Machina Ex Deus

Boston University 1949

Minos Generales was a political science professor at Boston University. He was also, as he told us, the last American to leave Germany in World War II. The story was full of secret travel and other intrigue. Minos was colorful in speech and mannerisms. The following school year, he left B. U. to join Don Loeffer, the former head of our department, at San Diego State University. There, Minos ran the Center for World Affairs. Later, I noted that he was listed as “professor emeritus” at National University, in San Diego.

1948-49 saw new technology come to the old 78 rpm record industry. Prior to World War II, all symphonies were recorded on large platters, with the sequence going from side to side. This meant, of course, that you had to turn the record over to hear the next movement. It was a cumbersome procedure, involving constant breaks, with trips to the record player. Changers were then developed to handle the large records, and new recordings proceeded from platter to platter, without human participation, until the entire stack had to be turned over. As a result, we had two different procedures and you had to check carefully before playing a symphony, otherwise you might be hearing the fourth movement right after the first.