In 2017, Black Scat Books published Le Scat Noir Encyclopaedia, which presented “all human knowledge in a single volume.” A sequel is now in preparation, offering even more of all human knowledge. I wrote a few entries, including these on music and popular entertainment.

ALEATORIC TEMPERAMENT. Rather than choosing pitches by the ratios of frequencies, or by an equal division of the scale, aleatoric temperament determines them by chance. Randomly generated integers give the number of pitches in the octave, and then their frequencies. If, for example, you obtain fifteen pitches between A440 and A880, you might then obtain the series 457, 463, 480, 514, 551, 603, 649, 707, 756, 787, 790, 824, 835, 837, and 861, and tune your instrument accordingly. You can, of course, use a different temperament for each octave.

BOXING KANGAROO RATS. In the late 19th century, the popularity of boxing matches between men and kangaroos, in both Australia and Europe, prompted American showmen to offer similar attractions. Kangaroos were rare and expensive, so other animals were substituted. America’s only native marsupial, the opossum, was easy to obtain, but its habit of playing dead when threatened failed to entertain audiences. Consequently, several outfits, including Pixley’s Dime Museum and Carter’s Combined Menagerie, turned to kangaroo rats. Although the rats did hop like kangaroos, they were too small to present a challenge to human boxers, and even the most sadistic crowds balked at watching a grown man punch a tiny defenseless animal. Boxing kangaroo rats are now a mere footnote in American popular entertainment.