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July 15

A house named Cully

In Charles Williams' 1930 novel War in Heaven the following comment (excerpted from two consecutive sentences) appears in chapter 4.

...the late Sir John Horatio Sykes-Martindale's house. The house itself - Cully, as it was called, to the Archdeacon's secret and serious delight, and without any distress to the naturally ignorant Sir John - ...

I can see no reason why the name Cully should delight the archdeacon or distress Sir John (thereby proving myself as ignorant as the latter). What have I missed? -- Verbarson  ^talk_edits 13:20, 15 July 2026 (UTC)

The OED's definition of the primary sense of cully is "One who is cheated or imposed upon (e.g. by a sharper, prostitute, etc.); a dupe, gull; one easily deceived or taken in; a silly fellow, simpleton. (Much in use in the 17th cent.)". Perhaps Sir John wasn't well read in 17th-century literature? --Antiquary (talk) 13:59, 15 July 2026 (UTC)

Well, neither am I. Thank you for finding this. But why would a house be called by such a name (other than by an author setting up a mild joke in a book)? -- Verbarson  ^talk_edits 15:16, 15 July 2026 (UTC)

That opens up a broad field of conjecture, but sometimes people name their houses after places they love as holiday destinations or for some other reason. There are at least three villages called Cully, one in County Sligo, one in Normandy, and one in Switzerland on Lake Geneva. Very many real house-names are quite inexplicable by anyone who doesn't know the owners though, so why should this fictional one be any different? --Antiquary (talk) 16:03, 15 July 2026 (UTC)

July 17

In Major League Baseball, does the General Manager usually attend playoff games?

I was recently rewatching Moneyball and the opening sequence in the movie shows the Oakland GM Billy Beane listening to the game on the radio. I was wondering why he did not attend in person. Is it usual for the GM not to attend games like this or is this something particular to Billy Beane? RudolfRed (talk) 19:32, 17 July 2026 (UTC)

Beane's habit of avoiding games was considered unorthodox. It was not common. In interviews, he said it made him impartial as he could make decisions based on observation of complete outcomes, not a knee-jerk reaction to a specific play during a game. ~2026-35239-54 (talk) 19:40, 17 July 2026 (UTC)

From Paragraph five of the Plot section: ". . . Although Beane rarely attends games, his daughter Casey persuades him to attend the next game . . .".

From my limited knowledge of Baseball, a General Manager would have no active part to play at his team's games, though he might gain generalised knowledge from watching how his and the opposing team perform. No doubt Baseball Bugs will be along soon to give a more expert perspective. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} ~2026-36805-68 (talk) 19:48, 17 July 2026 (UTC)

I can't offer any specific expertise on the question, but I would expect ball club officials in general to be present at post-season games. I recall reading about an instance from Game 7 of the 2016 World Series, in which Cubs GM Theo Epstein was nearby when the Cubs got a pep-talk from one of the players during a rain delay in extra innings. Epstein had the vibe that the Cubs were going to win the game, and they did. In general, TV cameras will occasionally scan the club-level boxes to find team officials. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 21:25, 17 July 2026 (UTC)

Thanks, all, for the replies. RudolfRed (talk) 02:59, 18 July 2026 (UTC)

So Casey got him to the bat? Chuntuk (talk) 13:49, 28 July 2026 (UTC)

Not to be confused with Katie Casey. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 14:21, 28 July 2026 (UTC)

July 21

Name of epic song

Hello. There is this song that has vocals but no lyrics. It sounds like something that you would hear in a history or fantasy movie. It has epic humming, and the chorus had it get really triumphant, like "We did it! We won! The evil is no more!" It was in a CD that was played often in my school's sensory room. ~2026-35599-34 (talk) 23:53, 21 July 2026 (UTC)

That's not much to go on. I suggest you try Musipedia where you can input the tune. I've always found it very useful. Shantavira|^{feed me} 06:55, 22 July 2026 (UTC)

My first two guesses are Conquest of Paradise by Vangelis and Misty Mountains from The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey soundtrack, though the latter has singing as well. Matt Deres (talk) 13:54, 22 July 2026 (UTC)

Impressive. In solidarity, Aaron Liu (talk) 00:36, 23 July 2026 (UTC)

