Elie's Expositions

Musical Monday #167

2011-01-17T19:22:00.003-05:00

Welcome to the 167th edition of Musical Monday, with the challenge, as always, to identify the title and artist of each song quote below, as well as the common theme of the entire set of songs.

It's a single theme today, though #24 bends the rules a bit. Could have probably found several more good examples, but after three weeks, I wanted to get this posted today. Feel free, as always, to add bonus lyrics of your own!

1) "A sacred gift of heaven, for better, worse, wherever"
2) "Smile and grin at the change all around"
3) "All I need is a TV show, that and the radio"
4) "Your black cards can bring you money"
5) "And he just smoked my eyelids and punched my cigarette"
6) "Insisting that the world keep turning our way"
7) "You know the first time I traveled out in the rain and snow"
8) "But we both know the life I'm livin, and we both know the reason why"
9) "And I had to take it slowly just to make the good parts last"
10) "I lost him once through friends advice"
11) "No jolts, no surprises, no crisis arises"
12) "Or will I have to suffer and cry the whole night through?"
13) "Like a drifter I was born to walk alone"
14) "I can't remember half an hour since a quarter to four"
15) "You're messin' up my mind an' fillin' up my senses"
16) "Talk to me, like lovers do"
17) "Like a bird, you know she would fly, what can you do"
18) "See for yourself you have been sitting on a time bomb"
19) "Pay the grocer, fix the toaster, kiss the host goodbye"
20) "All the words have been spoken and the prophecy fulfilled"
21) "Chills my soul right to the marrow"
22) "All the empty yesterdays have disappeared"
23) "One day soon you're gonna reach sixteen, painted lady in the city of lies"
24) "To think that only yesterday, I was cheerful, bright and gay"
25) "Tried so hard to make you see, but I couldn't find the words"
26) "Staring at the green door living in the sky"
27) "But I put my heart above my head"
28) "So much of this left to begin; where would I be?"
29) "I try to forget and yet, still rush to the telephone"
30) "The way I hold you when the night just seems to fly"
31) "But like the sun we watched it fade away, from morning into lonely night"
32) "You get enough germs to catch pneumonia"
33) "A fool will lose tomorrow reaching back for yesterday"
34) "Don't stop the flow, we can't let go"
35) "Like Columbus in the olden days, we must gather all our courage"
36) "Been down one time, been down two times"
37) "Just string her along; it's just not right"
38) "C'mon you little fighter, no need to get uptighter"
39) "I played with your heart, got lost in the game"
40) "Every single time I roll across the rolling River Tyne"
41) "We lost what we had, that's why it hurt so bad, it set us back a thousand years"
42) "When ol' Lynyrd Skynrd's pickin' down in Jacksonville"
43) "Doctor, my woman is comin' back home late today"
44) "And still I head that sharp tongue talking, talking tangled words"
45) "There are times when I look above and beyond"
46) "There's no fight, you can't fight, this battle of love with me"

Good luck and enjoy!

Musical Monday #166

2010-12-27T10:27:00.003-05:00

Welcome to the 166th edition of Musical Monday, with the challenge, as always, to identify the title and artist of each song quote below, as well as the common theme of the entire set of songs. Sorry it's been a while since I've posted one of these! I hope to be getting to them out, if not weekly, then at least a bit more often than monthly. Meanwhile, here's today's! (The solutions to the last several MMs have finally been posted as well.)

Songs 31-35 this week form a separate sub-theme, similar but not quite the same as the main theme. Note also, song #30 bends the rules a bit.

1) "Hardly anyone has seen how good I am"
2) "But the point is probably moot"
3) "The National Guard stands around his door"
4) "Like a storm in the desert, like a sleepy blue ocean"
5) "Pisces, Virgo rising is a very good sign"
6) "With words that tear and strain to rhyme"
7) "Even though he could have smashed through any bank"
8) "Shreds of news and afterthoughts and complicated scenes"
9) "Suddenly the heavens rolled, suddenly the rain came down"
10) "There was a Checkpoint Charlie"
11) "I wanted to be the all American kid from New York"
12) "I open up the paper, there's a story of an actor"
13) "Conscience was related, man he was created"
14) "There was just enough room to cram the drums"
15) "I could tell she liked me from the way she stared"
16) "And the operator says, 40 cents more"
17) "I've gotta stand tall, you know a man can't crawl"
18) "There's a sadness hidden in that pretty face"
19) "Out on the train yard, nursin' penitentiary"
20) "Ohhh, to the hand that takes your dreamless soul"
21) "Wishing to avoid an unpleasant scene"
22) "Well, it hurt me so to see them dance together"
23) "But she grew up tall and she grew up right"
24) "I went to get some help, I walked by a Guernsey cow"
25) "Never mind the weather"
26) "I live in a silver mine and I call it Beggar's Tomb"
27) "Soldier on; only you can do what must be done"
28) "You're such a lovely audience"
29) "Laughing about the way they want him to be"
30) "Across from the medical center"

31) "But she knows what that'll get her"
32) "Her dog day's just begun"
33) "Cat somehow lost his baby down on Bleecker Street"
34) "I look in the poolhall. Is he here?"
35) "I walked to Apollo by the bay"

Good luck and enjoy!

MM #166 Coming Soon!

2010-12-23T22:03:00.002-05:00

Yes, it's been a very long break since the last Musical Monday. I haven't quit, just been very busy. I do have #166 almost done and should be posting it this Monday 12/27. Others will hopefully follow, though I can't say at what intervals. Stay tuned for the tunes!

Musical Monday #165

2010-11-22T08:00:00.002-05:00

Welcome to the 165th edition of Musical Monday, the (sometimes) weekly quiz that Soccer Dad and I (had) alternate(d) hosting. As Soccer Dad has suspended his blogging for the present, the future schedule of MM is somewhat in question. But meanwhile, the challenge today, as always, is to identify the title and artist of each song quote below, as well as the common theme of the entire set of songs.

This is a theme I've wanted to do for a long while, but hesitated because there are so many songs that are borderline matches for the theme, making my selections perhaps more subjective than I usually like. Hopefully my criteria won't seem too arbirtrary!

1) "Can't trust that day"
2) "I go back to the top of the slide"
3) "Mr. M.D."
4) "They long to persuade you from my side"
5) "But now I'm tired and I don't want to walk anymore"
6) "I swear it's not too late!"
7) "Knock down the old brick wall, and be a part of it all"
8) "And love so distant and obscure"
9) "In a world of persecution, that is burning in its greed"
10) "Here we go again, asking where I've been"
11) "You say why, and I say I don't know"
12) "On the wind that lifts her perfume through the air"
13) "Dance to the Eurobeat"
14) "Mary, have you seen better days?"
15) "And we're on our way, no we can't turn back"
16) "Mercy woman, plays a song and no one listens"
17) "Kids are huddled on the beach in a mist"
18) "We were just young and restless and bored"
19) "The purple piper plays his tune, the choir softly sing"
20) "The devil he told me to roll-oll-oll-oll"
21) "Always know sometimes think it's me"
22) "I don't wanna be a candidate for Vietnam or Watergate"
23) "She's a juvenile scam, never was a quitter"
24) "Some of them cries about it, some of them dies"
25) "Use your mentality, wake up to reality"
26) "Dinosaur Victrola"
27) "And they've chained him to a chair"
28) "When mountains crumble to the sea"
29) "And she gave Tchaikovsky back"
30) "The drummer relaxes and waits between shows"
31) "A requiem was never sung, no elegy was read"
32) "Don't let them say your hair's too long"
33) "Keep on doin' the jerk"
34) "All the right words but still you run away"
35) "…the baggage retrieval system they've got at Heathrow"

Good luck and enjoy!

Musical Monday #163

2010-11-01T08:46:00.002-04:00

Welcome to the 163rd edition of Musical Monday, the weekly quiz that Soccer Dad and I alternate hosting. As always, the challenge is to identify the title and artist of each song quote below, as well as the common theme of the entire set of songs.

This week's theme is a joint effort of the two hosts, based on an idea first suggested by my co-host. Two quick notes:
- #36-37 have no lyrics quoted, hopefully by now you know what that means!
- #38-40 meet the theme in a different way than the rest.

1) "Some are satin, some are steel"
2) "I left my home in Georgia"
3) "All the school kids so sick of books"
4) "We’ll take your car and drive it"
5) "Said woman take it slow, it'll work itself out fine"
6) "But I'm trapped by your love and I'm chained to your side"
7) "But the press let the story leak"
8) "A pie in the face for being a sleepy bull toad"
9) "An August summer night, soldiers passing by"
10) "You and me chasing paper, getting nowhere"
11) "I was swallowing my pain"
12) "And I had a cup of tea and butter pie"
13) "I brought you a crate of papaya"
14) "Say the devil is my savior"
15) "Now it all seems light years away"
16) "You're always window shopping but never stopping to buy"
17) "He may have to litigate"
18) "I heard she threw the letter away"
19) "Once I'm begging you save her little soul"
20) "Willi is happy again"
21) "But tomorrow might not be here for you"
22) "Oh with an aching feeling inside, cutting me up, deeper and deeper"
23) "Vernon'll meet me when the Boac lands"
24) "She gives me a smile, and cuddles her cheek to my chest"
25) "And stories of old to be rolled out like carpets"
26) "She's passed out on the floor"
27) "Gore blimey, hello Mrs. Jones!"
28) "Oh arm and arm we are the harmless sociopaths"
29) "Wake up, there's a new kid in the town"
30) "If you knew my story word for word, had all of my history"
31) "From the corner of my girlfriend's four-post bed"
32) "You know I’m sorry, I’ll prove it with just one kiss"
33) "When you're feeling in the dumps, don't be silly chumps!"
34) "Try to be just like a cheerful chick-a-dee"
35) "Take the straight and narrow path, and if you start to slide..."
36) "" (1971) (Magic)
37) "" (1960) (TV theme, great fit for this MM)

38) "I'll watch the people go shuffling downtown"
39) "Keep pushin' for the fortune and fame"
40) "You were my thrills, you were my pills"

Good luck and enjoy!

Musical Monday #161

2010-10-18T09:00:00.001-04:00

Welcome to the 161st edition of Musical Monday, the weekly quiz that Soccer Dad and I alternate hosting. As always, the challenge is to identify the title and artist of each song quote below, as well as the common theme of the entire set of songs.

There's a single theme this week, but I cheated just slightly to make the last two songs qualify!

1) "To forget about life for awhile"
2) "In fact, it’s cold as hell"
3) "Knows not where he's going to"
4) "When will you pay them back?"
5) "Them delta women think the world of me"
6) "Played inside the months of moon"
7) "'fore I can talk to the boss"
8) "Has he thoughts within his head?"
9) "Forget your lust for the rich man's gold"
10) "White lace and feathers, they made up his bed"
11) "Cause never was the reason for the evening"
12) "Me and Sue, but that died too"
13) "I was educated from good stock"
14) "Like a coin that won't get tossed"
15) "Yes, I'm a sack of broken eggs"
16) "And I take myself out a nice cold beer"
17) "Call him Mister Eagle, dig his chains"
18) "Up with the sun, gone with the wind"
19) "Roll us both down a mountain"
20) "She dreams in color, she dreams in red"
21) "A beam of light will fill your head"
22) "Strapped to the wing with the engine running"
23) "But if you push me too far I just might"
24) "I took the prize last night for complicatedness"
25) "I went to night school for the blues"
26) "I got a lady in Cincinnati, a woman in San Anton'"
27) "You gonna run to the sea, but the sea will be boiling"
28) "In the customs hall the officer takes you to one side"
29) "And stamped a number over my face"
30) "Dip it in a dream"
31) "I was so surprised, I was hypnotized"

Good luck and enjoy!

Shabbos Rosh Chodesh Haftorah Question

2010-10-10T10:10:00.008-04:00

It's been a long time since I've posted one of these liturgical quizzes - or for that matter much of anything besides my bi-weekly editions of Musical Monday. But here's an interesting question I thought up yesterday, relating to the special haftorah which was read for Shabbos Rosh Chodesh:

As it happens, this haftorah is actually ever read on just five out of the twelve months of a standard Jewish year. For which five months can it be read, and why is it never read on each of the other seven? Post your answers in the comments; a special Elie's Expositions no-prize to whoever gets the complete solution first!

Musical Monday #159

2010-10-04T20:33:00.005-04:00

Welcome to the 159th edition of Musical Monday, the weekly quiz that Soccer Dad and I alternate hosting. As always, the challenge is to identify the title and artist of each song quote below, as well as the common theme of the entire set of songs.

There's a single theme this week, but the last four songs relate to it in a significantly different way than the rest. And again, sorry for being a day late, not to mention probably a few songs short, but here goes!

1) "And my LP records and they're all scratched"
2) "Put a frog down my back at the Carroll County picture show"
3) "Left standing in the lurch, at a church"
4) "He freely gave to charity"
5) "That's what Mrs. Riordan said"
6) "Frameless heads on nameless walls"
7) "Lemon yellow sun, arms raised in a V"
8) "The worm he licks my bone"
9) "Through early morning fog I see, visions of the things to be"
10) "I don't care to know the hour, 'cause it's passing anyway"
11) "Hard to save money, when you're twenty years in debt"
12) "And the clocks waits so patiently on your song"
13) "Wine is fine but whiskey's quicker"
14) "Like the burning end of a midnight cigarette"
15) "Getting lost within myself, nothing matters no one else"
16) "Drying up in conversation, you will be the one who cannot talk"
17) "You could cut ties with all the lies"
18) "So take your lies, get off my case"
19) "I felt the earth on Monday, it moved beneath my feet"
20) "And my last ditch, was my last brick"
21) "I started a landslide in my ego"
22) "A rift in my family, I can't use the car"
23) "She has trouble acting normal when she's nervous"
24) "Now she's a swinger, dating a singer"
25) "I need a lawyer for my medical bills"
26) "Get your carpetbaggers off my back"

27) "Wait in your corner until that breeze blows in"
28) "Don't throw your hand, oh no, don't throw your hand"
29) "But we all bleed the same way as you do"
30) "Need some affection - you got it!"

Good luck and enjoy!

Musical Son Day IV

2010-09-16T20:58:00.008-04:00

Here are audio links to the studio-mastered versions of Down the Road and Midnight In America, two original songs by my son Shalom's band The Flip.

For those in the NJ area, the Flip will be playing at the world-famous Stone Pony this Sunday, Sept 19, as part of their annual "Back to School Bash"! Time TBD - will update when known. Don't miss it!

Musical Monday #157

2010-09-13T12:51:00.002-04:00

Welcome to the 157th edition of Musical Monday, the weekly quiz that Soccer Dad and I alternate hosting. As always, the challenge is to identify the title and artist of each song quote below, as well as the common theme of the entire set of songs.

There are four separate song groups, each of which contributes differently to the theme. Despite an extra week off, as unfortunately that week didn't include much free time for me, this is a somewhat slimmer edition than average. Hopefully it will still present some challenge - more likely in the individual songs than the theme(s).

1) "We gonna do what they say can't be done"
2) "Put your faith in a miracle, and it's non-denominational"
3) "It was New Cross Station, I was going on home"
4) "There are giants out there in the canyons"
5) "I get the same old dream same time every night"

6) "Why do the white gulls call?"
7) "She lived all alone in Liddley Lane at number 22"
8) "Together we will love the beach, together we will learn and teach"
9) "I'll pretend my ship's not sinking"
10) "Over and over again, you're a fool-hearted man"
11) "Hundreds of flowers in full bloom, hundreds of people in each room"

12) "You may think the bands are not quite right"
13) "The iron ore poured, as the years passed the door"
14) "With George Pratt, his partner, and brother, Billy, too"
15) "Now the weight of intention carried the motion"
16) "Learned how to cry too young, so now I live to sing"
17) "Let’s show them Canada still cares"

18) "Got your hands full now, baby, oh as soon as I hit the door"
19) "And a little bit of raving madness"
20) "Tall white mansions and little shacks"
21) "Off the wind on this heading lie the Marquesas"
22) "Gonna make some front page news"
23) "Well I'm blue-collar branded and stuck in a mill"
24) "Free as a breeze, not to mention the trees"
25) "You sure have saved this man whose soul was in need"
26) "Out of self respect, I'm out of bread"
27) "But the days of our youth were numbered"
28) "Were we ever colder on that day?"
29) "First there came four pretty daughters"
30) "Elvin Bishop sittin' on a bale of hay"

Good luck and enjoy!

Musical Monday #155

2010-08-23T19:42:00.003-04:00

Welcome to the 155th edition of Musical Monday, the weekly quiz that Soccer Dad and I alternate hosting. As always, the challenge is to identify the title and artist of each song quote below, as well as the common theme of the entire set of songs.

A couple of notes on this week's edition. For any song below that may have multiple cover versions, I'm looking for a specific one, usually, but not always, the most well-known such. Also, although the songs aren't broken into separate sub-groups, extra precision will be required in correctly identifying the last few on the list. Finally, though I confess this edition required somewhat more research than usual, I'm equally sure that I forgot some really obvious candidates! Well, that's what you guys are for, right? :-)

Without further ado:

1) "Damn your love, damn your lies!"
2) "One more look and I forget everything"
3) "Take me to New York right away"
4) "On a boat with billowed sail"
5) "A kiss for luck and we're on our way"
6) "And your mind is moving low"
7) "Suspended under a twilight canopy"
8) "A butcher, a banker, a drummer and then"
9) "Some of them want to be abused"
10) "The babies just come with the scenery"
11) "I just can't believe the loveliness of loving you"
12) "Some guy brought sad into your happy world"
13) "I hold my pillow to my head"
14) "It's not for lack of bread, like the Grateful Dead"
15) "Mount your horses, draw your sword!"
16) "But some are altogether mighty frightening"
17) "Started out this morning feeling so polite"
18) "Let me tell ya', you are no exception to the rule"
19) "True love means planning a life for two"
20) "Lot of people take it for a game"
21) "Hear with your heart and you won't hear a sound"
22) "And when I'm sad, you're a clown"
23) "Then I never lost a minute of speed"
24) "You didn’t bat an eye, when I made you cry"
25) "Like a flower in a fairy tale I blossomed out"
26) "So don't refuse to believe it, by reading too many meanings"
27) "If you could return, don't let it burn, don't let it fade"
28) "Her weapons were her crystal eyes"
29) "Well, here's some spare change you can count!"
30) "No right no wrong you're selling a song"
31) "Now I don't want you back for the weekend"
32) "I got three passports, a couple of visas"
33) "Double cross the vacant and the bored"
34) "I ain't saying you ain't pretty"
35) "He smiled so I got up and asked for his name"
36) "You know you got it if it makes you feel good"
37) "Fat man sitting on a little stool"

Good luck and enjoy!

Musical Monday #153

2010-08-09T18:12:00.004-04:00

Welcome to the 153rd edition of Musical Monday, the weekly quiz that Soccer Dad and I alternate hosting. This week we have a special guest contributor, TRN, who - as of course you already know - is one of our most avid weekly players! Thanks TRN for pitching in this week! And the best part is, now I get an extra week to play the game!

As always, the challenge is to identify the title and artist of each song quote below, as well as the common theme of the entire set of songs.

1) ". . . a cobra snake for a necktie"
2) "If you want to keep something precious"
3) "There's a girl right next to you"
4) "We sang every song that driver knew"
5) "Friend only to the undertaker"
6) "I can't seem to stand on my own two feet"
7) "You don't have to shout or leap about"
8) "Are the stars out tonight?"
9) "Nobody calling on the phone"
10) "When I'm drivin' in my car and a man comes on the radio"
11) "Don't you think you want someone to talk to?"
12) "I just love when you call me lady"
13) "But the press let the story leak"
14) "For my darlin' I love you, and I always will"
15) "Tell me you love me and don't let me cry"
16) "I'll do such things to ease your pain"
17) "You'll never know it hurt me so"
18) "Could you be falling for me?"
19) "Sunday's on the phone to Monday"
20) "See I'd have all the money in the world"
21) "It could happen to us any day"
22) "I have scaled these city walls"
23) "Each time the doorbell rings I still run"
24) "But after all it's what we've done that makes us what we are"
25) "Are you somewhere feeling lonely, or is someone loving you?"
26) "We meet every day at the same cafe"
27) "To give away the day that you were mine"
28) "I wake up feeling sorry I met you"
29) "Any time we have a date"
30) "You darken my door"
31) "Whatever colors you have in your mind"
32) "I'd thank my lucky stars to be living here today"
33) "And it wants to have a snow day that will turn its parents into kids"

Good luck and enjoy!

Musical Monday #152

2010-08-02T09:00:00.024-04:00

Welcome to the 152nd edition of Musical Monday, the weekly quiz that Soccer Dad and I alternate hosting. As always, the challenge is to identify the title and artist of each song quote below, as well as the common theme of the entire set of songs.

There's a single group of songs this time representing a single overall theme, though I could have split it into several sub-themes.

1) "I don't know how someone controlled you"
2) "When you sing through the verse and you end in a scream"
3) "Catch as catch, catch as catch can"
4) "I hitchhiked all the way down to Memphis"
5) "Then he comes to town, and you see his face"
6) "Fortune of my ways, making of my days"
7) "It opened up her eyes and ears to me"
8) "Silently it waits for me; or someone else I suppose"
9) "He threw one down from the top of the stairs"
10) "Destiny, destiny, protect me from the world"
11) "And she's got everything that I have to live without"
12) "They call me dirty from the alley"
13) "As the smile ran away from his face"
14) "Your heart dissolves, while he tips you so gracefully"
15) "I've made fortunes, spent them fast enough"
16) "It's just that I am not in the market"
17) "I called upon my brother just the other day"
18) "I feel so frustrated; the boss is a jerk"
19) "So Mary marry me, let's not wait"
20) "Our finest gifts we bring"
21) "And my hands can't feel to grip"
22) "When you drop a coin you'll hear it sing"
23) "Listen to the tears roll, down my face as she turns to go"
24) "Through the coldest winter in almost fourteen years"
25) "The kids don't eat and the dog can't sleep"
26) "10 o'clock, nighttime in New York, it's weird"
27) "It really brought him down because he could not jam"
28) "You've got a hub cap diamond star halo"

Good luck and enjoy!

Musical Monday #150

2010-07-19T14:14:00.005-04:00

Welcome to the 150th edition of Musical Monday, the weekly quiz that Soccer Dad and I alternate hosting. As always, the challenge is to identify the title and artist of each song quote below, as well as the common theme of the entire set of songs.

The songs this week are broken into four sub-themes, 1-8, 7-10, and 11-15, and 16-22. Group #2 is somewhat of a double theme, and the four groups in sequence form an overall theme. The total number of songs is also significant (though this negated any "super-sizing" in honor of the Musical Monday's sesquicentennial, and though there are doubtless other songs that would fit most of the sub-themes).

1) "Watched his hair been turnin' grey"
2) "Tell me why you're looking so confused"
3) "A dog started crying, like a broken hearted man"
4) "She breaks down and cries to her husband"
5) "The millions of faces, but still I'm alone"
6) "You can see it in my eyes, I can feel it in your touch"

7) "All the lights are changing green to red"
8) "Turn that jungle music down, just until we're out of town"
9) "Required from us a song"
10) "It's a fact of life, now man and wife, work full time to just get by"

11) "Take my hand and we'll make it, I swear"
12) "And make them softer for her feet"
13) "Before I put on my makeup"
14) "I have no choice, I hear your voice, feels like flying"
15) "This is the year of the hungry man, whose place is in the past"

16) "Trying to forget you is just a waste of time"
17) "Take your time, I won't go anywhere"
18) "For some California grass"
19) "Found a note there waiting, it said, 'Daddy, I just can't wait'"
20) "Nothing left to chance, all is working"
21) "Times have changed and times are strange"
22) "Like emptiness in harmony"

Good luck and enjoy!

Musical Monday #148

2010-07-05T22:31:00.004-04:00

Welcome to the 148th edition of Musical Monday, the weekly quiz that Soccer Dad and I alternate hosting. As always, the challenge is to identify the title and artist of each song quote below, as well as the common theme of the entire set of songs.

The songs this week are broken into three sub-themes, 1-19, 20-26, and 27-30. Each sub-theme contributes to the overall theme, but in slightly different ways. The 2nd of the three may also spark a bit of deja vu. :-)

1) "You play with words, you play with love"
2) "Don't go on the patio, beware of the pool"
3) "You don't think of them as human"
4) "It's OK on TV 'cause you can turn it off, but don't try me"
5) "Every darkest sky has a shining ray"
6) "I don't really like to stop the show"
7) "In orange, red, and blue, he found it in the zoo"
8) "You've got your tape deck and your brand new Chevrolet"
9) "And it's tightening 'round my throat"
10) "Be amazed at the friends you have here on your trip"
11) "Make me feel fine when I'm feeling wrongly down"
12) "Very clearly a case for corn flakes and classics"
13) "He died about a month ago while winter filled the air"
14) "Starting to collect requested data"
15) "You tell me that your superfine mind has come undone"
16) "I understand equations, both the simple and quadratical"
17) "He grew a beard as soon as he could to cover the scars on his face"
18) "But we haven't done a bloody thing all day"
19) "It was on the old Calcutta in eighteen fifty-three"

20) "Let me be that one girl, for I'll be true to you"
21) "Echo in the distance like the sound, of a windmill going 'round"
22) "Breakfast where the news is read, television, children fed"
23) "Now the valley cried in anger"
24) "I just got to make you my occupation"
25) "Perhaps I'll come to a great success, or possible a dreadful mess"
26) "Often frightened, unenlightened"

27) "Play in sports and skin dive"
28) "But it's no laughing party, when you've been on the murder mile"
29) "The tune don't have to be clever"
30) "They've got to be protected, all their rights respected"

Good luck and enjoy!

