th baby however and during the 5 years that our lives overlapped, we celebrated together. He also insisted that I be named for him.  He was Bernard Dooley and he was by all accounts a force to be reckoned with.  He was a fireman back in the day with the Oakland Fire Department, had served as a dough boy in WW1, and lost an arm to lung cancer by the time I met him.  He pointed out to my mother that 1958 was the Centenary of Saint Bernadette’s Mary-sightings at Lourdes.  That plus the fact that I practically shared a birthday with him convinced her to change my middle name from Kathleen  (my grandmother’s name) to Bernadette. Thus began years of ribbing from my 3 sisters who all have “Anne” as their middle name. 

 Part 2 tomorrow.

Every time I’m at Bimbo’s for one of our big KDFC events I think what fun it would be to rent out the whole place for some big party for me and my friends.  I just love the rat-pack style,  the groove, the vibe of  it all.  While I was waiting backstage during intermission on Friday night, I spoke to William Kanengiser (3rd from the left below) of the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet.  He talked about how some classical stations in the country are reluctant to play their CDs, especially the ones that are a bit “cross-over” in nature. I told him that we had the hippest classical listeners in the country.   He said, “Well, I guess so,  you/we sold out Bimbo’s!”.  Their great show was recorded and we’re playing cuts here and there in the next few days just to re-live the fun!

Another good one from Careerbuilder.com. Here are the results of the question What kind of movie is your office?
Drama       31.5%
Comedy    27.8% (but it begs the question, is everybody laughing?)
Adventure  11.4%
Sci-fi            3.9%
Horror        3.8%
War (!)        1.9%

One listener suggested KDFC is a musical and another thought the morning show is a romantic comedy.

This week at 6:30am in the Commuter Quiz we have tickets to the Stravinsky Project on Friday March 7th at Stanford’s Dinkelspiel Auditorium. Today we asked what iconic American symbol is now about 35 pounds lighter than when it was made. Susan from San Francisco knew it was the Liberty Bell. It seems in a night watchman in 1894, whose job it was to protect it, was actually chipping away at it and selling pieces to the highest bidder! Another chance to win tomorrow through Friday.

Our Blind Date music at 8:30 was from Benjamin Britten’s opera Gloriana. That dates from the same year color televisions and 3D movies premiered…1953.

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or Seeing Double or Double Duty and so on.  As twins, Josh and Eli will be hearing these cliches ad naseum for their entire lives! I’m so happy that they and their mom Jessica are out there in radioland, listening to KDFC.  Beyond cute!

I’ve been thinking about creating a web page dedicated to your pets.   Here’s a photo of our two Jack Russell Terriers.  They are Tucker (10) and Jackie (7).    I love this picture.   It was taken by my sister-in-law Carol Ryan.   (There Carol…now you have your credit…Satisfied??  Love you.       

They’re waiting patiently to eat after spending the whole day in the yard hunting squirrels, playing with friends who stopped by and swimming.  Well, Tucker swims, Jackie patrols…all day long. 

About Tucker’s swimming…she’s maniacal about it.  I was driving up to Seattle back in the Summer of ‘99 and I remember it was just so blazing hot out so I pulled over at Lake Shasta, at my favorite private spot, stripped and jumped in.  Tucker was beside herself but didn’t have the courage to come in.  So I got out and took her in the water with me.   She has loved the water ever since.   When she was younger, I’d put her in the bathtub with her favorite toys and she’d play in there for a hour or more.   I’d take her to the beach with a long leash and let her swim in the surf.    The moment she sees water, the terrier in her takes over and that’s all she can think about.   So now, in our backyard, we have a half wine barrel with a plastic liner and that is Tucker’s private swimming pool.   She cries like a two year old when it’s time to get out.

Jackie’s the patrol dog.  She runs and circles the yard endlessly warding off  invading squirrels, birds or unseen troublemakers.  She prances around like a deer.  It cracks us up.   Without her vigilance I’m sure the homestead would have been taken over long ago.  And Tucker is just no help at all.   Jackie’s got to do all the work.

Please email me photos of your dogs or cats with some details about them and you and where you live.  I’ll begin to include some of my favorites on my blog and eventually create an independent page on the KDFC website.

I just spent an enjoyable 10 minutes reading this pianist’s blog at www.jonathanbiss.com.  He is a hoot.  Read his bio too; obviously and very humorously self-written. He talks about his pre-natal Carnegie Hall debut which critics described as “quiet, very quiet”.  Biss appears with the SFS  again this week in an all-Mozart program conducted by HB  (Herbert Blomstedt).