I receive jokes from time to time from my Rice roommate Alan , and he recently alerted me to the fact that there is an orchestra in Vienna (the one in Austria, not Arkansas), whose instruments are made almost entirely from vegetables (Gemuese in German, pronounced geh-MOOZ-uh, but the "u" has an umlaut which morphs it into a Valley Girl kind of uuuuuuuuu -- try it after drinking German beer: it's a lot easier).

If after reading this you question Alan's sense of humor, please bear in mind he was my roommate all four years at Rice. There should be a 12-step program for such people. Papal canonization is a viable alternative.

Do you doubt the verisimiltude of these vegetarian vicars? Well take a look here . It must be true.

So what kinds of pieces do you think they'll play? I gave it some thought:

• Vivaldi's The Four Seasonings
  
• Haydn's Meatloaf Surprise Symphony
  
• Mendelssohn's A Midsummer Night's Creme
  
• Liszt's Hungarian Goulash Rhapsody
  
• Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue Cheese
  
• Bach's Sheep may safely graze
  

Posted by: Charlie at September 12, 2002 9:33 PM