Musical Monday #146

2010-06-21T21:01:00.002-04:00

Welcome to the 146th edition of Musical Monday, the weekly quiz that Soccer Dad and I alternate hosting. As always, the challenge is to identify the title and artist of each song quote below, as well as the common theme of the entire set of songs.

The songs are broken into three sub-themes, 1-18, 19-28, and 29-31. Each sub-theme contributes to the overall theme; or more exactly, the second and third sub-themes contribute to the first.

1) "And rest your head for just five minutes"
2) "Sister's sighing in her sleep"
3) "So when you need a little peace of mind, come on over boy, anytime"
4) "There's my chair, I put it there"
5) "And ghostly voices rose from the fields"
6) "How can she use, the things she use"
7) "I ain't been home to see my baby in ninety-nine and one half days"
8) "Why did you throw the Jack of Hearts away?"
9) "Well, I got one foot on the platform"
10) "Loneliness, the face of pilgrims eyes was known"
11) "Chase all the clouds from the sky"
12) "There's a silence here between us, I've never heard before"
13) "Hold tight, we're in for nasty weather"
14) "They studied under Attila the Hun"
15) "The chrome, the steel, the metal dream"
16) "Now we're spinning empty bottles"
17) "He's got a greasy hair, greasy smile"
18) "From the door comes Satan's daughter"

19) "No dark sarcasm in the classroom"
20) "Groove, let the madness in the music get to you"
21) "But he hesitates, then withdraws"
22) "She had hair like Jeannie Shipton back in 1965"
23) "Nobody's perfect, mister, nobody's clean"
24) "If I was walkin' in your shoes, I wouldn't worry none"
25) "I helped a young laddie called Ivan"
26) "Watch the greenbacks tumble"
27) "One more song for the radio station"
28) "Where I thought I heard Tiresias say"

29) "I found a Paradise that's trouble-proof"
30) "Come with me, and we shall run across the sky"
31) "I woke this morning found my hands were frozen"

Good luck and enjoy!

Musical Monday #144

2010-06-07T13:59:00.003-04:00

Welcome to the 144th edition of Musical Monday, the weekly quiz that Soccer Dad and I alternate hosting. As always, the challenge is to identify the title and artist of each song quote below, as well as the common theme of the entire set of songs.

A somewhat less ambitious theme than our special two-parter last time around, but hopefully still a fun diversion. In fact, it's sort of a follow-on to a previous jointly-developed theme, though with no songs in common to that one:

1) "In a cap she looked much older"
2) "How far will you go I say, just to bait a mouse?"
3) "However big you think you are"
4) "The jack-knife barber drops her off at school"
5) "The damn thing gone blind"
6) "Making the life that I had seem suddenly shiny and new"
7) "" (1972) (Mrs. Washington's childhood?) (c.f. MM #40)
8) "She'll be richer by far if her dreams come true"
9) "The wind is low, the birds will sing"
10) "Your servant am I, and will humbly remain"
11) "How can I hurt when holdin' you?"
12) "Oh, all the poet, they studied rules of verse"
13) "Cleaned a lot of plates in Memphis"
14) "Her eyes like windows, trickling rain"
15) "Ask any fool that she ever knew"
16) "Have me a time with a poor man's lady"
17) "Taught him how to do the bop and it was grand"
18) "Guess I'll have to put your flat feet on the ground"
19) "Or is it just a game in my mind"
20) "So you stay out late at night, and you do your coke for free"
21) "He made my lapels an inch too wide"

Good luck and enjoy!

Musical Monday #142

2010-05-24T21:44:00.003-04:00

Welcome to the 142nd edition of Musical Monday, the weekly quiz that Soccer Dad and I alternate hosting. This week and next, to mark the third anniversary of Musical Monday, we'll be presenting a special, jointly-developed edition. For today, the challenge is as usual to identify the title and artist of each song quote below, as well as the common theme of the entire set of songs. And while there's a single theme this week, the two groups of songs (1-39 and 40-66) are also distinct from one another in a significant way. Extra credit to the first one who identifies that difference! (And apologies for any that may be incorrectly categorized.)

1) "So why on earth should I moan?"
2) "But his lies can't disguise what you fear"
3) "But you won't need to read between the lines"
4) "A sacred why, a mystery gaping inside"
5) "Hundred thousand changes, everything's the same"
6) "But every now and then I feel so insecure"
7) "Now it's 'us', now it's 'we'"
8) "I've been kicked around since I was born"
9) "Their lips are lying only real is real"
10) "A million lights are dancing and there you are, a shooting star"
11) "Mister Charles Darwin had the gall to ask"
12) "Burns like a red coal carpet"
13) "No one could look as good as you"
14) "Just because my composure sort of slips"
15) "One day soon, I'm gonna tell the moon"
16) "Can it be that it was all so simple then"
17) "Could it be finally I'm turnin' for home?"
18) "It's a fact, we got a first rate act"
19) "It's certainly a thrill"
20) "Or the mountain should crumble to the sea"
21) "I just might have a problem that you'll understand"
22) "The devil take your stereo, and your record collection"
23) "Take my arms, I'll never use them"
24) "And the soul afraid of dying, that never learns to live"
25) "Just one look and I can hear a bell ring"
26) "And then you'll want the love you threw away before"
27) "Treasure these few words"
28) "A friend who taught me right from wrong"
29) "But you've got dreams he'll never take away"
30) "Light up the sky like a flame"
31) "'Cause we, could be happy, can't you see?"
32) "Where the unicorn's the last one at the water hole"
33) "I'll be where the eagle's flying higher and higher"
34) "We stare just a little too long"
35) "If you're seeing things running through your head"
36) "Every one of us has all we need"
37) "Plastic tubes and pots and pans"
38) "Don`t show me faded photographs, just tell it from the heart"
39) "Worlds collide and hearts will be broken"

40) "Send her back to me, cause everyone can see"
41) "My train is going, I see it in your eyes"
42) "I can't stand the beats, I'm asking for the cheque"
43) "Tomorrow's a day of mine that you won't be in"
44) "There's a healing in those guitars, and a spirit in the song"
45) "I'm not gonna stand here and wait"
46) "If the Bible tells you so?"
47) "I believe to my soul now, po' Bob is sinkin' down"
48) "And that cigarette haze has ecology beat"
49) "Starring in our old late, late show"
50) "Jackie, hey what you doing now"
51) "Don't believe the church and state"
52) "He makes his livin' off of the people's taxes"
53) "We were just young and restless and bored"
54) "After my picture fades and darkness has turned to gray"
55) "I'm sitting here waitin' the gun still warm"
56) "More than some pretty face beside a train"
57) "There's a place for us, you know the movie song"
58) "Paintin' walls and sippin' wine, sleepin' on the floor"
59) "So put away your make up"
60) "From out of the East a stranger came"
61) "I tried to laugh about it, hiding the tears in my eyes"
62) "I know I'm gonna love you any old way"
63) "May good fortune be with you"
64) "Yeah, my blood's so mad feels like coagulatin'"
65) "People need some reason to believe"
66) "You'll say, we've got nothing in common"

Good luck, enjoy, and thanks for your support these past three years!

Musical Monday #140

2010-05-10T14:17:00.003-04:00

Welcome to the 140th edition of Musical Monday, the weekly quiz that Soccer Dad and I alternate hosting. As always, the challenge is to identify the title and artist of each song quote below, as well as the common theme of the entire set of songs.

There's just a single theme this week, thought there is a loose organization to at least some of the songs:

1) "Gone to soldiers every one"
2) "There's a whole generation with a new explanation"
3) "But 'used to be's' don't count anymore"
4) "And I hide behind the shield of my illusion"
5) "We caught a rattlesnake; now we got something for dinner"
6) "I'll be in my basement room with a needle and a spoon"
7) "Couldn't pressurize my head from speaking"
8) "They feed you scraps and they feed you lies"
9) "She's faced the hardest times you could imagine"
10) "It's the dream afraid of waking, that never takes the chance"
11) "Give me a lift and I'll hay your wagon"
12) "Wild and wind-blown, that's how you've grown"
13) "Hear the DJ say love's a game of easy come and easy go"
14) "So smile for a while and let's be jolly"
15) "Someday some boy will write in her book, too"
16) "A door marked 'nevermore' that wasn't there before"
17) "In some office sits a poet, and he trembles as he sings"
18) "Born in the valley, and raised in the trees"
19) "Or the lip-print on a half-filled cup of coffee"
20) "I thought it so romantic, and I found you sweet and bold"
21) "You may talk about your Clementine and sing of Rosa Lee"
22) "There isn't any sweetness in your heart"
23) "All you backroom boys salute when her flag unfurls"
24) "For nothing can ever tempt me from she"
25) "Those dreams are tied to a horse that will never tire"
26) "'Cause a bottle of vodka is still lodged in my head"
27) "She's been dead since 1929"
28) "Neptune of the seas, have you an answer for me please?"
29) "And if I kiss you in the garden, in the moonlight, will you pardon me?"
30) "Flyin' me back to Memphis, honey keep the oven warm"
31) "Tell me if she laughs or cries"
32) "And all I can breathe is your life"
33) "I'll be over at ten, you tell me time and again"
34) "Takes the wheel when I'm seeing double"
35) "As I was walkin' round Grosvenor Square"
36) "Her hair is kinda' wild and free"
37) "To please the lions this day"
38) "My mind's such a sweet thing, I wanna' do everything"
39) "He's there in case I wandered off"
40) "You can fly swinging from your trapeze"

Good luck and enjoy!

Musical Monday #138

2010-04-27T11:45:00.003-04:00

Welcome to the 138th edition of Musical Monday (or is it Tuneful Tuesday this week?), the weekly quiz that Soccer Dad and I alternate hosting. As always, the challenge is to identify the title and artist of each song quote below, as well as the common theme of the entire set of songs.

Since this is already late, no long intro - let's get right to the songs:

1) "Say you're leavin' on the seven thirty train"
2) "Wondering what in the world did I do"
3) "Now, I can see every dream, when I look in your eyes"
4) "I've been lookin' for a trace, lookin' for a heart"
5) "And kisses your ear in the early moonlight"
6) "Can't you feel the weight of my stare?"
7) "I'm laid up here lookin' at my shoes, stuck here with these hotel blues"
8) "I can hear her heart beat for a thousand miles"
9) "Take a long ride on my motor bike"
10) "I'll never be imprisoned by a faded memory"
11) "They just keep on puffin' how they multiply"
12) "Millions of people living as foes"
13) "You've been hiding out, I know that's true"
14) "Take my chick and we dance about"
15) "Old dogs and new tricks and habits we ain't kicked"
16) "You say he satifies your mind, tells you all of his dreams"
17) "But I never saw my baby 'till the encore"
18) "You know the one, Doctor 'Everything'll Be Alright'"
19) "I can't get any rest, people say I'm obsessed"
20) "I'm so excited, I'm in too deep"
21) "Come on you raver, you seer of visions"
22) "I fear I'll do some damage one fine day"
23) "I don't want to drink my whiskey like you do"
24) "We know you've got to blame someone, for your own confusion"
25) "I lost my power in this world, and the rumors are flying"
26) "Don't touch me I'm a real live wire"
27) "On a wire between will and what will be"
28) "There's no reason why my being shy should keep us apart"
29) "I can't see the things that make true happiness"
30) "And every day the paper boy brings more"
31) "Making friends with shadows on my wall"
32) "I walked through Bedford Stuy alone"
33) "You laughed and laughed and then you left"

Good luck and enjoy!

Aaron's 5th Yahrzeit

2010-04-22T08:59:00.002-04:00

Today, the 8th of Iyar, is Aaron's fifth yahrzeit. Though I haven't posted much of anything here lately other than Musical Mondays, there's been quite a lot on my mind, and in particular, I've been thinking about and reliving my experiences of five years ago quite vividly. Perhaps I'll write more about that soon, but for now, here is the d'var torah I delivered at the siyum we held last night.
----------------------------------------------
B’rshus harav, beloved family and friends:

Debbie and I offer our deepest thanks and appreciation to all of you for participating in tonight’s memorial marking the Aaron's fifth yahrzeit. Your presence, your chizuk, and especially your day to day friendship mean more to us than any words of ours can express.

Another year has passed us by, bringing to us once again to – as Rabbi Kaufman customarily phrases it when speaking prior to Yizkor – that most solemn of duties, commemorating one whom we have lost, and whom we miss so very intensely. For most, Baruch Hashem, such duties are focused solely on loved ones of past generations - parents, grandparents, and the like. But for Debbie and me, whenever we attend Yizkor services, and especially when the eighth of Iyar comes around each year, we must again relive the devastating inversion of life's usual cycle that befell us, our child being taken from us at such a young age, with so much still to accomplish, so much promise left to fulfill.

I was daily reminded of this disarrangement during the first eleven months after Aaron's passing, when I said kaddish for him – the somber and awesome bond between son and father that was, in our case, tragically reversed. And yet, it also provided a kind of relief and closure, to know that I was doing for Aaron what, under normal circumstances, he would have one day been bound to do for me. When those months had passed, I was determined to find a way to maintain, on an ongoing basis, a meaningful connection with who Aaron was, to perpetuate his memory by continuing that which he had begun.

As some of you know, Aaron had the opportunity, on behalf of his 12th grade class at RTMA, to make a siyum on masechte berachos. This occurred at the start of the current daf yomi cycle, just over five years ago, on 24 Nissan 5765, two days after Pesach, and just two weeks before Aaron left us. Aaron had intended to continue his commitment to the daily daf, and how much satisfaction it would have given him – how much naches would it have given me – for him to have participated in the literally tens of additional siyumin that were held during those succeeding years. So I resolved that each year, I would complete a new masechte in Aaron's zechus – as Aaron's shaliach if you will - and conclude with a siyum coinciding with the date of his yahrzeit.

In each case over these past five years, there was particular relevance to the masechte I selected. There were two reasons for my choice this year of masechte Chaggigah, the first a personal and emotional one. I made a siyum on this masechte once before, just over five years ago, on 20 Nissan 5765, the first yahreit of my zaideh Rabbi Avraham Rosenfeld Z'L. His yahrzeit being erev the last yom tov of Pesach, I had neither time nor inclination to call a gathering such as this one, so I made the siyum rather more privately. In fact, the only others in attendance were a couple of my kids, and I clearly remember that Aaron was one of those present, just days before he was to lead his own first siyum.

The other reason for my choosing Chaggigah for today's siyum is a gemara found right in the middle of the masechte. It is likely one of the most well-known aggadatas in all of shas, yet also, ironically, one of the most difficult to understand. On daf 14b, the gemara states, "arba'ah nichnisu lapardes", literally translated as "there were four who entered the orchard" – where "Pardes" is parallel to the English terminology of "Paradise" or "Garden of Eden". As most meforshim explain, these four undertook to delve into the deepest and most mysterious of all knowledge, the kabbalistic meditations relating to the merkava, the metaphorical chariot of God. They thus embarked on a spiritual journey to approach the Divine essence as closely as is possible for any living being to do so.

The gemara goes on to describe how these four tannaim, Ben Azzai, Ben Zoma, Acher – formerly known as Elisha ben Avuyah – and Rabbi Akiva, each responded very differently to this experience, and that of them all, only Rabbi Akiva emerged from the "Pardes" unscathed. I would like to focus on the first of the four, Ben Azzai, although his fate is the least commented on in this gemara. It states, [Hebrew] "Ben Azzai glanced at the Divine Presence – tried to come too close to the unapproachable – and perished". [Hebrew] "And of him it is said, 'yakar' in the eyes of God is the death of his righteous ones". The Hebrew word "yakar", ironically, has varying meanings that are nearly opposite. It can mean precious or valuable, but also can mean heavy or difficult. Certainly the death of tzaddikim like Ben Azzai can be understood as "precious" to God, since their souls thereby move up to olam ha'ba, join the yeshiva shel ma'alah. But Rashi focuses on the second meaning here, stating that Ben Azzai's death was also difficult for Hashem, as it were, because he died young, unmarried, with so much unfulfilled potential.

When learning this gemara, I was struck with the parallel between this dual meaning attached to Ben Azzai's death, and an earlier such loss, that of Nadav and Avihu the sons of Aharon, as referenced at the beginning of this week's first parsha. Chazal tell us that Nadav and Avihu were essentially great tzaddikim, and that their death, not unlike Ben Azzai's, was the result of their attempt to approach too closely to Hashem in some type of imperfect manner. Moshe Rabbeinu, when consoling his brother on the loss of two sons, quoted Hashem's own response, [Hebrew] "Through those close to Me will I be sanctified, and before the whole nation, 'ekaved'". Once again a word is utilized, "ekaved", that can have both a positive and negative connotation. It can mean, as per the usual translation here, "I will be honored", but it can also mean, "it is heavy for Me", difficult, as it were, for even Hashem to bear the tragic loss of these young men.

At the start of this week's second parsha, we are told to imitate Hashem, [Hebrew] "be holy, for I Hashem your God Am Holy". But this is so much harder to achieve in some cases than in others. We all keenly experience Aaron's loss as heavy and difficult, but it feels nearly impossible for us to assimilate, or even comprehend, the other meaning of "yakar", to associate such a loss with that which is precious. But I keep in mind that if we can't reach such a level, if all our broken hearts can do is mourn, it is at least a comfort to remember that Hashem is, in some sense, mourning with us, that Aaron's passing is yakar in Hashem's eyes in both senses of the word, difficult as well as precious.

The mishnah at the end of Sotah states, in reference to Ben Azzai, [Hebrew], translated as "when Ben Azzai died, the last of the diligent scholars was gone". And though sometimes I can't help but feel similarly about Aaron's loss, at the same time, his example also encourages me, as I hope it can encourage you all, to try a little bit harder, to give a little bit more, to be the best student, the best worker, the best child, the best spouse, the best friend, the best self you can be. May Aaron’s legacy and Aaron’s memory continue to be both an inspiration and a source of comfort and strength to all of us who knew him, and may his neshama be a malitz yosher for us and for all of klal yisroel. Amen

Musical Monday #136

2010-04-12T21:11:00.003-04:00

Welcome to the 136th edition of Musical Monday, the weekly quiz that Soccer Dad and I alternate hosting. As always, the challenge is to identify the title and artist of each song quote below, as well as the common theme of the entire set of songs.

Sorry for the lateness as well as the brevity of this week's edition. If I get a chance I'll add some more examples. It's a single theme this week, but the last song is special.

1) "But don't take a slice of my pie"
2) "Fools have a way of making me lazy"
3) "I was cleaned and skinned and so hard-pressed"
4) "But you can keep 'em for the birds and bees"
5) "I'd fool around and have a ball"
6) "Because they never know who in the world they're gonna beat"
7) "Yeah buddy, that's his own hair!"
8) "She was with the Russians too"
9) "Nine a.m. on the hour hand, and she's waiting for the bell"
10) "That's where they ran into a great big hassle"
11) "Sometimes building you a stairway; lock you underground"
12) "The claim is on you, the sights are on me"
13) "Let me call my wife so I can tell her I'll be late"
14) "Deep where it's hot, hot in Arabia, babia"
15) "Carrying their babies around in a sack on their back"
16) "He said brother like to help you, but I'm unable to"
17) "Yellow lorry slow, nowhere to go"
18) "I found someone new, he's waitin' in the car outside"
19) "Bring along your Cadillac, leave my old wreck behind"
20) "Float a small row boat till our ship comes in"
21) "I'm treating you cool, I'm putting you down"
22) "Some people say it's folly, but I'd rather have the lolly"
23) "Now my advice for those who die"

Good luck and enjoy!

Musical Monday #134

2010-03-15T13:05:00.002-04:00

Welcome to the 134th edition of Musical Monday, the weekly quiz that Soccer Dad and I alternate hosting. As always, the challenge is to identify the title and artist of each song quote below, as well as the common theme of the entire set of songs.

The division this week consists of two groups of songs as well as two individual songs each in their own "group". This arrangement is significant, as is the order of the sets and number of songs in each, as will become clear once the theme is fully solved.

1) "There is no one compares with you"
2) "Freeze all your expressions into words"
3) "Play in sports and skin dive"
4) "All I want for you to do is take my body home"
5) "It's all been a pack of lies"
6) "But you could've said it better"
7) "Like a lover's voice fires the mountainside"
8) "Desert rose, dreamed I saw a desert rose"
9) "Nothing grows and life ain't very pretty"
10) "Do my crying and my sighing, laugh at yesterday"
11) "And his hunger burns, so he starts to roam the streets at night"
12) "When there's no one else around, I'm gonna take you girl and hold you"
13) "Three lullabies in an ancient tongue"
14) "Life's for living, yeah, that's our philosophy"
15) "You won't find a thing to chew"
16) "And the grand facade, so soon will burn"
17) "Don't you know that I'll always be true?"
18) "I'm looking for a woman, but the girl don't come"
19) "But nothin' is real, and no one can feel like you"

20) "Near the village, the peaceful village"

21) "Broken ice still melts in the sun"
22) "I'm home, I'm out of my work clothes"
23) "You can't come back and think you are still mine"
24) "Light a candle, lay flowers at the door"
25) "You left me cold and I'm standin' here freezin"
26) "I've pulled the trigger right at you on billboards and movie screens"
27) "Before the sun is just a bright spot in the nighttime"
28) "Sometimes I feel like I am drunk behind the wheel"
29) "And a train that's passin' my way helps the rhythm move along"
30) "You got your high-heeled sneakers on, slip-in mules"

31) "The all-night watchmen have had their fun"

Good luck and enjoy!

Musical Monday #132

2010-03-01T17:10:00.003-05:00

Welcome to the 132nd edition of Musical Monday, the weekly quiz that Soccer Dad and I alternate hosting. As always, the challenge is to identify the title and artist of each song quote below, as well as the common theme of the entire set of songs.

Today's edition has four song groups separated by spaces: 1-8, 9-21, 22-26, and 27-36. These represent four entirely distinct sub-themes, which when combined form the overall theme.

Recall that in past years, the MM's that fell around Purim were special in some way. But Purim is over, isn't it? :-)

1) "You can burn my house, steal my car"
2) "I want a short haired girl who sometimes wears it twice as long"
3) "In the middle of the tall drinks and the drama"
4) "Girl, to be with you is my fav'rite thing, uh huh"
5) "Our love got fractured in the echo and sway"
6) "Empty as a pocket with nothing to lose"
7) "He was lyin’ on the ground, a bits and pieces all around"
8) "Before you abuse, criticize and accuse"

9) "Lay me on the ground, fly me in the sky"
10) "And lookin' in the mirror there were fools at either hand"
11) "Well you wore out your welcome with random precision"
12) "My friend the young magician had forbidden me to cry"
13) "Take the chip off of my shoulder, smooth out all the lines"
14) "Loneliness is a cloak you wear"
15) "Oh my dear, now this ship's too hard to steer"
16) "Surely not to live in pain and fear"
17) "Brothers and sisters in every little part"
18) " Hold together, in the worst conditions"
19) "Without that attention, a woman feels undone"
20) "January, February, June or July"
21) "We're in or out of the money"

22) "She'd hold me close and kiss me but her heart was full of lies"
23) "He was a credit to his gender"
24) "The silver in your pocket ain't no measure of a man"
25) "To him you were nothin' but a little plaything"
26) "His wife would cook his meal, as he would change the wheel"

27) "I know who left those smokes behind"
28) "You come and ask me, girl, to set you free, girl"
29) "I get so mean, around this scene"
30) "When he showed up Saturday, I said 'Bye bye baby!'"
31) "Why can't he see, how blind can he be?"
32) "There isn't an ocean too deep"
33) "He was greyhound-bound, but I'm still waiting here"
34) "Thick wavy hair, a little too long"
35) "He drives woman wild, then he drives off in a Mercedes Benz"
36) "And don't take my pictures off a' the wall"

Good luck and enjoy!

Musical Son Day III

2010-02-18T19:59:00.005-05:00

Congratulations to my son Shalom and his bandmates in The Flip for winning the JEC Talent Show "Battle of the Bands" last Motzai Shabbos! First prize is ten hours of time in a professional recording studio, which they plan to use to record two of their original songs, "Down The Road" and "Midnight In America".

Here's a rough-cut video of those songs from Saturday night's event. Sound quality isn't too great, but that's what the studio will be for, I guess. You can catch a glimpse of Shalom in the back, playing keyboards on both songs and bass guitar on the first. And if your hearing is real sharp, you may even hear Shalom's parents cheering on the band like a couple of teenage girls at a Beatles concert!

Midnight In America:

Down The Road:

Musical Monday #130

2010-02-15T14:11:00.002-05:00

Welcome to the 130th edition of Musical Monday, the weekly quiz that Soccer Dad and I alternate hosting. As always, the challenge is to identify the title and artist of each song quote below, as well as the common theme of the entire set of songs.

Thare are two separate sub-themes today, songs 1-10 and 11-20, which together comprise the overall theme. The songs in the first group are also in somewhat of a sequence. I was disappointed in not finding more songs for that group; likely there are quite a few recent ones I don't know well that would fit it.

1) "I died in thirty days!"
2) "But it seems the good they die young"
3) "Edsel is a no-go"
4) "Bring on the lions and open the cage"
5) "I laid traps for troubadours"
6) "She never kept the same address"
7) "They sat and watched TV, on their RCA"
8) "We're finally on our own"
9) "Scanning life through the picture window"
10) "It's money for dope, money for rope"

11) "If the puppet makes you smile"
12) "Coming down like an Armageddon flame"
13) "And it makes me feel so fine, I can't control my brain"
14) "Just one day out of life, it would be, it would be so nice"
15) "Exchange the cold days for the sun"
16) "Take a ride on a West Coast kick"
17) "We've all seen it on the movies, now let's see if it's true"
18) "But there's a couple of bananas and a bottle of booze"
19) "From a terminal gate to a black limousine"
20) "He was heading for Pennsylvania, and some home made pumpkin pie"

Good luck and enjoy!

