Saturday 9

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The Times of Your Life (1976)
Unfamiliar with this week's tune? Hear it here.

1) This song is all about memories. How far back can you remember? What's your earliest memory?

I can remember bits and pieces back to age 3 or so. I have a very very vivid memory of a dream I had before I turned 5. I know it was then because we got new living room furniture when I was just about 5 and the dream took place amid OLD living room furniture. I remembered the dream after I had it but couldn't figure it out until a few years later looking at old photos and recognizing the furniture from my dream!

2) The first line is "Good morning, yesterday." What do you remember about yesterday morning?

Fridays I need to be at work by 8, so I'm up an hour earlier than usual and I'd had two short nights in a row. I'm still tired. Otherwise, it was a normal morning for all intents and purposes.

3) This song was originally a 60-second jingle, featured in a commercial for Kodak film. Do you ever use film? Or are all your pictures digital?

Never use it anymore. Still have lots and lots of non-digital photos though.

4) Who took the most recent photo of you?

I have no idea. Probably Beast, unless it was at work.

5) This week's featured artist, Paul Anka, was born in Canada and enjoyed appearing in a made-for-TV Perry Mason movie with fellow Canadian, Raymond Burr. Do you enjoy courtroom dramas?

I like Law & Order in various incarnations, yes.

6) At 15, Anka won a supermarket contest by collecting the most Campbell soup can wrappers. The prize was a trip to New York. Do you enter contests and sweepstakes? Play the lottery?

I do not. I consider it a giant waste of my time. Note that I said "my" time. What others do with their time doesn't have to make sense to me.

7) This year Paul Anka performed throughout Florida (Palm Beach, Fort Lauderdale, Orlando, Clearwater and Fort Myers). The Sunshine State is a popular vacation destination. Do you have a favorite spot in Florida?

I do not. I've been there once--when Sparky was three, to Orlando, guess why--and was not enthralled. Laura Ingalls Wilder was not a fan, however, and that's good enough for me. I'm not a waterbug, so the ocean doesn't hold a lot of attraction to me.

8) In 1976, the year this song was on the charts, an earthquake hit China. Have you ever experienced an earthquake?

Yes I have. I grew up in Colorado, and there are occasional temblors there, though nothing very major at all. There've been a few here where I live now, but again, nothing worth getting worked up about. It's a a very strange feeling: either you don't feel anything but may notice things moving around the room, or you feel/hear some weird noises and bumping, like a car wreck outside.

9) Random question: Do you know CPR?

I just got recertified last summer. Never had to use it. Hope I never do. I pretty much get certified as insurance so I don't need it. They do a quick re-education on AEDs now with CPR classes, and I am much more likely to use that, to be honest.

Saturday 9

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I Feel the Earth Move
If you're not familiar with today's song, you can hear it here.

1) This song is from the album Tapestry, one of the all-time best-sellers (more than 25,000,000 copies sold worldwide). Is it in your collection?

Nope. I like Carole and her songs (this album and all the other songs she's written) just fine, but I'm about 10 years too young to 'get' why this was such a big freakin' deal. At least two of my sisters were into her stuff, though, so I got my time in with the songs.

2) It's about that glorious passion you feel when you first fall for someone. How many times have you been in love?

Oh, about a kajillion times. Kids kill me and I crush on them regularly. In grown-up love? Maybe 3-4 times.

3) San Francisco radio stations briefly removed "I Feel the Earth Move" from their playlists after the 1989 earthquake. Have you ever been in an earthquake and literally felt "the earth move under your feet?"

Yes. At least three times, all in Colorado. I've been fortunate that in the times I've been in California, the land has not been shaky. Anyway, once when I was a kid I have a vague memory of being in my parents' bedroom upstairs and looking out the front window and seeing the ground 'waving'; when we were planning my dad's funeral, sitting in the dining room of Mom's apartment, the building shook; and in the middle of the night while visiting my mom some years later, I swear there was an earthquake, though no one else felt it.

4) Carole King is the first and only woman to win the Gershwin Prize for songwriting from the Library of Congress. Here's your chance to brag a little -- tell us about an accolade you have received.

I can't even think of a time. I set high standards, and the last two reviews I've had I've found that my (new-last-year) boss does too. We haven't so much talked about living up to those standards as the areas where I have not done so. Which irritates a bit, yeah.

5) Carole wrote "You've Got a Friend," which was a mega hit for her good pal, James Taylor. King and Taylor have known one another for more than 40 years, but have never been romantically involved. Do you have any platonic friends of the opposite sex?

Yes, of course. Several guys at church, the guys at work might qualify too, to a point, friends from college....

6) Like more than 80% of the population, Carole is right handed. Are you right handed, left handed (10%) or that most rare of all, ambidextrous (less than 10%)?

I'm a full-fledged rightie. My left hand is only good for typing and holding large things.

7) One of Carole King's earliest hits was Little Eva's "The Loco-Motion." Little Eva was the teenager King hired to care for her young children. Tell us about a sitter who cared for you when you were little.

The thing is, I had lots of much older siblings so I'm not sure there was much outside-the-family babysitting needed, but apparently the teenaged girl across the street, my brother's age, did a few times. Ten years later, she was my flute teacher. She was a lovely woman, really pretty in the classic 70s way. Wonder why my brother never went for her? Hmmm....

8) Beautiful is the title of the Broadway play about Carole King's life. If we were producing your lifestory, what would you want us to call it?

I'm sorry that one's taken. hah I think "Grace" would be good, seeing as how my mom called me that whenever I tripped or did something else klutzy. So, quite often.

9) Carole wrote "Pleasant Valley Sunday," the Monkees' song about conspicuous consumption. When Crazy Sam looks at her crowded shelf of hair products (paraben-free conditioner, keratin-restoring conditioner, hair masque, hot oil conditioner …), she realizes she's guilty of it herself. Have you bought anything recently that you later decided was a waste of money?

Well, yes. Lots of food lately that could qualify for that (she says, wiping Dunkin Donuts crumbs off her face). Can't think of anything else lately, but I've had some clothes moments like this in the past; "what was I thinking?!"

Patrick's Place

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Saturday Six

1. M is for MACROPHOBIA: How paranoid are you about having to sit for a long period of time in a doctor's waiting room? Do you worry you'll catch something from sick people in the room with you?

I literally never worry about this. When Sparky was a tot, those thoughts were a little nearer reality but on his behalf not mine. I hate waiting at the doctor's office because I hate waiting not because of the germs.

2. M is for MAGNITUDE: What's the strongest earthquake you've ever experienced?

It was in the 5's but I don't remember exactly. Felt like a truck hit the building I was in.

3. M is for MAMMAL: Not counting people, what's your favorite mammal?

I'm partial to most in the Canidae family.

4. M is for MATURE: If you had to pick a general age at which you think the majority of young people today are mature enough to make their own decisions, which age would you choose?

37. And I don't think that age has changed much from earlier eras.

5. M is for MINGLE: How good are you at mingling in a room full of strangers in a social setting?

I'm pretty good with it. Having said that, the first thought that popped into my mind when I read this question is, "YUCK!" So, I guess I'm good at it even though I hate it.

6. M is for MOPED: If you lived close enough to work to use a moped, what would be the biggest obstacle for you to use it as your primary transportation there?

Where to park it where it won't get damaged. Also, the weather. Brrr.