The Superior Olive:

An auditory nucleus in your brain stem that lets you figure out the position of sound in space based on relative amplitude and/or on time differences between your two ears.

 - Seth S. Horowitz in The Universal Sense - How Hearing Shapes the Mind

Until I read this most fascinating book, I thought olives were simply playful food items used by children as fingertip covers and by adults as martini decorations.

And wouldn't superior olive be a great name for a vodka brand?

Have you "heard" about the new vodka?
It makes an outstanding dirty martini.

After a quick internet search, I learned that the superior olive already lends its name to a rock band ( which is quite appropriate as well).

Below is the image that adorns the home page of their website where their music is described as "blending orchestral tenderness with raw primal rock energy, as if the spirit of Mozart inhabited Ozzie Osbourne and became the front man for Pink Floyd."

Hmm ... I might have to give them a listen while I snack on my fingertips and sip a dirty martini.



Image credits: 1, 2, 3

A Ventriloquist's Phonetics Pitch

A ventriloquist's performance presents the perfect excuse for introducing some of the subfields of phonetics.



Articulatory phonetics: production point of view (rate of vocal fold vibration of the speaker).

Acousitc phonetics: transmission point of view (fundamental frequency of sounds as they travel from speaker to listener).

Auditory phonetics: reception point of view (pitch as perceived by listener).