Musical Monday #128

2010-02-01T20:26:00.004-05:00

Welcome to the 128th edition of Musical Monday, the weekly quiz that Soccer Dad and I alternate hosting. As always, the challenge is to identify the title and artist of each song quote below, as well as the common theme of the entire set of songs.

There is a single theme this week, but the break between songs 14 and 15 separates two groups that relate to the theme somewhat differently. Also, apologies that due to a busy week as well as computer issues, this will be a shorter edition than I had hoped. I do think there are likely quite a few more songs that fit the theme, and hope you guys will find - and add - some of them!

1) "Can you tell me where he's gone?"
2) "All those dayglow freaks who used to paint the face"
3) "...or a Sam (no Sam)"
4) "Canada to India, Australia to Cornwall"
5) "He ate a crocodile"
6) "'Cause I'm swigin' thirty pounds from my hips on down"
7) "And he swore to free all of Asia Minor"
8) "He said how dare that man resent an order"
9) "In colors on the snowy linen land"
10) "Dances like a spinning top"
11) "Only takes one itchy trigger"
12) "Look at them bushes out there"
13) "But you were bad you must admit"
14) "Hate was just a legend, and war was never known"

15) "Went down to Geisha Minah"
16) "And now it seems my only chance is giving up the fight"
17) "A panda for sweet little niece"
18) "We fired once more and they began a running"
19) "He throw us all in jail for carrying harpoons"
20) "You know it's three weeks; I'm going insane"
21) "So you think you can love me and leave me to die"
22) "Like my father before me, I will work the land"

Good luck and enjoy!

Musical Monday #126

2010-01-18T11:43:00.005-05:00

Welcome to the 126th edition of Musical Monday, the weekly quiz that Soccer Dad and I alternate hosting. As always, the challenge is to identify the title and artist of each song quote below, as well as the common theme of the entire set of songs.

There's a single theme this week, though the last couple of songs relate to it somewhat differently than the rest.

1) "The whole world looks upon the sight"
2) "I am tired of this devil"
3) "What we need to survive, together alive"
4) "Don't forget what your good book said"
5) "I go to the movie, and I go downtown"
6) "Won't you please excuse my frankness"
7) "A butcher, a banker, a drummer and then"
8) "Now some of us would rather cuss and make a fuss"
9) "I have wants and desires just like you"
10) "I seen you walkin' down in Chinatown"
11) "I've worked on jobs with my feet and my hands"
12) "Momma she worked so hard to earn every penny"
13) "The man in the silk suit hurries by"
14) "The light bulb's gettin' dim, there's meltdown in the sky"
15) "Walk me down to school, baby, everybody's acting deaf and blind"
16) "His patience's long, but soon he won't have any"
17) "But he never did like to talk about it all that much"
18) "I can't pay no doctor bill"
19) "He don’t like dreads, he thinks we’re all crooks"
20) "Well you know your cat has nine lives babe"
21) "Is finally, and permanently, discredited, and abandoned"
22) "Like a starry summer night, or a snow covered winter's day"
23) "Be grateful that it doesn't last all year!"
24) "One man betrayed with a kiss"
25) "Didn't they try to find some good for you and me?"

Good luck and enjoy!

Musical Monday #124

2010-01-04T20:27:00.003-05:00

Welcome to the 124th, special Night Edition (nice way to say I ran real late today!) of Musical Monday, the weekly quiz that Soccer Dad and I alternate hosting. As always, the challenge is to identify the title and artist of each song quote below, as well as the common theme of the entire set of songs.

There's a single set of songs this week, representing a single theme. I fancy that several of the songs will be relatively easy to find, but the overall theme may be a bit trickier than usual. Or maybe not, with such savvy players! Let's see:

1) "See you later; can I have them please?"
2) "Send me down a love to share"
3) "Cause you make the darkness seem so far"
4) "Wonders how you manage to feed the rest"
5) "We want to multiply; are you gonna do it?"
6) "There was three young ladies in the school gym locker"
7) "Dines in Hampstead village on expense accounted gruel"
8) "Slander my name all over the place"
9) "And if that piece of mind won't stay"
10) "Always away from home, never bothering to phone"
11) "The autumn winds blow chilly and cold"
12) "Something's wrong, shut the light, heavy thoughts tonight"
13) "The Duchess of Kircaldy always smiling"
14) "And we sang dirges in the dark"
15) "Take a ride on a West Coast kick"
16) "Perhaps I'll come to a great success"
17) "Tell me if she laughs or cries"
18) "And they follow the races and pay out the gains"
19) "Advice is cheap, you can take it from me"
20) "Blue eyes cry; two hearts say goodbye"
21) "Asked the fellow for fifteen cents"
22) "Baby sneezes, Mommy pleases, Daddy breezes in"
23) "Why do we give up our hearts to the past?"
24) "We were spinning into darkness; the earth was on fire"
25) "You're old enough some people say, to read the signs and walk away"
26) "Well all we need is a simple song, for people that wanna' dance"

Good luck and enjoy!

Musical Monday #122

2009-12-21T15:53:00.002-05:00

Welcome to the 122th edition of Musical Monday, the weekly quiz that Soccer Dad and I alternate hosting. As always, the challenge is to identify the title and artist of each song quote below, as well as the common theme of the entire set of songs.

There are two sets of songs today, 1-17 and 18-33, which represent two opposing sub-themes of today's overall theme. As a clue (for those who know me well!), I once would have been neutral - if liking neither side is indeed neutrality - but for the last few years would favor the former of the two sub-themes. In fact, for that reason I made a bit more effort to make sure the first group of songs outnumbered the second!

One additional note: The last few songs in each group meet that sub-theme in different ways than the rest.

1) "A big legged woman ain't got no soul"
2) "Well they said you was high-classed"
3) "She roll back down to the warm soft ground"
4) "Will power made that old car go"
5) "When the party was nice, the party was jumpin'"
6) "And I'll never go to Texas anymore"
7) "She broke a needle and she can't sew!"
8) "Johnny kissed the teacher"
9) "Our currency is flesh and bone"
10) "I must take a trip to California, and leave my poor sweetheart alone"
11) "Help me please, is the answer up above?"
12) "I'm feeling drunk, juiced up and sloppy"
13) "Stone cold sober as a matter of fact"
14) "I'd throw away the cars and the bars and the war"
15) "I'm intelligent and clean, know what I mean?"
16) "I met him in a cell in New Orleans, I was down and out"
17) "Was your father as bold as a sergeant major?"

18) "By the blue tiled walls near the market stalls"
19) "So much like a man I just had to say"
20) "The first time that I got it, I was just ten years old"
21) "It's like trying to find gold in a silver mine"
22) "I wish I could be as carefree and wild"
23) "But it's no hanging matter, it's no capital crime"
24) "She lets loose all the horses when the Corporal is asleep
25) "Talking on about how sharp they are"
26) "I've got flowers and lots of hours to spend with you"
27) "I can stare for a thousand years, colder than the moon"
28) "Well, there's thirteen hundred and fifty two guitar pickers"
29) "I'd love to glide to a rainbow, off where the clouds go dancing by"
30) "He can set music back to the caveman days"
31) "And them tin cans are explodin' out in the 90-degree heat"
32) "Sweet the rain's new fall"
33) "She rules her life like a fine skylark"

Good luck and enjoy!

Musical Monday #120

2009-12-07T20:17:00.002-05:00

Welcome to the 120th edition of Musical Monday, the weekly quiz that Soccer Dad and I alternate hosting. As always, the challenge is to identify the title and artist of each song quote below, as well as the common theme of the entire set of songs.

There's just a single theme today, though I will say that the last three songs belong to a different genre than the rest.

1) "I never said I was a victim of circumstance"
2) "All these places had their moments"
3) "This is for the ones who stood their ground"
4) "I'm breakin' loose, it ain't no use"
5) "Do you wanna be somebody else?"
6) "I'm changing, arranging"
7) "And if I do, I know the way there"
8) "Gave into love and watched all the bitterness burn"
9) "The shadows of misty yesteryears"
10) "Tattoos of memories and dead skin on trial"
11) "Exhibition is your habit, emotion second hand"
12) "And I was born with a jealous mind"
13) "You can sell your soul, but don’t you sell it too cheap"
14) "Pop me down jack me up shoot me out flyin' down the highway"
15) "I have something I know won't desert me, I'm not alone anymore"
16) "Made the bus in seconds flat"
17) "You'll come back and you'll look around you"
18) "Who am I without you by my side?"
19) "Heard about Pittsburgh, PA"
20) "They paid heavenly bills"
21) "So don't be surprised to see me, back in that bright part of town"
22) "You stare politely right on through"
23) "The curtains drawn in the little room downstairs"
24) "Two doors remain before your others and your own"
25) "Oh, how nature loves her little surprises!"
26) "Please don't talk about sweet love"
27) "You boiled me over, now you're cold as ice"
28) "I have a limo, ride in the back"
29) "This is a tricky situation, I've only got myself to blame"
30) "So you bought the best selling novel, knowing that you couldn't miss"
31) "Each breath that we breathe, with love we must weave"
32) "Sometimes you turn your head to the wind"
33) "Take a look at the Lawman, beating up the wrong guy"
34) "Here come Johnny with the power and the glory"
35) "Never again to be all alone"
36) "How could so much love be inside of you?"
37) "Where were you when I was burned and broken?"
38) "But all are agreed as they join the stampede"
39) "When you're feeling in the dumps, don't be silly chumps!"
40) "Here's to whatever comes"

Good luck and enjoy!

Birthday Boy Blue

2009-12-07T15:41:00.005-05:00

Today I turn 48, which, as my blog-friend TRN just pointed out, is a number with quite a few factors. But there's been basically a single factor in the moribund status of my blogging - not to mention my overall mood - lately... namely, my continued state of unemployment after being laid off just over two months ago. Even Mondays haven't been as musical lately for me as they used to be - either as a player or a host. It seems like blogging, once a welcome distraction from the sometimes-drudgery of work, now feels like yet another unpleasant reminder of how much I actually miss that drudgery, and that I have far too much time on my hands.

That said, I do have today's MM (#120) almost ready to go, and should be posting it later tonight, along with the long-overdue solutions to my previous three MM quizzes. A bit more ambitiously, I am planning to take TRN's advice (soon!!) and post more directly about my experiences and feelings these past two months. Maybe this blog can even become again somewhat of what it once was for me, an outlet for sharing, exploring, and connection. I do believe it's at least worth a try. As the job coaches tell you, leave no avenue unexplored, since you never know where your next success is coming from.

Meanwhile, happy "birthday that shall live in infamy" (posthumously as the case may be) to Johnny Bench, Terrell Owens, Larry Bird, Gregg Allman, Harry Chapin, Ellen Burstyn, Aaron Carter, Eli Wallach, Ted Knight... and of course, to me!

Musical Monday #118

2009-11-23T12:17:00.002-05:00

Welcome to the 118th edition of Musical Monday, the weekly quiz that Soccer Dad and I alternate hosting. As always, the challenge is to identify the title and artist of each song quote below, as well as the common theme of the entire set of songs.

Sorry I've been late in providing the solutions to my previous two MMs - I'll try to get to them today. Meanwhile, here's this week's:

1) "It shakes all over like a jelly fish"
2) "Hanging out shirts in the dirty breeze"
3) "Don't run and hide, just come on, come on"
4) "Now why ain't you playin' outside?"
5) "All this aggravation ain't satisfactioning me"
6) "Anyway, it only really hurts you when you laugh"
7) "She belonged to that man, José"
8) "She left me with a broken heart and won her victory"
9) "And I want you to be my acrobat"
10) "And now you come collapsin' back"
11) "Somewhere we lost the key, so little left for you and me"
12) "See the man with the lonely eyes, oh take his hand, you'll be surprised"
13) "Talked out, let's have it talked out"
14) "Stars fading but I linger on, dear"
15) "And she purrs like a kitten till the lake pipes roar"
16) "But it was Saturday night, I guess that makes it all right"
17) "Put on a ragged sweatshirt, I'll take you where you want me to"
18) "And lookin' in the mirror there were fools at either hand"
19) "I'm all confused, you must've put a thing on me"
20) "I remember the first time, I was lonely without her"
21) "But it's always me that ends up getting wet"
22) "The bigger the dog, well the harder the bite"
23) "I run for the bus dear, while riding I think of us dear"
24) "Our lives are made in these small hours"
25) "If I could turn the page, in time then I'd rearrange"
26) "Life without your Maserati is grounds for suicide"
27) "My love-a, I was wrong-a, to try to love two"
28) "Yes, I'm certain that it happens all the time"
29) "Cooking fresh food for a husband's just a drag"
30) "Young girls they do get weary, wearing that same old shaggy dress"
31) "It didn't have much of a plot"
32) "The willow turns his back on inclement weather"
33) "Think that you know what to do, impossible, yes, but it's true"
34) "I'm gonna' keep my sheep suit on"
35) "Her wallet's filled with pictures, she gets 'em one by one"
36) "The pool's in but the patio ain't dry"
37) "Out of sight in the night out of sight in the day"
38) "Why leave the life I love here in the great state of Maine?"
39) "Another day goes by, and still the children cry"
40) "Butterflies and zebras and moonbeams and fairy tales"
41) "He's the king around town, dancing, glancing"
42) "Along came Jim Dandy, and they snuck right out of the door"=
43) "One told a lie about another's best friend"
44) "I'm like a helpless child left in a cradle"

Good luck and enjoy!

Musical Monday #116

2009-11-09T11:21:00.002-05:00

Welcome to the 116th edition of Musical Monday, the weekly quiz that Soccer Dad and I alternate hosting. As always, the challenge is to identify the title and artist of each song quote below, as well as the common theme of the entire set of songs.

I could say much more about the timeliness of the theme, but I'll hold off for now. Just to note that the second group of songs (24-32) go with a somewhat lesser version/variation of the theme, with the very last song just barely making it (which is sort of its point!)

1) "He said, kill it before it grows"
2) "I'm goin' way down south, way down to Mexico way"
3) "Get high and watch the tube"
4) "Don't touch me I'm a real live wire"
5) "What reason do you need to be shown?"
6) "Don't ever ride on the devil's knee, Mama said"
7) "And Miss Patty Valentine just nodded her head"
8) "So you think you can stone me and spit in my eye"
9) "And now MacHeath spends just like a sailor"
10) "Wrapped up in a black cat cloak"
11) "Yeah, she could drag me, over the rainbow"
12) "You just do it with a little more finesse"
13) "That equipment you got's so outdated"
14) "I bet there's rich folk eatin' in a fancy dining car"
15) "Right through the hardwood door"
16) "The night was clear and the moon was yellow"
17) "And slapped the sheriff on the back with a smile"
18) "He jacked the little bitty baby"
19) "Well sir, I guess there's just a meanness in this world"
20) "Two feets they come a creepin', like a black cat do"
21) "In the land of the dollar bill"
22) "He took in the four a.m. show at the Clark"
23) "Painting testimonial pictures"

24) "A scene badly written in which I must play"
25) "Well he never had a sweetheart"
26) "I crossed my old man back in Oregon"
27) "I miss my baby and the, good fun"
28) "So I might as well begin to put some action in my life"
29) "Not a Gatlin boy was standing"
30) "You got problems in your life of love"
31) "And remember, just don't smile"
32) "And that's not to mention the aerial photography"

Good luck and enjoy!

Musical Monday #114

2009-10-26T13:17:00.002-04:00

Welcome to the 114th edition of Musical Monday, the weekly quiz that Soccer Dad and I alternate hosting. As always, the challenge is to identify the title and artist of each song quote below, as well as the common theme of the entire set of songs.

This week I'm revisiting a theme that was used for one of the earliest MM's (extra credit to the first player who finds it!). Since Soccer Dad and I were a lot less experienced, not to mention less ambitious, back then, I thought this was well worth a second go-round. However, I was careful not to repeat any of the songs used in that original theme, so even long time players should view this as essentially all-new.

Each pair (or triad in some cases) of songs below goes together, and collectively all these sub-groups relate to a single overall theme.

1a) "We smoked the last one an hour ago"
1b) "We huddle close, hang on to a dream"

2a) "I work till I ache my bones"
2b) "And your friends baby, they treat you like a guest"

3a) "In the stillness of remembering what you had"
3b) "Pictures in an empty room"

4a) "Making vows that just can't work right"
4b) "Despite all the computations"

5a) "What you need you have to borrow"
5b) "I can catch the moon in my hands"

6a) "If I had those golden dreams, of my yesterdays"
6b) "Strollin' in the park, watchin' winter turn to spring"

7a) "Leave this heart of clay"
7b) "I know your game, what you're about"

8a) "Worry, why do I let myself worry?"
8b) "That kinda lovin' turns a man to a slave"

9a) "When your day is done, and you wanna' ride on"
9b) "You look like you could be forty-five!"

10a) "Fiery gems for you, only for you"
10b) "Mother has to iron his shirt"

11a) "It's just a cakewalk, twisting baby"
11b) "Fat man sitting on a little stool"

12a) "And the rocks might melt, and the sea may burn"
12b) "Can't keep my mind from the circling skies"

13a) "Now we go steady to the pictures"
13b) "They don't bark and they don't bite"

14a) "Heaven knows it wasn't you who set me free"
14b) "Once I had a dream, I could lean upon"

15a) "How was I to know you would upset me?"
15b) "Used to bow our heads then, wonder why"

16a) "All the servants in your new hotel"
16b) "It's a pocket full of misery, and trouble on the wind"

18a) "I've seen what I could not recognize"
18b) "Don't end your faith in love because of what he's done"

18a) "It's a long road, when you face the world alone"
18b) "I'm not gonna stand here and wait"

19a) "Haven't I the right to make it up girl?"
19b) "When your world has been shattered, ain't nothin' else matters"

20a) "Have you come to raise the dead?"
20b) "Yes, it's the saddest experience you'll ever know"

21a) "After all this time I don't know why"
21b) "Look what you've done to me, me and my whole world"

22a) "Easy then to tell weak from strong"
22b) "Once there were trenches and walls"

23a) "...have your passports ready....Rome..."
23b) "You're up in the sky, make everyone cry"

24a) "The coolerator was jammed with TV dinners and ginger ale"
24b) "Do the ashes of desire for you remain like the sea?"

25a) "Both my feet's too long"
25b) "I got a wink and a smile from a flashy filly"

26a) "We were young and we were improvin'"
26b) "Stone age love and strange sounds too"

27a) "Nothing else to do but close my mind"
27b) "I'm tired of making out on the telephone"

28a) "Your gall is never-ending"
28b) "Hey hung up old Mr. Normal"

29a) "Gotta new fool, ha! I like it like that!"
29b) "And your mind, your tiny mind"
29c) "Romeo and Juliet, Samson and Delilah"

30a) "Show me, all your charms"
30b) "I'm weak and I've gone hazy yeah"
30c) "Feel for the winter, but don't have a cold heart"

31a) "Drowning me in your promises, better left unsaid"
31b) "Her style is new but the face is the same"
31c) "Get to the morning and you never call"

32a) "Without your love - a dog without a bone"
32b) "Like a charmed hour and a haunted song"
32c) "Memory seeps from my veins, let me be empty"

33a) "If the puppet makes you smile"
33b) "Hear the dogs howling out of key"
33c) "Don't bother to pack your bags, or your map"

34a) "Racing around to come up behind you again"
34b) "Goodbye my love, the tide waits for me"
34c) "Children killing in the street, dying for the color of red"

35a) "Insisting that the world be turnin' our way"
35b) "And my dear mother left me when I was quite young"
35c) "Your grandpa's cane, it turns into a sword"

These last few sets require bending the rules a bit:

36a) "And the saviors who are fast asleep"
36b) "But half a love is all I feel"
36c) "It’s driving me mad, it’s driving me mad"

37a) "The man in the dark will bring another attack"
37b) "Pack his raincoat, show him out"

38a) "Your mood is like a circus wheel"
39b) "With eight seconds left in overtime"

39a) "With his maps and his medals laid out on the floor"
39b) "How can there be such a sinister plan?"

40a) "Music, high and sweet, then she just blew away"
40b) "She was hung in the student gallery"
40c) "She's the same little girl who used to hang around my door"

Good luck and enjoy!

Musical Monday #112

2009-10-12T08:51:00.004-04:00

Welcome to the 112th edition of Musical Monday, the weekly quiz that Soccer Dad and I alternate hosting. As always, the challenge is to identify the title and artist of each song quote below, as well as the common theme of the entire set of songs. Sorry to both players and co-host for missing my turn last week! Between the Jewish holidays and my non-voluntary work "holiday", I just didn't have the time or energy for it!

This week's MM has three sub-groups of songs, which all contribute to a single overall theme, though in somewhat different ways.

1) "Grease monkey, ex-junky, winner of the fight"
2) "It seems to me I could live my life, a lot better than I think I am"
3) "Some going down to Stovell wearing trouble on their shirts"
4) "Rain pourin' down, I swing my hammer"
5) "If it ain't no pencil pusher, then it got to be a honky-tonk queen"
6) "Thought I could have my cake and eat it too"
7) "They hurt you at home and they hit you at school"
8) "Like the castle in its corner in a medieval game"
9) "You lazy mother, your hands are clean"
10) "Twenty five years have come and gone, and she's seen a lot of tears"
11) "You can get it wrong and still you think that it's all right"

12) "How many people do I help, just by sitting on the shelf?"
13) "To any port or foreign shore"
14) "I lived the life of a drifter, waiting for the day"
15) "Breakfast where the news is read, television children fed"
16) "Tons of gold for which they'd kill"
17) "Sing any so song that you want me to sing to you"
18) "From F.L.A. to Frisco Bay, and everywhere in between"
19) "I've been waiting to awaken from these dreams"
20) "Take a drink from his special cup"
21) "All night long, we would sing that stupid song"
22) "And even though I'm full of sin"
23) "Eating from TV trays, tuned into to Happy Days"
24) "How was I to know, she was with the Russians too?"
25) "He mumbles a prayer and it ends with a smile"
26) "Through a glass eye your throne, is the one danger zone"
27) "In a cabin on a hill in Butcher Holler"
28) "A-through the back yard we'd go walkin'"
29) "Where the New York City winters aren't bleeding me"
30) "Put out your problems with the cat"
31) "Don't ask me what I want it for"
32) "I won't toe your line today"
33) "Long shot at that jumping sign, invisible shivers running down my spine"
34) "Why's it takin' such a long time, for me to hear from that boy of mine?"
35) "A lifetime spent preparing for the journey"
36) "Nor do the wind, the sun or the rain"
37) "Alimony, alimony payin' your bills"
38) "And all this science I don't understand"
39) "Who never had time for a wife"
40) "A thousand miles can lead so many ways"
41) "Pretty eyed, pirate smile"

42) "Every morning about this time she get me out of my bed"
43) "My woman done left and took all of the reasons"
44) "Keeping my eye on the keyhole"
45) "Met our mothers at the USO"
46) "He came home too drunk from mixin' tanqueray and wine"
47) "Well, he hands you a nickel, he hands you a dime"
48) "Grandma's on the front porch swing with a bible in her hand"
49) "The man in the silk suit hurries by"
50) "The place that I was born, on the lakeside"

Good luck and enjoy!

Downsized And Heading Back Up

2009-10-06T09:24:00.002-04:00

Wanted to let my blog friends know that I've been laid off from my job, effective this past Friday - after 24 years at the same company! Loyalty and experience count for absolutely nothing in today's corporate world - or likely, count against you.

I have much more to say about this, but for the immediate future things will be a bit crazy and disorganized here on Elie's Expositions as they are in Elie's larger life. I know I'm late for this week's Musical Monday, which may end up becoming next week's Musical Monday. But on the bright side, I'll likely have more time - and hopefully more inclination - to get back into more regular blogging again. Meanwhile, happy Sukkos! May the holiday continue to bring with it pleasant weather... and pleasanter tidings.

Happy 5770!

2009-09-18T17:52:00.002-04:00

A gebenchte New Year to all my readers! May we all be incribed in the book of life for 5770, and may we be blessed with a year of good health, prosperity, and happiness.

Musical Monday #110

2009-09-14T09:28:00.002-04:00

Welcome to the 110th edition of Musical Monday, the weekly quiz that Soccer Dad and I alternate hosting. As always, the challenge is to identify the title and artist of each song quote below, as well as the common theme of the entire set of songs.

It's a somewhat super-sized edition this week, one of those themes that grew in the researching. Thought there is a single theme, the breaks between groups of songs will become clear once it is ID'ed. A couple of additional guidelines: In every case, I'm looking for one particular version of the song, usually but not necessarily the most well-known. Also, you may ignore the definite article in all cases.

