theory

The core tension in the photograph lies in a rub between musicology and musician, theory and practitioner.

Almost 40 years after the space shuttle Challenger exploded on Jan. 28, 1986, there are still competing theories to account for how such a catastrophe could happen.

As commodities, they resemble collectibles like Beanie Babies, with values derived from the “greater fool” theory — that someone is out there willing to pay more than your acquisition cost to take them off your hands.

There’s no DNA evidence for any of these theories.

In theory, that spinoff could lead to another, and another, and so on.