“I am the Edison Phonograph, created by the great wizard of the New World, to delight those who would have melody or be amused. I can sing you tender songs of love; I can give you merry tales and joyous laughter; I can transport you to the realms of music; I can call you to join in the rhythmic dance; I can lull the babe to sweet repose or waken in the aged heart soft memories of youthful days.”

These words were spoken by a wax cylinder in 1906, to introduce the world to the miracle of audio recording.

Before they recorded sound on discs, they used to record it on wax cylinders. My brother Kevin e-mailed me this link to the Cylinder Preservation and Digitization Project, a treasury of MP3 files made from these cylinders, with music and spoken word recordings from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He also sent me a link to a New York Times article about the collection.

Drudge linked to this footage of the birth of an Oklahoma tornado, so I reckon it must be pretty cool. But it won’t play on my Macintosh, so I don’t really know.

A family in New Mexico is suing Turner Films for $325,000, over a haircut. They signed up their eight-year-old daughter to be an extra in the Turner miniseries Into the West. Now they allege that Turner cut their daughter’s hair without the parents’ permission. Despite my own involvement with Into the West, I have not been named as a co-defendant. I have no comment on the case.

Beatrice Anna Gleeson will be baptized tomorrow, Sunday, March 19, at St. Michael’s Chapel in Bethany, Oklahoma. The baptism will be administered after the 5:00 Mass ends, so around six-ish. Everyone who cares to attend is welcome. The directions to St. Michael’s are on my Oct. 21, 2004 post about Gilbert’s baptism.

March 19 is the Feast of St. Joseph, and it is also the sixth anniversary of our daughter Faith’s baptism.

We just had the pleasure of meeting Ali Meyer, local television news anchor. She is very nice. So is her cameraman, Walid. If you live in Oklahoma City, you may see us all on KFOR Channel 4, on the 10:00 news, tonight. (Only probably not Walid, because he was operating the camera.)

The “Shark Bait” game at Filet-O-Fish.com is too hard for me. My best time was nine seconds. I reckon you’ll do better.