1) "Then she did a dip, almost broke my hip"
2) "The boy whose name is Nicorino"

3) "Glowing like the metal on the edge of a knife"
4) "And not some puppet on a string"
5) "Thunder is your night light, magic is your dream"
6) "You say you're love is bona fide"
7) "Until happiness is just an illusion"
8) "That don't matter, he said, 'cause it's all the same"
9) "These four walls are closing in, think of the fix you put me in"
10) "And I always carry a purse"
11) "Well I'll be damned, here comes your ghost again"
12) "I can see a new horizon underneath the blazing sky"
13) "Over silbury hill, through the solar field"
14) "Take my tears and that's not nearly all"
15) "It was the same old song, with a melancholy sound"

16) "In a world of persecution, that is burning in its greed"
17) "To see the total eclipse of the sun"
18) "You are the reason I've been waiting so long"
19) "We were young and wild and free"
20) "And I should've been gone, after all your words of steel"
21) "He misses a step and cuts his hand"
22) "Mommy served in the WACS in the Philippines"
23) "It's an enemy to all mankind"
24) "Love is a banquet on which we feed"
25) "You don't know what you been a-missin'"
26) "A Cadillac a-rollin' on an open road"
27) "Bing bang, I saw the whole gang"
28) "Why can't he see, how blind can he be?"
29) "Like sugar and spice, so nice, so nice"
30) "You'll never be mine, I'm wasting my time"
31) "Forget about the past and all your sorrows"
32) "It controls me, makes me do all the things I do for you"
33) "It suits me fine that you treat me like a child"
34) "In the shape of an 'L' on her forehead"
35) "She said I was the tiger she wanted to tame"
36) "There's no way they could have made two"
37) "We've known each other since we're nine or ten"
38) "...can do the boogaloo like I do"
39) "Steam in the subway, earth is afire"
40) "I see us on the shore beneath the bright sunshine"
41) "Could it be finally I'm turning for home?"
42) "Without you, there'd be no sun in my sky"
43) "Worry, why do I let myself worry?"
44) "It's a long way down, and it's a leap of faith"
45) "If you want my future forget my past"
46) "Remember dancing at the high school hop?"
47) "You can stretch right up and touch the sky"
48) "Get hung up feed the ducks with a bun"
49) "I know you've been taken, afraid to hurt again"
50) "You like the movies, and I like T.V."
51) "You have won all my money, and my brand new Stetson hat"
52) "We were cruisin' home from the Beatles concert"
53) "I got no natural rhythm"
54) "Is this Nutsy land so good?"
55) "White sugar don't touch my lips"
56) "And there I stood with a arrow in my back"

57) "Thirteen month old baby"
58) "I should have changed that stupid lock"
59) "You like to think that you're immune to the stuff"
60) "If you're not into yoga"
61) "Your mama and daddy say it's a shame, it's a downright disgrace"
62) "Sitting on the doorstep of the house I can't afford"
63) "Maybe I'm an open book because I know you're mine"
64) "Maybe I didn't hold you all those lonely, lonely times"
65) "I was out choppin' cotton and my brother was balin' hay"
66) "I'll love you 'till the clover has lost its perfume"
67) "My one and only prayer is that someday you'll care"
68) "At first she's gonna come on strong"

69) "The fire's in their eyes and their words are really clear"
70) "But I had to do some breakin' through"
71) "She wants to return those things I bought her"
72) "Walking fast, faces pass, and I'm home bound"

73) "And my soul has been psychedelicized"

Good luck and enjoy!

Musical Monday #108

2009-08-31T08:03:00.002-04:00

Welcome to the 108th edition of Musical Monday, the weekly quiz that Soccer Dad and I alternate hosting. As always, the challenge is to identify the title and artist of each song quote below, as well as the common theme of the entire set of songs.

This week's edition is a collaborative effort, from an idea originally by Soccer Dad. It was fun working on this together, though I will miss one of my best players this week!

No sub-groups, though the last half-dozen stretch the rules just a bit!

1) "Do I what? Will I what?"
2) "We take all kinds of pills, that give us all kind of thrills"
3) "Cause the boy she loves is a Romeo"
4) "You say your Mom ain't at home, you can't let me in"
5) "But he stronger than a country hoss"
6) "He works in the saddle and he sleeps in the canyons"
7) "You change your passion for glory"
8) "Your mom busted in and said, 'What's that noise?'"
9) "He gets me my drinks for free"
10) "True love means planning a life for two"
11) "And in your voice I hear a choir of carousels"
12) "It was raining hard in 'Frisco"
13) "Dynamite with a laser beam"
14) "And take a long ride on my motor bike"
15) "It's been a year now and it's getting so much better"
16) "I felt a little like a dying clown"
17) "I tell you man he's living there still"
18) "Sunday morning you don't look right"
19) "Two spirits dancing so strange"
20) "Sending Roses And Your Silly Dreams"
21) "A Mexican cutie" (Note: Not the original!)
22) "So if you're feeling low, turn up your radio"
23) "And I've been in the Washington Zoo"
24) "I threw a rockabilly party on my last birthday"
25) "Planned to go to Swarthmore"
26) "Chose a gun and threw away the sword"
27) "We're just tryin' to be friendly"
28) "Feel the rhythm, check the ride"
29) "In Houston we just started a new dance"
30) "But on the 7th day he made me"
31) "When you gonna play 'Smokin' In The ...'?"
32) "And become a bad piano playing man"
33) "I'm not expecting to grow flowers in the desert"
34) "Cuban army surplus or refusing all third lights"
35) "He smoked a big cigar, drove a Cadillac car"
36) "I wait outside the pilgrims door, with insufficient schemes"
37) "He doesn't dig poetry"
38) "And did we tell you the name of the game, boy?"
39) "I'm flat broke but I don't care"
40) "I eat more chicken, any man ever seen"
41) "East and west of the Rio Grande"

Good luck and enjoy!

Musical Monday #106

2009-08-17T13:10:00.003-04:00

Welcome to the 106th edition of Musical Monday, the weekly quiz that Soccer Dad and I alternate hosting. As always, the challenge is to identify the title and artist of each song quote below, as well as the common theme of the entire set of songs.

If it were a couple of days ago, the obvious theme for this edition would be the 40th anniversary of Woodstock, but I'd guess by now, practically everyone has heard their share of Woodstock tunes and recollections on the radio and TV. So I went elsewhere, to a relevant, but quite a bit less obvious theme. Extra credit to whomever guesses my reason (or comes up with a better one again!) for using the theme this week.

1) "After all I'm forever in your debt"
2) "And you're afraid to let your eyes meet mine"
3) "But it's wisdom born of pain"
4) "Be back before it melts in the pan"
5) "I can sense your needs, like rain on to the seeds"
6) "Over night scenes, dinner and wine, Saturday girls"
7) "It's not so much your pretty face I see"
8) "You'd be weak as a lamb"
9) "She don't give the boys the eye"
10) "Is throw shadows at you"
11) "This is the only way that we should fly"
12) "Temptation falls in your path, no hesitation why you ask"
13) "Oh shucks, I'm just an average guy"
14) "You didn't have to leave me with that beer in my face"
15) "Yes, don't turn your back on me, baby"
16) "There's a hole in my head where the rain comes in"
17) "I can see me a tall dark stranger, giving you what you hadn't planned"
18) "Crazy laughter in another room"
19) "Pick up the pieces and go home"
20) "Sparkle someone else’s eyes"
21) "I don't want much, the good Lord's earth beneath my feet"
22) "Let’s change the mood from glad to sadness"
23) "Rising from the neon gloom, shining like a crazy moon"
24) "I look in your eyes, just like the rain"
25) "Like a country mornin', all snuggled in dew"
26) "I've been livin' on a dead-end street"
27) "Are you lonely just like me?"
28) "Sitting in a nest of bad men"
29) "When your conscience hits, you knock it back with pills"
30) "Time goes by and you're sharing an apartment"
31) "I know many fine feathered friends"
32) "Rags, the sailor's only daughter, a child of the water"
33) "There was a time when you needed someone to count on"
34) "But if they get a chance they'll end it for sure"
35) "I turn away from the wall, I stumble and fall"
36) "There's a band of gold that shines waiting"
37) "He'd give up all his comfort, sleep out in the rain"
38) "And every time it happens, it just convinces me more"
39) "Hear every thought, see every dream"
40) "With her fog, her amphetamine and her pearls"
41) "I ain't gonna act politically correct"
42) "When my soul was in the lost-and-found"
43) "Never runnin' in the streets, leavin' me alone"
44) "She can make the birds sing harmony"
45) "In the government yard in trenchtown"

Good luck and enjoy!

Musical Monday #104

2009-08-03T11:19:00.002-04:00

Welcome to the 104th edition of Musical Monday, the weekly quiz that Soccer Dad and I alternate hosting. As always, the challenge is to identify the title and artist of each song quote below, as well as the common theme of the entire set of songs.

It's been a hectic last couple of weeks for me, so this edition is a bit trimmer than usual, but hopefully still a challenge! There are three groups of songs (1-19, 20-24, 25-30), each relating to the same overall theme, though in slightly different ways. Various songs in the third group also connect with the first or the second group (and in one case, with both!)

1) "I wanna lock you up in my closet"
2) "What to do on a night like this, music sweet I can't resist"
3) "We took the vows of man and wife"
4) "Can we make a secret rendezvous?"
5) "For all the dreams and schemes, people are as they seem"
6) "Danger in the shape of something wild"
7) "Just get yourself untied, are you gonna do it?"
8) "New York was cold and damp, TV is just a blank"
9) "She took the Greyhound at the general store"
10) "Almost rang the phone off the wall"
11) "Should I get in touch with the FBI?"
12) "It's got to be a quarter to 4"
13) "Well she's my woman of gold, and she's not very old"
14) "She likes her tapes on 10"
15) "Oh man, I think the clock is slow!"
16) "First of the fall and then she goes back"
17) "I was dying just to ask for a taste"
18) "How do you like the way he rocks and the way he rolls?"
19) "That Model A Vitimix makes it look like a pup"

20) "Has high blood pressure got a hold on me?"
21) "And that would wipe this smile right from my face"
22) "The pressure's high, just to stay alive"
23) "But nothing is real, and no one can feel like you"
24) "The land here is strong, strong beneath my feet"

25) "Blame the caffeine for all the 5 am phone calls"
26) "She sees my good deeds"
27) "Why'd you slip around secretly?"
28) "Doing all the things that makes my heart sing"
29) "Where the water tastes like wine"
30) "Ain't no doubt, we are here to party"

Good luck and enjoy!

PS: I know I still owe the answers for MM #102 - hope to add them sometime today.

Musical Monday #103 - For Soccer Dad

2009-07-28T17:56:00.002-04:00

It's Soccer Dad's turn this week, and while he did post MM #103 on schedule, his blog site has not be able to receive comments. So he asked me to post it here as well, so you can play as usual and enter your guesses on this post.

As always, the challenge is to identify the title and artist of each song quote below, as well as the common theme of the entire set of songs:

1) This big dollar town can drag you right down, if you go it alone
2) Yeah there's a storm on the loose sirens in my head
3) Oh and in the heat of rapture when I feel the cold winds blow
4) And the colors in my rainbow turn blue
5) weren't you the one who tried to hurt me with goodbye
6) And there's whiskers on my chin
7) There's a mirror moving inside my mind
8) Bad boy knows where to find her, Runs the light, sneaks up behind her
9) Foolin' around, hitting the town, growing my hair
10) Stella sits in Rio
11) Hollywood ain't paved with gold, it's just a trick of light
12) Wanna have a simple moonshine, Wanna sing along on a song or two
13) Look at me, Gotta load on my back
14) You whisper something softly, I'm not meant to hear
15) So if you want to get to where you let the feeling roll
16) Once I dreamed in a dream I would find you, never thought that the dream would come true
17) Time is the essence, time is the season
18) Frame me and hang me on the wall
19) and talk about the teachers that you hate
20) You can't say you're in it, no, until you reach the limit
21) I would surely buy you a Cadillac
22) Dont be so circumscribed, are you gonna do it
23) Man, my head was spinning when I saw your feat
24) Untouchable memories seem to keep haunting me
25) Wasted days, and sleepless nights, and I cant wait to see you again
26) Don't you know you're sleeping in the spotlight
27) Standing in the cold rain, Feeling like a clown.
28) It's getting late they're waiting outside you're gonna run away
29) We live in a world, of carnivals and clowns, and buildings to the sky, that make us want to fly
30) Her hair so brilliant that it hurt my eyes
31) I will wash the dishes while you go have a beer

Musical Monday #102

2009-07-20T09:12:00.004-04:00

Welcome to the 102nd edition of Musical Monday, the weekly quiz that Soccer Dad and I alternate hosting. As always, the challenge is to identify the title and artist of each song quote below, as well as the common theme of the entire set of songs.

The obvious theme for this edition would have been the moon, in honor of today's 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing. However - with what was clearly a "lunatic" lack of foresight - I already used up that theme a bit over over a year ago, for MM #48. Oh well, no use mooning over lost opportunities.

Getting back to today's MM, there are three groups of songs (1-28, 29-37, 38-53) with separate sub-themes, each of which contributes to the overall theme (which does have some timeliness, though much less directly than the moon landing!) I'll also note although the three sub-themes are distinct, there is:
- One song in the second group which would also fit the first group
- One song in the third group which would also fit the second group
- And another song in the third group which would fit all three groups!

1) "You don't need a penny just to hang around"
2) "In the pool halls, the hustlers and the losers"
3) "It was always cold, no sun shine"
4) "And if you'd care to take a dare"
5) "You want to stay out with your fancy friends"
6) "It's a love that had no past"
7) "The sun ain't nearly on the rise"
8) "But your love is a common occurrence"
9) "I can't find, oh the right romantic line"
10) "If I should doubt myself, if I'm losing ground"
11) "Cop on the corner, look he's starting to write"
12) "Ford's about to drop, she won't do no more"
13) "Though your hurt is gone, mine's hanging on inside"
14) "Believe in your brother, have faith in man"
15) "You got to hidey-hidey-hide"
16) "She could drag me over the rainbow"
17) "The queen of Corona"
18) "I'm blushing brighter than a Valentine"
19) "I’m sick and tired of you setting me up, yeah"
20) "You could stand me up at the gates of hell"
21) "Here comes the banker and the lawyer and the cop"
22) "Nightime's flyers feel their pains"
23) "Three hundred sixty five degrees"
24) "Make a little love"
25) "That it looks like up to me"
26) "Sweet surrender on the quayside"
27) "And I've tasted the bitterness of my own tears"
28) "Anybody here see the noise, see the fear"

29) "The squirming dog who's just had her day"
30) "People walking above"
31) "Lonely as I am, together we cry"
32) "A big bad woman's gonna carry me to my grave"
33) "Watching some good friends screaming let me out"
34) "When I was young people spoke of immorality"
35) "The telephone is ringing, you got me on the run"
36) "And the wild man, he laid the thunder down"
37) "One day when the boss get hungry"

38) "She had sightless eyes, telling me no lies"
39) "I can still feel the breeze that rustles through the trees"
40) "He was six-foot-four and full of muscles"
41) "He don't show what goes on in his head"
42) "Reach for a star and I'll show you a plan"
43) "But the point is probably moot"
44) "You can hear your five selections for a quarter"
45) "You can bend but never break me"
46) "Even my old man looks good"
47) "Why do all the boys just pass you by?"
48) "Words as weapons sharper than knives"
49) "To pay the rent, to pay our share"
50) "But you turn right over to the T.V. page"
51) "Lower the curtain down in Memphis"
52) "A winter palace from the Arabian Nights"
53) "You're the sun who makes me shine"

Good luck and enjoy!

Musical Monday #100!

2009-07-06T08:00:00.001-04:00

Welcome to the 100th edition of Musical Monday, the weekly quiz that Soccer Dad and I alternate hosting. Our usual challenge is for you to identify the title and artist of each song quote, as well as the common theme of the entire set of songs. However, your MM co-authors are running a special, two-part theme in honor of MM's centennial, and thus, those who have been participating in MM #99 at Soccer Dad's blog already know today's theme (and if you haven't been participating, there's still a few songs left to get on #99, so get over there pronto, then come back!). So as an extra-credit assignment today, please share your favorite couple of past MMs from each of the two host blogs!

Before getting to today's quotes, I'd like to add my thanks to Soccer Dad's for our regular players - Clayton, Laura, TRN, Yitzchak, Gail, ral315, Benjie, and SJ - and for all of the occasional participants as well. It's always fun putting these puzzles together, but a lot more fun watching you solve them each week! And of course, my most heartfelt gratitude to my friend of now 30+ years, David aka Soccer Dad, who offered me the chance to share the weekly hosting of this terrific game, starting way back with MM#6!

Just a quick note on the song groups below: My implementation of the theme is just slightly different than David's: the first song in each set will be the one which connects to each of the others.

Without further ado!

1) "Rejoice, rejoice, we have no choice"
2) "I was soaring ever higher"

3) "And a monkey kinda' digs bananas"
4) "What will become of the restless kind?"

5) "Mr. MD"
6) "Cuz I'm a man, I got my pride"

7) "If I were you, I'd realize that I"
8) "Look at me, you never look at me"

9) "Forget your lust for the rich man's gold"
10) "Well maybe I'd kill you, or maybe I'd be true"

11) "You're so like the lady with the mystic smile"
12) "Subway's no way for a good man to go down"

13) "Paint myself in blue and red and black and gray"
14) "Because she's got her own obligations"

15) "I am broken like an arrow, forgive me"
16) "Iridescent socks with the same color shirt"

17) "Hot ashes for trees"
18) "Same old show in a different town on another time"

19) "I know that she's no peasant"
20) "She can take you or leave you"

21) "I can't sleep, I keep dreaming of losing you"
22) "We would stay there 'till her sister rang the evening bell"

23) "You could have been anyone to me"
24) "My cat is purring, and scratches my skin"

25) "Remember when we lost the keys?"
26) "There's a very strange vibration, piercing me right to the core"

27) "I remember the first time I was lonely without her"
28) "It's a big enough umbrella"

29) "See, don't ever set me free"
30) "You treat me badly, I love you madly"

31) "She loves to move, she loves to groove"
32) "Your words are weak and they don't mean a thing"

(This next pair bends the rules just a bit, but it was too good to pass up!)
33) "I guess nobody ever really done me"
34) "Frozen here on the ladder of my life"

35) "We're gonna' stimulate some action"
36) "I come alive in the neon light"
37) "There's not a soul out there"

38) "To hold me, to scold me"
39) "But she grew up tall and she grew up right"
40) "But don't forget who's taking you home"

41) "Till the heavens stop the rain"
42) "And oh, the joy that floods my soul!"
43) "We used to laugh at the wind behind us"

44) "There's no point escaping, I don't worry anymore"
45) "Let's find the key and turn this engine on"
46) "Miner's lady, stranger to blue water"

47) "Live for today, gone tomorrow, that's me, HaHaHaaaaaa!"
48) "Well, the undertaker drew a heavy sigh"
49) "And talk is cheap when the story is good"

50) "I never meant any harm to you"
51) "Born and raised in South Detroit"
52) "Like a tiger, defying the laws of gravity"
53) "Keep on with the force" (no, this isn't by Yoda... or Obi-Wan!)

54) "The drunken politician leaps"
55) "Then someone picked you from the bunch"
56) "It's driving me mad, it's driving me mad"
57) "Put on a brand new shirt"

58) "But I'm not one of them, you know I'm not!"
59) "So send me a salami, and try to smile somehow"
60) "I said, warden, warden, warden"
61) "All of the nights we’d harmonize till dawn"

62) "Dancing to the rhythm in our heart and soul"
63) "A cat named Frankenstein"
64) "And I know that motor wagon is ready to fly"
65) "But put a man six feet in a hole"
66) "A handful of grease in her hair"

67) "And yesterday I saw you kissing tiny flowers"
68) "Ah-huh Ah-huh"
69) "Hearts of fire creates love desire"
70) "My mother reads her magazines"
71) "I've overcome the blow"

(This last group could probably have been expanded into a full theme all it's own!)
72) "I was playin' around, feeling down, hittin' the beer"
73) "Treasure these few words 'till we're together"
74) "Sidewalk crouches at her feet"
75) "I hold my pillow to my head"
76) "When it feels like sorrow is your only friend"
77) "Moon appears to shine and light the sky"
78) "No first of spring, no song to sing"
79) "Ease my troubles, that's what you do"
80) "The words just came out wrong"

Enjoy, good luck, and thanks again for being part of our weekly fun and games!

Musical Son Day #2

2009-06-28T20:34:00.004-04:00

Some videos of the now AWARD-Winning act, and soon to be musical sensation, The Flip. Shalom and his bandmates took 2nd place (out of ~10 performers) in our town street fair this past Thursday evening! Watch the videos below, and note the lead singer's channeling of Mick Jagger on Ed Sullivan as he resignedly - and, well, Flip-pantly - alters a lyric to avoid offending a key demographic (read: a certain bandmate's parents (no, not me for heaven's sake!))

Let it Be

Encore: Knocking On Heaven's Door

Musical Monday #98

2009-06-22T11:21:00.002-04:00

Welcome to the 98th edition of Musical Monday, the weekly quiz that Soccer Dad and I alternate hosting. As always, the challenge is to identify the title and artist of each song quote below, as well as the common theme of the entire set of songs.

All fifty songs relate to a single theme today, but it is worth noting that the last five on the list belong to a different musical genre than the rest.

And yes, I know I'm very late with the answers to last week's MM; hopefully you'll see them later today.

1) "In the stillness of remembering what you had"
2) "Pull myself together, put on a new face"
3) "Reach for the golden ring, reach for the sky"
4) "Half my life is in books' written pages"
5) "You're a princess, chains around you"
6) "Two spirits dancing so strange"
7) "Someday I don't know how, I hope you'll hear my plea"
8) "Only trouble is, gee whiz"
9) "There must be peace and understanding sometime"
10) "A candy-colored clown they call the sandman"
11) "Well, I can't tell lies, cause they're listening to me"
12) "Check my vital signs to know I'm still alive"
13) "What a day, a year, a laugh it is!"
14) "Wondering if Mother Earth will survive"
15) "Help me to forget today's pain"
16) "You know the preacher likes the cold"
17) "Here am I, I'm taking a chance"
18) "How to put it together, how to say it right"
19) "We've walked along St. Thomas beach a million times"
20) "You could tell I was no debutante"
21) "I feel like I'm heading up to a cardiac arrest"
22) "And fall on my face on somebody's new-mowed lawn"
23) "Without dollar one to spend"
24) "And when he's lonesome and feeling loved starved"
25) "Try to catch the deluge in a paper cup"
26) "Stars fading but I linger on, dear"
27) "Moving sidewalks, I don't see under my feet"
28) "The room was empty as I staggered from my bed"
29) "We couldn't tear ourselves away"
30) "I walk without a cut through a stained glass wall"
31) "When you're so downhearted and misunderstood"
32) "I must be looking for something, something sacred I lost"
33) "Travel the world and the seven seas"
34) "And I know you've got the ashes to prove it"
35) "Deep water all around me, circle sharks all about"
36) "Concerning myself and the first few friends I had"
37) "First night so long, a state of mind, what can go wrong"
38) "I hit cruise control and rubbed my eyes"
39) "She took my new sunglasses and my old jean jacket"
40) "I wonder if these heavy eyes can face the unknown?"
41) "Here to share with one another, father, brother, sister, mother"
42) "Rain pourin' down, I swing my hammer"
43) "They may laugh at you and call you green"
44) "And my destination makes it worth the while"
45) "And I will lose myself in palaces of sand"
46) "The gleam in your eyes is so familiar a gleam"
47) "No matter how your heart is grieving, if you keep on believing"
48) "A crash of drums, a flash of light"
49) "To run... where the brave dare not go"
50) "There was a time, when love was blind, and the world was a song"

Good luck and enjoy!

Musical Monday #96

2009-06-08T09:46:00.004-04:00

Welcome to the 96th edition of Musical Monday, the weekly quiz that Soccer Dad and I alternate hosting. As always, the challenge is to identify the title and artist of each song quote below, as well as the common theme of the entire set of songs.

The two groups of songs today (1-10, 11-42) are distinct sub-themes, but both relate to an overall theme.

1) "And when the sun comes up, I'll be on top"
2) "Time can bend your knee"
3) "I want to hear the children sing"
4) "All we can offer them is a page in some magazine"
5) "A stairway to darkness in the blink of an eye"
6) "But he turned out to be like every other man"
7) "Outside I'm masquerading"
8) "It's only there trying to fool the public"
9) "If we could start anew, I wouldn't hesitate"
10) "Seems like overnight, we see the world in a different light"

11) "I can't talk to people that I meet"
12) "She sits alone by a lamppost"
13) "I put my daughter on my knee, and she say, 'Daddy what's wrong?'"
14) "I need your smile, child like the one I once knew"
15) "Who'll take all your pain, honey your heartache, too?"
16) "Playing piano for the children of the king"
17) "How can I explain the fear you feel inside?"
18) "Shame on you, you told me lies"
19) "Well, it hurt me so to see them dance together"
20) "In the government yard in trenchtown"
21) "I've said too much, been too unkind"
22) "Dream if you can a courtyard"
23) "Don't the moon look good, mama?"
24) "Well, I saw your sign and I missed you there"
25) "You are living a reality I left years ago"
26) "Talk to me softly, there is something in your eyes"
27) "You girl, you've always been mistreated, cheated"
28) "They left behind her dreams among the litter"
29) "Couldn't stay all my life down at heel"
30) "The night-time shadows disappear"
31) "You know that I'll wait, as long as it takes"
32) "Break a heart, break a heart of stone"
33) "Neither could change their headstrong ways"
34) "She saw the look in his eyes, 'n she knew better"
35) "Love wasn't much of a friend of mine"
36) "I could smile for a while"
37) "I pray the Lord that I'll grow stronger"
38) "I've got my pride and I know how to hide"
39) "And then before you know where you are, you're sayin' goodbye"
40) "I'm in the middle of nowhere, near the end of the line"
41) "She'll take your money, she'll wreck your world"
42) "And emeralds from mountains thrust toward the sky"

Good luck and enjoy!

Musical Monday #94

2009-05-25T09:45:00.005-04:00

Welcome to the 94th edition of Musical Monday, the weekly quiz that Soccer Dad and I alternate hosting. As always, the challenge is to identify the title and artist of each song quote below, as well as the common theme of the entire set of songs.

