The Song That Goes Pop in July

 Late last month, I received an unusual email.  It was from a game I used to play on Facebook, but it had been discontinued due to the cessation of the code it was built upon.  The game was Songpop.  This wasn't the first time they had sent me an email, either.  After my first month of not playing, they sent me an email or two giving me free bonuses if I would just return to playing the game.  Of course, I couldn't even though I might have wanted to.  While the game had long since been available on mobile devices running iOS or Android, it had just started to become available on PCs.  I was on a Mac.  Therefore, I was unable to go back to playing.  However, this email was announcing that Songpop had finally come to the Mac.  I really liked the game when I was still able to play it.  I even wrote a post about how dejected I was when the game was dropped a few hours earlier than I expected back on December 31.  Now, I had the chance to go back and play it.  One problem.  I was getting ready to start my online summer class.  I didn't wasn't to start a new game while concentrating on my class, especially when the course timetable was so constricted.  So, I have yet to download the game.  However, my class ends this weekend.  I have been a day or so behind schedule since the start.  In fact, I don't even really have the time to be writing this post, but I have just enough spare time to do it.  This means, this coming Saturday evening, or sometime on Sunday, July 4, I will finally have the time to play again.  I am not sure how much will have changed in just a few months.  In the few years I had been playing the game, very little had changed in the gameplay. The biggest one was the lack of connection to Facebook when the game was being phased out. I never got the chance to play against any of my friends.  I was too nervous, and not that many friends were active, especially at the end.  Anyway, I am getting ready to play again.  I needed a new game, as I have been hitting huge roadblocks in many of them the last few weeks.  It looks like I'm making progress, and boom! I either get stuck or sent backwards.  At least Songpop is the type of game that allows progression even when losing.  Time to get back to work, and then back to playing this weekend.

The Tragic Death and Second Life of Lady Mondegreen

 In a 1954 interview, writer Sylvia Wright talked about one of her favorite poems as a child, "The Bonny Earl of Murray."  The poem ends on a very tragic note, as the Earl dies.  For Wright, this tragedy was compounded in that she believed another character had also died, a "Lady Mondegreen."  That this figure was never mentioned until her death was somewhat odd.  It was only later in life that Wright discovered that she had misheard the line, which was actually "and laid him on the green," which is where the earl's body was placed after his death.  The term mondegreen was coined for the mishearing of a line or song lyric from this interview.  I've been of fan of such things since the late 90s when I saw a book about such lyrics, Scuse Me as I Kiss This Guy.  The title is taken from a frequently misheard lyric from "Purple Haze" by the Jimi Hendrix Experience.  The actual lyric is "scuse me as I kiss the sky."  In all fairness, the actual lyric doesn't make too much sense, especially when compared to the mondegreen.  As was never able to purchase the book, but I would always try to look at it, or one of its sequels, whenever I visited a book store.  While I never bought any of the books, I did get the spin-off calendars when I opened my own book store.  Unfortunately, the calendars ceased being published after about seven years after I opened.  I kept some of the funniest pages to look at from time to time.  I ultimately did find another book with misheard lyrics, but I sold it, after having it for many years.  The book included two other types of bungled language, eggcorns and misanthropes.  The former is the coining of a new word from bungling up saying the actual term.  The latter is an accidental or intentional use of the wrong word in a situation, mostly found in literature as a deliberate character feature.  Every now and again, I get the notion to find more on this subject, particularly new material.  There are a few websites, including one that may have been attached to the original books Kiss This guy, but I haven't been able to prove it.  With the advent of captioned music videos, as well as the widespread use of internet searches, one would think that such occurrences would be rarer, but they are still out there.  I will end today's post with an example found in that second book I mentioned.

            I can see Cleveland now, Lorraine has gone.   

            I can see all lobster claws in my way.

Now, what was Johnny Nash singing about.  First, why wouldn't Lorraine want him to see Cleveland?  Was she a demanding woman who hates the Browns? (But then, who likes them?) Or, is she a woman of great proportions who physically blocked his view until she stopped aside?  Unfortunately, he now sees lobsters.  Cleveland is on a lake, not an ocean, so where did the crustaceans come from? Or, was there a catering accident and there are only the claws before him?  So many claws.  Of course, these aren't the actual lyrics, but they are funny.  The actual lyrics are below.

            I can see clearly now, the rain has gone.

            I can see all the obstacles in my way.

But seriously, the first line is the title!  If you heard that, you know the first line

Why So Sirius, XM?

