280th Friday Blog Roundup
We were watching Paul Williams on the Muppet Show (he wrote “Rainbow Connection,” but he happened to be singing “Sad Song.” The Wolvog was biting his nails, making the most annoying sound known to mankind to accompany Paul’s voice. The ChickieNob asked what he was singing about and I told her, “he’s singing about hearing a special song that reminds him of someone he once loved.”
ChickieNob: What happened to her?
Me: Well, it’s really sad actually. His girlfriend was biting her nails and she got an infection and she had to go to the hospital. And I don’t think she ever came out.
Both children stared at me with their mouths opened while Paul Williams crooned on in the background to Ralph’s melodious piano.
ChickieNob: I don’t think that’s true.
Me: It probably isn’t. But I’m trying to scare the crap out of your brother so he’ll stop biting his nails.
Thank you, Paul Williams, for inadvertently getting his fingers out of the Wolvog’s mouth for a few minutes. If you want to support Paul, his daughter is doing the March of Dimes walk and he provides a link to her fundraising page at the bottom of his website. She is aiming to raise $250. If you haven’t given yet, the family of the writer of the “Rainbow Connection” seems like a worthy person to sponsor on the walk.
After all, you are probably smiling right now, thinking about the “Rainbow Connection” and some memory of hearing his songs.
I don’t know Paul Williams personally–I just noticed the March of Dimes link at the bottom of his site. But damn, I love the quote on his front page: “Care deeply..give freely…think kindly…act gently and be at peace with the world.”
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The Weekly What If: What if you had to pick one song from childhood and listen to it on continual play, 24-hours a day, for a full month in order to win $100,000 (I was going to give you a million, but that really isn’t that incredible a feat. And $100,000 is still a lot for your trouble). (1) would you take the challenge knowing that there was no way to stop in the middle–you would have to see it through until its end and (2) which song would you choose to hear on continual play for a full month?
Yes, I’d do it and I would listen to any of the following:
- Deep Blue Sea
- Brown Girl in the Ring (but only Dan Zanes singing it)
- Mingulay Boat Song
- Oh Mary Don’t You Weep
- Rainbow Connection
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I loved the mondegreens so much and have already planned to turn a few into t-shirt slogans, that I created a single post to collect them. So as you remember them, leave them there and I’ll move them into the body of the post when I get a chance (the first one will always be the most recent one, so you won’t have to scroll to the bottom of the page to find the new ones).
March’s IComLeavWe kicks off soon. Commenting begins on Sunday, which is also the day that the list closes for March. Last chance to be added.
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A blogger is coming to visit this weekend. She hasn’t written about the trip on her blog and I have not mentioned it yet here. Guess who it is! There are only 100 million or so blogs out there. I’ll give you a clue, she isn’t a spammer. There, that just eliminated about a third of those sites immediately.
Okay, three more clues: (1) she asked me for real half-and-half instead of my fat-free dreck, (2) she is quaking a bit at the fact that she is staying in a house where the inhabitants consume so little alcohol, (3) she will probably kick our asses in Wii Yoga. Guess who.
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And now, the blogs…
Adventures of a Dam Engineer has a post which is the best venting rant I’ve read in ages. Yes, it’s personal to her life and her frustrations, but I think it’s cathartic for everyone who reads it. It will get your own internal yell to the surface. And I cracked up at the last thought.
Trying Not to Scream has musings on CD9 and why it is her own personal hell. It contains a familiar feeling: “I’ve spent all day feeling anxious and stressed. I’ve felt like I have something to say and don’t know what it is.” It is about leaving all the hope and excitement of the beginning of the cycle behind and entering that zone of anxiety and quietness.
All Aboard the Pity Boat has a post about the tiny hurts of the week, interspersed with not only the hurt of the moment, but the larger hurt that looms behind the moments. From the rude guys in the elevator to the not-yet-belly-rubbing-belly-rubber (“She sits down the hall from me and is definitely a belly-rubber. Not that I’ve seen her rub her belly yet but you know the type. She CANNOT stop talking about her pregnancy.”), she goes through the people who are like salt against her big, infertile, papercut wound.
Our Incredible Journey has a post on the 10th anniversary of her hysterectomy. I loved it because while it definitely mourns one path, it celebrates what came next. It is about the anger after the moment balanced with the healing that is taking place now. And it’s just a gorgeous post.
