The high notes struck by the leaders at their news conference were striking.
Most of the notes struck a neutral chord, but sometimes Ms. Kagan took a sharper tone.
But this performance had more than the sound of right notes struck under pressure.
True, her starter notes strike one as Midwestern-student-council sharp.
No simultaneous fourths occur, and yet the semblance of a fourth-, fifth-, and octave-based "harmony" is established by durational overlapping of the notes struck.
The only arguably centrist notes struck were a couple of glowing mentions of small business and a very veiled possible reference to charter schools.
Some good lines uttered, some false notes struck, some bad luck sustained when the TV feed broke down for five minutes in mid-speech.
"Different committees," he notes, "strike a different balance between giving the new people a good start and giving the continuing people good recognition".
A century ago, Cajal noted striking similarities between the neural circuits that underlie vision in vertebrates and flies.
