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Comment by perihelions | Hacker News Reader

- "The organ is immense: 117 ranks, including three full-length 32' voices..."

Hmm, how tall is this ceiling right here... umm... maybe I can bend them just a little idk

edit: Oh, I know: I can just stick them out the window and out past the neighbors' windows above. There is no flaw in this plan

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You actually can bend organ pipes (called "mitering"), and they will still work.

Photo showing this: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Herschbach_%26_Girod...

You can even have multiple bends to snake it up and down.

Awesome! Now I only need to find a sensible use for a giant pipe organ at home.

https://www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu/~knuth/organ.html

The art of computer programming is not Donald Knuth's only art to master...

Actually vol. 4b of TAOCP has a (combinatorial) exercise about the possible configuration settings of DK's private organ; I think I saw it near page 300 or so.

Before TAOCP came The Art of the Organ-Builder

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dom_B%C3%A9dos_de_Celles?wprov...

- "sensible"

There's no such thing as an unsensible hobby. Who could even arbitrate that? Who arbitrates what the meaning of fun is, for you, personally?

wives

How do your wives get along?

If they don’t, you’re in a world of hurt. Maybe if they live in different houses it could work?

They probably also shouldn't know about one other unless it's a poly situation. And then you need a career like a geologist on an oilrig or a submarine naval officer to explain those long absences.

> Who could even arbitrate that?

HOAs. They should be outlawed, or at least made legally non-mandatory.

An example with bent wood pipes: https://www.organclearinghouse.com/3034-zimmer-residence-org...

You can even wrap the pipe back into a tight coil and add valves so the player can change the length manually[0]

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_horn

Congratulations, you have just reinvented the sousaphone

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