Songbirds of science
QUESTION Did nuclear research scientists at CERN release an album?
Les Horribles Cernettes (LHC) was a doo-wop group formed by young female research administrators working at CeRN. The group’s name shares its initials with Large Hadron Collider.
LHC formed in 1990 after a secretary at CeRN complained that her physicist boyfriend spent his nights and weekends smashing protons. In response, Italian computer scientist silvano de Gennaro wrote the song Collider: ‘I gave you a golden ring to show you my love/ You went to stick it in a printed circuit/ To fix a voltage leak in your collector... You only love your collider.’
A parody group was formed, which included silvano’s wife Michele, a graphic designer at CeRN, with Angela Higney, Colette Marx-Neilsen and Lynn Veronneau. They were a hit with scientists and regulars at the Hardronic Music Festival.
In 1992, the group released the selfpublished album Collider. A photograph de Gennaro took of the Cernettes on July 18, 1992, was uploaded by Tim Berners-Lee, a fan of the group, to his new-fangled World Wide Web.
It has been claimed this was the first ever photograph uploaded on to the system. This is probably not the case but, as de Gennaro has stated: ‘Our photo was one of those that changed the web from a platform for physics documentation to a media for our lives.’
The Cernettes have continued performing over the years, in varying line-ups.
Chris Long, Oxford.
QUESTION What was a squab pie, which Charles Dickens considered detestable?
A squAB is a young pigeon, usually only a few weeks old when slaughtered. Its taste is similar to chicken.
While pigeon is still the main ingredient of squab pie in many countries, english cooks prefer to follow an 18th-century recipe that used mutton and apples.
The dish, thought to have originated in
the south West of england, is made with layers of onions, sliced apples, mutton chops and a little water. A shortcrust pastry lid is added and the pie is baked for two hours. In Devon, it is often served with clotted cream. Lamb can be used instead of mutton, if preferred.
Dickens was not impressed by a squab pie he once ate during a visit to Bideford, describing it unflatteringly as ‘an odious composition leading to nausea, unsociability and hatred of the whole human race’. For many others, however, it is still a much-loved english classic.
Ian MacDonald, Billericay, Essex.
QUESTION Does anyone recall a pre-war comic novel with a plot similar to Shakespeare In Love?
FuRTHeR to the earlier answer, Jane Austen’s novels have also proved fertile ground for Hollywood scriptwriters. The plot of Clueless (1995), starring Alicia silverstone, is taken from Jane Austen’s 1815 novel emma. Both concern spoiled, privileged girls who overestimate their matchmaking abilities.
Pride And Prejudice (1813) has been given the Bollywood and zombie apocalypse treatment. One of its less obvious adaptations, though, is the 2001 film Bridget Jones’s Diary.
Claudia Thomas, Weymouth, Dorset.
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