Perfect Poise, Perfect Life
Bring your body into balance and revolutionise your life
By Noel Kingsley
Publisher Hodder Mobius
AVAILABLE HERE
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Fit of giggles
I don't know which is more interesting. The "ethereal" 10 second clip of a woman singing a French folk song "Au Clair de la Lune", played for the first time in 150 years and thought to be the oldest known recorded human voice, or the uncontrollable fit of giggles by Charlotte Green, the presenter on the Radio 4 'Today' programme.
Phonautograph
The sound recording made in 1860 was achieved by a 'Phonautograph' utilising a diaphragm that responds to sound and then etched into soot-covered paper. It was never intended for play back as they didn't have the technology, but now a US lab has managed to let it be heard by means of high resolution scans and played with a 'virtual needle'. It's just fascinating to hear a human voice from around 1860.
Charlotte Green
Apparently Charlotte's hysterical outburst started after a studio member commented that the singer's voice sounded like a "bee buzzing in a bottle". Listen here. Her outburst may be considered particularly inappropriate as she had move on to the topic of the recent death of screenwriter Abby Mann.
When someone laughs, it always brings a smile to my face; if they do so uncontrollably, there is nothing that will stop me from laughing too. Why is it so difficult to inhibit an uncontrollable and hysterical giggling fit, and why is it so difficult not to laugh along with them? I sat in my practice in Cavendish Square this morning, playing the link and couldn't help laughing too. And having done so, I played it again....and laughed again! Oh it's good to laugh as I've written about in Laughter Clinic.. But who needs a Laughter Clinic when we can listen to Charlotte having an uncontrollable fit of the giggles?
Thanks for making a good start to my day, Charlotte. :-)
