A Basket of Hugs

I had the office to myself last Friday afternoon, and I celebrated by listening to NPR.  During "Science Friday," they played the recently-discovered oldest recording of a human voice.  It's a man singing "Au Clair de la Lune" from 1860. 

I'd heard the clip a few times before that, but it doesn't cease to amaze me.  There's something so familiar about it.  I couldn't pinpoint what it was, but I love the audacity that something from 1860 could seem familiar in 2008.

18-friggin'-60 - to think that technology existed to capture Abraham Lincoln's voice.  Or that of the last surviving veteran of the American Revolution, who died in 1869.  Not that I think those recordings are going to be unearthed in someone's attic - just that it was possible.  Just that we're that much closer to the past.  It sends chills up my spine. 

As the radio host introduced the recording, I hoped the phone wouldn't ring so I could listen to it again.  Then, as the haunting, disembodied voice filled my office - it hit me.

"Au Clair de la Lune?"  Is the same little ditty that evil Rhoda Penmark kept banging out on the piano in The Bad Seed!

It just doesn't get more spookifying than that, folks.

Comments

[mrjupiter]

There is one older recording--John McCain's graduation speech from West Point.