Just One Person

The pouring rain matched my mood. The hospital information desk where I volunteered one morning a week had had only a couple of inquiries in four hours. With a sense of wasted time, I drove through the sodden streets to attend a noontime concert at our local library. I left my umbrella at the door . . . and stepped into an empty auditorium. The weather was bad, but was I going to be the only one here? As the flutist, in her long, green dress, walked onto the stage, I wanted to sink into the floor to spare her this embarrassment. Following her came a man and a woman. The man sat down at the piano, while the woman positioned herself behind him to turn the pages. Surely they weren’t going to go ahead with the concert—three performers before an audience of one! But the flutist, with a little bow, lifted her gleaming instrument and launched into a Mozart sonata. At its close, I discovered what a disconsolate sound two clapping hands make in an empty room. The flutist bowed again as the pianist set out a second score. The numbers were listed on the sheet I’d picked up at the entrance. They played the entire program. When they finished, I went forward to thank them. “To think you played it all for just one person! I wish a thousand had been here!” The soloist looked at me curiously. “Just one person?” she asked “But . . . if one person isn’t important, how could a thousand be?” One listener at a concert. One hospital visitor seeking directions. What if totals are a human concept . . . what if God counts always one by one? God, let me serve with gladness the individuals You love.

CEO Callings

Hoping to raise a future CEO? Try naming your kid Peter or Deborah. If having a child who grows up to be an athlete is more your style, Ryan, Matt or Jessica might be the way to go.

These are the top names for CEOs and athletes, according to online professional networking site LinkedIn. Drawing from over 100 million LinkedIn profiles, the site has released the most popular names for a variety of professions. Female engineers in the United States, for example, are very likely to be named Kiran, while "Thierry" is the most prevalent name in restaurant and food services worldwide.

Names may not be destiny, but some research suggests that what we're called can have long-lasting effects. Boys with names typically given to girls have higher rates of behavior problems in middle school, according to one study. It seems that the boys may be compensating in the face of teasing and insecurity about their names.

Having a name associated with low socioeconomic status can influence how people treat you, as can the "race" of your name. In one 2003 experiment published by the National Bureau of Economic Research, resumes sent out under the more "white-sounding" names such as "Emily" and "Greg" got more 30 percent more callbacks than identical resumes sent out under names typically associated with African Americans, such as "Lakisha" and "Jamal."

Meanwhile, baby names reveal more about parents than ever before. Over the past decades, baby names have become more diverse as parents seek out "unique" monikers for their kids.

The LinkedIn analysis is limited to members of the social networking site, but it turned up some odd correlations. For one, male CEOs in the United States are unusually likely to have four-letter names, such as "Jack" or "Fred." Sales professionals in the U.S. also tend to have short names, including "Chip" and "Todd," while engineers' names are usually longer.

"Typically hypocorisms, the shorter form of a given name, are used in intimate situations as a nickname or a term of endearment," study researcher Frank Nuessel, a professor of classical and modern languages at the University of Louisville, said in a statement.

"It’s possible that sales professionals in the U.S. and male CEOs around the world use these shortened versions of their name as a way to be more approachable and accessible to potential clients."

Top CEO names

Here, according to LinkedIn, are the top names for CEOs, both globally and in the U.S. [See: Top 10 Names for Other Professions]:

Top 10 Global Male CEO Names

1. Peter

2. Bob

3. Jack

4. Bruce

5. Fred

6. Bill

7. Ron

8. Christian

9. Alexander

10. Don (Maybe Don Draper of "Mad Men" had the right idea changing his name from "Dick Whitman.")

Top 10 Global Female CEO Names

1. Deborah

2. Sally

3. Debra

4. Cynthia

5. Carolyn

6. Pamela

7. Ann

8. Cheryl

9. Linda

10. Janet

While male CEOs tended toward the more casual monikers, female CEOs showed the opposite trend.

"Interestingly enough, female CEOs appear to prefer to use their full names and not nicknames, which could signify that they want to be taken more seriously and want co-workers to think of them in a more professional light," Nuessel said.

Ode to Joy

Was at HMV a few days back, and had a hard time restricting my impulse and passion for good recordings.

I finally decided against Lang Lang's Best and Rarities as well as a Godowsky Album, and also Arthur Grumiaux's 2CD concerto albums, and cast my vote for another recording of the Ninth. This time, by Karajan and the Berliner Philharmoniker's 1977 recording with DG.

The CD was an ADD. The mixing came through a little unnatural and unusually polished. However the effected is a handsome rendering of Beethoven's majesty and drama. I personally find the dynamics unusually well managed, less wild and fiery than Gardiner's yet the final analysis is that this is probably a recording I would more often listen to. It's perhaps the well layering that gives this rendition a rare clarity and cleanness.

As I was paying for the album, the cashier surprised me by praising this album. I dun have much regard for HMV's staff knowledge in non-pop/rock music.

Having listened a few times over, it had been like a rendezvous with an old lover. Memories of our time together with this charged performance brought a new breeze of intimacy and romantic experience. Just a minor note of observation, the tenor sang differently, the best version I have heard.

I have also made a deepened understanding of my love; and here's the lyrics Beethoven refined from Friedrich von Schiller's Ode to Joy:

O friends, no more these sounds!
Let us sing more cheerful songs,
more full of joy!

Joy, bright spark of divinity,
Daughter of Elysium,
Fire-inspired we tread
Thy sanctuary.

Thy magic power re-unites
All that custom has divided,
All men become brothers
Under the sway of thy gentle wings.

Whoever has created
An abiding friendship,
Or has won
A true and loving wife,
All who can call at least one soul theirs,
Join in our song of praise;
But any who cannot must creep tearfully
Away from our circle.

All creatures drink of joy
At nature's breast.
Just and unjust
Alike taste of her gift;

She gave us kisses and the fruit of the vine,
A tried friend to the end.
Even the worm can feel contentment,
And the cherub stands before God!

Gladly, like the heavenly bodies
Which He set on their courses
Through the splendor of the firmament;
Thus, brothers, you should run your race,
As a hero going to conquest.

You millions, I embrace you.
This kiss is for all the world!

Brothers, above the starry canopy
There must dwell a loving Father.

Do you fall in worship, you millions?
World, do you know your creator?

Seek him in the heavens;
Above the stars must He dwell.

Due Discovery

I just realised the cover of one of my favourite books: A Trip to the Stars, is actually a painting called Queen of the Night by Karl Friedrich Schinkel. I never saw that. It just looked like a canopy of stars, much like that of the ceiling of some Renaissance-styled concert hall.

I guess I was never into paintings, otherwise I would have spotted it :) And I dun recall having read that in the book. Strange.

Anyway the discovery was a little of an overdue eureka. Whatever. It is good to now know the truth. I have been set free from not knowing and not knowing that I did not know.