Breaking Bad Behavior
- I’ve skipped my usual evening beer these past several nights. I get the craving right about 6, and if I’m cooking dinner (like I was last night) the craving is especially strong to drink a cold bottle of beer while I’m whipping up the chicken tenders and potatoes. But by the time we sit down to eat, the craving is gone and it doesn’t return until same time next night.
- My new morning-computer-usage rule is that I don’t turn on the computer until a) I’m dressed, b) my face is washed, c) hair combed, and d) teeth brushed. Even if what I get dressed in is workout pants and t-shirt, I don’t allow myself to open the laptop until all of the above are met. Why? I was finding myself on too many weekend and weekday working-from-home days in my pajamas at noon with teeth still not brushed. Gross.
- My other computer rule is to limit personal usage. Limit to what?, I don’t know, but just curb my time. No hanging out on the computer checking stats every twenty minutes, no perusing political blogs to see what every little move of Obama‘s is being scrutinized, no wasting oodles of time.
- And on the positive side (no more Don’ts) I will make time for yardwork and painting. I have dreams about both—having a yard with lovely flowers and plants and producing several finished pieces of art for a May 1 gallery tour.
Speaking of Bad Behavior…
Have you ever been on autopilot while you’re driving and before you know it you’re singing along with a bad song? I did that the other day, found myself belting all the words to Paul Simon’s Fifty Ways to Leave Your Lover.
Make a new plan, Stan, you don’t need to be coy, Roy, now listen to me. Hop on the bus, Gus, yaaa don’t neeeeed to discuss muuuch! Just drop off the key, Lee, and get yo’self free.
So this morning I am sweeping the floor and generally picking up the house and guess what song is playing in my head? And guess what song has been playing in my head almost every day since I zoned out in the car and inadvertently started singing those words?
Yep. It’s stuck, on a continuous loop. It’s like I was hypnotized and now any time I go into a non-thinking mode, I find my mental airwaves broadcasting Paul Simon.
Aaack! How do I banish him from my head?? Please, someone, help! (QM, how did you finally get Easy Like Monday Morning out of your head?)
Speaking of Bad Songs…
I’ve taken to calling two friends of mine The Skipper and Gilligan. The Skipper is my friend Patty, and Gilligan is her little buddy, Agi. Yesterday Patty and Agi called me to have me tell them again why they are The Skipper and Gilligan.
“Because, Patty, you call Agi your little buddy.”
“And who are you?” they ask.
“I’m Ginger, or Marianne.” (It just depends on my mood. Yesterday I was Ginger.)
Then I proceeded to sing—complete with passion and sound effects—the entire theme song to Gilligan’s Island, which blew them away. Just sit right back and you’ll hear a tale, a tale of a fateful trip…
Yep, I know the entire theme song to Gilligan’s Island, Beverly Hillbillies, and Green Acres. I might know others but those are the only ones I can think of now.
How ’bout you? Do you know by heart any TV series theme songs?
What are your Saturday morning musings?
well……I really think it could have been worse yb…like “Midnight at the Oasis” or more horrible yet…”Muskrat Love!”
This one’s easy. My entire family thinks they should be on the stage, certain of their singing talents. GIANT honey baked HAMS…the whole lot. My sister has been practicing “The Star Spangle Banner” , subjecting us for for years, in hopes of some sporting debut. God help us. I, however, am quite sure I cannot sing… I can impersonate Alfred Hitchcock quite well but when it comes to singing…the one and only song (and it’s a theme song) I will perform is “My Mother the Car” and yes, I know every bloody word. I like to end it with a rather nice AHH-OOG-GAA. Stuns them every time
;)H
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“Midnight at the oasis. Send your camel to bed….”
My personal favorite of a horrible song to remember is “Yummy, yummy, yummy, I’ve got love in my tummy…”
On a religious note, a song that makes me crazy to hear is “Amazing Grace”. It annoys me no end because I’ve heard it at most every funeral when I was growing up and I’ve heard it played on bagpipes more times than any person should be subjected to it.
