20 tons of tension

[Maxpiano@aol.com]

Boy, has this thread drifted off course!

Perhaps you've heard the riddle where the speaker asks:
"What do you call a person who speaks three languages?"
The answer, of course, is "trilingual."
"What do you call a person who speaks two languages?"
If you answer, "bilingual," you are of course correct.
"What do you call a person who speaks one language?"

I'll give you the answer to that below.

Now back to the thread:

I've tuned a bunch of old Mathushek upright pianos with no backposts
(correction:  two backposts, one on each end) and they hold a tuning just as
well as any other piano.  Some Yamaha spinets I have worked on had a similar
arrangement.

The best piano in my whole clientele as far as holding tune goes, is a
Schimmel upright in our church.  This piano has no standard backposts except
for one cast iron bar ("lever" in Everett terminology?) top to bottom across
the back, and one -- don't know the name of this feature, but it is a sort of
triangular casting added to the back with a nose bolt running to the plate in
the treble area.  The piano is 5 to 10 years old, I tuned it a year ago and
play it frequently for services.  I am not aware of any unisons or octaves
going out, though I will check it critically sometime soon.

What do you call a person who speaks one language?  An American.

Bill Maxim
An American (1/16 "Native" but speaks no "native" tongue) who haltingly speaks
two languages.