Higher Harmonics

Buzzard's Bay, MA
N 41 36.669 W 070 45.373

We had a fun day yesterday. We took a taxi to a place which had a laundromat, a grocery store, and a WIFI signal. (One's ideas of luxury automatically adapt to your life style.) In the afternoon, we went to the New Bedford Whaling Museum. That was very interesting. I especially liked the exquisite scrimshaw pieces on display.

We went to dinner at a near by grill. Libby had their "world famous" fish chowder. It was delicious. I think there's no way around it. For chowders, Massachusetts can't be beat. The best chowder we ever had was at a chowder fest in Boston. The winner was from Turner Fisheries. Libby and I both liked their stuff best and voted for it. The second best chowder ever can be bought at the Friendly's Restaurant chain. Friendly's is a Massachusetts based enterprise.

After dinner, we returned to the museum for a free concert. It was raining cats and dogs so the concert on the lawn was moved inside. The band were locals who played Cape Verdean music. There are strong local presences here of ethnic groups from the Azores and from Cape Verde. They came here to go whaling in the 19th century. Anyhow, the best part of the Cape Verdean concert was a very pretty Verdean mother who danced for us. She was about 30 years old, very pretty, and she had her daughters,
aged 9 and 4 with her. Well, this woman danced so well that we couldn't believe it. Libby said that she never before saw someone seem to get in to an apparent trance state, totally absorbed in the Verdean music.

The type of dancing was hard to describe, but it involved a lot of booty shaking. Boy oh boy could she really shake that thing. She shook like I've never seen a human shake before. My friend John Undrill would have loved it. John is obsessed by harmonics. John used to carry a harmonic demonstration made of strings and balls with him to scientific conferences. The conference attendees used to call the demo Undrill's Balls.

Anyhow, this woman not only shook her booty in the fundamental mode (first harmonic), but also in the second harmonic, and (If my eyes were correct) in the third harmonic for a few seconds. BRAVO. Toward the end, she enticed her two daughters to come up and dance with her. It was great. The audience could see that the 9 year old was beginning to get the idea, and that in 9 more years, she too will become a great Verdean dancer.

I have a video of the dance. I'll post it some day.

After the concert, we had to return to Tarwathie in the dinghy. By that time, the rain was really pouring. Even though we both had rain jackets, we got completely soaked. We also had to hold out a flashlight and to bail the dinghy as we went across the harbor. That was no big problem. If we were afraid of getting wet, we certainly would not live on a boat.