The only cure for a bad song that won’t leave your mind is to replace it with a less offensive song.
I know the theme from the radio show called, “The Noon Livestock Report” on KFEQ, St. Joseph. I can sing my grade school and high school anthems. I can sing the Petticoat Junction song, the Star Trek theme, and pink panther theme song. I go for instrumental since there are no words.
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Hey! I haven’t been by here in a week or so. jo and I just released the latest version of our magazine, so time was short.
I really like your new rules. The computer one is very good. I might just have to adopt it. It’s depressing to still be in my bathrobe at 11:45.
I’m feeling your pain with the song. Try chanting om mani padme hum every time you feel that one song coming on. Or think of strawberries, as if you had hiccups.
An entertaining recap of your week.
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I like your rules around computer usage and should apply them myself. The bloody thing is like a magnet and I get sucked in more often than I like to be. Something is always occuring to me that I have to look up or check in on. Before I know it half the day is gone.
Ear worms – that’s what I call it when some song, theme or jingle keeps repeating itself endlessly between my ears. I freaked out a few of our clients tonight as I launched into the ‘Oscar Myer weiner’ song, with gusto. On my way home this morning the radio announcer was talking about this phenomena and how she cures it. She has found that by singing the national anthem aloud it generally dispels the curse. I will have to try that the next time it happens to me and see if it works.
Here’s a post I did a little while ago on the topic:
http://constantchangeisthenorm.blogspot.com/2009/01/infectious-melodies.html
I like these mixed bag posts – a bit of serious and sublime.
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yb, glad it’s going well with the evening dinner protocol. You are doing it! Computer usage is a big one for me and sometimes I just get sick of being on the computer and have to log off. That usually does it for me for a time. So many hours can go by, locking eyes with a computer screen. Especially if your job ties you to a computer screen as well. It’s so good to get away.
I probably know all the TV themes from around the time you are mentioning. Green Acres, Gilligan, Bewitched. Well, with Bewitched, it’s more the music than the words. And the visual of the little cartoon of Elizabeth Montgomery zipping around on her broom. 8)
When I get songs stuck in my head, I sing them until they pass. I’ve stopped trying to fight them. Liz and I often sing around the house, something inspired by the cats. So a few lines will come out of an old song (with new lyrics that we add). It’s kind of fun. That helps get rid of the old songs, too.
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ybonesy, I forgot I wanted to mention that we happened to watch the Paula Deen show yesterday and she had on Marsha from the Brady Bunch and one of the women from Dallas, I think Charlene Tilton. It was so wild to see those television icons in middle age. Paula Deen made oven-baked Southern-fried chicken and sweet potato fries and also a lattice apple pie. Ah, that Southern cooking is to die for.
But what I wanted to say is that she called shows like that “appointment TV.” Shows that you make an appointment with the TV with and wouldn’t miss them. In the old days before video tapes, digital and computers, you didn’t have the option of taping the show, so you had to catch it live or not see it at all. These days it’s easier with Tevo and digital taping. We have been watching American Idol but also tape it in case we aren’t home. (We like to keep up with what’s going on in popular culture even though we feel so outside of it in the way we live. The trends are fascinating.)
We also watch Bones and Numbers. Sometimes it’s Dexter. But the series are different than something like Idol that’s in the moment. I’d never go back and watch an Idol long after the fact. It’s in the moment appointment TV. Just some observations about things that bring me back to electronics. Spring is coming though. It’s time to get outside!
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Heather, I used to love Muskrat Love. Or that one by Michael Jackson, at least I think it was him, Ben, about a pet rat. Do you remember that. Ben, the two of us need look no more…we both found what we were looking for…with a friend to call my own, I’ll never be alone, and you my friend will see, you’ve got a friend in me, you’ve got a friend in me…. 8)
I had to look up My Mother the Car…hmm, this is a new one to me. Here’s the theme song [LINK] for anyone who wants to here it. Where on earth did you learn that from??