Mommy-in-Waiting’s Blog has a post that meanders through sending good thoughts to friends to her own situation. It contains this interesting idea: “Sometimes I really appreciate how lucky we are to not have to have timed sex, to have no pressure to have to DO IT! I’m grateful for not wondering constantly if ‘just maybe’ this will be the month. Lucky not to be spending money on ovulation tests, pregnancy tests only to get negative results. But I read a blog today where she gave thanks for hope and it made me realize what I guess we are missing… HOPE.” It’s a balance of finding your own grass pretty green, but still admiring the neighbour’s landscaping.
Lastly, Too Many Fish to Fry has a post about the feelings of infertility returning now that she is trying again. After her miscarriage, all the feelings she suppressed from her first time doing treatments bubbled up to the surface again; the feelings about having a body that is letting her down. It is a post that most of us have written in one form or another–that gratitude of finding like-minded people.
The roundup to the Roundup: If you were looking to donate to March of Dimes, the daughter of the man who wrote “Rainbow Connection” is walking. Answer the Weekly What If. Mondegreens and IComLeavWe. Guess who is visiting me. And lots of great blogs to read.
24 comments
I would listen to the song. Sometimes the stuff gets into your head and won’t go away anyway. As to what song…hmmm…I don’t know. By the time I came around, Mom was over listening to kids songs, and so I was subjected to Charlie Rich and talk radio. I guess I would choose anything off my first album, which was the Muppets. (Mah-na Mah-na/doo doo de doo doo/Mah-na Mah-na/doo doo doo doo)
Also, I suspect that perhaps Lavendar Luz is coming to visit…
I want to come to your house! I’d even drink your fat free crap! 😉
Also, thank you for saying such nice things about me. That’s very sweet and thoughtful and lovely. Really.
Now, there was ANOTHER song on the Muppet Show. I TO THIS VERY DAY, sing this song at least once or twice a day.
And, I might cry too.
Oh, I LOVE The Rainbow Connection. Lucy has a CD I bought years ago that starts with Sarah McLachlan singing The Rainbow Connection and it nearly brings me to tears every time I hear it.
Aww…thanks and I thought it was another venting post that would make everyone’s eyes roll! I also suspect Lavendar Luz is on her way to drier climes…hope she gets out this morning or is already there! I think I could put up with “Chim chim cheree” for a month.
And there I thought I was just having a winge – din’t realise I was seeing the grass as green with neighbours with beautiful landscape – always great to see how another person sees your musings.
Thanks
I’d say Lori too b/c her avi use to have a mojito! 😉 I think I could do the song for the month thing, but don’t think I have a specific childhood song right off the top of my head. (Even though now A has Mahna, Mahna stuck in my head! woot!) You are my Sunshine is just a fave, so I might go w/ that. Enjoy your visit! I totally would love to visit too. Or vice versa.
Ooooh, I would totally take that challenge. Rainbow Connection would be one of the songs I could listen to for a month. As for the rest of the songs, I don’t know. I think I would be more apt to choose songs I wasn’t really fond of to begin with because, by the end of a month, any song is going to drive you crazy and I don’t want to do that to a favorite song.
My guess is that Lori is coming to visit.
I adore Rainbow Connection!
But to win 100 grand I would gladly sit through Peter & The Wolf on repeat.
There is no earthly way I could listen to Rainbow Connection for a month, even for a ton of money. I’ve really grown to loathe that song.
My parents fed me a steady diet of the Beatles when I was a toddler and that? I could do for $10.
I love Paul Williams. And yes, song challenge. Um, either Rainbow Connection or Sing A Song (Just, Sing, Sing a Song…La, la la la la, la la la la la la, la la la la la la la la la!!!) Hey, I did this challenge already when I was 10 years old !!! I CONSTANTLY sang that song (plus Tomorrow from Annie). (So, I get the money, right?!)
I love Calliope’s idea of Peter and the Wolf. My dad was one of those who started feeding us classical music very early on. I absolutely adored the Peter and the Wolf tape. And no words means I don’t have to go around actually singing it even though I’m listening to it.
Rainbow Connection was the song my husband and I walked out of the church to as husband and wife. I love that long, I always have…huh, there I go with the banjo music again.
Off to read the blogs.
Oh Rainbow Connection!! I love it and would totally do it. Actually, I’m just about to go do a chemical demonstration for elementary school kids with lots of color changes set to Rainbow Connection! 🙂
Thanks so much for the link :). I sometimes think I’m just a crazy person…
I could do a song challenge – and yes, probably Rainbow Connection. I don’t remember a lot of the songs from my childhood, but I love that one. Or House on Pooh Corner, by Kenny Loggins.
