BS: Lighting your cigarette on your piano?

29 May 04 - 11:41 PM (#1196900)
Subject: BS: Lighting your cigarette on your piano?
From: Marion

Hi gang. In the movies thread, somebody mentioned the great movie "Legend of 1900".

In this movie, there's a scene where the hero plays a very frantic piece on a grand piano, then when he's done, he touches his cigarette to the piano strings and it lights.

It's a great piece of drama - but is it really possible?

Discuss.

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29 May 04 - 11:45 PM (#1196902)
Subject: RE: BS: Lighting your cigarette on your piano?
From: Blackcatter

If that were possible the felt on the hammers that strike the stings would catch on fire.

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30 May 04 - 12:12 AM (#1196911)
Subject: RE: BS: Lighting your cigarette on your piano?
From: Blackcatter

Amen bruddah.

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30 May 04 - 12:54 AM (#1196920)
Subject: RE: BS: Lighting your cigarette on your piano?
From: George Papavgeris

Shouldn't believe all you see on the telly...

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30 May 04 - 02:36 AM (#1196936)
Subject: RE: BS: Lighting your cigarette on your piano?
From: Stilly River Sage

Marion, if you were fishing, it looks like you reeled in a couple of carp!

SRS

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30 May 04 - 03:00 AM (#1196939)
Subject: RE: BS: Lighting your cigarette on your piano?
From: George Papavgeris

Was that the right spelling, SRS?

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30 May 04 - 09:55 AM (#1197071)
Subject: RE: BS: Lighting your cigarette on your piano?
From: Amos

simply sybiotically syntillate to the brains of dotting parent

Garg:

I believe what you meant to say is symbiotically, scintillate, and doting.

Welcome to Pot, Kettle and Beyond. How may I help you?

A

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30 May 04 - 10:13 AM (#1197079)
Subject: RE: BS: Lighting your cigarette on your piano?
From: Deckman

Of course it is. I did it all the time when I was a kid. But then my Mother caught me and made me give up smoking. Oh well! CHEERS, Bob

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30 May 04 - 02:55 PM (#1197182)
Subject: RE: BS: Lighting your cigarette on your piano?
From: semi-submersible

How hot can strings get? Manufacturers must have researched the question...

Very sorry about the flames, Marion.

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30 May 04 - 04:30 PM (#1197257)
Subject: RE: BS: Lighting your cigarette on your piano?
From: Stilly River Sage

El Greko, it was a play on words. A pun. People who complain can be said to be "carping." She was fishing around for information, and I took her question and coupled it with the rude response and turned them into a witty little verbal riposte to Gargoyle's (and possibly Blackcatter's) complaints. Carp singular or plural is carp. That about beats that pun to death!

SRS

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30 May 04 - 04:40 PM (#1197263)
Subject: RE: BS: Lighting your cigarette on your piano?
From: Blackcatter

Gee -a nd I thought maybe in stead of fishing, she was trolling.

Remember I gave her a serious answer first. Who else bothered to answer her?

Semi - they COULD get quite hot - they're metal, after all, but do they, I would doubt that even at the point of contact do they get more than a few degrees warmer. Heat is generated through friction, not just contact. With the felt and the straight up and down hammering, there is little friction. Simple test - feel the tip of a large nail that has been hammered into wood - you probably won't feel that it's warm. Next use a power screwdriver to quickly put a screw into and back out of the same piece of wood. I dare you to touch that screw to your tongue.

And I don't really think it was much of a flame on my part (my second post, I mean) I think it is a pretty dumb question. See the other thread about "I dare you not to laugh at these" The question could have fit in that thread.

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30 May 04 - 06:41 PM (#1197335)
Subject: RE: BS: Lighting your cigarette on your piano?
From: Peace

Marion, these guys are louts. Ignore them. I am a gentleman and I shall be only too happy to respond in a civil manner. Incidentally, if you should see Little Hawk's goat, would you be so kind as to inform me? Thank you.

It is unlikely that the strings contained in the bowels of a piano could cause a cigarette to burn. However, were one first to dip the cigarette in nitro glycerine, one might achieve that end for a moment or so. Please don't try this at home.

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30 May 04 - 07:22 PM (#1197367)
Subject: RE: BS: Lighting your cigarette on your piano?
From: semi-submersible

Sorry, "flame" singular. But I didn't see reservations in your endorsement.
I think it was an amusing question, and I liked your clear answer to it.
I enjoyed some of the posts, especially Amos's.
Thank you.

