Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Entertainment/2011 March 13

Welcome to the Wikipedia Entertainment Reference Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is an archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current reference desk pages.

March 13

Nora?

In Twinworld, when you lose your last life and it's Game Over, you are presented with a picture of a wrinkly old hag with a necklace around her neck saying "NORA". Is there any special significance to this? Does the name Nora have any specific significance related to death, defeat, or failure in some culture? Or could this be some sort of in-joke by the game's programmers? In which case, does anyone know why? The game's backstory in the manual makes no reference to anyone called Nora. JIP | Talk 11:03, 13 March 2011 (UTC)

Thomas Anders' necklace NORA

Check out Nora Balling. It has this picture, and an explanation.

Does that help? HiLo48 (talk) 11:13, 13 March 2011 (UTC)

Thanks for the answer. It appears, then, that only the hag herself has any real significance in the "Game Over" screen, and the programmers just added the "NORA" necklace as a joke. I had never heard of Nora Balling or the necklace before so this had been puzzling me for two decades. JIP | Talk 11:18, 13 March 2011 (UTC)

Identifying Music Chords

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEmpUbuhkEU#t=1m44s Could somebody please say what chords the guitarist is playing? I'm thinking a sixth but my ears are terrible. 89.168.109.215 (talk) 13:27, 13 March 2011 (UTC)

The way I hear it (but I'm not a guitarist), it's basically a diminished triad chord with a diminished seventh added in ( G#, B, D, F). The diminished seventh is enharmonically equivalent to the major sixth (E#), so you were on to something there. ---Sluzzelin talk 23:45, 13 March 2011 (UTC)

Looking for name of a musical instrument

I saw a half hour act tonight of 5 women singing a capella, with occasional use of an instrument I hadn't seen before. It looked like a small briefcase, which opened up slightly, and made a droning sound. One of the performers called it what sounded like "a shrewd box", but I haven't been able to find anything named like that. It opened up on both sides, with some fabric between the doors and inside, but they weren't playing it like an accordion, and it just seemed to be held slightly open to make the droning sound which was rather like a bagpipe drone. There were a number of flat white pieces about 2cm long and 0.5cm wide which could be moved (one of the performers did this at one point, but not while the sound was playing) which were flat upon one of the sides. Does anyone know what it was? Snorgle (talk) 23:15, 13 March 2011 (UTC)

It sounds a bit like the Northumbrian pipes, or perhaps you could find it in Category:Bagpipes. AndrewWTaylor (talk) 23:27, 13 March 2011 (UTC)

My guess is a shruti box. ---Sluzzelin talk 23:35, 13 March 2011 (UTC)

Thanks - that's it exactly! I've never heard of it or seen it before. Snorgle (talk) 01:02, 14 March 2011 (UTC)