Stereophile: Pssst, Hey Kid!

Walking through the halls of T.H.E. Show, Jon Iverson and I were caught by John DeVore as we tried to cruise the halls quickly. "You've got to hear this," he gushed. "This is probably the worst sound and the best music you'll hear at the show."

Cue music: A man begins to sing:

As we know,
There are known knowns.
There are things we know we know.
We also know
There are known unknowns.
That is to say
We know there are some things
We do not know.
But there are also unknown unknowns,
The ones we don't know
We don't know.

"That sounds familiar," I said. "It's a physicist? Maybe Feynman?"

"Nope, that's Phil Kline's setting of a text by Donald Rumsfeld." Maybe it wasn't Mallarmé, but I found it affecting. DeVore was right—it was great music.

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Reader Comments

Posted 1/9/2006 at 7:52 — By Al Marcy

I am in the part of life where I don't even know if I ever knew, or not, whatever.

Posted Mon Jan 9, 2006, 11:30 PM — By Clay White

Surely you're joking, Mr. Phillips!

Posted Tue Jan10, 2006, 1:20 AM — By Monty

Nope, Rummy actually said that and I heard the Press Conference. It was Rumsfeld at his finest! I waited for the AFLAC duck to go across the screen, but he never showed. I've never seen anyone more at home tweaking the press as Donald Rumsfeld.

Posted Tue Jan10, 2006, 2:22 PM — By Wes Phillips

Nice one, Mr. White!

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