Triangles

Baby Pierre was right. Rabbie, Ageless and Lavender were on their way back to town and already Lavender was bored.

Ageless was explaining something important about triangles.

On a Euclidian plane, said Ageless, the angles of a triangle always add up to 180 degrees, while on a spherical plane the angles always add up to more than 180 degrees, which can easily be demonstrated by drawing a triangle on a balloon....

Yawn, yawn, yawn, said Lavender. I don't suppose you've got a balloon?

No I haven't, said Ageless.

I thought not, said Lavender.

'Tis interestin'. Go on, said Rabbie.

However, said Ageless, on a hyperbolic plane the angles of a triangle will always add up to less than 180 degrees. And the larger the triangle the less they'll add up to.

I canna quite picture it, said Rabbie, scratching his head.

You'll see, said Ageless, when we get to the Science Exchange. The Crocheted Coral Reef is a perfect physical model of hyperbolic space. If I were a crocheter instead of a knitter, I would have joined the volunteers who helped make it. It also proves that in hyperbolic space Euclid's fifth axiom is violated.

You don't say, said Lavender. As if anyone knows what that is, Ageless! You google too much. I just hope it's pretty!

.......

Meanwhile Baby Pierre was regretting sending Lavender away. Now he was really alone.
What was the use of a quest if you had no one to share it with? If only Frog was still around. But Frog was just a squashed tomato memory.

He walked out on to the jetty. What was it that Lavender had said about a fisherman? The fisherman had a bucket full of yucky things. And what had the Seagull Oracle said about that? 'Well there you are then'.

Baby Pierre walked to the very end of the jetty. He looked out at the grey heaving waves. He looked down at the barnacled pylons. He heard a sound, like the sound of an empty bucket blowing in the wind at the end of a rope.

Up-to-date Musical Thing

I'm already going, he'd said. Then I woke up.

Did he mean that the dream was over, or that he was going to the up-to-date musical thing at the Science Exchange? I resolved to look out for a man in red trousers.

The Science Exchange that evening was hosting a presentation of Works of Slightly Misused Technology, by an experimental electronic music composer and hardware hacker, with the aid of some local musicians.

We sat upstairs because the downstairs bar was full. From here we looked down on the jacket and jeans clad musician-professor, who sat at a desk fiddling with a laptop. A note was played on a trumpet by an assistant musician and an electronic green scribbly pattern appeared on a screen on the wall. I wondered what was going on. I looked at the program. I learned that I was hearing feedback on a self-stabilising network of circuitry. Everyone else looked seriously entranced. I looked seriously entranced as well.

The next piece was the ultimate in geekitude. Six men in shapeless jumpers and baggy brown pants stood around a defunct piece of circuitry with wires sticking out of it. The professor sat at his desk working his laptop, which was somehow connected.The six men poked at the circuit-board with electronic probes, making unmusical oscillating electronic sounds until someone we couldn't see told them to stop. I suspected it was the heavy set bearded man in the black and white striped beanie who was sitting at a table nearby drinking beer from a glass and using one finger to beat out the time. He appeared to be in disguise. I attempted to look at his trousers, but I couldn't see under his table.

Double Stops

It was time to wake up, but Haydn's musical idea intrigued me.

What are double stops? I asked him.

They are like nose cones, said Haydn, playfully. They temporarily stop the flow, so to speak. You make them by placing a finger across two strings at once and plucking them.

Oh yuck! I said, Two strings of what?

Your violin, said Haydn, looking serious again. Would you like to hear the beginning of my tune?

No, I said. Oh.... alright. Hum it. But first, have you got a handkerchief?

Of course, I never go anywhere without one. Now, listen. It's a string quartet :

The first violin goes: Mmmmmm-huh.....mmm-huh...mmmmmmm-huh...Double stop! Double stop! Eeeeeeeeeee!
The second violin joins in: Nnnnnnnnn-huh....nnn-huh...nnnnnnnnnn-huh... Double stop! Double stop! Lah lah lah!
Then the viola: Sniffety-sneeee! Sniffety-sneeeeee! Oo-oo-ooh!
And finally the cello: Chooooh-achooh-achooh! Double stop! Double stop! Achooooh!

He stopped. How do you like it so far? he asked.

I like it! I replied. It's very up-to-date.

That's me, said Haydn. Up-to-date.

I'm going to an up-to-date musical thing tonight at the Science Exchange, I said. Perhaps you'd like to come?

I'm already going, said Haydn.