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Bob, I can see where Yummy, yummy, yummy, I’ve got love in my tummy might get stuck in a loop. Although not Midnight at the oasis…the music on that one just isn’t too catchy.
I can’t usually hear Amazing Grace without crying. Same with hearing Taps on bugle. It just makes me sob at funerals.
My sisters loved Petticoat Junction—I was still pretty young when they would watch—but I can still remember the chugging train, and that last “Petticoooooaaat Junction!” In terms of instrumentals, I’m a big Hawaii Five-O hummer.
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Good tips, christine. So far I seem to have rid myself of the song. I played Collective Soul yesterday while preparing my tax package. And Jim helped me turn the soil on a flower bed, so mostly I talked to him while doing that work. Today I’m going to paint, and I plan to have some music on in the background. That’s exactly the kind of activity where if I don’t have something else to fill the gap, the dreaded will make its appearance.
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Norm, funny you wrote about this, too. Ear worms—yep, that’s what they are. Or earwigs. (What are earwigs, btw?)
Speaking of Oscar Meyer weiners, which I often sing the song to also, the other day I bought my daughters a can of Spaghetti-O-like pasta. It’s wasn’t the Spaghetti-O brand, but in every other respect it was Spaghetti-Os (same unnaturally red sauce, same sweet taste, same little Os of varying sizes). So I was preparing it for them and told them that when I was little we had something called “Spaghetti-O,” the theme song to which went something like…meatball spaghetti that you eat with a spoo-oon, Oh-oh, Spaghetti-Os. (Of course, I don’t know if those are the words, but that’s what I remember.) The girls both said, is that why you always say, Oh-oh, Spaghetti-Os??
I had no idea I always said Oh-oh, Spaghetti-Os; I think it must be something I just automatically say if, say, the pizza gets burned, or I spill something. It comes out and I don’t know it. Weird how the things we saw and heard over and over in childhood could get so ingrained in our brains that we don’t even realize we’re still repeating them.
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AM, I’m a big Bewitched fan, too. I can hum that theme song…doo-doo, doo-doo, doo-doo-doo-doo-doo-doo. 8)
It’s going to be hard to limit myself on the computer, but I just have so many things I want to do this spring. I do feel a new sort of discipline around this, like I’ve procrastinated too darned long and have finally reached even my own limit for doing so. So, maybe it won’t be that tough after all. I’ll keep you posted.
I’m with you on Idol. I like to see it when it’s happening, and maybe if I miss it I’ll check the website the next day to see what I missed, but then it’s over. No need to review again. Whereas if one of the networks were to play reruns of I Love Lucy, I would probably watch those until the cows come home.
Gosh, did you used to think Marsha Brady was the cat’s pajamas? I did. She was so pretty, with that long blonde hair and the dark eyes, and a mole on her chin, I think it was. And I also thought Susan Dey from The Partridge Family was gorgeous. Not to mention her mom. I love hearing about what those child stars end up doing. So many run amuck, don’t they? And didn’t Greg Brady have a fling with his on-screen mother?, what was her name again?
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No way. Greg Brady did not have a fling with Shirley Jones! Tell me that isn’t true.
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yb, I have a serious problem with tunes being stuck in my mind right as I’m falling asleep. Some are ok, but some are commercial tunes lke Subway’s $5.00 Foot Long, which can be quite annoying. I try to about lullabys that were sung to me when I was young. Usually works quite well.
If Muskrat Love ever stuck in my head I am afraid I would resort to seriously consider putting my myself out of my misery! Oh no! Now I fear that will happen tonight. 🙂
Kudos to you on your discipline measures as I am till in my pajamas. D
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yb, “Ben” will always be cool…
I learned the song from the television show in the mid 60’s. My Mother the Car starred Jerry Van Dyke (Dick’s Bro). The car was his mother reincarnated and it spoke to him. I think it was right after the Mr. Ed show (the talking horse).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Mother_the_Car
Bob, I believe it was Florence Henderson that Greg Brady had the affair with. His TV mom…yep… and truthfully I think he had an affair with the 2 elder daughters as well. That must have been one weird set.
