Six Degrees of Separation

[ardcarp]

I've only just stumbled upon this thread. Isn't the point that if one assumes (conservatively) that every individual will have shaken hands with 100 others, then six steps away will take you up to 10-to-the-power-of-twelve contacts. Is this the size of the world's population? And if I, by this method, have forged a link with someone who cleaned Mao tse-Tung's lavatory, then so what? Sorry...I'm being a bit of a curmudgeonly iconoclast here.

[Richard Tarleton]

I've only just stumbled upon this thread. Isn't the point that if one assumes (conservatively) that every individual will have shaken hands with 100 others, then six steps away will take you up to 10-to-the-power-of-twelve contacts. Is this the size of the world's population? And if I, by this method, have forged a link with someone who cleaned Mao tse-Tung's lavatory, then so what? Sorry...I'm being a bit of a curmudgeonly iconoclast here.

Only if you are actually six handshakes away from that person. That sounds like a mathematical formula. These are actual rather than theoretical connections. The thread, started by Petrushka, began on a Wagner thread with my realisation that I was six handshakes away from Wagner, and Beethoven. We're not talking apostolic succession here, just a bit of harmless fun. So curmudgeon, yes

[ardcarp]

[Richard Tarleton]

In retrospect mine sounds a bit disrespectful to an esteemed host

What I really want to know is how many removes I am from John Dowland - it might all get a bit tangled during the Civil War.

[Flosshilde]

The back of the house has a yard with three sides of outhouses adjacent completing a rectangle. Next morning Brian set up his drumkit in the middle of this space and proceeded to woodshed for a good hour which is a sight I will treasure.

I've been puzzling over this phrase. I assume that it's nothing to do with the outbuildings?

[clive heath]

It means to practise, as you might do in a remote place where nobody will hear your mistakes.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

It means to practise, as you might do in a remote place where nobody will hear your mistakes.

Ah - a bit like "to workshop", but more private?

[ardcarp]

What I really want to know is how many removes I am from John Dowland - it might all get a bit tangled during the Civil War.

Not half as tangled up as poor William Lawes who got shot in it.

Returning to my numerical obsession, I gather from Dawkins that everyone alive today is a descendant of a single woman (a sort of mitochondrial Eve) who lived a few tens of thousands of years ago. This is not to say that other men and women were not around then from whom nobody is descended. It's all a bit mind-blowing really. I'd better go and woodshed now and stop spoiling the fun.

[clive heath]

Yes to fhg and it occurs to me that it could derive from calling a saxophone an ax, hence a private practice would be "woodshedding". It's all very frontier what with chops referring to embrochure.

[salymap]

Someone mentioned the Mayflower on another thread.

This could mean,as I spent two months working for a man called Winslow,who had an ancestor on the original ship I have more connections in the US than I realised.

This is addictive stuff. I'll get my coat.

[gradus]

Richard are you by any chance related to the Tarleton memorialised in Leintwardine church - perhaps only 2 or 3 degrees of separation given his dates.

[Richard Tarleton]

Richard are you by any chance related to the Tarleton memorialised in Leintwardine church - perhaps only 2 or 3 degrees of separation given his dates.

It's but a nom-de-guerre. This isn't me either, but he plays it beautifully.

[french frank]

This isn't me either, but he plays it beautifully.

Very delicately - and it looks as though he has a great sense of humour too :-)

[Richard Tarleton]

Couldn't help reviving this, as I discover I can now get to Haydn in 6 . An old friend has a black and white photo of her great grandfather, a late 19th century Czech (or rather Bohemian) Wagnerian tenor dressed in Lohengrin outfit complete with swan helmet. He. it turns out, was hugged by Liszt. That means me - friend - friend's aunt [granddaughter of tenor] - tenor - Liszt - Beethoven - Haydn.

[Nick Armstrong]

Couldn't help reviving this, as I discover I can now get to Haydn in 6 . An old friend has a black and white photo of her great grandfather, a late 19th century Czech (or rather Bohemian) Wagnerian tenor dressed in Lohengrin outfit complete with swan helmet. He. it turns out, was hugged by Liszt. That means me - friend - friend's aunt [granddaughter of tenor] - tenor - Liszt - Beethoven - Haydn.