I loved the Jungle Book, but I still don’t think I could listen to ANY song 24/7 for a month, even for $100,ooo…I would go crazy within the first few hours, I am sure.
Great question!
By the way, Mel, I’ve been saving that magazine that includes that article that mentions you and your wonderful blog…please e-mail me and let me know whether you would like me to send it to you! Thanks!
Love,
Maddy
Love Kermit. : ) Love “Rainbow Connection.” It was sung at my high school graduation.
Whenever I think of Paul Williams, I think of the movie “Phantom of the Paradise” — sort of a rock & roll takeoff on the Phantom of the Opera — which came out when I was in junior high. (Paul played the devil, in the form of a record company owner, lol.) It flopped everywhere — except in France, and in the Canadian province of Manitoba, where I lived. It became a huge cult hit and played for well over a year at one of the downtown theatres in Winnipeg. Even though I didn’t own the album, I can still sing some of the songs.
After recently introducing Doudou to the Muppets , we have been constantly singing Manamanah and it has been loads of fun! he loves it so I think I could listen to that for a month 🙂
I am loving those mondegreens!
I would do it for 100k but the only songs I can think of now are ones that I haven’t heard in aaaaaaages and am feeling a little nostalgic for and I don’t really trust them. There seems to be a lot of Seekers in there.
Bea
Who is coming?
And why the heck do you drink that dreck and not alcohol?
I already know who is coming but, alas, I will not see her since my in-laws are here. Since I actually like them, we will be hanging out with them. Plus, Kevin’s been such an outrageous prick about any time I spend away from FAMILY TIME on the weekends that until we have The WhatTheFuckIsYourProblem Talk (wherein I literally kick his stupid ass), I dare not stray from the nest too far. Especially with his parents here. It’s SO HARD to be a slave to someone else’s desires… ha. Like I could ever really do that.
I would listen to the theme song from Fraggle Rock. I already do, all day every day in my head. It’s like I’ve got a radio playing in my teeth. Okay, not really but I do luv luv luv that song. “Dance your cares away! [clap! clap!] Worry’s for another day! Let the music play! Down in Fraggle Rock!” I especially loved the parts where they said, “GoboMokieWembleyBooberRed!” and when Junior yelled, “Look, Ma! I caught a Fraggle!” I have all the Fraggle DVDs ever made and would watch them on a continuous loop if someone let me. Oh, and Wallace and Gromit too.
Geez, ramble much, Leah?
BTW, nothing works for that biting nails thing–I STILL bite my nails and my mother and grandmother tried EVERYTHING to get me to stop…
I wouldn’t want to do it, but just the thought of it has The Song That Never Ends on repeat play in my head. So it looks like I’m already in for the long haul. 🙂
As for the nail biting, I wasn’t able to stop until I was 21. It took a rubber band worn as a bracelet to finally get me to quit. Having to give myself a quick “thwack” whenever I caught myself biting ended it within a month. You know, not that I’m advocating your teaching Wolvog the fine art of self-hurt! But when he wants to stop, it might help.
Can I remind you of the bit in Touching the Void where the dude slides off the mountain, and a blizzard is coming, and his climbing partner cuts the rope, then he falls into a crevice, breaks his leg, survives, drops to the very bottom, crawls out with a broken leg, makes his way back down the mountain and onto the rocky scree and starts hallucinating from pain and dehydration and all that is in his head is Boney M singing “Brown Girl in the Ring. Tra la la la , and he is SO pissed because he is sure he is going to die with Boney M for company.
And I think listening to that for a month would bring about an equal amount of pain and suffering. Not worth $100 000.
I think I would pick a song from this musical we had on record called Nathaniel the Grublet. It would have to be a part of my childhood that I’m OK with ruining…. which is a big price to pay but I think I could muddy the happy memory of listening to Nathaniel the Grublet for that much money, and just remember the happy memories of listening to my other books on record.
My mum made incredible finger socks out of terry toweling that had little ribbons that tied onto our hands. When you went to suck your finger/thumb you got a mouthful of dry terry toweling. Mmmmmm.
And they looked Oh so attractive too. She’s a very practical women, my mother.
Lately I’d be picking something my Weird Al. As loud and full-on as that might be to listen to for a month, I’ve been listening to him a lot. It’s cheering me up a bit and reminding me of my childhood!