Hi, this is Dale Wisely, the founder of Chiff & Fipple and the writer/editor of this issue.

Hi.  I'm Academy Award winning actress Mira Sorvino.  I used to have my picture up somewhere on Chiff & Fipple.

Dale :We're here to comment on this great issue of Chiff & Fipple.

Mira:  Yes, I just want to say I was so pleased to be a part of it.

Dale:  Right.  This opening legal thing is a recurring motif in Chiff & Fipple.  Not many people would find the idea of a lawyer-podiatrist-whistle player funny.  Of course, Paul Busman is only two out of three of those. Hehehe.  Just kidding, Paul.  I kid because I love.

Hello, Everyone.  Here is a news item for you:

• Frank R. Chiff, of Indianapolis, Indiana has filed legal action against 3Fish Productions, parent company of Chiff & Fipple, seeking removal of his name from the title of the wildly popular Internet-based tinwhistle informational behemoth. In response, 3Fish Production's Whistling Podiatrist/Attorney Paul Busman, Esq. issued a statement indicating that Chiff & Fipple would agree to change its name to Rosie O'Donnell's Chiff & Fipple as a transitional move, followed, in January 2003, by the name Rosie O'Donnell's Fipple, followed in July 2003 by Caroline Rhea's Fipple.

II.  AT LAST:  A GOOD PICTURE OF A SWAYNE WHISTLE

with our thanks to Jessie K.

Read about Swayne whistles here.

Dale:  I thought this guy Dave had a pretty good letter and a cute limerick.  Hey, Mira:

There once was an Academy Award Winning Actress named Mira

Whose beauty is likely to, uh, kill ya....

Mira: That rhyme is heinous..

Dale: ok, nevermind.

Dale:  Right.

Hi Dale,

Mike Reagan again.

I haven't seen the rescheduling of the Batman episode yet. You know, where Batman, Robin and Batgirl save Gotham City by using pennywhistles.

However, I have been keeping an eye on the Star Trek schedule. If you would like to let your C&F'ers know, the episode "Lessons" is due to broadcast on October 20th at 8:00 PM on TNN.

I'll keep watching for The Inner Light and the Batman episode.

Thanks for dedicating so much of yourself to Chiff and Fipple. It's a great place for those of us with obsessive/compulsive behavior. (Note: I didn't
say "disorder".) :o)

BTW I bought a Michael Burke Pro Session D whistle recently on your recommendation. And the fact that everyone else had at least an eight month waiting list. It's really nice. Just what I was looking for.

Thanks again.


Mike Reagan

Mira:  Ooo.  I have one of those with Strawberry Shortcake on it!  Or maybe Smurfs.

One lunch box available, both sides pictured. Click on pictures to be transported to your local retail establishment.

Mira:  Well, it was small.

Dale:  Smaller than you're accustomed to, Miss Mira, I suppose that's true.  Anyway...

Mira  I want to play Batgirl.

Dale:  Mira, I'm afraid Alicia Silverstone beat you to it. 

Mira:  SO? She tested for it.  Big deal.  It's not like they're going to give it to her!  Look at this:

Dale:  Yeah...What's the deal on your hair?

Wooden Flute Obsession 2-CD Set


41 Artists    86 Tunes    1 Passion

A fundraiser to benefit the International Traditional Music Society, Inc. A public benefit, non-profit educational corporation.

This labor-of-love compilation is just terrific. Producer Kevin Krell (International Traditional Music Society, Inc.) contacted the top Irish flute players in the world and obtained permission to include the tracks on this benefit double-CD. Check out this line-up:

DISC ONE 71 minutes

Garry Shannon, Eamonn Cotter, Marcas Ó Murchú, Michael McGoldrick, Catherine McEvoy, Marcus Hernon, Seamus Tansey, Barry Kerr, Deirdre Havlin, Noel Rice, Josie McDermott, Laurence Nugent, Mike Rafferty, Loretto Reid, Liam Kelly, Colm O'Donnell,Jimmy Noonan, Hammy Hamilton, Turlach Boylan, Tom Doorley, John Skelton

DISC TWO 71 minutes

Cathal McConnell, Niall Keegan, John Wynne, Martin Gaffney, Joanie Madden, Paul McGrattan, Mark Roberts, Skip Healy, Sylvain Barou, Grey Larsen, Eoghan MacAogain, Fintan Vallely, Hanz Araki, June Ní Chormaic, Micho Russell, Seamus Egan, Terry Coyne, Matt Molloy, Frankie Kennedy, Jean-Michel Veillon.

I love these CDs.  They are a must for flute & for whistle players alike.

For more information:

http://www.worldtrad.org/WFO_CD.htm

Dale:  Uh, Mira....

Mira:  You were telling me earlier that Vice President Che ////////////[][][]////BRK.....///

///DATASTRM INTRUPT PROTOCOL "SORVINO"///?BRK

/

VIII.

ask Dr. Fipple

Issue #3

This week's question comes from Eric Fitts of Morgantown, West Virginia.

Well, Eric, I think your teacher must really respect your "brain power" to get a question like that in the 5th grade.  Your question involves a very old problem that the great thinkers of the world have pondered for a long, long time.  That is, of course, what is Chiff & Fipple and what is it really all about?  Then, you have the extra aggravation of dealing with the whole teleological thing. Let me see if I can help. 

"Chiff & Fiple" as you call it (misspellings like that are one of the things that can be so cute about you young people) is all about tinwhistles and about the crazy, mixed-up people that make them and play them.  Here is a picture that may help you.

This is a tinwhistle--and it sort of illustrates what Chiff & Fipple is about.  It may remind you of teleological/theological concerns in some ways. It reminds me of this and many more things. 

