Thanks to our West Coast correspondent Emily Gatch we have the following byline from Autrans, France. (If the following link doesn’t appear refresh your page please…)

Does this seem far fetched? Not at all. Consider the following post from the Punjapit blog May 2010:

“While it seems incredible to play music to cows, breeder Guo Zhixin actually hires a musician to play music to his dairy cows for one hour every morning, saying beautiful meledies can make his cows produce more milk.”

“Guo, who raises 860 cows on his farm in a village near city Luoyang, central China’s Henan Province, says playing music to cows brings forth one more kilo of milk from every cow, every day, resulting in 700 yuan’s more worth of milk every year, reported chinanews.com on Monday.”

“Guo began offering music sessions for his cows last March, when he learned the idea from a foreign cow magazine.”

We also know that one version of the lyrics of Bessie Smith’s tune Hot time in the Old Town Tonight resulted from Patrick and Catherine O’Leary’s cow kicking over a lantern in her barn resulting in the great Chicago Fire of 1871 (see Wikipedia here). Another Smith, Sarah, of Wilmette Il sings a particularly hot version of this tune…

Hat tip to Emily for her agro-musicological update!

LC

The Kalishes have provided the lion’s share of today’s catch-up. Late last summer Eleanor and Ralph hosted a pool-side reception for Molly, Gareth and Alicia Wynn Owen, who traveled from Yerevan (capital and largest city of Armenia) to introduce Alicia to her St Louis cousins. Here are a few snapshots of this visit, including a couple taken at a Card’s game. Who would of thought then that the Cards would do what they did? The Wynn Owens clearly brought some good luck. Go Cards!

 

Alicia and Aunt Jennie Quick

John, Ralph and Gareth

Molly and Zel at Redbird Game

Alicia and Madeline

Anne and Madeline, Sarah and Alicia

Grandpa Bill with Alicia

Cousin Powell with Molly

Molly and Alicia

Molly, Gareth, and Alicia

Poolside

St Chamberlain of Augusta
St Gregory the Illuminator
Patron Saint of Armenia

 

Here is a 4th of July (morphed to Columbus Day) Kalish family newsletter. Special thanks and best to Manning Kalish who is serving in the US Army in Afghanistan. We’re proud of you and Cal Boy Gatch, who is also serving in the US Marine Corps.