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30 May 04 - 07:26 PM (#1197370)
Subject: RE: BS: Lighting your cigarette on your piano?
From: The Fooles Troupe

Now I know what inspired that song "Hot time in the old town tonight".

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30 May 04 - 09:28 PM (#1197420)
Subject: RE: BS: Lighting your cigarette on your piano?
From: Stilly River Sage

Blackcatter, that's the rest of the pun. "Trolling" is a kind of fishing. It's an exploratory pass through unknown waters to see if something will bit. You have the rod at the back of the boat, and have enough weight on it that it stay submerged as you move through the water.

I had a teacher in the fifth grade in Seattle who was a musician. One week she told us that she was going to be performing on television (the naisent PBS station, channel 9). Darned if when she was introduced she didn't stand up at the grand piano, lean over the music stand and start plucking the thing! She had never mentioned that was how she approached it, and I (being a kid) decided that perhaps she couldn't really play at all so was faking it. :)

I don't remember her first name. She was Mrs. Harris at E.C. Hughes Elementary and she was in her 60s in the 1960s so it's probably safe to guess that she probably isn't still performing.

SRS

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30 May 04 - 09:30 PM (#1197421)
Subject: RE: BS: Lighting your cigarette on your piano?
From: Stilly River Sage

*bite.* To see if something will bite. Sheesh. I dug out my compost bin today to turn it all over and put it back. I plead fatigue. No biking injuries are responsible for my messy typing.

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30 May 04 - 10:00 PM (#1197435)
Subject: RE: BS: Lighting your cigarette on your piano?
From: Blackcatter

I got it SRS.

I know a bit about fishing. my larges big mouth bass caught in Lake Okeechobee is 15lb 6oz. I fish for snook on a regular basis on the Intercoastal Water Way (Mosquito Lagoon/Banana River/Indian River) on the east coast of Florida.

One of my first jobs in high school was to cut bait for the tourist fishing boat Master Baiter II out of Port Salerno, Florida. I've brought in sailfish, shark and used to skin dive for grouper.

I used to fly into the "wilds of Northern Wisconsin with my dad to fish on nearly virgin lakes, I've caught the best rainbow trout in the world on top of the Grand Mesa on the Western Slope of Colorado.

So I really did get your puns.

I'm just saying with all that's been posted in this thread - who has answered ther question!



Ha!

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30 May 04 - 10:05 PM (#1197437)
Subject: RE: BS: Lighting your cigarette on your piano?
From: The Fooles Troupe

Carp are an imported feral pest in Australian waters. They destroy the habitat for native fish (which taste much better!) and are being harvested (with Government encouragement) and made into a fertilizer called "Charlie Carp".

Robin

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31 May 04 - 12:31 AM (#1197478)
Subject: RE: BS: Lighting your cigarette on your piano?
From: Stilly River Sage

There was a big problem in New Mexico a number of years back. I don't find much mention of it now, just in passing:

For the last few years, Stone Lake on the Jicarilla Apache Reservation was exceptional. An extensive and expensive restoration effort in 1993 eradicated a Carp problem and the trout stocked then grew quite large (21 inches plus).

Not nearly the kind of problem of whirling disease.

SRS

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31 May 04 - 12:33 AM (#1197479)
Subject: RE: BS: Lighting your cigarette on your piano?
From: Stilly River Sage

How did that happen? That post was for a different thread. Sorry.

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31 May 04 - 12:36 AM (#1197480)
Subject: RE: BS: Lighting your cigarette on your piano?
From: Stilly River Sage

Nope, sorry it was the correct thread but the thread drift here has gotten so bad that I couldn't tell where I was for a minute. This did start out talking about piano strings, right?

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31 May 04 - 12:53 AM (#1197486)
Subject: RE: BS: Lighting your cigarette on your piano?
From: The Fooles Troupe

Dum, dum, dum, DUM!

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31 May 04 - 02:35 AM (#1197499)
Subject: RE: BS: Lighting your cigarette on your piano?
From: George Papavgeris

OK, I apologise for my own part of the "flaming" of Marion. Let's answer the question.

I understand that when played at levels of "allegro con brio" for more than 15 minutes continuously, strings can indeed get quite warm; I don't know about "hot". This is why concert pianos have a lid that can be propped up - they are aircooled. Honky-tonk mechanical pianos use instead the bellows driving the mechanism to pass air around the strings.

As for the upright models, manufacturers recommend that one stands a pitcher of water on the top for emergencies. This looks inelegant, and so people often stick a single rose in the pitcher, pretending it is a vase.