Now, let's consider the topic of teleological arguments for the existence of God. 

These are arguments based on our knowledge of the world. Especially those aspects of the world which appear to be designed and purposive, analogous to cases of human design. It is usually put probabilistically, arguing that the most plausible explanation is that of a world designer and creator, with intelligence, purposes, etc.

The theory of evolution (which still makes a lot of people really, really upset), suggesting an alternative explanation for some kinds of order, has reduced the power of older versions of the theory, kind of like a Pokemon^TM character saps the power of another Pokemon character, like maybe, SpleenLizard^TM (picture not available, so here's a picture of Bozo^TM  .)  Anyway, this has incited the formulation of more broadly based versions of this argument, such as those of F. R. Tennant and Richard Swinburne.

I recommend you read David Hume, Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion (1777).  This is available in a Classic Comics version and it is coming out on VHS/DVD in March 2003. (A rumored PlayStation 2^TM version has been scrubbed.)

I hope this has helped you with your question.  

Dr. Fipple

Coming soon: 

How is Chiff & Fipple different from the General Accounting Office (GAO)?

IX.  JOHN SINDT UPDATE

Hi Dale,

John (Sindt) has just come out with a B-natural whistle: $90. he has also made a C#! it was made for Michael Rafferty who needed it to play with some strangely tuned instrument. He and Mary liked it very much. don't have a price on that one but would assume $85. and I'm not sure but I think John would make others.

Ann

John Sindt
16 Second Ave
Nyack, NY 10960
914-358-4943

  Email:  AgEsmay@aol.com 

by Jim McCabe for Chiff & Fipple

On July 18, 2002, Alan Lomax passed away at the age of 87 in a Florida nursing home. For several years before his death he struggled with the debilitating effects of a stroke. Mr. Lomax was the twentieth century's premier folk musicologist, and certainly one of the most important cultural figures of that century. He collected music for the Library of Congress and served on the faculty of both Columbia University and Hunter College.
 
 For many years, beginning while still in his teens, Mr. Lomax traveled through the south collecting music. From the Louisiana bayous to the Mississippi delta and into the back hollows of Appalachia he lugged cumbersome and primitive equipment to record what he called, "the voices of the voiceless" in their kitchens and their prisons, and on their porches and their highways.

 "It is the voiceless people of the planet who really have in their memories the 90,000 years of human life and wisdom," he once said. "I've devoted my entire life to an obsessive collecting together of the evidence."

 The Appalachian music he recorded reflected a mixture of Irish, Scots, British and African American culture in its ballads and dance tunes. This music was a major factor in the British skiffle music craze of the 1950's, which gave rise to the band that eventually became the Beatles.

 Prison songs, work gang songs, field hollers, spirituals, blues, and fife and drum band music are among the African American traditions recorded by Mr. Lomax. In addition, he documented many sea chanteys and early examples of cajun folk music.

Among the artists discovered by Mr. Lomax are Leadbelly, Jelly Roll Morton, Woodie Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Mississippi Fred MacDowell and Muddy Waters.

 He also documented the influence on the blues of earlier players like Charly Patton and Robert
 Johnson, whose ghosts he chased throughout the Delta. During the McCarthy era, when many of the musicians he admired were blacklisted because of their political views, Mr. Lomax traveled to England, where he lived from 1950 to 1957. While in Europe, he continued to collect folk songs, traveling to Italy, France and Spain, as well as throughout the British Isles. In 1951 he traveled through Ireland with Seamus Ennis, collecting folk songs from the Irish tradition.
 
Mr. Lomax had disdain for the commercial music industry, believing that it was destroying music by homogenization. He also understood that simply by recording for posterity, he was standardizing the music he recorded, thereby robbing the traditions of its future. He persisted because of a fear of the complete loss of the treasure that is this music.  Remarkably, in nearly every place where Mr. Lomax collected folk music, a revival of that music followed.
 
 Here are a few sites where you can begin to find recordings and books by Mr. Lomax. One warning, though: a small taste may lead to a new obsessive acquisitive disorder.
 
Irish Trad collected by Alan Lomax:

http://www.rounder.com/rounder/artists/lomax_alan/folkprim.html

Alan Lomax Collection Sampler

You can also search sites like amazon.com for Mr. Lomax's many books and other projects.

to delay, inexcusably, the last phase of the Fred Rose giveaway. 

For those of you who joined the Crisis Center in the "Friends" campaign, you're entered.  Thanks! Sorry you didn't win the car!

I'll enter one chance for every $20 donated to the Crisis Center.  Here are two ways to contribute:

Call Mike Falligant at (205) 323-7782 & he'll take care of you. Be sure and tell him you're entering for a Chiff & Fipple giveaway.  Mike will notify me that you've entered.

Or you can use the web to donate by visiting the Crisis Center website at http://www.crisiscenterbham.com .  Click on the DONATIONS button on the navigation bar to the left of the screen.  Great cause. Secure site.  Credit Cards.  Cool beans.

We'll close it off on OCTOBER 31st, 2002.  That's your deadline.  Then I'll draw the lucky winner and get the Fred Rose whistle in the mail.

Thanks again to Fred for donating the gorgeous instrument.

XI.  and finally...

I've been giving this Martha Stewart thing a lot of thought.  And, I guess, to put it all in perspective, I would turn to the words of Shakespeare:

Beware the woman who bangs the wooden spoon on the great bowl of the trading of shares based on the whisperings of inside men. For greed is indeed a double-edged sword.  It both enriches the purse and imprisons the, uh, purseholder when said purseholder is, like, busted.

XII.  Y'ALL HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND / WEEK

and thanks for putting up with a particularly silly issue.

Dale