Couple of notes/ground rules for today's edition:
- There are three sub-groups of songs - 1-10, 11-29, and 30-50. These all relate to the same theme, but in a different manner, or perhaps to a different extent.
- Although I often select topics with a particular relevance to either current events or the number of the MM edition, there is no such (intended) connection this time.
- For each song below, I'm intending a particular version - generally, but not necessarily, the most famous/well known.
- There is an extra credit item to identify, besides title and artist, for each song below. Once the theme is guessed, the extra credit assignment should be clear, though getting the answers will definitely be easier for some of them, harder for others.

1) "If it's a mirror you want, just look into my eyes"
2) "I got my rock moves and I don't need you"
3) "With orders to identify"
4) "I'm crying icicles instead of tears"
5) "I been running trying to get hung up in my mind"
6) "Real loose like a long necked goose"
7) "Won't you do your sister's will?"
8) "By the garden of the willow tree"
9) "It's a rainy afternoon in 1990"
10) "We don't follow fashion; that would be a joke"

11) "And they made you change your name"
12) "And we got no innocence"
13) "You don't have to shout or leap about"
14) "All my teeth, North and South"
15) "At those who shout her name and steal her clothes"
16) "So I look for the light in the pouring rain"
17) "Birds singing in the sycamore tree"
18) "Tell me no secrets, tell me some lies"
19) "Summertime will be a love-in there"
20) "As I walk along, I wonder what went wrong"
21) "Tied up in sorrow, lost in my soul"
22) "Let me see the lines on your hand"
23) "Thinkin' 'bout a life of crime"
24) "Give him two arms to cling to"
25) "I can cast a spell with secrets you can't tell"
26) "That's when Billy would take me walkin'"
27) "You should see my, my little Sis"
28) "There's beauty up above, and things we never take notice of"
29) "It's really you, but no one ever discovers"

30) "They never did like Mama's homemade dress"
31) "Soy capitan"
32) "Preachers, keep on preachin'"
33) "Just like Ronnie sang: Be my little baby!"
34) "Still in the dress she used to wear"
35) "And now MacHeath spends just like a sailor"
36) "Don't tell them to grow up and out of it"
37) "He was born in the summer of his 27th year"
38) "I was born the son of a lawless man"
39) "Beware that hooded old man at the rudder"
40) "But your empty eyes seem to pass me by"
41) "And take a band like the Church Street Five"
42) "Is it in your kiss or just because you're sweet?"
43) "Inventing lovers on the phone"
44) "Mellow as the month of May"
45) "He smiled so I got up and asked for his name"
46) "And so you're back, from outer space"
47) "It ain't nothing but a heartbreaker"
48) "It was a warm spring night at the old town hall"
49) "I play along with the charade"
50) "I can only receive, I can listen to you"

Good luck and enjoy!

Musical Son Day #1

2009-05-17T18:21:00.006-04:00

Let it be... the first rough cut demo from The Flip, a soon-to-be-famous band featuring, on keyboards, one Shalom Rosenfeld! The Flip is available for weddings and bar mitzvahs - at least until they start selling out Madison Square Garden. Meanwhile, you can tell everyone you heard them first here!

Musical Monday #92

2009-05-11T10:02:00.004-04:00

Welcome to the 92nd edition of Musical Monday, the weekly quiz that Soccer Dad and I alternate hosting. As always, the challenge is to identify the title and artist of each song quote below, as well as the common theme of the entire set of songs. However, this week's MM is a bit off the beaten path, so here a a few additional rules/clues:
- The are five groups of songs separated by spaces: 1-30, 31-41, 42-47, 48-57, and 58-60. Find the sub-theme of each group, which all relate to the overall theme of the MM, but in different ways. Note also that although an apparent solution for the overall theme might quickly emerge, the correct answer is more specific. There is an additional clue to the exact theme below, but it is not in any individual item.
- For all the song groups (except possible the 3rd), I'm looking for a particular version of the song in question, usually the most well-know.
- For the first group only, in addition to the artist/title, try to identify the album on which the song first appeared. You'll soon see why this extra requirement is relevant!

All that said, here goes:
1) "But I have to laugh when she reveals me"
2) "Between you and me and the Staten Island ferry"
3) "Who never had time for a wife"
4) "Well he never had a sweetheart"
5) "But you just can't wait for that call"
6) "Electric babies, blue-jeaned and jaded"
7) "Like another can of beans"
8) "Some will just be now and then"
9) "And he's proud of his scars"
10) "They all bought Cadillacs and left there long ago"
11) "Though you drown in good intentions"
12) "And a couple of paintings from Sears"
13) "Some say it's better but I say it ain't"
14) "Go on and cry in your coffee"
15) "Melodrama's so much fun"
16) "Hardly anyone has seen how good I am"
17) "I've been stranded in the combat zone"
18) "Should I get a set of white wall tires?"
19) "So the graduations hang on the wall"
20) "Sesame Street, what does it mean?"
21) "I'm that voice you're hearing in the hall"
22) "And there's only one good way to reassure"
23) "And I'll walk away a fool or a king"
24) "With her high top sneakers of Italian design"
25) "There are giants out there in the canyons"
26) "Maybe I've set myself up for the kill"
27) "Raise up a multiplex and we will make a sacrifice"
28) "I go walking in my sleep, through the valley of fear"
29) "So I could catch my breath and face the world again"
30) "But I got street savoir faire"

31) "Hey little sister shot gun"
32) "I'm not tryin' to be your highness"
33) "She dashed by me in painted on jeans"
34) "Holding hands, making all kinds of plans"
35) "You can burn my clothes when I'm gone"
36) "Freezin' a moment, leave me paralyzed"
37) "But I don't fit in her society"
38) "It would sure do me good, to do you good"
39) "The birds in the sky would be sad and lonely"
40) "Turn your radio on, and find a slow grooving song"
41) "Did you think I could hate you, or raise my hands to you?"

42) "Who will dance on the floor in the round?"
43) "I heard his fiancee got a letter"
44) "I got some news this mornin' from Choctaw Ridge"
45) "On the mountain was a treasure"
46) "He's got evil in his eyes, got a reason to despise"
47) "And Circus Boy dances like a monkey on barbed wire"

48) "And all this science I don't understand"
49) "You're the meanest old woman that I've ever seen"
50) "When some sad old dream reminds you"
51) "Well they passed a law in '64"
52) "Thirteen month old baby broke the looking glass"
53) "You broke my will, but what a thrill!"
54) "She almost drives me crazy"
55) "But all of those vows you made were never to be"
56) "A shadow of a man, a face through a window"
57) "Now you look so unhappy, and I feel like a fool"

58) "So when you feel like hope is gone, look inside you and be strong"
59) "40,000 men and women everyday"
60) "I wish I could be as carefree and wild"

Good luck and enjoy!

Musical Monday #90

2009-04-27T10:52:00.002-04:00

Welcome to the 90th edition of Musical Monday, the weekly quiz that Soccer Dad and I alternate hosting. Speaking of which, if you haven't already, please check out last week's MM #89 at Soccer Dad - it's one of the best ones either of us has done so far, and there are still a good few song clues to guess!

Back to this week's, somewhat more workaday MM. As always, the challenge is to identify the title and artist of each song quote below, as well as the common theme of the entire set of songs. Note that there are three groups of songs today, 1-24, 25-27, and 28-30. Each group has its own separate sub-theme, which together represent clues to the overall theme of this week's MM, as well as - hopefully - illuminating the reason/timing for its selection.

1) "Alone in your electric chair"
2) "Look, what's your game baby?"
3) "You've done all the taking, it's your turn to give"
4) "I wanna tell you a story every man oughta know"
5) "They drove you or you drove them crazy"
6) "But I must admit it got the best of me"
7) "It ain't no use in calling out my name, gal"
8) "You've been as constant as a Northern Star"
9) "Make future plans, don't dream about yesterday"
10) "My head was in a bad place"
11) "Quarter moon walking through the Milky Way"
12) "Far too many sins to mention"
13) "Comes to a fix, not afraid to fight"
14) "We were lying together in a silver lining"
15) "I need a little heart and affection, cause love needs a little romance"
16) "So you think your schooling's phoney"
17) "Whisper to me softly, breathe words upon my skin"
18) "And I was in crazy motion till you calmed me down"
19) "You missed two classes and no homework"
20) "When you're alone and in a corner"
21) "I never was much good at coming on real strong"
22) "Think about the love that burns within my heart for you"
23) "When I come home baby, now (night and day)"
24) "Your friends tell you there's no future in loving a married man"

25) "Blinky thumps the gut bass, and solos for a while"
26) "He sees everything and nothing at all"
27) "Count all the bees in the hive"

28) "I don't know why my heart flips, I only know it does"
29) "Now I'm playing it real straight, and yes I cut my hair"
30) "I wandered the highways from Dublin to Berkeley"

Good luck and enjoy!

Musical Monday #88

2009-04-06T09:02:00.002-04:00

Welcome to the 88th edition of Musical Monday, the weekly quiz that Soccer Dad and I alternate hosting. As always, the challenge is to identify the title and artist of each song quote below, as well as the common theme of the entire set of songs. Extra credit this time to the first to identify the reason I chose this theme!

There's just one theme today, though there is somewhat of an order to subsets of songs that fit it in slightly different ways.

1) "The smiles returning to the faces"
2) "A suitcase and trunk"
3) "Can you feel it now that spring has come?"
4) "But you misread my meaning when I met you"
5) "Looking at the barrel of an Armalite"
6) "But don't forget that love's a game"
7) "I cried when she said, 'I don't feel the same way'"
8) "Loneliness is a coat you wear"
9) "And though I lose a friend, in the end you will know"
10) "Too much wine and too much song"
11) "My girl and me, we will stay right by the sea"
12) "Like an old dusty road, I get weary from the load"
13) "When you're on a holiday, you can't find the words to say"
14) "So I'm stuck here watching TV"
15) "Afraid of what you'd find if you took a look inside"
16) "In my eyes indisposed, in disguise as no one knows"
17) "Everybody's laughing, everybody's happy"
18) "Want you to know, I'm a rainbow too now"
19) "Where is my spirit? I'm nowhere near it"
20) "A gigantic nuclear furnace"
21) "Took the high dive into your brain"
22) "So I can watch you live and breathe your storylines"
23) "Thank you for that smile upon your face"
24) "And I can't sail my yacht, he's taken everything I've got" (no, this isn't by Bernie Madoff)
25) "No more falsehoods or derisions"
26) "Now don't want you back for the weekend"
27) "It's the morning and just we two"
28) "I'm so proud to know that she is mine"
29) "And this house just ain't no home anytime she goes away"
30) "I'd give to you a day just like today"
31) "Everybody's hustlin' just to have a little scene"
32) "Because you came to my rescue"
33) "When I awoke, dear, I was mistaken"
34) "We'll walk barefoot on life's gravel together"
35) "Make me feel fine when I'm feelin' wrongly down"
36) "He was just a hired hand"
37) "Only change will bring you out of the darkness"
38) "Laden with happiness and tears"
39) "Dirty old river, must you keep rolling?"
40) "I can't believe our warlord's dead"
41) "Oh, carry my loved one home safely to me"
42) "She's been looking like a queen in a sailor's dream"

Good luck and enjoy!

Steeling from the Rich

2009-04-01T12:41:00.005-04:00

Though I'm a lifelong Redskins fan, I couldn't help feeling bad for the Steelers after reading this. And as a Yankees fan, I'm outraged at the last paragraph! "Rest assured I was on the internet within minutes, registering my disgust throughout the world..." (can you ID this quote?)

Pittsburgh, PA.

The Super Bowl XLIII Champion Pittsburgh Steelers, the only team to win six titles, will soon be losing half of those trophies. After a meeting between NFL Commissioner Rodger Gadel and President Barack Obama, Obama decided to redistribute half of their Steeler Super Bowl victories and trophies to less fortunate teams in the league.

“We live everyday in the country that invented the Super Bowl.” said Obama “We are not about to lose this Great American tradition in the wake of these difficult times.” Obama’s plan calls for the Steelers, who are a successful NFL team, to give half of their Super Bowl trophies to teams that are not successful or have not been as successful as the Steelers. “The Detroit Lions are just as much a part of the same fiber of the NFL as the Steelers and they should, no rather will, be entitled to a Super Bowl Trophy as well.” Obama explains in his plan that he has imposed on Godel and the NFL.

The Pittsburgh Steelers, who by virtue of hard work, excellent team play, stellar draft choices, responsible investing of free agents, careful hiring of coaches and excellent community service and commitment to their fans, has prospered greatly during the past 30 years and have won six Super Bowl Trophies. But President Barack Obama’s plan calls for the Pittsburgh Steelers to carry the larger burden of the NFL’s less successful teams. Obama went on to further proclaim, “In these difficult times we are all in this to work together. We must reclaim the NFL Championship Dream for every team, for every city and for every fan.”

“My plan will not affect 31 of the 32 teams in the league.” Obama assures. That’s over 95 percent of the teams in the NFL will not have to worry about loosing any Super Bowl Trophies. “The worst teams in the NFL and the teams that can’t seem to get a break and win a championship will no longer have to worry about going without a title.” Obama promises. “We are a country and league of hope. We all need to make a change. It does not matter the color of the teams uniforms, the personal decisions that the teams make or their performance but rather if they are a member of this great American league.”

The Super Bowl XLIII trophy will be redistributed to the 0-16 Detroit Lions. Through no fault of their own incompetence, the Lions could not manage a victory all season and this trophy will help ease the pain of their lack of performance and give them hope once again. The redistribution of Super Bowl XL trophy will go directly to the Steeler’s division rival the Cincinnati Bengals. The Bengals who also have fallen on hard times have never won a Super Bowl. This victory will bring a smile to hundreds of Bengal fans all over the world as they can now celebrate. Finally, one of the Steeler’s two Super Bowl victories over the Dallas Cowboys will go back to the Cowboys since the league needs to provide hope in the face of difficulty and provide hope in the face of uncertainty. This is a heavy burden for the Steelers but together we can all prosper.

All hope is not lost for Pittsburgh fans, Barack Obama has another plan in place. Obama has meet with MLB and commissioner Bud Selig on a similar plan. The New York Yankees will redistribute two of their world series trophies to the Pittsburgh Pirates as a supplement to their loosing 16 straight seasons and counting. This plan will help stimulate the Pirates and enable them to regain the American Dream. Barack Obama will be meeting with the NHL and Michael Phelps in the upcoming weeks as this issue is high on his agenda for “Hope and Change.”

PS: April Fool! (I hope!) H/T Snopes

Passover Food

2009-03-27T16:16:00.001-04:00

This Passover, treat your guests with Passover
Cake & Desserts, thank your host with a Passover
Gift Baskets and delight your kids with Passover
Candy or with Passover
Chocolate.
All from Oh! Nuts. As the leading source for kosher candy, chocolates, nuts and
gifts, Oh! Nuts is fully stocked with all your Passover Food and Passover Seder
needs.

Musical Monday #86

2009-03-23T10:45:00.005-04:00

Welcome to the 86th edition of Musical Monday, the weekly quiz that Soccer Dad and I alternate hosting. As always, the challenge is to identify the title and artist of each song quote below, as well as the common theme of the entire set of songs.

This week there are three groups of songs, demarcated by spaces. Each group has a separate theme of its own, which, when taken together, will point to the overall theme of this week's Musical Monday. Yes, I know the middle group contains just one song (#33), but I'm quite sure you clever folks do still have a good chance of solving the puzzle!

1) "We were liberated from the fold, that's all"
2) "But she gets it while she can"
3) "Gonna' hang me up in the doorway"
4) "Yeah, the bad guys know us"
5) "I ain't got time for true confessions"
6) "And if I do I know the way there"
7) "I pound on the windows like a bee inside a jar"
8) "My favorite flavor, cherry red"
9) "Sometimes you keep busy reaching out for something"
10) "Ivanhoe and Lancelot, they don't envy me"
11) "And pocket full of keys that have no bounds"
12) "We are but a moment's sunlight, fading in the grass"
13) "I'm thinking about the fireworks that go off when you smile"
14) "And she'll cry just to think I'd really leave her"
15) "I love too hard my friends sometimes say"
16) "How white my shirts could be"
17) "I've got no time for trivialities"
18) "Will you walk away from a fool and his money?"
19) "I nearly died from hospitality"
20) "If you wanna play hide and seek with love"
21) "She throws the want ads right my way"
22) "You wave it like a flag, you wear it like a crown"
23) "Where we can get together, and ease up our mind"
24) "In my mind you have taken up permanent space"
25) "Lovely is fhe feelin' now, fever, temperatures risin' now"
26) "I can build a castle from a single grain of sand"
27) "We're all sensitive people with so much to give"
28) "The one that made me shiver, made my knees start to quiver"
29) "He says, it's three a.m., there's too much noise"
30) "Watched his hair been turnin' grey"
31) "You say you hungry, I give you meat"
32) "So bar maid bring a pitcher, another round o' brew"

33) "But I say, please listen when I say" OR "And not me but the people they say"

34) "Makes you give in and cry"
35) "There's some kind of magic inside you"
36) "Maybe I'm an open book because I know you're mine"
37) "That fatal kiss is all we need"
38) "See him surface in every shadow"
39) "You play with words, you play with love"
40) "A pretty face can hide an evil mind"

Good luck and enjoy!

Blasts From Purim Past

2009-03-10T14:57:00.009-04:00

Sorry folks! I had this brilliant, erudite, hilarious Purim spiel all written and set to post last night. We went out to megillah reading, and Sandy, insulted at being left behind, ate my entire post! I think I may be taking that Korean restaurant up on their offer after all...

Above you see Sandy, pleading for clemency after finishing off all those delicious electrons! :-)

So now that I've found a scape-dog for my laziness, here are some links to my past Purim posts for you to enjoy again. They might be leftovers, but hopefully still tasty!

5766: You Might Be Yeshivish

5767: Dear Abby (Abie?), Boro Park Style

5768: Ain't It a Shem

5768: Maseches Grynegznham

And for good measure, yesterday's Purim-themed Musical Monday!

HAPPY PURIM 5769!!

Musical Monday #84

2009-03-09T08:31:00.003-04:00

Welcome to the 84th edition of Musical Monday, the weekly quiz that Soccer Dad and I alternate hosting. As always, the challenge is to identify the title and artist of each song quote below, as well as the common theme of the entire set of songs.

Couple of notes. Today in particular, I'm especially looking for the singer as well as the name of each song- the former will often be more difficult. As a bit of help, I'll state that I included no more than two songs by any given artist, and that any such pairs are consecutive. Otherwise, the songs are in no particular order. I also kept the total to 50, simply as a nice round number. That said, I especially encourage folks to add their additional fitting songs for the rest to guess, once the theme is IDed - which I suspect won't take long! :-)

Let the fun begin!!

1) "As long as you don't let 'em in your school"
2) "The last time I needed twenty stitches"
3) "There was junk all over the floor"
4) "Don't you know that other kids are starving in Japan?"
5) "He made my lapels an inch too wide!"
6) "And also crepe suzettes and steak"
7) "Cause we can't find reverse"
8) "Colonel Sanders wants to cook his goose"
9) "To complicate the matter, though it really brought me joy"
10) "I light a match to see the dash"
11) "Sell it to the circus, what the heck"
12) "They can't play baseball, they don't wear sweaters"
13) "No need explaining the one leg remaining"
14) "They don't chase squirrels at all"
15) "You can dice, you can slice and fillet them"
16) "And basket weavers who sit and smile"
17) "Hey man, dig that was that a red stop sign"
18) "It was right outside the Frontier Deli"
19) "The guy who does the voice for Scooby Doo"
20) "Once while swimming cross turtle creek"
21) "One day I looked into my kit"
22) "We shared a seat and we shared our tales"
23) "They has a fit while I commit my social suicide"
24) "Don't be a naughty eskimo"
25) "He took in the four am show at the Clark"
26) "It's just a jump to the left"
27) "To get a jolt from my electrodes"
28) "As a gift they left a blue silk ribbon tied into a bow"
29) "And his fate is still unlearned"
30) "I hollered...Don't look Ethel!"
31) "Well, he brought that camel to a screechin' halt"
32) "Our country's got a feeling, really hit the ceiling"
33) "I got a John Keats autographed Grecian urn"
34) "Did you do the monkey?"
35) "Don't touch that, for goodness sake; you'll release the parking brake"
36) "And then he swung from the tree and lit on the ground"
37) "Vould would leave it if you could?"
38) "How in the world could I keep my seat?"
39) "And the pudding made of fig"
40) "You been keeping love from me just like you were a miser"
41) "Doctor, to relieve this belly ache?"
42) "Oh no, Mitzi's head just did the splits"
43) "My basketball coach, he done kicked me off the team"
44) "With telltale traces of hippie on his chin"
45) "Come one come all who walk or crawl; price just two lids a head"
46) "On Wednesdays I go shopping"
47) "We do routines and chorus scenes"
48) "My natural exuberance spills out all over the place"
49) "Your face is ok, but your purse is too tight"
50) "Bible punching heavyweight, evangelistic boxing kangaroo"

Good luck, enjoy, and Happy Purim!!

Watching Watchmen

2009-03-08T09:06:00.002-04:00

Not yet, but I will be, about an hour from now! (No, Shalom couldn't talk me into a 12:01 am opening day showing again!) I'll let you know how close the movie came to doing justice to the source material, which, as I've written before, is one of the very few graphic novels for which the second part of that appelation is fully deserved. It's not a good sign that the author wanted nothing to do with the movie adaptation, but I commit to approach it with an open mind anyway.

Conversely though, here's my advice for anyone considering seeing the movie: Read the book first! I mean it - you'll regret it if you don't.

Musical Monday #83

2009-03-02T11:32:00.004-05:00

Welcome to the 83rd edition of Musical Monday, the weekly quiz that Soccer Dad and I alternate hosting. As I mentioned last week, we made a last-minute decision to switch weeks for #82 and #83. So the MM I had prepared for #82 is here today, and I'll hopefully be back again a week from today with MM #84.

As always, the challenge is to identify the title and artist of each song quote below, as well as the common theme of the entire set of songs. Some of the individual songs may be a bit harder to ID than usual this week, but the overall theme likely will not be. Also, please note the following:
A) I didn't separate it into any sub-themes today, though I could have created a lot of them.
B) I took advantage of the extra week to add a few more songs to today's theme. For extra credit, tell me how many extra, and why!

1) "Life gets me higher, I can show, I can go"
2) "Must have counted every cloud in the sky that night"
3) "Where is that simple day before colors broke into shades?"
4) "Like going up to heaven and then coming back alive"
5) "And give no warning to her flight"
6) "And even when it would rain we would laugh it off"
7) "Still it holds a goodly share of bliss"
8) "Never missed a warm embrace"
9) "Tracy died soon after a long fought civil war"
10) "When I was small, and Christmas trees were tall"
11) "I laughed at all of your jokes"
12) "Even rode my motorcycle in the rain"
13) "With your chrome heart shining in the sun"
14) "Of juniper and lamplight"
15) "Like Columbus in the olden days, we must gather all our courage"
16) "Don't stop the flow, we can't let go"
17) "Throw the top back, and roll down to Jackson town"
18) "And the rompin' river pushes"
19) "Chasin' the factory girls underneath the boardwalk"
20) "Against a little girl of 6 years old, the independent one"
21) "In the key that our souls were singing"
22) "Why, you've become a grown-up girl!"
23) "I love you, boy never mind, I've been crying all the time"
24) "My friends look forward to their picnics on the beach"
25) "Seven years has gone so fast"
26) "There is danger in the summer moon above"
27) "And kingdoms rise, and kingdoms fall, but you go on"
28) "When even friends seem out to harm you"
29) "As I recall it ended much too soon"
30) "And it's one more day up in the canyons"
31) "Just tilt my sun towards your domain"

Good luck and enjoy!

Where's Musical Monday #82?

2009-02-23T09:17:00.004-05:00

Looking for Musical Monday #82?
Don't be confused... it's us, not you!
The alternating MM hosts just pulled a "v'nahafoch hu"
For logistical reasons, and for Rosh Chodesh Adar too!

So look for Musical Monday #82 at Soccer Dad, and then come on back here the next two Mondays for #83 and #84.

Good luck, and Happy Adar!

Home, Again

2009-02-16T19:41:00.010-05:00

"It's so far and out of sight..."
- Carole King

Thanks to Yitzchak, Soccer Dad, Gail, Clayton, Jack, Laura, SJ, ral315, and benjie (and I missed TRN this time!), for your participation in last week's Musical Monday #80! Together, you ID'ed 22 out of 38 songs, and Gail was the first to get the theme, which was songs titles that mention "home". Nice job, all!

Before providing the rest of the answers, I'd like to wax nostalgic for a moment (well, nostalgic has been getting a bit scuffed! :-}) on the significance of this particular MM topic to me. This is actually a remake of a musical theme I visited nearly 28 years ago, back in my college days, when I hosted a weekly show on our radio station: "WYUR - The Voice of Yeshiva University" (now online!). This was, as far as I remember, the first themed installment of my radio show that I ever did, and thus the earliest ancestor of my Musical Monday quizzes of today! (And guess who else also had a show on WYUR back then?)

After posting MM #80, I spent some time going through my boxes of college papers in the attic, until finally I unearthed the original playlist for that old show! My musical tastes were still developing in those days, and conversely, my interpretation of the theme was quite a bit broader on that radio show than in this MM. Thus, I included songs that referred - even fleetingly- to the general ideas of "homecoming", "returning", or "traveling".