There you have the definitive answer. Which only leaves me to relate this one, told me by a Dutch organ-playing friend (though he did have the sensitivity to tell it outside the church):

Q: What is better than a rose on your piano?
A: Tulips on your organ.

Boom-boom!

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31 May 04 - 10:20 AM (#1197614)
Subject: RE: BS: Lighting your cigarette on your piano?
From: Marion

Hmm, interesting thread.

Truth is, I was hoping that a silly question might inspire some creative explanations as to how you can start a fire by playing your instrument. But I guess most people took my opening post at face value. I'll try to be more straightforward in the future.

Love, Marion

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31 May 04 - 11:25 AM (#1197645)
Subject: RE: BS: Lighting your cigarette on your piano?
From: Blackcatter

Fishing a pianos have one connections SRS:

You can tune a piano but you cannot tunafish.



An oldie, but used in the proper place, a goodie.

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31 May 04 - 11:50 AM (#1197656)
Subject: RE: BS: Lighting your cigarette on your piano?
From: Ellenpoly

Marion honey, the answer to your question is of course, yes.

Any instrument that doesn't get fired up while being played just isn't worth the effort.


Got that, boys?


..xx..e

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31 May 04 - 11:58 AM (#1197659)
Subject: RE: BS: Lighting your cigarette on your piano?
From: Deckman

And let's hear a "SISS BOOM BAH!!!" Bob

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31 May 04 - 12:07 PM (#1197665)
Subject: RE: BS: Lighting your cigarette on your piano?
From: Ellenpoly

Was that your own instrument exploding, Bob?

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31 May 04 - 12:30 PM (#1197678)
Subject: RE: BS: Lighting your cigarette on your piano?
From: Amos

Physically, no way can youheta up those strings to that degree byt playing the piano -- the felt hammers and the air space involved and the rate of heat loss in wires is such that it won't get anywhere near. Just follow the energy losses through the chain from player to string and it will be obvious.

Psychologically, you can start all kinds of fire by playing the piano.

A

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31 May 04 - 03:20 PM (#1197771)
Subject: RE: BS: Lighting your cigarette on your piano?
From: annamill

Another question of the same sort.

Can you light up the gas you eject when your passing wind??

I have heard you can, and I have always wanted to try it, but just never have. Someone told me you can sit in a tub, pass the gas, and light it with a match when it comes out of the water. Therefore, not injuring yourself.

Can this actually be done? Has anyone tried it? If anyone one does please let us know what happens.

I usually take showers.

Just playing Marion. Please don't take offense.

Love, Annamill

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31 May 04 - 03:34 PM (#1197782)
Subject: RE: BS: Lighting your cigarette on your piano?
From: Blackcatter

You can light your farts. Wouldn't reccommend it, especially if you have hair or skin down there.

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31 May 04 - 03:38 PM (#1197785)
Subject: RE: BS: Lighting your cigarette on your piano?
From: Amos

Anna:

Fart lighting is perfectly possible, but is usually an activity which appeals only to pre-adolescent boys, or older males suffering from arrested development.

For more developed expertise, consult some of Spaw's semi-fictional essays on the topic.

A

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31 May 04 - 04:00 PM (#1197813)
Subject: RE: BS: Lighting your cigarette on your piano?
From: annamill

I guess I'm just bored on this rainy Memorial Day and Honeys working too.

Drat!

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31 May 04 - 04:08 PM (#1197820)
Subject: RE: BS: Lighting your cigarette on your piano?
From: GUEST

Only on Mudcat BS section!

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31 May 04 - 04:12 PM (#1197827)
Subject: RE: BS: Lighting your cigarette on your piano?
From: Megan L

Marion there was a series on BBC2 i think where they examined things from films to see if the could be achieved. Don't think they tried that one but they did prove Jackie Chan could have peed on his shirt and broken out of jail(Just) :)

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01 Jun 04 - 12:42 AM (#1198149)
Subject: RE: BS: Lighting your cigarette on your piano?
From: Cluin

Of course you can light a cigarette on a musical instrument. Jimi Hendrix did it.

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27 Feb 16 - 04:57 PM (#3775386)
Subject: RE: BS: Lighting your cigarette on your piano?
From: GUEST,Sarreph

I enjoyed reading this 12 year-old thread.

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28 Feb 16 - 07:03 AM (#3775482)
Subject: RE: BS: Lighting your cigarette on your piano?
From: gnu

Me too. Lovely to be reminded of Mudcatters passed of yore as well.

Re... From: George Papavgeris, Date: 30 May 04 - 03:00 AM "Was that the right spelling, SRS?"

For one of the preceding posts, damn good observation, George.

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