Just for fun - I received this and decided to pass it on.  Perhaps listers
may want to add to it??  It's summertime, what can I say.

   A new report now says that the Mozart effect is a fraud.  The
   news for hip urban professionals: No, playing Mozart for your
   designer baby will not improve his IQ or help him get into that
   exclusive pre-school.  He'll just have to be admitted into Harvard
   some other way.

   Of course, we're all better off for listening to Mozart purely for
   the pleasure of it.  However, one wonders that if playing Mozart
   sonatas for little Hillary or Jason could boost their intelligence,
   what would happen if other composers were played in their developmental
   time?

   Liszt effect: Child speaks rapidly and extravagantly, but never really
   says anything important.

   Bruckner effect: Child speaks very slowly and repeats himself frequently.
   Gains reputation for profundity.

   Wagner effect: Child becomes a megalomaniac.  May eventually marry
   his sister.

   Mahler effect: Child continually screams - at great length and volume
   - that he's dying.

   Schoenberg effect: Child never repeats a word until he's used all the
   other words in his vocabulary.  Sometimes talks backwards.  Eventually,
   people stop listening to him.  Child blames them for their inability
   to understand him.

   Babbitt effect: Child gibbers nonsense all the time.  Eventually,
   people stop listening to him. Child doesn't care because all his
   playmates think he's cool.

Mary Esterheld <[log in to unmask]>