Like Many Great Songs, “Yesterday” was Discovered

Paul McCartney’s timeless ”Yesterday” was literally discovered, revealed to him in a dream, rather than composed or created from scratch.

Which is not surprising, I guess, because it has that rare quality of great music: a feeling or sense in the listener that this melody has always existed, timeless and eternal, and only needed to be revealed at some point in its full and perfect form.

He woke up one morning in 1964 with the melody in his head and immediately got up to play it on piano so he wouldn’t forget it. He called it “Scrambled Eggs” just to have something to sing — the real words would come later.

https://youtu.be/PNhj_MYZ69o?si=I1Wu02YNEf8raCWs

McCartney’s legacy as a creator of deeply original music with wonderful melodies is clearly legendary — you could even make the case that he belongs in the Songwriters Hall of Fame twice, both for his Beatles era and then his Wings era. No arguments here.

But “Yesterday” is on another level, a rare height that few songwriters ever see let alone reach.

1959 World Series video

White Sox win first pennant in 40 years

Unfortunately the Dodgers got 2 wins and 2 saves from Larry Sherry to win the series.

Series summary

My dad was a big White Sox fan and used to tell me about this series so it always makes me think about him—plus this was the year of my birth so that was a very big year for him personally.

Tunnels and How They Are Built: Immersed Tubes

I’ve always been fascinated by the process of building tunnels …

Immersed tube is what it sounds like: constructing sections above ground that are then immersed and connected together.

Venice is an Engineering Marvel, Far More Impressive Than You Thought

Using engineering genius the Venetians — refugees from nearby towns seeking shelter from Visigoths and later Attila the Hun around 500-550 AD — turned a series of swampy islands into a real city and then into the global center of commerce by the 9th century, well before the time of Marco Polo in the late 13th century.

As the population grew they encountered the usual problems with growing cities — fresh water and waste disposal — and once again employed engineering genius to solve them in simple, effective and efficient ways.

Venice was the capitol of the Republic of Venice, for 1100 years a global power until conquered by Napoleon in 1797.

Another “Great Lake” Besides the Five We Already Knew

The Great Slave Lake in Canada, in the Northwest Territories, is over 2,000 feet deep, deepest in North America.

I have never heard of it. Learn something new every day!

And yes, the name seems a little odd but it’s named after a family named “Slavey”. Also kinda odd, but then lots of names are odd when you really think about it … 

Not Dead Yet

Not many updates around here lately … and that pattern will continue for awhile.

However I have been pretty active on Twitter (or X as Elon has rebranded it) and you can follow me at @jeffbrokaw2013.

My plan for the next few weeks or months is to write there instead, once or twice per week, using the “thread” concept, plus of course reposting things of interest and a few replies here and there (I don’t do much interacting on Twitter).