Great Regulars: [Daniel J.] Levitin gives an admirable example

of a musical illusion: in Sardinian a cappella music, apparently, a fifth female voice emerges from the four male voices when the harmony and the timbres are just right. This fifth voice is called the Quintina.

from James Fenton: The Guardian: The food of love

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Bad mistakes had been made, especially in the sale of 19th-century paintings from provincial museums in a period just before they began to be appreciated again. Those museums made very little from these sales, and are never likely now to be able to afford to buy back the sort of thing they lost.

from James Fenton: The Guardian: Hanging on

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