Anyway, for those who are interested, here (not in the order played, which is lost to posterity) are the songs that appeared on my playlist for that radio program back in 1981:

- Beatles - Golden Slumbers
- Beatles - The Two Of US
- Beatles - Ticket to Ride
- Billy Joel - Traveling Prayer
- Billy Joel - Everybody's Got A Dream
- S&G - Homeward Bound
- Jackson Browne - The Road
- Supertramp - Take The Long Way Home
- Foreigner - Long, Long Way From Home
- Eddie Money - Two Tickets To Paradise
- Carole King - So Far Away
- Carole King - Home Again
- Beach Boys - Sloop John B
- Blues Brothers - B Movie
- Eagles - Already Gone
- John Denver - Take Me Home Country Roads
- Dave Loggins - Please Come To Boston
- Tony Orlando - Tie a Yellow Ribbon
- Paul Simon - My Little Town
- Santana - Going Home [How'd I miss that one for this MM?]
- Barry Manilow - Home Again
- James Taylor - Hello Old Friend

And now, the solutions for this MM #80. There's a few overlaps with my old show, but not very many!
1) "Meeting a man from the motor trade" - "She's Leaving Home", Beatles
2) "Indiana's early morning dew" - "You're My Home", Billy Joel
3) "Tension was running high at my high school" - "My Hometown", Bruce Springsteen
4) "I started to believe that I was born at seventeen" - "Home Town", Joe Jackson
5) "And looked into the empty faces of the people of the night" - "New York's Not My Home", Jim Croce
6) "Watergate does not bother me" - "Sweet Home Alabama", Lynyrd Skynyrd
7) "One and one is two, six and two is eight" - "Sweet Home Chicago", Blues Brothers
8) "Coming out the woodwork, through the open door" - "Home By The Sea", Genesis
9) "A discouraging word" - "Home On The Range", Traditional
10) "Listen close to the guitar man" - "Homesick", Atlanta Rhythm Section
11) "Watch the parking meters" - "Subterranean Homesick Blues", Bob Dylan
12) "I got elastic bands keepin' my shoes on" - "Nobody Home", Pink Floyd
13) "A requiem was never sung, no elegy was read" - "Nobody's Home", Kansas
14) "I'm in no hurry baby, time can wait" - "I Don't Want to Go Home", Southside Johnny and The Asbury Jukes
15) "I was a gypsy lost in the twilight zone" - "Who Says You Can't Go Home", Bon Jovi
16) "I'll play the game and pretend" - "Homeward Bound", Simon & Garfunkel
17) "Times have changed and times are strange" - "Mama I'm Coming Home", Ozzy Osbourne
18) "Tryin' to love me baby, love some other man too" - "Bring It On Home", Led Zeppelin
19) "I'll give you jewelry, money too" - "Bring It On Home To Me", Sam Cooke, etc.
20) "Take that look of worry, I'm an ordinary man" - "Take Me Home", Phil Collins
21) "I can feel your heartbeat faster" - "Take Me Home Tonight", Eddie Money
22) "I'll show you sweet delight" - "Let Me Take You Home Tonight", Boston
23) "Life is old there, older than the trees" - "Take Me Home Country Roads", John Denver
24) "You take a trip to the city lights" - "Take The Long Way Home", Supertramp
25) "The millions of faces, but still I'm alone" - "Long, Long Way From Home", Foreigner
26) "I could smell the same deep green of summer" - "Long Walk Home", Bruce Springsteen
27) "Come down off your throne" - "Can't Find My Way Home", Blind Faith
28) "On land or sea or foam" - "Show Me the Way to Go Home", Traditional
29) "Why does every moment have to be so hard?" - "Won't Go Home Without You", Maroon 5
30) "I've got no time for trivialities" - "When I Get Home", The Beatles
31) "Where the lovelight gleams" - "I'll Be Home For Christmas", Bing Crosby et al
32) "Am I in my cabin dreaming?" - "I'm Your Captain (Closer to Home)", Grand Funk Railroad
33) "Traveling where the Westerly winds can fly" - "Celebrate Me Home", Kenny Loggins
34) "Belief over misery, I've seen the enemy" - "This is Home", Switchfoot
35) "And the pain you feel's a different kind of pain" - "Home", Daughtry
36) "Take me to your heart, feel me in your bones" - "Home Sweet Home", Motley Crue
37) "I'll milk those cows, feed the chickens and the horses" - "Back Home", Beach Boys
38) "Snow is cold, rain is wet" - "Home Again", Carole King

Thanks again all! MM #81 was already posted today at Soccer Dad, and look for #82 back here on 2/23.

Musical Monday #80

2009-02-09T09:01:00.003-05:00

Welcome to the 80th edition of Musical Monday, the weekly quiz that Soccer Dad and I alternate hosting. As always, the challenge is to identify the title and artist of each song quote below, as well as the common theme of the entire set of songs.

There's a single theme today, though as usual, there may be some additional connections or similarities between consecutive songs:

1) "Meeting a man from the motor trade"
2) "Indiana's early morning dew"
3) "Tension was running high at my high school"
4) "I started to believe that I was born at seventeen"
5) "And looked into the empty faces of the people of the night"
6) "Watergate does not bother me"
7) "One and one is two, six and two is eight"
8) "Coming out the woodwork, through the open door"
9) "A discouraging word"
10) "Listen close to the guitar man"
11) "Watch the parking meters"
12) "I got elastic bands keepin' my shoes on"
13) "A requiem was never sung, no elegy was read"
14) "I'm in no hurry baby, time can wait"
15) "I was a gypsy lost in the twilight zone"
16) "I'll play the game and pretend"
17) "Times have changed and times are strange"
18) "Tryin' to love me baby, love some other man too"
19) "I'll give you jewelry, money too"
20) "Take that look of worry, I'm an ordinary man"
21) "I can feel your heartbeat faster"
22) "I'll show you sweet delight"
23) "Life is old there, older than the trees"
24) "You take a trip to the city lights"
25) "The millions of faces, but still I'm alone"
26) "I could smell the same deep green of summer"
27) "Come down off your throne"
28) "On land or sea or foam"
29) "Why does every moment have to be so hard?"
30) "I've got no time for trivialities"
31) "Where the lovelight gleams"
32) "Am I in my cabin dreaming?"
33) "Traveling where the Westerly winds can fly"
34) "Belief over misery, I've seen the enemy"
35) "And the pain you feel's a different kind of pain"
36) "Take me to your heart, feel me in your bones"
37) "I'll milk those cows, feed the chickens and the horses"
38) "Snow is cold, rain is wet"

Good luck and enjoy!

The Day the Music Died

2009-02-03T16:08:00.020-05:00

"I can't remember if I cried
When I read about his widowed bride..."
- Don McLean, "American Pie"

Today marks the 50th anniversary of the tragic plane crash which is now universally known - in Don McLean's famous words - as simply "The Day The Music Died". Hard to imagine it's been half a century since Rock and Roll lost one of its genuine pioneers, Buddy Holly, as well as two other young and rising stars, J. P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson and Ritchie Valens.

In other ways, 1959 was a watershed - or perhaps a low water mark would be a better term - in the history of Rock and Roll. Three other key stars who defined the early Rock era also fell quiescent during, or shortly before, that same year: Elvis Presley (army service), Jerry Lee Lewis (banned), and Little Richard (found religion). Perhaps along with the tragedy of Holly's loss, all these coinciding events truly must have made it seem like Rock and Roll was to perish, as it had been born, with the decade. Yet just a few years later, the genre was experiencing unprecedented growth and revivification, courtesy of a multiplicity of distinct, yet overlapping new movements - the British Invasion, Psychedelic, Progressive Rock, Folk Rock, etc.

There have been other such turning points, other periods of ebb when an accumulation of losses or artistic breakups seemed to spell doom for the future of "Rock as we know it". I recently noted 1970 (extending to early 1971) as one such epoch, when in a short span, both the Beatles and Simon and Garfunkel split up, while era-defining superstars Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, and Janis Joplin all passed away. Once again, it might have seemed to some that Rock was doomed to fade away with the change in decades. Yet in retrospect (and despite how most pop "music" sounded when the 1970s ended), the early years of that decade also saw many acts who would carry Rock forward. This included bridging supergroups from the 60s such as The Who, The Rolling Stones, and Led Zeppelin, new, incredibly talented and prolific solo artists like Elton John, Bruce Springsteen, Billy Joel, and of course, bands too numerous to list who ushered in new musical genres such as Heavy Metal and Arena Rock.

Which brings us to the here and now. I freely admit that I know too little about today's music, and like too little of what I hear. But I also know myself far too well, to simply blame this on the relative lack of talent and/or dedication of today's pop performers - as defensible as such accusations might be. As in many other areas of my life, I'm a bit stuck in my musical comfort zone, tending to stay mostly with the tried and true "Classic Rock" of the mid 60s through mid 80s that I know so well. Yet I'm sure that somewhere out there, there are gifted new performers ready to usher in new and exciting musical eras. So I'll try to keep my ears at least somewhat open - maybe even let my children be my guides here!

After all, despite today's anniversary, we have also been assured (since even before that tragic date) that Rock and Roll Is Here To Stay!

RIP, Buddy, J.P., and Ritchie... and Long Live Rock.

Musical Monday #78

2009-01-26T09:20:00.002-05:00

Welcome to the 78th edition of Musical Monday, the weekly quiz that Soccer Dad and I alternate hosting. As always, the challenge is to identify the title and artist of each song quote below, as well as the common theme of the entire set of songs.

With 77 MMs now behind us, some degree of repetition is bound to crop up. So I'll confess that today's theme is a sort of a second cousin to one I did a while back, with a few of the same songs - though using different quotes! Extra credit if you can ID the previous, slightly related theme. Also, I'll note that songs #34-36 on today's bend the rules somewhat, while #37 fits the theme very well, but in a different way than the rest of them.

1) "And I say I don't know"
2) "I don't care what the neighbors say"
3) "But you still mystify"
4) "What does it matter to ya?"
5) "Sometimes it's not for days"
6) "And the front rank died"
7) "Take my arms that I might reach you"
8) "I'll taste all that love that you've been hiding"
9) "You're like a fresh morning dew"
10) "You say I'm tough and kind of wild"
11) "My heart was captured, my soul surrendered"
12) "Exactly whom I'm supposed to be"
13) "Into your arms I fell so unaware"
14) "Respectfully, I say to thee"
15) "Simple though love is, still it confused me"
16) "From the profit he's made on your dreams"
17) "So why on earth should I moan?"
18) "Leave me never"
19) "Like the tick-tick-tock of the stately clock"
20) "We learn to give each other what we need to survive"
21) "We'll have a dance of liberty"
22) "They print my message in the Saturday sun"
23) "I turn my back and you're messin' around"
24) "I never cared for school or any golden rules"
25) "I like my bands in business suits"
26) "Movin' in for the kill tonight"
27) "But as quick as a flash your love is gone"
28) "Susanne the plans they made put an end to you"
29) "And the people who gain the world and lose their soul"
30) "Through the storm we reach the shore"
31) "It's enough to leave me crying in the rain"
32) "Young and wired, set to explode in the heat"
33) "That certain kind of love that moves all doubts"
34) "Loading crates down on the dock"
35) "You see, Andy didn't have many friends"
36) "Cut you down to size"
37) "I swear it's not too late!"

Good luck and enjoy!

Aaron's Birthday 2009: 22 And Not Counting

2009-01-22T15:43:00.007-05:00

Aaron's birthday was today, the 22nd of January. He would have turned 22 this year.

If Aaron were still with us, his birthday still an occasion for joy and celebration, that small numeric coincidence would be noteworthy, perhaps an excuse for a extra bit of festivity. But with each passing year since his loss, it becomes more and more difficult to even remember when our family used to associate 1/22 with parties, fun, and congratulations. Now it's become an annual milestone to be dreaded and endured, accompanied by emotions at best bittersweet, at worst, depressing and painful beyond words.

Today is the fourth January 22nd to pass since Aaron's loss, and thus the fourth time I have posted to this blog to mark that date. In looking back, I note a progression, a change in my approach to this occasion, quite sad in its own right. The first year, Aaron's loss still so recent and raw, I determined to combat my misery and broken spirit by focusing on positive memories we had of his life, producing a long, detailed, and truly heartening recounting of joyful reminisces. On a smaller, less ambitious scale, I added to this list in 2007. And then last year, though I couldn't bring myself to uncover any further such recollections, to think any more happy thoughts, I was at least somewhat eloquent in my very inability to do so.

But today, I find myself overwhelmed with the numbness of spirit and dullness of inspiration that I had only professed in last year's birthday post. Perhaps this is simply in keeping with overall moribund state of this blog (alternate Mondays excepted). Or perhaps I have already written all there is to say - or all I am willing to say - about this subject, and can think of no fresh words, no innovative ways in which to rephrase and reiterate the feelings of bereavement and sorrow that never leave me for a single moment.

Whatever the reason, this is where I am today, in all its raw reality: aching, sad and lonely, tearful and angry, and wishing to Heaven we could just skip over January 22nd and be done with it.

As the Bard said, the rest is silence. Thanks for being here with me to read the words I can write, and between the lines of what I can't. You guys help me get through, as much as anything can. May God bless you and yours.

Benefit of the Doubt

2009-01-21T10:56:00.004-05:00

"Barack, which means 'blessing'; Hussein - don't ask! - and Obama, which is an old Kenyan word for 'Kennedy'..."
- Robin Williams

"After a time, you may find that having is not so pleasing a thing after all as wanting. It is not logical, but it is often true."
- Spock, "Amok Time"

As anyone not sealed in cryogenic freeze knows by now, today the sun rose for the first time on a 44th US President, Barack Obama. After all the hype and hoopla, all the hints, hypotheses and huzzahs, it's time to see what our new president is really made of, and how he'll deal with the great many genuine, serious issues facing our country and the world as a whole.

I certainly was not among Obama's admirers, supporters, or voters, for a variety of reasons articulated over the past year by commentators too numerous to list. But the time for such considerations, for criticism and negativity, is, in my mind, past. Perhaps, it will be future as well. But for today, I'm willing to give President Obama the benefit of my (many) doubts, and continue to hold on to the hopes I articulated right after the election.

Perhaps you disagree. Then let me at least say this: our Sages tell us to pray for the welfare of the government. This rule was articulated during a time period of far more despotic, destructive, and yes, Jew-hating regimes than any US administration could conceivably ever become. If it applied to them, how much more so does it apply to our new POTUS? So let me end by echoing words from the contemporary US version of that prayer:

He Who grants salvation to kings and dominion to rulers, Whose kingdom is a kingdom spanning all eternities... may He bless the President, the Vice President, and all the constituted officers of government of this land. The King Who reigns over kings, in His mercy may He sustain them and protect them from every trouble, woe and injury. May He rescue them; and put into their heart and into the heart of all their counselors compassion to do good with us and with all Israel, our brethren. In their days and in ours, may Judah be saved and may Israel dwell securely, and may the Redeemer come to Zion. So may it be His will, and let us respond: Amen.

Farewell to Khaaaannnn!

2009-01-15T11:52:00.007-05:00

Actor Ricardo Montalban passed away yesterday at the age of 89. Best known to 70s TV fans as the serene and slightly mysterious proprietor of Fantasy Island, he'll always be remembered by us Trekkers for a slightly more volatile role in his long and successful acting career!

Hopefully, the actor's final words were a bit more positive than Khan's (or Ahab's). RIP Ricardo Montalban, and Vaya con Dios.

Musical Monday #76

2009-01-12T09:09:00.002-05:00

Welcome to the 76th edition of Musical Monday, the weekly quiz that Soccer Dad and I alternate hosting. As always, the challenge is to identify the title and artist of each song quote below, as well as the common theme of the entire set of songs.

I didn't separate any sub-groups this week, although various songs do fit the theme in different ways. In fact, there's a loose, partial ordering of songs within the theme, and even some connecting pairs, that may help you fill in gaps after the first few are identified.

1) "I never kept a dollar past sunset"
2) "They dropped things on his back"
3) "Let's pretend we just can't see his face"
4) "Invest a dime"
5) "Cause you came and you took control"
6) "Put it in the ground where the flowers grow"
7) "The near and the dear ones"
8) "Somebody came and took your bed"
9) "These days are ours; share them with me"
10) "Playing warden to your soul"
11) "We'll dress him up warmly"
12) "Drink from the silver cup"
13) "The music plays so nonchalant"
14) "You've only got my heart on a string"
15) "Just take a seat, they're always free"
16) "Maybe tomorrow a new romance, no more sorrow"
17) "We lied about each others drinks"
18) "You are the move you make"
19) "They've been going in and out of style"
20) "But you know I could never stand for this"
21) "Out of the silver light, the past came softly calling"
22) "Anybody can sing it any old time"
23) "They reach into your room, just feel their gentle touch"
24) "Looks like it's over; you knew I couldn't stay"
25) "Well, I bet you wish you could cut me down"
26) "And he's boring as hell"
27) "I like the way you move and just the way you are"
28) "Agony's torn at my heart too long"
29) "I'm tired of moaning, I'm tired of groaning for you"
30) "But you know it's by your side I will stay"
31) "And the princess will wake up from her slumber"
32) "Let the morning time drop all its petals on me"

Good luck and enjoy!

Post Fast Test

2009-01-07T13:37:00.004-05:00

I intended this post for yesterday, when the fast day of Asarah B'Teves was observed, but a combination of a renewed deluge at the office (those nice, quiet workdays during the "Holiday Season" are over!), and feeling generally lousy all yesterday afternoon and evening, got in the way. So this may be a day late, but at least I got a chance to us a nicely alliterative title!

Asarah B'Teves - the 10th of the Hebrew Month of Teves - is one of a series of four fast days that relate to the events surrounding the destruction of the First Temple, the others being Tisha B'Av, Shiva'asar B'Tammuz, and Tzom Gedaliah. It is also probably the least clearly understood of those fast days, in that the very event(s) it commemorates are much less well-known, and not even universally agreed (see Gemara Rosh Hashanah 18b). Yet in certain ways, Asarah B'Teves has a unique status, not only relative to the other Rabbinic fasts but amongst Jewish holidays as a whole. Here are a few questions to test your knowledge of the day's distinctiveness:

1) On what days of the week can Asarah B'Teves occur?

2) How does it differ in this regard from:
a) All other fast days?
b) (Nearly) all other Jewish holidays?

3) How is Asarah B'Teves also unique with regard to the secular calendar?

Post your responses in the comments - I'll cover any unanswered ones on Friday.

King of the Leasts

2008-12-29T16:57:00.010-05:00

Not that I have any excuse to brag about either of the two football teams I root for, but one has to pause and acknowledge the very first NFL team to go 0-16! So let's hear it for the 2008 Detroit Lions, who made even the Redskins and Jets look stellar this year!

Lions Coach Rod Marinelli, at his closing press conference after being handed his pink slip today, had nearly as little success coming up with anything worthwhile to say, as his team had on the gridiron. E.g., "Let our record speak for itself, but when I look at worst, that is worst and this group of men, we didn’t succeed on the field in terms of our record, but they succeeded in everything I wanted them to do..." etc., etc., and other such dull pap. I think Marinelli should have taken a page from the late, irrepressible John McKay, coach of the 1976 expansion Tampa Bay Bucs, who went 0-14 as the only other winless team in NFL - and thus, obviously, in all major league sports - history. Here are a few of my favorite, classic McKay quotes:

When asked about the execution of his offense, he responded, "I'm in favor of it."

"We didn't tackle well today, but we made up for it by not blocking".

"We can't win at home, we can't win on the road, and quite frankly we're running out of other places to play."

“You guys don't know the difference between a football and a bunch of bananas.”

"If you have everyone back from a team that lost 10 games, experience isn't too important."

"The bus leaves in an hour. Those of you who need showers, take them."

After the Bucs finally won their first game, the 13th (2nd-to-last) of the 1977 season: "Three or four plane crashes and we're in the playoffs!"

So for the toothless '08 Lions, along with my beloved 'Skins and Jets, I close with a quote from another sincere, yet hapless coach:

"JUST WAIT TILL NEXT YEAR!!!"

Musical Monday #74

2008-12-29T08:57:00.004-05:00

Welcome to the 74th edition of Musical Monday, the weekly quiz that Soccer Dad and I alternate hosting. As always, the challenge is to identify the title and artist of each song quote below, as well as the common theme of the entire set of songs.

This week, the song quotes are divided into two groups: 1-18 and 19-34. These represent two separate sub-themes which together comprise the overall theme of the quiz.

1) "Arms entwined, the chosen few"
2) "I seem to lean on old familiar ways"
3) "I'd swallow the pain and pride"
4) "And the bus and the tourists are gone"
5) "He's the only reason we exist"
6) "Crumpled bits of paper, filled with imperfect thought"
7) "I swear you taught me everything I know"
8) "Nights are warm and the days are young"
9) "Your arms are hanging limp at your sides"
10) "The trip we made in Hollywood is etched upon my mind"
11) "Blind aspires of fortune, each have separate weight"
12) "But what if I'm a mermaid in these jeans of his?"
13) "It's the first time that you haven't made the bed"
14) "Your stupid girlfriends tell you that I'm to blame"
15) "Too many kingdoms, too many flags on the field"
16) "There'll be scary ghost stories"
17) "We'd hide from the lights, on the village green"
18) "Watching the wide world riot and hiding out"

19) "I'm just glad to be here, happy to be alive"
20) "Lenny Bruce is not afraid"
21) "Offer up your best defense"
22) "You and me were free, we do as we please yeah"
23) "Some are born to sweet delight"
24) "I took the money, I spiked your drink"
25) "Is your conscience at rest if once put to the test?"
26) "The sounds of the city sifting through trees"
27) "Everyone's hoping it'll all work out"
28) "You might see me on the East side, ha, the West side!"
29) "Seven long years for the same corporation"
30) "Drenched in my pain again, becoming who we are"
31) "Two-roomed apartment on the second floor"
32) "The snake is long, seven miles"
33) "The love you take"
34) "Some nights I wake up, I look at your pillow"

Good luck and enjoy!

Musical Monday #72

2008-12-15T08:45:00.008-05:00

Welcome to the 72nd edition of Musical Monday, the weekly quiz that Soccer Dad and I alternate hosting. As always, the challenge is to identify the title and artist of each song quote below, as well as the common theme of the entire set of songs.

Just a single theme this week with no sub-groups, though there is an additional commonality among the first 13 on the list. I'll also note that some of the songs fit the theme more literally, some less so.

1. "Any trick in the book now"
2. "There was a gas strike, oil strike"
3. "If you go a million miles away I'll track you down girl"
4. "I'm more than some pretty face beside a train"
5. "Dumb as an ape doing nothing"
6. "Look in the mirror, even with a broken heart I'm fine"
7. "Come on downtown and stay with me tonight"
8. "You stumbled in and bumped your head"
9. "The bowery got its bums"
10. "Been haunted by a million screams"
11. "So look out for those beauties"
12. "It's a nice day to start again"
13. "Might even walk on holy ground"
14. "You would always come running to me"
15. "I'm a hard case that's tough to beat"
16. "Wealth and fame, he's ignored"
17. "Stop the press, who is that?"
18. "With his elephant and gun"
19. "That was due to happen at a quarter to three"
20. "I won't call again, even in a jam"
21. "Three days since the living room"
22. "Or if he moves, will he fall?"
23. "Stand for everyone of us"
24. "I play my music in the sun"
25. "I picked it up and ran to town as happy as a king"
26. "Suddenly I'm up on top of the world"
27. "With orders to identify, to clarify and classify"

Good luck and enjoy!

ZZZZZZ Birthday Boy

2008-12-07T21:56:00.003-05:00

The Birthday Boy is tired tonight. No, not OLD, at a mere 47, just tired! I spent most of today at a wedding, which was both physically and emotionally draining, and much of the rest driving to and from. To quote Marshal Gerard after he finally caught up with Dr. Richard Kimble, "I need a rest".

So just here briefly tonight, before 12/7 turns into 12/8, to acknowledge one more "Birthday That Shall Live In Infamy" (for other past birthday posts, see here are here). May I merit to enjoy many more such amongst loving family, good friends, and loyal readers!

Musical Monday #70

2008-12-01T08:39:00.013-05:00

Welcome to the 70th edition of Musical Monday, the weekly quiz that Soccer Dad and I alternate hosting. As always, the challenge is to identify the title and artist of each song quote below, as well as the common theme of the entire set of songs.

This week, the song quotes are broken into three subgroups: 1-16, 17-50, and 51-55. All three groups relate to the same overall theme, but in different ways. I'll also add that several - though by no means all - of the songs in the first and last groups would qualify for the middle group as well (but not vice versa); in fact one or two songs from the first group would even fit all three. Also, as always, if a given song was covered by multiple artists, I'm looking for one particular version.

