Jonas' Girlfriend Aspirants, Read On

Do you know your stuff about the Jonas Brothers? Can you call yourself a real fan? Well if you want to be Nick Jonas' girlfriend or any of the Jonas' gf, then you better read these Jonas Brothers facts.
Did you know that the Jonas Brothers Bands started when Nick Jonas, the youngest of the three started a solo career? At six years old, nick was discovered be a manager while the young kid was crooning at the barber shop. Nick then got into Broadway after a year and started in A Christmas Carol as Tiny Tim and even at Les Miserables.
He also acted in Beauty and the Beast which was about the time Nick wrote a musical piece with his dad entitled "Joy to the Word - A Christmas Prayer." The song was sung on a yearly charity event for AIDS produced by Broadway. It was a big hit. INO Records produced it and Christian Radio made it popular through the airwaves.
Meanwhile, while all this was happening, Joe Jonas also went joined the Broadway bandwagon staring on a version of the play La Boheme. As Nick's solo career gained moderate success, it got him noticed. By this time, the three brothers had already started writing songs together for Nick. They eventually were corralled by Columbia records and finally named themselves as the Jonas Brothers.
The newly formed "band of brothers" joined several concert tours by famous pop stars such as Jesse McCartney, Backstreet Boys, Click Five, and even Kelly Clarkson. The also spent some time with Aly and AJ. Incidentally AJ Mishalka and Joe Jonas dated each other as a result of this hot musical set. Don't worry girls because it seems that they are no longer dating each other right now.
Their album, "It's About Time" was a result of collaboration with famous song writers from Bon Jovi, Destiny's Child, Aerosmith, Hanson, and Fountains of Wayne. This album's release was delayed a few times because of some deacons from the executives. The first single, Mandy was aired on Dec 2005. Instantly, the song rocketed up the charts and was requested everywhere.
After that, the album was finally released. The band currently has three albums under their belt namely: It's About Time (2006), Jonas Brothers (2007), and A Little Bit Longer (2008). They appeared on various T.V. shows such as Disney's Hannah Montana. This is also were Nick Jonas and Miley Cyrus, the star of Hannah Montana hooked up. Rumor has it that the two have been dating but have now broken up.
The brother's success is now undeniable as they have millions of fans and even a smash Disney movie Camp Rock. The boys have too much work on their hands with tours and promotions that they have no girlfriends. After all, being gone most of the year, who would have time for that? So for you girls out there who want to be one of the Jonas' girlfriend, sorry, you'll have to wait. They even wear purity rings that means they're saving sex for marriage.

17th Century painting of the Portuguese Synagogue

This picture is in a museum in Amsterdam. Taken by Serge the Whippet's Mum.

Westminster Dog Show 1964

DOG SHOW IN NEW YORK

Best in Show: Ch. Courtenay Fleetfoot of Pennyworth, Peggy Newcombe

Sighthound Racing 1963

Afghans, Borzoi, Greyhounds and Whippets Racing

ALL DOGS ARE RACING

Whippet Racing, Trotting Race And Donkey Racing 1914-1919

WHIPPET RACING, TROTTING RACE AND DONKEY RACE

Irish Trotting And Whippet Racing 1921

IRISH TROTTING AND WHIPPET RACING

Britain's Best Whippet 1925

BRITAIN'S BEST WHIPPETS

Whippet Tanks 1929

THE ROYAL TOURNAMENT

Whippet Racing in Teens and 30s

HERE'S TO THE MEMORY - part 3

Whippet racing 1:00 in.

