Yodeling. What is it?
That is a question I have been pondering deeply since Tuesday, when my moustache began to tingle inexplicably during breakfast. Some journalists would ignore such a sensation. I am not some journalists. I am Qwilleran, and when my moustache communicates, I listen.
Yodeling, for those of you in Moose County who have never left Moose County — which is all of you — is a form of vocal expression originating in the Swiss Alps. It involves rapid changes in pitch. Why? No one knows. Does anyone care? Probably not. But I have chosen, out of the goodness of my heart, to write about it anyway. You’re welcome.
The topic first presented itself when Koko knocked a book off the shelf. It was *The Complete History of Alpine Folk Music*, a volume I did not know I owned, which Koko unerringly selected from among three thousand titles. Coincidence? I think not. Koko has solved more crimes than the entire Pickax Police Department, which, to be fair, has been rather busy lately given that this is the fourth arson and seventh murder this quarter in a town of three thousand people. A statistical anomaly that no one seems to find remarkable.
Yum Yum, meanwhile, stole my pen while I was drafting notes. Is this relevant? Everything my cats do is relevant.
I considered attending the Moose County Yodeling Festival but was put off by the five-dollar admission fee. Five dollars is five dollars, and the Klingenschoen Fund — while generous in its support of community enrichment initiatives that happen to coincide with my personal interests — was not established to subsidize yodeling. I had my accountant classify last year’s Alpine music purchases as “cultural research,” which is perfectly reasonable and, I’m told, technically legal.
Speaking of suspicious activities, Sheriff Brodie mentioned that someone has been stealing birdseed from porches across Pickax. I have my theories. I always have my theories. My moustache is tingling again, which means something is about to happen. Something always happens. Usually near me. An observation that my former colleagues at the Daily Fluxion once called “statistically concerning,” though I fail to see why.
Is yodeling an art? Is it a science? Is it merely noise? These are questions that deserve answers. I will not be providing them.
Yodeling.
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