1) "I'm not one of those who can easily hide"
2) "All day long I think of things"
3) "Hung me on a line"
4) "Lived and learned from fools and from sages"
5) "Of his honor and his glory the people would sing"
6) "Better recognize your brothers"
7) "You were light and breezy"
8) "Do a ton or a ton an' twenty-five"
9) "Insufficient data coming through"
10) "Perfume came naturally from Paris"
11) "Really want to go with you"
12) "Please don't say we'll never find a way"
13) "Setting suns and lonely lovers free"
14) "Ran into a chum with a bottle of rum"
15) "You don't have to shout or leap about"
16) "Her hair is kinda' wild and free"

17) "Under electric candlelight"
18) "All the good times I've been misusin'"
19) "The future's uncertain and the end is always near"
20) "I've got values but I don't know how or why"
21) "Can you play their games?"
22) "Don't you think that love can last?"
23) "I'm alone in the dark, even though"
24) "Give me spots on my apples"
25) "A statue wearing high heels"
26) "Stop messin' round with your tricks"
27) "I've been lost now days uncounted"
28) "You make me sing like a guitar hummin'"
29) "All the branches of the learning tree"
30) "The music plays so nonchalant"
31) "They seek the truth before they can die"
32) "My body's aching and my time is at hand"
33) "In a castle dark or a fortress strong"
34) "Life is for us to keep"
35) "Her wild-eyed innocence is just a game"
36) "A kiss for luck and we're on our way"
37) "An overfed, long-haired leaping gnome"
38) "Friend only to the undertaker"
39) "You may get disgusted, and think I'm strange"
40) "Tall white mansions and little shacks"
41) "Lines form on my face and hands"
42) "Were gonna' stimulate some action"
43) "And I never drew one response from you"
44) "The breeze along the river seems to say"
45) "Let some air into this room!"
46) "You know she was a dancer, she moved better on wine"
47) "But in the grey of the morning my mind becomes confused"
48) "Leroy, boy, you're my friend"
49) "Seen a lot of things in this old world"
50) "Won't you hop inside my car?"

51) "I wake up to the sound of music"
52) "Then I'm laying out my winter clothes"
53) "You say your mom ain't home, it ain't my concern"
54) "Dialing for dollars is trying to find me"
55) "All the girls they try to take me away, take me away"

Good luck and enjoy!

Musical Monday #68

2008-11-17T13:20:00.007-05:00

Welcome to the 68th edition of Musical Monday, the weekly quiz that Soccer Dad and I alternate hosting. This edition, however, is a collaborative effort of us both - though the late posting is entirely my responsibility!

As is often the case, today's MM consists of several sub-groups of songs. There is a distinct theme for each group, relating to an overall meta-theme for this edition. I'll also state that the first song in each group has special status, and that the last group of songs is somewhat different than the others.

1) "A bronze man still can tell stories his own way"
2) "You change your passion for glory"
3) "My God I'm hardly alive!"
4) "I'll always love you, anyway, anyway, anyway"
5) "You can make this beggar a king, a clown or a poet"
6) "Everybody stops and stares at my baby"
7) "I'd like to take you to the nearest star"
8) "Cool kids never have the time"
9) "In the key that our souls were singing"
10) "I promise I will not make noise"

11) "Now you're climbin' to the top of the company ladder"
12) "And your drip dry glove"
13) "My memory has just been sold"
14) "Seesaw swingin' with the boys in the school"
15) "To hold me, to scold me"
16) "But that was long before I met you"

17) "I was so tempted to gamble on love just one time"
18) "We came out West together with a common desire"
19) "How can she lose with what she use?"
20) "How it got here, I haven't a clue"
21) "Got holes in both of your shoes"
22) "I long to see the sunlight in your hair"

23) "On a stormy sea of moving emotion"
24) "Does she want you, infatuate and haunt you?"
25) "Now I don't want you back for the weekend"

26) "You kept on steppin', never turning your head, yeah"
27) "And that villains always blink their eyes, woo!"
28) "You see my new job's a hassle and kids have the flu"
29) "Here comes your ghost again"
30) "Johnny jumped up and he hit him"
31) "I miss her lips and the smile on her face"
32) "The crayon on the wall he slashes"
33) "Sharing our love under stormy skies"
34) "And sometimes the blues will get hold of you"
35) "Me and you are subject to the blues now and then"
36) "A guardian angel to keep me warm when the cold winds blow!"
37) "Use every alibi and words you deny"

38) "When light goes down, I see no reason"
39) "Como lluvia fresca en mis manos"
40) "I'm odds and ends, but that's me stumbling away"
41) "If you're all alone when the pretty birds have flown"
42) "Hielten sich fuer schlaue Leute"
43) " I'm sitting here waitin' the gun still warm"
44) "He had debts, for he drank"
45) "Penso che un sogno cos?"
46) "Black as the dark night she was"

47) "What it is ain't exactly clear"
48) "When everything's made to be broken"
49) "I don't remember no cold days"

Good luck and enjoy!

Gloom and Doom

2008-11-12T13:55:00.007-05:00

If you're still mourning last week's election results - and my earlier "bright sides" don't cheer you up - look at how much worse it could have been! You could be living in Latveria and have this guy as your fearless leader...

H/T

Obama's Win - Seven Silver Linings

2008-11-07T13:41:00.004-05:00

We've all had a couple of days now to reflect on the presidential election results, and the J-blogosphere abounds with post-mortems and analyses of the campaign, as well as dire predictions concerning the upcoming Obama administration. While I decidedly did not support an Obama victory, I also try to look for the positive side in unfortunate and painful events. I have found that this approach, if nothing else, can help one endure what would otherwise be truly unendurable.

So to borrow a phrase from the President-elect, here are a few of my audacious hopes for constructive outcomes of his victory:

1) The ascent of a Black American to the country's highest office breaks the ultimate "glass ceiling" which had been perceived as separating the races. Perhaps a true color-blindness, as envisioned by Dr. King so long ago, will finally take hold and wash away the last vestiges of reverse discrimination in program and attitude, which have only been racism perpetuated.

2) Similarly, Black youth now have a hugely visible role model, one who, whatever else one might feel about him, is neither a rapper nor an athlete, but by contrast is learned, cultured, and scholarly. This can only have a positive impact on a community that for too long has viewed intellect, education, and professional success as unachievable or even a negative.

3) Obama's very lack of experience and preparedness for the position he is taking on, may lead to a greater sense of caution and discretion, more willingness to accept council from those with varying viewpoints, and a gradual rather than reckless approach to his much-vaunted "change".

4) The positive reception from other world leaders that Obama is already receiving could reap economic benefits for the US. Those countries should be more likely to compromise on trade and related issues for an American leader whom they admire, and/or from whom they might expect greater reciprocity.

5) Obama is, by all accounts, a very canny, intelligent, and capable individual. Unless one accepts the highly implausible view that he is literally an agent for enemy interests, it can be hoped that as the cold realities of office take hold, he will slowly move at least some distance from naive idealism to a more pragmatic and skeptical approach to issues.

6) But even if President Obama retains the same far-left viewpoint of Senator Obama, there have been similar-minded Presidents before, and the country survived their administrations more or less intact. To give a concrete example, I truly don't think President Obama will be that much worse than President Carter, but we all somehow made it through the late seventies. And remember that Carter's failed presidency directly lead to the Reagan revolution. The pendulum of history always swings back.

And if none of these work for you, there's always:

7) If not for Haman, we wouldn't have Purim! Nuff said.

A happy, restful, and healing Shabbos to all!

Musical Monday #66

2008-11-03T10:29:00.004-05:00

Welcome to the 66th edition of Musical Monday, the weekly quiz that Soccer Dad and I alternate hosting. As always, the challenge is to identify the title and artist of each song quote, as well as the common theme of the set of songs. While this edition is not quite as ambitious - or at least not as lengthy - as some of my recent ones, I hope it will still provide something of a challenge!

Today again, as is often the case, there are two sub-groups of songs (1-18 and 19-25). Both relate to the same overall theme, but in different ways.

1) "See the thorn twist in your side"
2) "Giving up I close my eyes"
3) "Sometimes you tell the day by the bottle that you drink"
4) "Breaking me out of the spell I was in"
5) "You're happy when I'm on my knees"
6) "To give all that love that you've been hiding"
7) "Baby, it's time, so why waste it in chatter?"
8) "You know that I could be in love with almost everyone"
9) "Just like a willow, we would cry an ocean"
10) "Well, I paid all the dues I want to pay!"
11) "Lead you to the supermarket checkout"
12) "I took my baby on a Saturday bang"
13) "I was doing my very best Bogart"
14) "Girl you got the look, as if you wrote the book"
15) "I've been standing out in the rain"
16) "All along I knew I'd lose you"
17) "We'll be happy together, unhappy together"
18) "Snake eyes in heaven - the thief in your head"

19) "Won't be happy 'till he's seen you cry"
20) "One has diamonds in his pockets"
21) "No one else can have the part of me I gave to you"*
22) "Not my brand you understand"
23) "His confidence never needs a crutch"
24) "With a host of holy horrors to direct our aimless dance"
25) "It's not often easy, and not often kind"

Good luck and enjoy!

* No, this isn't by Vincent Van Gogh :-)

TV Trivia Thursday #19

2008-10-30T17:34:00.010-04:00

It's been a few weeks since I've had the chance to do one of these, and unfortunately I've exhausted the good nuggets from my new reference book, so TTT may be taking another extended hiatus. But for now, here's today's TV trivia quiz:

1) Who is the only major M*A*S*H character to be played by a single actor in the movie and all related TV series?

2) Conversely, which two of the major characters were played by three different actors?

3) On this trio of shows, which spanned the mid-60s through mid-80s, he started and ended in seafaring roles, but played a writer in-between. Name the actor and the three series.

4) Describe the only two times that Norm's oft-mentioned wife Vera was "seen" on Cheers? For extra credit, who played Vera for these appearences?

5) What numerically-named - and critically acclaimed - show also featured early appearences by future stars such as Rob Reiner, Teri Garr, Cindy Williams, Richard Dreyfuss, Chuck Norris, and Mark Hamill?

6) Why was the title character of "The Greatest American Hero" nearly always referred to, in his civilian identity, as "Mr. H.", rather than with his actual last name?

7) Name two series where the title characters sang the theme song.

8) Most cartoon character voices were performed by professional voice actors such as Daws Butler, Don Messick, Paul Frees, and of course the late, great Mel Blanc. But quite a few actors who are mainly known for their "real-world" performances have also lent their voices to a 'toon or two (not counting animated versions of their original series). Name the well-known television/movie actor who voiced each of the following TV Toons - and see if you can add any more of your own!

a) Sideshow Bob (The Simpsons)
b) Clifford the Big Red Dog
c) Inspector Gadget
d) Underdog
e) The Joker (1990s-2000s Batman Animated Series)
f) Mr. Magoo
g) Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy (Sponge Bob Square Pants)

Musical Monday #64

2008-10-20T09:03:00.013-04:00

Welcome to the 64th edition of Musical Monday, the weekly quiz that Soccer Dad and I alternate hosting. With MM having gone bi-weekly for the past couple of editions, it's been almost a month since my last one. I've missed these - it will be nice getting back on our regular schedule!

As always, the challenge is to identify the title and artist of each song quote, as well as the common theme of the set of songs. This week, though I couldn't quite find 64 examples to match the edition number, I flipped it around and gave you 46! Note also that there are two groups of songs, 1-25 and 26-46. Both relate to the same overall theme, but in different ways (or perhaps to a different extent).

Finally, I'll confirm that today, as in the last edition, I am looking for one specific version of each song, usually - though not necessarily - the most well-known one:

1) "Papa's bankbook wasn't big enough"
2) "I know that my emotions are something I just can't tame"
3) "Good times never seemed so good"
4) "And your horse naturally won"
5) "Or has time re-written every line?"
6) "My home lies deep within you"
7) "Sweet dreams till sunbeams find you"
8) "When choosing sides for basketball"
9) "We might be laughing a bit too loud"
10) "Some say love, it is a hunger, an endless aching need"
11) "You've got troubles, well I've got 'em too"
12) "Never been a sinner, I never sinned"
13) "After a while we run under a tree"
14) "Paid for every dance, selling each romance"
15) "Wouldn't like to get my love caught in the slammin' door"
16) "They got three stop signs, two police officers, and one police car"
17) "You were speaking to me by choosing letters with your eyebrow"
18) "Judy and Johnny just walked through the door"
19) "But when I dial the telephone, nobody's home"
20) "My feet are flat, and my asthma's getting worse"
21) "She was collecting quarters in a paper cup"
22) "They ain’t makin' carpenters who know what nails are for"
23) "Plucked her eyebrows on the way"
24) "We lie awake, this wall between us"
25) "Out of darkness comes light, twilight unto the heights"

26) "In restless dreams I walked alone"
27) "No, his mind is not for rent"
28) "And we just can't find the sound"
29) "Just put me in a wheelchair and put me on a plane"
30) "Keeping it a mystery gets to me"
31) "When you're with me baby the skies will be blue"
32) "She was pure like snowflakes"
33) "Ride a painted pony"
34) "The candles blew then disappeared"
35) "Way down around Vicksburg, around Louisiana way"
36) "Paint myself in blue and red and black and gray"
37) "You pop caught you smoking, and he said, 'No way'!"
38) "And your friends, baby, they treat you like a guest"
39) "Together they would travel on a boat with billowed sail"
40) "Everybody's beneath the trees, feeding pigeons on a limb"
41) "Send it off in a letter to yourself"
42) "I was just in the middle of a dream"
43) "A compromise would surely help the situation"
44) "You've got the teeth of a hydra upon you"
45) "In a little café just the other side of the border"
46) "Let me take you baby, down to the river bed"

Enjoy, good luck, and gutten moed!

Counting Kings

2008-10-05T10:13:00.003-04:00

Thanks to TRN and Bruce for responding to my earlier Yomin Noraim math quiz! Look at the comments there for their answers to #1 and #2, and here for the answer to re-run question #3.

Now a quick, and (I think) much simpler bonus question:

4) Exactly how many times each year do congregants (i.e., not chazzanim) say each of the following blessings?
- Baruch... Hamelech Hakadosh
- Baruch... Hamelech Hamishpat

Repentance Rock

2008-09-29T13:06:00.002-04:00

(or is it "The Teshuvah Top Ten?")

1) "Another year has passed me by
Still I look at myself and cry
What kind of man have I become?"
- Styx, "Man In The Wilderness"

2) "When you look over your shoulder
And you see the life that you've left behind
When you think it over
Do you ever wonder?"
- Jackson Browne, "You Love The Thunder"

3) "So often times it happens that we live our lives in chains
And we never even know we have the key"
- Eagles, "Already Gone"

4) "You've got to change your evil ways, baby
and every word that I say is true"
- Santana, "Evil Ways"

5) "Mistakes are part of being young
But that don’t right the wrong that’s been done
I’m sorry, so sorry
Please accept my apology"
- Brenda Lee, "I'm Sorry"

6)"I will make it up to you, I promise to...
...It's hard for me to say I'm sorry
I just want you to know"
- Chicago, "Hard to Say I'm Sorry"

7) "Man I was mean but I’m changing my scene
And I’m doing the best that I can
I admit it’s getting better
A little better all the time"
- The Beatles, "Getting Better"

8) "But don't you know that no one alive
Can always be an angel
When things go wrong I seem to be bad
But I'm just a soul whose intentions are good
Oh Lord, please don't let me be misunderstood"
- The Animals, "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood"

9) "Well it's all right, the best you can do is forgive"
- The Traveling Wilburys, "End of the Line"

10) "But tomorrow I will wake up and I'll know
That I've got to begin again
Though I don't know how to start
Yes, I've got to begin again
And it's hard"
- Billy Joel, "Got To Begin Again"

My best wishes to all my readers for happy and sweet new year 5769. May this year be one of peace, prosperity, good health, and joyful tidings for us all!

Now's The Time(s) To Say "I'm Sorry"

2008-09-26T11:45:00.005-04:00

But how many times - there's the rub! With that, here are three "Torah math" quiz questions relating to this time of year. Two are new, the third a golden oldie from the early days of this blog, also question 3 in the above link.

1) This week we read Parshas Nitzavim by itself, and then Vayelech by itself next Shabbos. Many other years, they are read on a single Shabbos as a double parshah. About what percentage of the time are they read separately vs. together? (Note: working out the answer to this item should help you somewhat with the next one.)

2) Under Ashkenazic minhag, we start reciting selichos on the Sunday morning before Rosh Hashanah - or sometimes two Sundays before as this year - and then conclude on erev Yom Kippur. So, not counting the selichos said in maariv and neilah of Yom Kippur itself, what is the average number of days each year on which selichos for yomim noraim are said?

3) From mincha on erev Yom Kippur through Neilah, inclusive, how many times is the chest struck? Note: again, this is based on the Ashkenazic minhag/siddur, and assumes the chest is not struck for the "al chataim" lines at the end of the "al chayt" confessional.

TV Trivia Thursday #18

2008-09-25T12:54:00.003-04:00

Hello and welcome to today's edition of TV Trivia Thursday. I will try to keep these going every week or two, thought there will definitely be some interruption over the Jewish holidays. A partial theme of this edition is shows of the 50s:

1) Although the character of Little Ricky was famously born the same day as Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz's real-life son Desi Jr., Little Ricky's character was portrayed by child actor Keith Thibodeaux rather than by his real-life counterpart. But did Desi Jr. himself ever appear on the show, and if so, when?

2) What I Love Lucy supporting character was, as the show wound down in 1960, targeted to star in two other series, but neither lead role ended up panning out?

3) Which sitcom held the record for most Emmy awards won by a series - 29 in all - for nearly a quarter of a century, and what other show took over that record by earning its 30th a few years ago?

4) And speaking of Emmys, what was the first animated show to win one, way back in pre-Flintstones 1959?

5) On The Honeymooners, where did the Kramdens live, and why was that particular address used?

6) Which of the following classic shows of the 50s was not a spinoff of an earlier radio program?
a) I Love Lucy
b) The Honeymooners
c) The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet
d) Dragnet

7) What event prompted the beginnings of ABC's late-night news program Nightline?

8) Which of the following phrases was not habitually used by a major network journalist to close his newscasts?
a) "That's part of our world tonight"
b) "And that's the way it is"
c) "Good night and good news"
d) "Good night and good luck"

Pride of the Yankee Fans

2008-09-23T12:36:00.015-04:00

This past Sunday night, September 21 2008, fans from far and wide packed into iconic Yankee Stadium to witness the end of not just an era but a legend, to see the final game played in the baseball shrine that first opened its doors back in 1923. My son Shalom was privileged enough - and his parents crazy enough (but then, don't those often go together?) - to be among them. As a third-generation died-in-the-wool Yankee fan, Shalom was there for all of us, most especially his maternal grandfather who fervently cheered on the Yankees through at least three of their celebrated dynasties. What's a 17-year-old being out until 3:00 AM on a school night, compared with that kind of legacy??

Here, in Shalom's virtually unedited words, is his account of Closing Day at The House That Ruth Built.

When you spend 50% of your yearly income on tickets priced 900% higher then normal, it's a pretty safe bet that you aren't in your right mind. Either that or you're a Yankee fan.

When a friend of mine (henceforth to be known as D) told me he had tickets to the Final Yankee Stadium game, I was jealous. When he told me the friend he had planned to go with couldn't make it, I was speechless. When he told me how much I would have to pay to come along, reality seeped in. But I was still speechless. The chance to see Yankee Stadium, the most historic sports venue in American history, and its final curtain was just too tempting. So I agreed to buy the extra ticket.

At 6:45 on Sunday morning, my alarm blasted it's monotonic buzz buzz buzz buzz buzz, just as it did every morning. The only difference was there was nobody to loudly and obnoxiously awaken; I was already up and dressed for half an hour. To get to an 8:30 PM game, we boarded an 8:00 AM train from Edison station. If we were going to do this, we were going to do it right.

After a couple of quick errands in the city, we arrived at the stadium at a quarter to one. The first thing that caught my eye was that the marquee at the front of the park, which usually listed the time of the game, read "Thanks for the memories". The second was that there were already thousands of fans lined up, waiting to trample through those turnstiles, to see the sights and smell the smells of Yankee Stadium for the last time. They wanted to thank it for the memories.

The gates opened at 1:00, and D and I hurried to Monument Park. From there, fans were allowed to walk onto the field itself, a prospect too overwhelming for me to put into words. But reality seeped in yet again as we were greeted by another group of thousands at the park entrance, all waiting patiently for their turn to walk where Ruth, Gehrig, DiMaggio, and Mantle made their livelihood. We stood in line for several minutes, making idle chatter and absorbing the significance of the day. It was hard to believe that after today, it was over.

By 2:30, we finally made it onto the field, and I was a little kid again. If these players were gods, this was their Eden. We took our time as we walked along the warning track, pointing out the places where this and that ball disappeared into the stands and where Jeter made this and that spectacular play. I was so deeply moved, so filled with emotion, I didn't even realize when my round around the stadium was over and I was back at monument park. By the time we made our way back to our seats on the upper deck of the right field side, it was 3:30.

At 7:00, the pre-game ceremonies began. This is when things got heavy. One by one, great Yankee heroes from the past and present were brought onto the field, each receiving an ovation that shook the old stadium to its foundation. By far the biggest applause went to Bernie Williams, staple centerfielder of the most recent championship team. Bernie had not been on that field in 2 years, and the fans had clearly missed him. My ears are still ringing from hearing 54,000 psychotic fans shout "BER-NIE WILL-IAMS" again and again and again.

And then, the game itself. Well, there wasn't any question that the Yanks were going to win this one. So nobody in the park was nervous when the Orioles took an early lead of 2-0. I mean, yeah, we will have missed the postseason for the first time in nearly two decades, but we were still the Yankees. The spirits of legends gone that still haunted the stadium would not be denied. Not tonight. So when Mariano Rivera recorded the final out for the final time in the final game in the world's greatest arena, no one was surprised. Except, perhaps, any passing rodents, which quickly took refuge from the thunderous roar that ensued.

Half an hour after the final out was made, the stadium was still packed. Nobody wanted to leave, to say goodbye, to let go of the place that had given them so much to cheer for. But as Frank Sinatra's "New York, New York" echoed through the park for the fifth time that night, I got up and slowly walked down the stairs. Taking one final look at the scoreboard that shone so brightly in the night sky, I left the seating area. It was time to move on. As Derek Jeter said when he addressed the stadium after the game, "We're relying on you to take the memories from this stadium and add them to the new memories that come to the new Yankee Stadium". So good-bye, Yankee Stadium. Thanks for the memories.

Musical Monday #62

2008-09-22T11:05:00.010-04:00

Welcome to the 62nd edition of Musical Monday, the weekly quiz that Soccer Dad and I alternate hosting. As always, the challenge is to identify the title and artist of each song quote, as well as the common theme of the set of songs. But before I get to the quotes themselves, a couple of notes relating to this and upcoming MMs:

First, you'll note that this MM is extra-long, containing a full 62 songs to match the edition number. This number has no additional significance in relation to the theme, and despite the number of entries, there is a single uniform theme this week. But I'd also like to say that this edition of MM involved the most effort/research of any I've put together to date, and not only because of its length. Hopefully all the songs should be relatively guessable, though you might find the last half dozen or so a bit harder than the rest. Hope my extra work pays off in terms of both your enjoyment and success rate!

Secondly, though a number of the songs below have been recorded by more than one artist, I will confirm that in all cases I am looking for one particular version of the song. It will generally be either the original and/or the most well-known version, but I don't guarantee this and, unfortunately, can't (won't!) say any more on an individual song basis.

Finally, my MM partner Soccer Dad and I note that due to the upcoming Jewish holidays, MM will be published on a bi-weekly basis for the next couple of editions. This, #63 should appear at Soccer Dad on Monday 10/6, and #64 back here on Monday 10/20, after which the regular weekly schedule should resume.

Without further ado:

1) "Well, my heart went 'boom'"
2) "Only took a couple of days 'til she was rid of me"
3) "I hide in my music, forget the day"
4) "I'm gonna hit the highway like a battering ram"
5) "You taught me the ways of desire"
6) "Let them brush your rock and roll hair"
7) "I won't do you no harm, no"
8) "I found an island in your arms, country in your eyes"
9) "Spent my time so foolishly"
10) "When I was not so strong, you know"
11) "On the street where you live girls talk about their social lives"
12) "If you got the money honey, we got your disease"
13) "Friday evening, Sunday in the afternoon"
14) "Lighten up while you still can"
15) "Drink my liquor from an old fruit jar"
16) "We don't have time to get restless"
17) "Gonna hang me up in the doorway"
18) "Though my mind wants to cry out loud"
19) "Some honeys will be coming along"
20) "Can't trust that day"
21) "It's just no good anymore since you went away"
22) "For the man who stole your water"
23) "Something that both of us have always wanted to do"
24) "Don't come in, I'll only run and hide"
25) "And I sit all alone impatiently"
26) "It makes you feel happy like an old-time movie"
27) "Tonight there'll be no hesitating"
28) "(Silly boy) Told my girl we had to break up"
29) "Some say it's a sign of weakness, for a man to beg"
30) "You know you could have been a broom"
31) "I would wait forever for those lips of wine"
32) "They're piling in the back seat, they're generating steam heat"
33) "If he stops to think he starts to cry, oh why"
34) "Save the buckshot turn up the band"
35) "But it lifts me up when we are walking anywhere"
36) "The disco hotspots hold no charm for you"
37) "And I ate a million dinners brought to me on silver trays"
38) "I got no love, no love you'd call real"
39) "Their children hate them for the things they're not"
40) "Then Sue came along, loved me strong"
41) "On this strange and mournful day"
42) "Darling in your wildest dreams, you never had a clue"
43) "How would I know, why should I care?"
44) "My hands can't feel to grip"
45) "She sewed my new blue jeans"
46) "Going down the old mine with a transistor radio"
47) "I walk in the air between the rain"
48) "I ain't gonna take none of your putting me down!"
49) "Never said I wanted to improve my station"
50) "I just think of you and I start to glow"
51) "Telling lies, well that's no surprise"
52) "I found someone new, he's waiting in the car outside"
53) "She's the kind of girl who's not too shy"
54) "I'm in no hurry baby time can wait"
55) "Sitting in the corner of a crowded barroom"
56) "Calling on in transit, calling on in transit"
57) "I know a thing or two about her"
58) "The daughter of a captain on the rolling seas"
59) "Sweet surrender on the quayside"
60) "Well my Lord spoke, he spoke so well"
61) "I sold my house, I sold my motor, too"
62) "He had the finest funeral the union could afford"

Good luck and enjoy!

