I recently re-discovered Uncle Orson Reviews Everything, and I’d like my blog to follow in his footsteps. He reviews all sorts of things, from book releases to restaurants to maps. In each post he has several, perhaps unrelated topics. You should check it out.
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Friday evening I attended a concert by the brass quintet, A Touch of Brass. I might write a fuller review later, but I just want to talk about the end of the concert.
This concert took place in at the St. John Anglican Church, which meant that for the performers to get on and off stage, they had to walk across the entire length of the room—through the audience.
After they played their last number, they stood up, took a bow, and then started to leave the stage. Some people started to give a standing ovation, and soon almost everyone was standing, before the performers had made it across the room.
After they had finished leaving the room entirely, they then marched on back in for an encore. It was lively too, with a jazzy feel.
Afterwards, I wondered about the whole procedure. I haven’t gone to too many small ensemble concerts myself, but I have seen encores. Most notably in my memory is the OBDA Select Band concert where the high school band led by Jerry Junkin played the “Overture to Candide,” much faster than before. Very flashy.
My friend Héctor told me that he doesn’t clap for performances unless he truly enjoyed it. That seemed like a fair deal. You wouldn’t want to lie to anyone, and when he claps, you know that he actually liked it.
I was wondering about the standing ovation. Was this concert with a standing ovation? What are the standards for a standing ovation anyway?
But as the performers were walking out, I decided, “you know, I’d like an encore. I want to see what else they have.” So I stood up and clapped along with everyone else.
Is the standing ovation the cue for an encore? Or does a standing ovation mean more?
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I don’t normally think about them, but aren’t toilet paper roll holders convenient? Think about the other options. We might have to carry around our own toilet paper—and what if you forgot it at home today?
Or, establishments with restrooms could still provide them, but in different ways. We could have toilet paper coming out sheet by sheet like tissue, or we might have to crank them out ourselves like paper towels. Automatically dispensing toilet paper roll holders seem a little excessive at this point (but who knows what will happen in a few years).
We currently have toilet paper roll holders which take a roll, and you can pull however much you need and rip it off. Sometimes, when using the economy-sized versions, the toilet paper gets stuck, and you struggle to get enough. Other times, you accidentally pull harder than you need to, and you end up with a whole wad of toilet paper. Sometimes, you might even pull the roll off the holder.
Well, Quest University Canada uses a brilliant solution to all of your toilet paper frustrations. In their Academic Building, they have twin toilet paper holders where the tube across the middle fits snuggly into the toilet paper roll, and the tube itself is an oval and is held up off-center.
The “twin” advantage is obvious, you get more toilet paper without big bulky economy-sized rolls. The tube in the middle fitting snuggly means you’ll never have the roll slipping off. But what of the oval?
When you pull on the toilet paper, the roll makes one turn, and then sinks back to the bottom without rolling over multiple times. The roll acts just like a pendulum, bringing the weight (ie. the roll) back to the center, and you’ll never have to worry about an excessive amount of toilet paper again!
