Waste Time, Fight Hunger…
… what more could one ask? With thanks to reader MA: FreeRice.com.
A service provided with the cooperation of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard, and the United Nations World Food Program, FreeRice fields a series of multiple choice questions, allowing one to test one’s vocabulary, one’s command of world capitals, one’s knowledge of famous paintings, or a range of other tantalizing topics.
Every correct answer earns 20 grains of rice– the funds for which are donated directly to the World Food Program (WFP) by site sponsors. In countries where rice is a staple, WFP provides, on average, about 400 grams of rice per person, per day (intended for two meals that include other ingredients, to ensure a minimum of 2,100 calories per day).
There are about 48 grains of rice in a gram, so it takes just under 20,000 grains of rice per person per day… which takes, your correspondent’s experience suggests, about 45 minutes to earn. Of course, if one has less than 45 minutes to waste, every little bit counts.
While the auspices of this effort are squeaky clean, there is a con at work here: fact is, the player isn’t wasting his/her time at all. Quite apart from helping alleviate starvation, answering all those questions actually sharpens one’s command of the subject-at-hand… and it’s fun.
As we fine-tune our vocabularies, we might wish a soulful Happy Birthday to “Long John” (6’7″) Baldry, the godfather of British Blues and Rock; he was born on this date in 1941. Performers like Rod Stewart, Ginger Baker, Jeff Beck, Brian Jones (Rolling Stones founder), Jack Bruce, Alex Korner, Nicky Hopkins, Art Wood, Keith Richards, Paul Jones, the Beatles and the Rolling Stones all worked with Baldry– some of them got their first breaks playing with him. E.g.,
Blues Incorporated, c. 1962 (first Blues band in England):
Long John Baldry………………………………………………….…….vocals
Mick Jagger (pre – Rolling Stones)………………………………..vocals
Alexis Korner (influential founder of British Blues)………..guitar
Dick Heckstall-Smith…………………………………………………..sax
Cyril Davis (with Korner a founder of British Blues)……….harp
Keith Scott………………………………………………………………….piano
Jack Bruce (later to join The Cream)……………………………..bass
Charlie Watts (pre – Rolling Stones)………………………………drums
Baldry’s pianist (in his second band), Reginald Dwight, took his stage name– Elton John– from the first names of Baldry’s band’s vocalists Elton Dean… and Long John Baldry.
See Baldry’s “Family Tree” for a complete list of Baldry’s “children”… but note too that, beyond his extraordinary circle of bandmates, Baldry had a terrific influence on the generation coming of age. Perhaps most emblematically, Eric Clapton has often said that he was inspired to pick up a guitar after seeing Baldry perform in the early Sixties.