9/28, 1:55 pm: Answers are up!

TV Trivia Thursday #17

2008-09-11T15:33:00.003-04:00

Today is, of course, one of tragic remembrance, where the trivial may seem out of place. Yet as I have learned, in times of genuine sorrow, distraction can be as important as recollection, and laughter is truly, as the saying goes, not only the best medicine, but sometimes the only one that helps at all. And so, since I've already missed a couple of weeks in a row, here are a few TV quiz questions to help us all though this most un-trivial of anniversaries:

1) This actor turned down the opportunity to reprise his best-known character in a sequel , fearing that he would be typecast in the role - only to accept a similar role in another series just three months later! Name the actor and both series.

2) What beloved 1960s series originated as an episode of The Danny Thomas Show?

3) A few weeks ago, we discussed Bob Barker's record of the most consecutive years on television. Which colleague of his set a similar record, in 2004, for the most total hours before a TV camera?

4) What talk show host famously walked off his own set in protest for having a joke censored, only to sheepishly return a few weeks later?

5) Name a recurring character who was common to both Second City TV and Saturday Night Live.

6) What prolific filmmaker had his industry debut in 1969 directing the pilot episode of Rod Serling's Night Gallery?

7) What 1997 series became television's very first hour-long sitcom?

8) The world's oldest and longest-running sports show began in 1952 and is still going strong. Name the series and its country of origin (hint: not the USA!)

Musical Monday #60

2008-09-08T10:31:00.002-04:00

Welcome to the - woo-hoo! - 60th edition of Musical Monday, the weekly quiz that Soccer Dad and I alternate hosting. As always, the challenge is to identify the title and artist of each song quote, as well as the common theme of the set of songs.

There is a single theme this week, but as you'll notice, the song list is divided into three separate groups (1-5, 6-17, 18-30). Each set of songs relates to the theme a somewhat different way. Fair warning though: Some of the songs would fit into more than one group.

1) "Put your glad rags on and join me hon"
2) "…the U.S. should look forward to five more years of war"
3) "Up every morning just to keep a job"
4) "My Jamaican vacation is gonna' start right here!"
5) "Dead kings, many things I can't define"

6) "He was swingin' on the sax like a nobody could"
7) "Uppers and downers; either way blood flows"
8) "Take it down the highway like a rocket to the ocean"
9) "I can no longer keep my blinds drawn"
10) "We're gonna' cause talk and suspicion"
11) "Got gleaming chrome, reflecting steel, loaded, loaded"
12) "But a little gold ring you wear on your hand makes me understand"
13) "Did you see him jump the garden wall?"
14) "I don't own the clothes I'm wearing"
15) "I'd rather live in his world"
16) "Umbrella on her shoulder, piece of paper in her hand"
17) "Won't somebody help me chase the shadows away?"

18) "I'm gonna' wait till the stars come out; see them twinkle in your eyes"
19) "Tidal waves don't beg forgiveness"
20) "Minds are subject to what should be done"
21) "Walk the streets half a year, tryin' to find a new career"
22) "But men get lost sometimes as years unfurl"
23) "Some men think they’re born to be king; maybe that’s true"
24) "And if two can be one, who is the one two becomes?"
25) "I'm not man or machine, I'm just something in between"
26) "The blind men shout let the creatures out"
27) "I see no reason to change mine"
28) "I've been tossed around enough"
29) "And a taste of honey is worse than none at all"
30) "You're gonna be crashing into stone walls again and again"

Good luck and enjoy!

Vacation Annotations

2008-09-03T21:01:00.001-04:00

A few recollections and observations relating to my recent vacation, before any thoughts thereof fade entirely under the encroaching weight of mundanity:

8/24: The boys and I took in a Yankees game, a vacation kickoff I had promised them a while back. Unfortunately, as we went on-line to procure tickets, a minor glitch developed in this plan - the Yankees weren't playing at home that day! Luckily, they were playing against the Orioles, and thus in the only other American League venue that's still an achievable day trip from Central NJ. With some guidance from friend and native Baltimorean Soccer Dad, we navigated the Metro system and made it to beautiful Camden Yards in plenty of time. We had great seats, the game was fun, and the Yankees won. And I found myself wondering if we had ended up at a Yankee home game after all; based on visible paraphernalia and volume of cheering, we conservatively estimated that the Yankee rooters there actually outnumbered the Oriole ones by 60-40 or greater. Though we were of course part of that 60%, I felt kind of embarrassed for the hometown fans there in "Birdland".

8/25-26: Two days in the Lancaster PA, Pennsylvania Dutch ("Amish") area. A repeat trip there for us, but just as fascinating the second time around. The parallels between these folks and Orthodox Jews are striking: socially, culturally, and religiously - not to mention the parallel/converse scenes in The Frisco Kid and Witness! (Aficionados know whereof I speak!)

Couple of examples: Contrary to general belief, the Amish are allowed to use electricity, they just can't hook up their homes to the outside world's grid. So modern household appliances like refrigerators and washing machines are in common use, but are modified to utilize propane or gas motors. Reminded me very much of kashrus/shechita and similar halachos, in that the difference between the permitted and forbidden is often technical, not elemental. (Parenthetical joke: Did you hear about the trade between the Jewish and Amish fellas right before Pesach? The former told the latter, "You buy my chametz and I'll buy your electricity"!)

Also, in one of the presentations we attended, it was noted that Amish who work in the outside world often have trouble explaining all the "obscure" holidays they have to take, like Whit Monday. I hear ya' buddy, and so do all of us who get responses at work like "...what on earth is 'Shmini Atzeres' "?

But I noted one key - and unfortunate - difference between "us" and "them" as well. The Amish give their children, at age 16, a chance to drop all their special restrictions and taste the outside life, a practice called the "rumspringa" or "running wild". Each individual then decides whether to return to the fold and join the church as an adult. The number who do come back? About 95%! Halevia that our success rate of kids staying "on the derech" would achieve that level.

8/27: A day at Hershey Park. Rides for the kids, and shows - plus a few of what my son Shalom calls "wimpy rides" - for the parents. And just to make life easier, a kosher food stand right in the park, open year round. It was a lot cleaner and prettier than our local Great Adventure, too.

8/28: An afternoon in Atlantic City. My level of gambling is restricted to playing the quarter slots - I figure that way it'll take me a good hour or more to lose twenty bucks, which is more or less the budget I allow myself for gambling. Well this time, I actually came out a few bucks ahead! Way to defray ~.001% of the vacation costs!

8/29-30: Shabbos down the Jersey Shore. As relaxing as it can get.

8/31: Our annual Chai Lifeline day at Great Adventure. Yes, two amusement parks in four days. But we pretty much went for two reasons - one, to be honest of course, was that it was a sponsored (i.e., free) visit. But the other reason was the park's big live concert event that night to end their summer season - Foreigner! Wow, what a great time! Who cares that only Mick Jones remains from the original 70s-80s lineup? These guys rock like it's.. uh... 1977! My only regret is that they omitted my favorite Foreigner song, "Blue Morning, Blue Day", from their set.

9/1: To Lakewood to shop for new suits for the boys, then home to deal with our mountain of laundry, unpack suitcases, and pack school bags. Though the vacation was fun, Debbie and I were definitely suffering from "kids-underfoot-itis" by that point. I couldn't help channeling that commercial with the parents buying school supplies, dancing down the aisles and singing "It's the most wonderful time of the year"!!

That's it for the vacation summary. And meanwhile, back in blogland, Elie's Expositions hit three separate, yet amazingly related numerically, milestones:
1) My 50,000th visitor - tracked down by Soccer Dad, via Sitemeter, as Yitzchak.
2) My record number of comments on a single post - 49, for last week's Musical Monday. Just one short of 50! Of course, I could go add that 50th comment myself, but that would be cheating...
3) And now, as soon as I hit "Send", my 500th published post!!

Thank you for making this all possible - and keep reading! I'll try my best to make it worth your while.

Musical Monday #58

2008-08-25T07:20:00.002-04:00

Welcome to the 58th edition of Musical Monday, the weekly quiz that Soccer Dad and I alternate hosting. As always, the challenge is to identify the title and artist of each song quote, as well as the common theme of the set of songs.

Today's edition is being posted just as the Rosenfeld clan leaves for a week's vacation, which will likely involve lack of internet connectivity for at least the first few days. So as that SNL character used to say: talk amongst yourselves, discuss, discuss! But here's a parting hint: you may quickly determine a possible theme, but look for something just a little more specific.

1) "I never had no money, I bought at the second hand store"
2) "Come back and make me your wife"
3) "If you believe in the power of magic"
4) "Miracle of miracles, look what the night dragged in"
5) "All the servants in your new hotel"
6) "I really love you baby, cross my heart"
7) "I'll let you know when she's come home; until that day"
8) "You got me crawling up to you everyday"
9) "Without no bridges she's trapped, so I sigh"
10) "Talk to me softly, there is something in your eyes"
11) "There was nothing left but sawdust and some glitter"
12) "I've given up, stop, you tangle my emotions"
13) "So you know you better watch your step"
14) "Nor do the wind, the sun or the rain"
15) "I might be great tomorrow, but hopeless yesterday"
16) "I've changed my face, I've changed my name"
17) "When I was down, I was your clown"
18) "I can't exist, I'll surely miss your tender kiss"
19) "What can I do, pictures of you still make me cry"
20) "And if it hurts when they mention my name"
21) "Oh baby, don't you know I'm human?"
22) "And if somebody loved me like she do me"
23) "I'd just allow a fragment of your life to wander free"
24) "I'm much too strong not to compromise"
25) "You were in a car crash and you lost your hair"
26) "Beware that hooded old man at the rudder"
27) "I'll just lay me down and cry for a hundred years"
28) "His car is warm and dry"
29) "It'll be, better than before"
30) "For a smile they can share the night"
31) "I'm a racing car passing by like Lady Godiva"
32) "Power (ah power) is the force the vow"
33) "You're seeing some slick Continental dude"
34) "We can take the darkness and make if full of light"
35) "When I started to brag about my car"
36) "Ain't got not cash, ain't got no style"
37) "Slow change may pull us apart"
38) "Cause I'll be standing on the side when you check it out"
39) "You got that sand all over your feet"
40) "He's a pool-shootin' son of a gun"

Good luck and enjoy!

TV Trivia Thursday #16

2008-08-21T08:00:00.010-04:00

Hello and welcome to today's edition of TV Trivia Thursday. Let's keep last week's great success rate going! We'll start with a trio of "Saturday Night Live" questions:

1) Which set of brothers have not both appeared on SNL?
a) John and Jim Belushi
b) Damon and Marlon Wayans
c) Bill and Bryan-Doyle Murray
d) Dan and Peter Ackroyd

2) What SNL producer, who only held the job for a year, nevertheless made a lasting impression on the show - and on entertainment in general - by hiring Eddie Murphy?

3) Which of the following TV legends never hosted SNL:
a) Desi Arnaz
b) Milton Berle
c) Lucille Ball
d) Norman Lear
e) Mary Tyler Moore

4) And which of the following Science Fiction legends never scripted an episode of the original Star Trek?
a) Robert Bloch
b) Harlan Ellison
c) Theodore Sturgeon
d) Isaac Asimov
e) Richard Matheson

5) Which two series were, respectively, the Fox Network's first prime-time show, and its first to win an Emmy?

6) What music star repeatedly used the dreaded "f-word" on a 1994 broadcast of "The David Letterman Show"?

7) A horse is a horse, of course - so what was the real name of the horse who starred as "Mr. Ed"?

And with the 2008 Democratic Convention starting on Monday, here's a timely one:

8) Name at least one of the two network television journalists who were roughed up by security guards at the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago.

That's it for today! Next Thursday, I'll be on vacation and TTT will as well, so look for the next edition on Sept 4th.

TV Trivia Thursday #15

2008-08-14T22:04:00.004-04:00

Hello and welcome to this week's late-night edition of TV Trivia Thursday. I'll try to keep these coming weekly for the most part, at least until I exhaust the good nuggets from my new book.

1) What classic TV series' writers included such luminaries as Neil Simon, Mel Brooks, Carl Reiner, and Woody Allen?

2) And speaking of Mr. Allen, name the 1994 made-for-TV movie which represents his only television appearance to date - and for extra credit, why he chose this particular movie for his debut.

3) What famous radio and newspaper commentator narrated the 60s crime series "The Untouchables"?

4) Over a decade before Sinead O'Connor's controvertial Saturday Night Live performance, this SNL player also got on the Pope's bad side when he was arrested at the Vatican for impersonating a priest. Name the actor and character involved in this rather bizarre misunderstanding.

5) He developed classic game shows such as "The Newlywed Game" and "The Dating Game" in the mid 60s, but didn't choose to star in one of his own creations until a decade later. Name this producer and his first on-screen vehicle, and for extra credit, at least two celebrities who shared that show with him.

6) What famous movie actress voiced the first - and so far only - word to be uttered by baby Maggie on the Simpsons TV show?

7) In what way are all three of the following women connected with Bob Newhart?
a) Mary Frann
b) Suzanne Pleshette
c) Virginia Quinn

8) Way before the days of Tootsie and Mrs. Doubtfire, what female title character was actually played by a succession of nine different males during the two-decade span of this television series, beginnning in 1954?

Two Past Nine: Looking Back

2008-08-12T19:37:00.016-04:00

According to prevalent custom, the various regulations associated with the Nine Days continue until halachik noon on the 10th of Av, or 1:02 pm yesterday (Monday) here in Central NJ. But for me, it never feels like this period of semi-mourning is really over until the following morning - this morning, that is. Today was the first full day of back-to-normal routine: my first comfortably hot morning shower, the first weekday when I could don outerwear that were not pre-worn or otherwise less than fully fresh, the first morning commute with the radio tuned back to Classic Rock instead of news.

Today was also my time to reflect back on what the Nine Days has really meant to me, this year and in the past. In re-reading the post I linked to above (written in 2006 and recently given a nice shout-out by my good blog-friend Shira - thanks!), one line in particular stands out:

"Of all the Nine Days customs, going meatless is the hardest for me... I pine for it, and pretend I'm pining for korbanos."

I think it's all too easy for most of us to get hung up in the technical prohibitions of this period, and lose sight of the reasons behind the practices. What I was alluding to in the above quote was the fact that avoiding meat and wine is not simply meant as some kind of (lihavdil!) Lenten act of self-affliction, as much is it may feel like that to an avowed carnivore like myself. Otherwise, the rule would simply be to give up your favorite food, thus impacting vegans and meat-lovers alike.

But that would entirely miss the point. The avoidance of meat and wine per se is very specific, since they are so closely associated with the fundamental loss we mourn during this period, that of the Bais Hamikdash [Temple] and its daily service of of korbanos [sacrifices]. Even if you never eat meat or drink wine on weekdays all year round, so that you are dining during the Nine Day exactly as you always do, the object-lesson - that which the rules of this period is supposed to bring to mind - must not be lost.

To me, Tisha B'av and its preliminaries are not fundamentally about what we hope is to come - that's done as part of our daily service - but rather are a time to focus on looking back, on what we've lost. To remember that there was a time when a two-way connection to God felt tangible and provable, rather than nebulous and uncertain. A time when - for example - we could stand before the Temple gates on Yom Kippur and watch a red thread physically turn white before our eyes, proving beyond any doubt, beyond any skepticism, that our sins were entirely forgiven! How wonderful, how nearly unimaginable such a lifestyle of the casually miraculous seems in our current jaded, oh-so-cynical times.

Perhaps this point is the reason behind the unbreakable association between Tisha B'av and the parsha of Devarim. Most of the Jewish holidays have Shabbos parshiyos which are usually read in conjunction - Tzav the Shabbos before Pesach, Bamidbar before Shavous, Miketz on Shabbos Chanukah, Ha'azinu on Shabbos Shuva. But each of these correlations is broken on occasion, more or less frequently. The only such rule with no exceptions, ever, is that Devarim is always read the week before Tisha B'av. Clearly, there is an important, a critical lesson to be learned this connection.

Many answers have and can be given, but the one that resonates with me is that Devarim is the first time in the Torah that we find reminiscing. There is no new narrative in this parshah - rather, Moshe discourses to the Jewish nation, recalling to a new generation the events of their past 40 years of history. It was critical for them - for us - to understand where we came from, the mistakes we made and how we got where we are, before we could move ahead to a new and brighter horizon in the Promised Land.

So now, as we finish our laundry backloads, bring out the leftover fleichigs, and otherwise put the Nine Days practices fully behind us, let's try not to lose sight of why we did them in the first place. Though tonight is already two days since we broke our Tisha B'av fasts, it's not too late - it's never too late - to think back, reflect, recall. And remember, not just what we lost, but why. Perhaps then, after fully appreciating the past gifts that were taken from us, we will be truly ready to start earning those of the future.

Musical Monday #56

2008-08-11T10:12:00.002-04:00

Welcome to the 56th edition of Musical Monday, the weekly quiz that Soccer Dad and I alternate hosting. Actually, this week's MM is another collaboration between us both, and with two contributors we were able to put together a Supersized edition, a full 56 songs to match the quiz number!

There's a single theme this week, but also meaningful breaks between songs 1-2 and songs 15-16.

1. "I never thought it would happen, I feel quite the same"

2. "Now I spend my time just making rhymes of yesterday"
3. "You act like you never had love"
4. "You seem so far away though you are standing near"
5. "Easy as 1 2 3"
6. "I'm dirty, mean and mighty unclean"
7. "You know she's got me on some other kind of highway"
8. "Magically bored on a quiet street corner"
9. "Not my brand you understand"
10. "Done up in blue print blue"
11. "Took all I had and then she fed me dirt"
12. "I think I know some things we never outgrow"
13. "Friend only to the undertaker"
14. "If you tear yourself in two again"
15. "Just show your face, in broad daylight"

16. "But every now and then I feel so insecure"
17. "I get up, and nothing gets me down"
18. "Like a cat and a mouse (cat and a mouse)"
19. "The night is coming and the starling flew for days"
20. "I've seen old men crying at their own grave sides"
21. "Where you drink champagne and it tastes just like cherry-cola"
22. "I had no reason to be over optimistic"
23. "You don't have to worry I'm such a happy man"
24. "And the union don’t mind"
25. "They read in the press all about your success"
26. "She’s got a dime all of the time"
27. "Oh, so lonesome for you"
28. "And all I can taste is this moment"
29. "I say I don't like it, but you know I'm a liar"
30. "You've been living like a little girl, in the middle of your little world"
31. "The way you swerve and curve, really wrecks my nerves"
32. "She broke my heart but I love her just the same now"
33. "That a man must break his back to earn his day of leisure?"
34. "Give me time I'll make you forget the rest"
35. "What you like is in the limo"
36. "So shy, like a child who had grown"
37. "I'm weak and I've gone hazy"
38. "This summer I hear the drumming"
39. "Well, how can you, you're stuck in four walls"
40. "You missed the starting gun"
41. "Jump in the shower and the blood starts pumpin'"
42. "When the sun shines they slip into the shade"
43. "Dallas, Texas, Hollywood"
44. "Why don't you ask him if he's going away?"
45. "Her maiden name was Musik til she met that Jackson boy"
46. "Please, please listen to me children"
47. "...young man, put your pride on the shelf"
48. "Oh, it's got me running and I just can't brake"
49. "Seekin' my fame and fortune, lookin' for a pot of gold"
50. "So please believe me, my heart is in your hands"
51. "I can lock all my doors"
52. "I'm so high, I could hear heaven"
53. "And we just can't find the sound"
54. "And now we're grown up orphans, and never knew their names"
55. "And if your heart's strong, hold on, I won't delay"
56. "Who needs a hobby like tennis or philately?"

Good luck and enjoy!

TV Trivia Thursday #14

2008-08-07T09:12:00.012-04:00

"And except for one television network, we have found intelligent life everywhere in the galaxy."
- John Belushi as Captain James T. Kirk

Hello and welcome back to TV Trivia Thursday after a much too long hiatus! First, the answer to Tuesday's preview question:

This classic show of the 1960s was nominated for fourteen Emmys, but never won any - though ironically, a parody of the same show did win an Emmy several years later.

TRN had a good guess, but the correct answer is the original Star Trek, which ran from 1966-1969, and notwithstanding its ultimate achievement of cult status, was unsuccessful at winning an Emmy despite 14 nominations. This wrong was righted, to a small degree, during the initial season of Saturday Night Live, which garnered a 1976 Best Performance Emmy for their brilliant Star Trek parody, "The Last Voyage of the Starship Enterprise".

Now for today's questions:

1) This show, running from 1959 to 1973, was the first network television series to film all of its episodes in color.

2) Which mother and son appeared on the very first cover of TV Guide, April 3 1953?

3) Whose unmatched longevity record of over fifty continuous years on television ended just over a year ago with his well-earned retirement?

4) What 1950s show is credited with literally doubling US sales of television sets?

5) This actor's role as a TV cop was so revered that when he died in 1982, the Los Angeles police department actually retired his character's badge number.

6) He was the highest paid actor on television during this show's late 1970s run, despite never appearing on screen and pre-taping all of his lines off set! Name the actor and series.

7) As discussed in one of the early TTTs, the producers of "I Love Lucy", fearful of offending public sensibilities, handled the title actress's on-screen pregnancy with extreme care, avoiding even using the word "pregnant". But there was another adjective that no characters were allowed to utter during the full run of the show, for an entirely different reason. What mundane, seemingly innocuous five-letter word did the Lucy cast need to avoid, and why?

Brilliant Song Parody from EoZ

2008-08-06T16:26:00.003-04:00

I rarely post just to link to something, but I have to direct your attention to an ingenious song parody by Elder of Ziyon, building off an earlier Soccer Dad post title. Or a parody of a parody to be precise, since EoZ's version is a takeoff on Allan Sherman's classic, Grammy winning "Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah" novelty song about a disgruntled camper's letter home. EoZ takes on a much more serious topic, but as is often the case, humor makes an important point more strongly than any sober discourse can do.

Here's a link to the EoZ's written parody.

And here's a link to his followup video.

If there's any music appropriate to the Nine Days, this is it!

TTT By The Book

2008-08-05T20:10:00.001-04:00

A once semi-regular feature here that's been absent for a long while is TV Trivia Thursday. I didn't stop because I wasn't enjoying the puzzles, but because I had felt I was running out of worthwhile material. Of course, I could have simply continued with questions of the "who played X on the show Y" ilk, but I personally find such quizzes too simplistic/boring, and to reverse-paraphrase Groucho Marx, I wouldn't want to post any TV Trivia that I wouldn't enjoy answering myself.

Well, good news for me and other television history fans! I just purchased this excellent book, and from just the first 10% thereof, I've gleaned enough good material for the next two or three TTTs! So look for TTT #14, at long last, this Thursday August 7, with hopefully at least a few more to follow over the next several weeks.

Meanwhile, just to get things started, here's an preview TTT (Tuesday TV Teaser) question:

This classic show of the 1960s was nominated for fourteen Emmys, but never won any - though ironically, a parody of the same show did win an Emmy several years later.

Stay tuned for more in two days, same blog time, same blog channel!

Art Imitates Art

2008-07-29T09:07:00.003-04:00

I found this a fascinating coincidence.

Plot description (spoiler-free), courtesy of IMDB, of the new movie "Swing Vote", which opens this week:

In a remarkable turn-of-events, the result of the (2008) presidential election comes down to one man's vote.

Plot description, courtesy of Wikipedia, of the 1955 short story "Franchise" by Isaac Asimov - bolding added:

The United States has converted to an "electronic democracy" where the computer Multivac selects a single person to answer a number of questions. Multivac will then use the answers and other data to determine what the results of an election would be, avoiding the need for an actual election to be held. The story centers around Norman Muller, the man chosen as "Voter of the Year" in 2008.

Yesterday's science fiction, today's.. topical comedy?

Actually, I find the Asimov version more plausible. There's an element of predictive reality in his conception of a computer all but deciding the election results, since for many years now - with the obvious exception of 2000 - election results are known from exit surveys with a great amount of certainty well before the polls close.

Musical Monday #54

2008-07-28T08:30:00.001-04:00

Welcome to the 54th edition of Musical Monday, the weekly quiz that Soccer Dad and I alternate hosting. As always, the challenge is to identify the title and artist of each song quote, as well as the common theme of the set of songs. Once again this week, there are two separate groups of songs: #1-17 and #18-28. Both groups relate to the same theme, but approach it in different ways.

1) "House the people livin' in the street"
2) "They've seen places beyond my land"
3) "You were only waiting for this moment to arise"
4) "It gives the world its saddest sound"
5) "Sleep all day long"
6) "Must be the gypsy in their soul"
7) "For you, the sun will be shining"
8) "Hoppin' and a-boppin'"
9) "Up, up to the sky"
10) "Dogs begin to barkin', hounds begin to howl"
11) "You get so dizzy even walking in a straight line"
12) "Now they've lost themselves instead"
13) "And if that piece of mind won't stay"
14) "Take time for your pleasure and laugh with love"
15) "How in the world could I keep my seat?"
16) "He's got a grudge against Frank Perdue"
17) "We’ll murder them all amid laughter and merriment"

18) "There were voices down the corridor"
19) "I swear it's not too late!"
20) "I'd give the moon if it were mine to give"
21) "The good people of the world are washing their cars"
22) "I belong in the service of the Queen"
23) "I'd rather be a fool with a broken heart"
24) "Love you forever, and evermore"
25) "Then your burdens will be lighter and you'll surely find a way" (hint: looking for the original version of this song)
26) "I don't know if it's cloudy or bright"
27) "The kind of eyes that hypnotize me through"
28) "Love is just a game you played in high school"

Good luck and enjoy!