Whippet Racing in Dublin 1941

WHIPPET RACING Dublin issue

How To Build An Acoustic Guitar The Bracing - Part Four

When I built my first weissenborn guitar I would lay awake at night, partly excited, partly scared I would ruin it all by some fatal mistake. I reasoned though, after a while, well so what? it's only wood, I can always buy a little bit more and so it all over again.I did manage to feel a little better after that! The guitar, of course, is a magnificent example of the whole being a sum of it's parts. We are led to believe that every tiny item either adds or detracts from the well being and quality of the finished guitar..but does it really? Who can explain how a cheap budget guitar made, God knows where, in Asia or even Timbuktu, can whip the hide off a really expensive name guitar?
I recently played an acoustic Gibson and was thinking that something was very wrong with this guitar and was just about to say so to the owner( I was teaching him some guitar tabs on this machine) when he blithely informed me that he paid SIX thousand U.S. dollars for it. I was stunned to say the least. Furthermore he said that the bridge had fallen off it some six weeks later.He said it was taken back and settled for a repair. The repair was abysmal and you could still see glue and dye all around the repaired bridge. He settled for it because frankly, the guy knew zippedy doo-da about guitars. Just so happened he had the dough and always wanted a name guitar.
I went home that night feeling quite faint.
So even the experts can produce some very ropey stuff, it would seem, not always but sometimes!
However, if we get back to the bones of the matter, does every single thing you do to a guitar affect the tone, volume and so on? Well, some of it does, of course, and it's a question of deciding exactly what those things are. What is the magic formula? Isn't it the wood? is it the Rosewood compared to the Brazilian mahogany? is it the design?
I, for one, have a very firm belief that the bracing inside a guitar is one of those components that do make a difference to the overall sound, resonance and richness of the tone that is released when it is played.
I reinforce that statement based not only on many years of owning many different guitars but also on the fact that my Taylor Baby Grand ( although a budget guitar) under a thousand dollars is one of the very best examples of how bracing can make all the difference. So why does the bracing in my Taylor improve the sound ,volume and clarity of this guitar? This is so easy to answer because simply, there aren't any braces..well at least not in the back of the guitar anyway! What? yes, that's right, there are none! and that results in the effect of allowing the sound to ring on longer, stronger and with a benefit in volume and timbre..surprised? well, so was I!
Look at it this way..play a drum ..boom, boom. Loud and ringing, full of tone, dependent on its volume and sound on how tight the skin is and how big the drum is..next, lay a heavy stick across it and then play it..Yuk! what a horrible noise!
Ok, so what happens here? the stick INHIBITS,PREVENTS AND DAMPENS THE TONE AND SOUND.
In fact being an ex-drummer,I know that drums are deliberately dampened by mechanical devices, we often see a drum kit with a pillow stuffed on the bass drum! Ever heard a quiet banjo?? course you havn't..what are they? LOUD,VERY LOUD! Why? no braces on the skin allowing full release of the volume. OK, we now come to the obvious when we talk about guitars. Braces are needed what for? To strengthen the sound board and back, we suppose..so how come the Taylor has none in the back?..because, instead of bracing they used an alternative ..they dished the back during construction ..The strength of the bowed timber makes up for the lack of braces. Therefore my Taylor sings, has sustain and is what?..LOUD!
Last deductions. If therefore when you build a guitar, you have to brace it, then use the strongest, lightest wood available and make the braces as delicate, as flexible and as light as possible but with the minimum of strength to prevent the soundboard from bowing.. how do you do that? Look at a lot of expensive classical guitars, look at a Taylor Baby Grand, think ouside the circle and use the best spruce that money can buy and be minimal.. a last word on scalloping..you know, the shell- like shaping of the braces? The jury is still out about the total effect of the scallops but my money is on the fact that scalloping lightens the brace, allows the soundboard to flex but strengthens the tendency of the string force to bow the soundboard..think I'm wrong? well just stick any old lump of timber under the soundboard and call it bracing..you'll soon see the results!!

Senora 1907 -- Ernest Sobey

Tregear Mystery 1901 -- J. J. Fothergill

The Whippet -- engraving by F. Chereau 1790

The Small Rabbit Greyhound -- engraving by Henry Roberts 1749

The Slave Market

British Whippet 1880s after Gordon Stables

Lewis Renwick on the Origin of Whippets

Renwick's "The Whippet Handbook" was published in 1956. However his involvement in whippets predates the publication by 50 years according to his introduction in the foreward.

Below are some of his quotes about the origin of the whippet.

"Little seems to be known today of the origin of the Whippet, the little race and coursing dog that up to the advent of Greyhound racing, held such a vast following of sportsmen, who raced the Whippet on tracks all over the British countryside."

"There are many who claim the Whippet is a Greyhound cross and that the Terrier, Greyhound, and Italian Greyhound were used to make the Whippet breed."

"Mr. Frederick Freeman Lloyd in his book The Whippet and Race Do, 1894, asks us 'What's a Whippet' and answers 'Why, he's a little race dog, a dog that is calculated to gallop 200 yards at a terrific speed. Freeman Lloyd states the Whippet 'was originally produced by a cross between the Greyhound and Terrier; in the old days of rabbit coursing in the North of England, English and the other Terriers were used in this pastime. He also states that he could remember Whippets known as Whippets for twenty-five years, which means that in the lat 1860's we have definite information that Whippets were bred for racing and for the coursing of rabbits."

"F. C. Hignett writing in 1904 says: 'The Whippet existed as a separate breed long before dog shows were thought of and at a time when pedigrees were not officially preserved; but it is very certain that the greyhound had a share in his geneological history."

"Recently, that recorder of all things pertaining to the show Whippet, Mr. Bernard S. Fitter, in his The Show and Working Whippet, 1947, and other writings subscribes to the Greyhound cross theory." But then he does on to say: "Let us admit, therefore, that the evidence produced in the only books written exclusively on the breed subscribe to the Greyhound-Terrier cross theory; and that if you question a hundred Whippet fold today on this subject you will receive from ninety-nine of them the same answer as that given by the three experts I have quoted. However, I do not think that this evidence is strong enough to establish this claim; it seems such an easy way to get the answer, for it is obvious that a Whippet is of Greyhound type (it is just as obvious that the Italian Greyhound is of Greyhound type also) but I can seen nothing in the Whippet that points to a Terrier conformation."


Renwick, L., The Whippet Handbook, Nicholson and Watson, London, 1956.