I think I’ve mentioned before that my stats professor is from Sichuan, China. (He drew a map on the board the first day of class and told us a couple things, including that the food there is great.) (His English is excellent, by the way, but he also is good about writing things on the board - always useful in math classes - for maximum comprehensibility.)
Today his cell phone went off several times in class for the first time. Everyone seemed pretty amused (I was) that it was tinkly-sounding classical music. I recognized that it was from “The Nutcracker” but couldn’t place which piece.
Looking up the list of movements from “The Nutcracker” just now on Amazon, I am filled with a sudden sense of duh and click on the one labeled “The Nutcracker, Op.71 - Act 2 - No. 12c Character Dances: Tea.” Yes, his ringtone is the Chinese Dance.
(Hey, remember - my academic team specialty was identifying Russian composers from the titles of their works, not Name That Tune.) (If you do not know this story, no doubt you will hear it eventually. It’s part of the Sally myth...and arguably fits into the familiar triumphant underdog, David-versus-Goliath monomyth tradition.)
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This was written while I was taking a nap, and S. apparently played the clip to confirm before posting this, because the music was stuck in my head when I woke up.
"A Sudden Sense of Duh" should be the title of a mystery book.
R, your revenge is that the music has been stuck in MY head all morning.
And I do mean including the hours of the early morning I was lying awake with this cold I have. At least it's good music...
At least the music is "famous" as someone we know would say.
Mom, god, yes, I can't believe *I* didn't make that comment! Clearly, part of what the class was responding to was the familiarity of the "famous" music.
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