Harumph.

[Horace Greeley]

Hi,

Harumph.

"Our very good friend, the brilliant pianist", Jose Feghali, has been in 
town rehearsing and performing Tsch. 1 with a local band.  Yesterday, this 
worthy earned himself a place in an elite group of pianists, now four, to 
be exact, who have decided to "service" (without notice or permission) an 
instrument for which I am/have been responsible.  I will not leave any one 
of them alone with an instrument.

Those of you who know me know, of course, that I handled this situation 
with the kind of infinite grace, tack, and aplomb for which I am so justly 
known...Right.

I have not started to work through whatever he was trying to do - there was 
not time yesterday, and today's performance was on a different 
instrument.  There was time to tune, and nothing else.  So, whatever he 
did, he lived with last night...seems the piano had a few noises that it 
had not had the day before...

Just to be absolutely clear - I am more than happy to help even the most 
brain-dead nimrod with whatever they think they might want, so long as the 
instrument is not damaged or things undone.  At the same time, it is 
precisely those folks who have a modicum of technical training who are the 
most dangerous.  They are, in my experience, the ones the very most likely 
to misapprehend why a given thing might be done a given way; or, that they 
can (obviously) improve/repair something.  When they become so ego-centric 
and irrational as to presume to start working on an instrument with which 
they have little, if any, historical relationship, without at least some 
notice to the responsible technician, they cross over what is for me, a 
line of acceptable behavior.

Anyway, as we used to say in the Navy: "Don't drop the soap."

Best to all.

Horace

*********************************************
Horace Greeley, CNA, MCP, RPT
Systems Analyst/Engineer
Controller's Office, Stanford University
651 Serra St., RM 100
Stanford, CA 94305

Voice:  650.725.9062
Fax:     650.725.8014
*********************************************