Laughter peals. In considering what else peals, aside from laughter, it seems that only bells and thunder reverberate in such a fashion: a neat trinity of soundings, the human, the technological and the natural, each more resonant and commanding than the last, variations upon the theme of the humanesque. What the thunder says is open to many interpretations according to folklore and mystical wisdom, but one suggests that a good pealing of bells helps to ward it off.²