Last week, I had an unusual email.  Well, not really that unusual, but definitely not that expected.  Okay, I knew there could be chance, but still.  Anyway.  Because of a great review of my car's last oil change at the car dealership, and not the one I got it from, I was eligible for a three-month free trial of SiriusXM.  This was on top of the seasonal two-week free trial centered around Memorial Day that just ended.  Now, I admit, I wasn't too thrilled about satellite radio when I first saw the ads.  Some of the pretentiousness of the curated stations based upon random names just seemed odd.  Then, I got a new car.  Part of the package was a free trial of XM radio.  Things had changed somewhat since those first ads.  I was amazed by the clarity and the selection of stations.  Then, the trial ended.  At the time, I couldn't afford to continue the service.  Technically, I still can't, especially since I don't really have the credit card needed to pay for it.  All I had was the free program guide.  I would sometimes listen to the station just to get the new listings.  Sirius and XM were merging at the time, so many changes were occurring.  I would make up new lists of where the stations were being moved, and which were changed, either added or deleted.  This would be a help during one of the quarterly seasonal free trials.  To garner new subscriptions, SiriusXM reactivates some radios for two weeks a few times a year, with a limited range of stations.  The majority of the music ones that don't have excessive language and a smattering of the others.  Plus, a few Canadian stations, for some reason, at least on my cars.  These trials are usually based around holidays--Memorial Day for spring, Labor Day for summer, Thanksgiving for autumn.  The winter trial never had a fixed holiday; that may be why it was discontinued.  There have been others, most notably a sports-based trial around the first week of the NCAA's men's basketball tournament, but there isn't any clear schedule about when this type of trial will start.  Getting back on topic, I reactivated my radio last week and now have all 250 or so channels open, as well as the online streaming ones.  A few of these used to be part of the regular package, but have since been relegated to online only.  I had just printed off a recent guide earlier that day too.  No reason.  I kept some of my old program guides over the years, and they do tell a story.  Some channels have been renamed, such as the Boneyard into Ozzy's Boneyard.   Some have fallen by the wayside, such as most of the ad-friendly music stations.  Only the LA based KISS is left. Others that have departed include both Oprah Winfrey's and Martha Stewart's channels, a yoga chant channel, and even a Bollywood channel dedicated to the music stylings of India and its movies.  There was even a Playboy radio channel.  It was probably just articles, as I'm guessing most of the magazine's visual appeal couldn't translate to radio.  At least that's what I'm guessing.  Never listened to the station.  Or the magazine.  Honest.  Many categories have been renumbered and internally rearranged.  For instance, the love song base Love channel used to be in the "pop" category.  Then it was moved to the eclectic catch-all of the "jazz/standards/classical" group.  However, Love has been at least temporarily replaced by Yacht Rock Radio, a blend of soft rock from the 70s and early 80s, while Love is currently online only.  At least I can appreciate Steely Dan on a fairly regular basis.

I Accuse You of Murdering Your Own Mystery Series

For the second time in two years, a mystery series that I follow appears to be ending.  The "Witch City" mystery series by Carol J. Perry stars Lee Barrett, an investigative reporter for a Salem, Massachusetts television station.  Since childhood, she has experienced visions of the past, present, and possible future whenever she gazes into a reflective surface, but no every time.  In the latest book, See Something, Lee has been promoted to programming director.  While this keeps her off-screen, it doesn't keep her out of trouble, as she finds a young woman suffering from amnesia.  Lee takes the woman to her home, where Lee's aunt Izzy helps the poor woman out.  Lee also calls her police officer boyfriend, Pete, for assistance.  It turns out that the woman may have been witness to a murder.  While not a suspect, the woman's life is in danger as the suspects go after her for an unknown reason.  The suspects you disguises and multiple identities, but the main thrust is the motive as opposed to determining the suspects real names.  Late in the book, after the most recent threat to Lee's life is resolved, Pete proposes to her, unplanned and out-of-nowhere.  In the epilogue, after the case is resolved, the two have an official engagement party.  At the end of the book, after the usual recipes and author acknowledgements, there is a publisher's note saying that Perry will be starting a new book series soon, suggestive of haunted houses.  And that this series is ending.  Why end a series just because the female protagonist is getting married?  I should have realized something was happening from the other clues.  First, the story was copywriter in 2019, but not published until this year, as if Kensington, the publisher, wanted to milk out the series a little more.  Many characters from two books previous had also been brought back.  Finally, the book was in the new wide mass market paperback style.  Unlike regular paperbacks, it is about an inch wider and a half an inch taller.  It is also a dollar more expensive.  This seems to be a trend in publishers of cozy mysteries and romances.  Too big for a man's pocket, but great for a woman's purse.  Other series, that I don't read, continue well after the wedding.  At least this series doesn't have any loose ends, unlike another series a liked ended.  That one was the "Wiccan Wheel" mystery series by Jennifer David Hesse.  It too has seemed to end after the female lead got engaged.  Unlike "Witch City," there were a few loose ends left to tie up.  For instance, one of the supporting characters had a hidden back story that was hinted at, but never explored.  A recurring enemy flew the coop, but still held the possibility of returning.  Finally, there were two entire Wiccan holidays that had yet been used of the traditional eight.  Leaving such a possibility open irks me.  Why have a definite theme, and not complete it?  Sure, one of the two holidays is fairly obscure and has no clear parallel in the modern calendar, while the other coincides with Easter, but there was still so much to go into.  What hurts me the most, though?  I was coming up with a mystery series about ghost/monster hunters, and Perry's new series might be stepping on its toes. At least I have other series still going strong, if I could only get them.