Wouldn’t the Captain and Tenille be proud to know they can still get people talking;)
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I do wonder if the Captain and Tenille realize just how much they continue to be cultural touchstones to us kids of the 70s.
Heather, I didn’t watch My Mother the Car but I must have caught a glimpse of it, as the storyline sounds familiar. I wonder if it conflicted with I Love Lucy or one of my other regular after-school shows.
Yeah, Bob, there are several references to Greg Brady dating his TV mom; just google “Did Greg Brady have an affair with his TV mom?” None of the sites seemed definitive, so I’m not linking them here, but it does seem that Greg had a crush on Florance. Oh, and that he dated his two older sisters—Marcia and Jan—at some point, too. Off-screen, that is.
diddy, sometimes it’s imperative to stay in pajamas all day long. 8)
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yb, I never ever missed Lucy and Ethel so no conflict there. Nor Andy and Ope, Samantha and Darin or The Beaver and Wally 😉 Must have been something else. Don’t tell me you were a “Get Smart” fan! Now that one I missed 😉
BTW, just in case you’ve never seen Andy’s movie “No time for Sergeants”, it’s a must see for old time movies! You will laugh your ass off. I’m smiling now thinking of a certain scene.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_Time_for_Sergeants
I enjoyed your rendition of the song. Pretty jazzy. I don’t think that was the TV version. I seem to remember only one guy singing solo…
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I remembered today that Greg’s mom was Florence Henderson and not Shirley Jones, who was the mother of the Partridge Family kids of “I think I love you” fame.
How about “Feelin’ Groovy”? Hello, lamp post, what’s ya knowin’. I’ve come to watch your flowers growin’. Ain’t you got no time for me. (dah, dah, dee, dee) Feelin’ Groovy.”
Or, “The 59th Street Bridge Song” which just flew out of my mind. Those songs can play on an endless loop.
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YB I used to implant the word “Bewitched” into the theme song:
Bewitched, Bewitched
Bewitched, bewitched, bewitched
I love the Feeling Groovy song. I listen to it some mornings while on the train to SF, then I start the day feeling groovy man.
Everytime I hear the song “It’s a Family Affair” sung by Sly and the Family Stone (?) I can’t stop laughing. The singer sounds like Elmer Fudd. Everyone at work laughs at me laughing at the song then I end up playing it in my head all day long. There’s Elmer singing it again and again and again. Sometimes though the tune changes to the Elmer version of “Fool on the Hill.” Seriously – even now it cracks me up. LOL!
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yb, I wanted to come back here one last time & let you know that Brant spent Friday night here & in the morning, while we were eating breakfast & watching the wildlife outside the kitchen window, he was on the lookout for rabbits. He told me Easter would soon be coming up & began singing “Here comes Peter Cottontail”…over & over & over. So now that song is stuck in my mind. Geesh. D
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I got that same Paul Simon song (50 Ways To Leave Your Lover) stuck in my head back in 1981. . . the year I finally left my first husband. Never forget one day I was singing it out loud, like right in his face (and I am usually a pretty nice person!), but it was symptomatic of his emotional unavailability (euphemism alert. . .) that he never even reacted. I did, in fact, get myself free.
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yb, ok, I said that was my last comment, but now Wal*Mart has added that tune to their commercials. I saw the first one this evening & I can’t take anymore. I’m doomed until after Easter! D
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Neecy, your comment had me laughing out loud. I’ll have to listen to Sly and the Family Stone. Elmer Fudd…ha! But adding the words “Bewitched” to the Bewitched theme song is brilliant. They fit so well! And it doesn’t work for any old theme song. Try it with the Gilligan’s Island one. 8)
Thanks for stopping in, Beth. You know, sometimes songs come around to us when we most need them. And there is a song for every occasion, I bet.
diddy, I’ll have to stay out of Walmarts. 8) Thanks for the warning.
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