Any chance it was the the "Humming Chorus" (Coro a bocca chiusa) from the opera ⁠Madama Butterfly by Giacomo Puccini (easily found on YouTube)? {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} ~2026-36805-68 (talk) 15:59, 22 July 2026 (UTC)

It might help if you could tell when you heard it. That it was on a cd points towards the 1990s or 2000s, but I'm sure you know more accurately than that when you went to school. PiusImpavidus (talk) 17:33, 22 July 2026 (UTC)

Thanks! It was Conquest of Paradise. And actually i heard it this year, i graduated last month. ~2026-35599-34 (talk) 18:50, 22 July 2026 (UTC)

July 23

Tom Spath

Does anyone know whether The Bobs' song "Tom Spath" is based on a real person? --Trovatore (talk) 18:14, 23 July 2026 (UTC)

If we can believe what we read here, the answer is affirmative. Apparently the person named is this Tom J. Spath, who is probably the same person as the writer of the teleplay of Season 1, Episode 6, of Fantastic Max. See also on Bluesky.  ​‑‑Lambiam 07:18, 24 July 2026 (UTC)

Nice! Thanks, Lambiam. That adds a dimension to the song, which is not the best one they've ever written but has some fun lyrics and nice chords. (If anyone is interested, the first two chords where all four voices sing "Tom Spath", right after the key change, are Gb and Db in the key of Db, so not exactly pushing any musical boundaries, but it sounds good.) --Trovatore (talk) 19:52, 24 July 2026 (UTC)

July 29

Music notation oddity

This is something I've never seen before, in over 60 years of piano playing. The key signature of this piece (the first piece in the set, P. 2 is in 6 flats but the 6th flat (C-flat) is enclosed in parentheses. This raises questions before I've even read the first measure: How am I to interpret this? But lo and behold, in that first measure there's a C in the bass stave, but with a natural sign (♮). This tells me the C-flat in the key signature is to be obeyed. A C-natural appears in every single measure of the piece, and not a single C-flat. In other words, the key signature tells the player to play Cs as C-flats everywhere except where otherwise indicated; yet in every single case he does otherwise indicate. It all seems to be rather pointless.

It seems to be in a sort of weird version of E-flat minor, and not B-flat minor, so the 6-flat key signature is appropriate. It seems to be a cousin of the E-flat melodic minor scale, except that that scale naturalises both the C and D when ascending, and flattens both when descending. Ryazanov's scale naturalises only the C-flat universally. Many of the D-flats are also naturalised, but not all. When they're to be played as D-flat, they're marked with an explicit flat sign (♭) in the score, even though the key signature requires them to be flattened anyway. More pointlessness.

What am I to make of this pre-war Soviet oddity? -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 00:53, 29 July 2026 (UTC)

So two things are notationally odd: the parenthesis in the signature, and the explicit flattening of the D-flats (as well of some other notes that are flats per the key signature, as in bars 9 and 11). Explicitly indicating already implied alterations is actually not uncommon when in the context playing naturals may feel more natural to one's fingers; I can't tell if this may have played a role here. One scenario for the odd key signature I can think of is that the composer originally only wrote the five flats that were needed, but was berated by his composition teacher because the key theoretically required six, and then half-heartedly wrote the sixth flat in.  ​‑‑Lambiam 19:53, 29 July 2026 (UTC)

I get that, and thanks. What I don't get is: having gone through and laboriously added naturals to all instances of the note C, why confuse the player with parenthesising the C-flat in the key signature? Either it's part of the signature or it isn't, but the parentheses make it look like a bet each way. Naturals always countermand a previous instruction, whether in the same bar or in the general key signature. Hence the C-flat in the key signature does definitely apply, and the player is left in no doubt that they're playing the right notes. It's just a stupidly clunky way of doing things; adding tons of accidentals when there are already 6 flats in the key does not endear one to players. It must have snuck past his teacher on the way to the publisher.

FWIW, this is one of those pieces that look really interesting on the page, but sound dreck to the ears. Stalin's mid-30s Russia was a pretty dreck place ... -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 21:55, 29 July 2026 (UTC)

There were plenty of shows though. DuncanHill (talk) 22:09, 29 July 2026 (UTC)