The Shirt on My Back, and about Thirty-Plus More

 I wouldn't call myself a "clothes-horse" or a "fashion-maven," but it might be possible that I am both of those things.  To be honest, I used to not like looking for clothes at all.  It was sometime in the late 1990s or early 2000s that I really started to appreciate looking for clothes, as opposed to having it be a chore.  Well, at least for some things.  As I have mentioned before, I have always had problems with pants.  Weird measurements and little backside development make pants shopping less than pleasurable.   Everything else is great.  I guess it started with socks.  One of the few fashion rules I always try to follow is that my socks match my shirt as closely as they can.  For awhile, I was obsessed with argyles.  I got many pairs in stranger color combinations, but they matched my shirts.  I then got into the bright color trend as it just started.  I wound up with over a dozen of pairs in very bright colors, but they still worked with my shirts.  It's too bad that the trend has started to peter out.  I haven't seen as many new colors as I used to, just bizarre patterns, which are not my thing.  Socks led to shirt shopping.  I currently have over thirty short-sleeved shirts, at least three rainbows worth.  Literally, I have every color and shade from red to violet and back, with a few neutrals to break up the monotony.  Mostly tees, but a few polos and others mixed in.  I have another two dozen or so long-sleeved shirts for the cooler parts of the year.  Not as many colors, but many more styles.  Strangely enough, many have more than one color, blocking or stripes and designs, as opposed to the short-sleeved ones, which are overwhelmingly solids.  I actually had more, but I retired a few last year.  I also have a few dress shirts, mostly solids but a few striped ones too.  I don't wear them as often, as I lead a fairly casual lifestyle nowadays.  I also get to write my own dress code, and I say I don't need to be so formal so often.  When I got into shirt buying, I didn't have one favored brand or store.  Ultimately, Macy's became the go-to place.  Club Room, INC, John Ashford, and Alfanti were prime choices.  I usually get two or three shirts at a time, frequently different colors of the same style.  Sometimes a different one in the same brand, just so I wouldn't always look the same.  A few years ago, something changed.  I was looking around Dillards, when I discovered this one shirt that rocked me to the core.  Murano liquid cotton.  It is a higher end brand, but the feel of the shirts and the color selection just blew my mind.  My first one was a light silvery gray, a color a never had before, but fit right into my wardrobe.  The cut was a little slimmer than usual for me, but it still looked great on me, with my slightly defined muscles and almost flat stomach paunch.  I try to get one or two every year, when I can.  I mostly get tees, but I did get a light yellow polo one time.  Great color, but polos aren't the best choice more the fabric.  Murano also makes long-sleeved shirts, but I have yet to find a color and style I like.  While I like my UK blue, my favorite has to be the navy-to-salmon ombré V-neck.  The only problem with it is that the tail is so long, you can only see it if I untuck the shirt.  It all but goes past my crotch, it's so long.  Still, great shirt. On the other side of Dillards men's department is Roundtree and Yorke.  Their brand is more casual, and affordable, usually.  They also have more styles for both short- and long-sleeves.  I am prone to get different styles whenever I buy two or more, as the color overlaps between styles in the brand is quite frequent.  My favorite here is what I like to call my "sport shirt."  The shoulders are in UK blue, again, as are the sleeves.  The rest of the shirt is white.  It has some buttons, so it is not exactly a tee, but it does have a strong athletic feel to it.  Like the ombré, I was only able to get one in that style that day, but I wish I could've gotten a second one as well.  While I think Murano still makes their style, I haven't seen Roundtree and Yorke bring their style back yet.  It was only about two years ago, so there is still I chance for a second go,  Now, if I could only find pants, other than some jeans, that I would like shopping for.