The Mozart family lived on the third floor of the “Hagenauer House” at Getreidegasse 9 in Salzburg, Austria from 1747 to 1773.  The celebrated composer, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, was born here on January 27, 1756.  The building is named after the merchant and toy dealer, Johann Lorenz Hagenauer (1712-1792), who owned the building and was …

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This just in: Note Hunter Fan, first grader Katie S, published a ringing endorsement of The Case of the Haunted Swamp in her school newspaper. T.W. Strouse reacted with a big thumbs up, commenting, “Who says newspapers are going away?  As long as there are journalists like Katie out there, long live print media!”

In addition to mastering the language of music, Mozart was very good at spoken languages. He is reputed to have been able to speak as many as 15 different languages, and was particularly adept at Italian.

Definition: eighty-eight n. A piano. From the number of keys in a full keyboard. 1952: “I’ve been right here poundin’ on the old 88.” – Hoagy Carmichael. Movie, Las Vegas Story. From the Dictionary of American Slang, Second Edition, published by the Thomas Y. Crowell Co., New York, 1975.

Mice are keen explorers. They find inventive ways of satisfying their curiosity to investigate such as squeezing through tight gaps and biting through obstacles with their strong teeth.

Chamber music. In a broad sense “chamber music” is any music suited to a room or small hall, as distinct from music for a large auditorium, as church, operatic, or symphonic music. Practically, the term is most frequently applied to concerted pieces of instrumental music in the sonata form, as string or wood-wind quartets, quintets, …

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Detective lingo:  cheese it or cheeze it.  exclamation. 1 A warning or command to cease an improper activity in order to avoid detection. 2 To run away or disperse. c1810 to present. Orig. “cheese it, the cops.” Cf. From the Dictionary of American Slang, Second Edition, published by the Thomas Y. Crowell Co., New York, …

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In the capricious letters of his youth, Mozart would sometimes spell his name backwards, signing them “Trazom” or “Mozart Wolfgang.”