Let's Go

“I don't want to hold her down
don't want to break her crown
when she says, ‘let's go.’”
Ric Ocasek of The Cars

Picked up David Gray’s “Foundling” at Best Buy for $9.95, including a bonus CD of eight extra songs. Only trouble was it skipped or got stuck in two places, so I returned for another. It reminded me of when I bought the Cars’ 1979 album “Candy-O” and the needle stuck on the first song, “Let’s Go,” which was my favorite. I took it back to Hegewisch Records (a great store in Merrillville), got a replacement, and it messed up in the very same place. Same thing with the second replacement. It took me four trips before I got a good one. By that time the manager was getting a little suspicious. One line in “Let’s Go” is: “She’s got wonderful eyes and a risqué mouth.” For the longest time I thought Cars bass player Ben Orr was singing “whiskey” mouth.

Am finalizing preparations for our trip to California. Did a map Quest from the San Diego Airport to Bob and Niki’s house and got a confirmation number for our Hertz Rent-a Car, a Corolla. One can even get boarding passes online up to 24 hours before a flight. Got a haircut, now costing twelve bucks (up from ten). It was Anna’s off day, so I went with Lee Ann, just back from 15 years in a small Nevada town, telling her I only wanted a trim but to take about an inch off the back since I would be seeing my 94 year-old mother.

Old quarterback Kurt Warner got voted off “Dancing with the Stars,” leaving just one guy (Kyle Massey) and three women (Jennifer Grey, Brandi, and no-talent Bristol Palin). On the web site “Small Screen Scoop” some suspect a conspiracy to keep Bristol on the show in order to boost ratings. Jessica Rae posted this explanation: “Something is keeping Palin on the show and whether it’s sympathy votes, Alaskans, Republicans who want to support the Palin family, genuine fans of this underdog, or even pranksters, it’s getting frustrating. More than that, Bristol Palin seems smart enough to have realized that she’s upsetting the balance of the show, and might actually wish she’d be booted. For now, she’ll dance another day. And we can only hope it’ll involve another animal costume. Hell, maybe it’s a group of furries that is voting her through every week. That theory is as likely as some others.” A furry is a fan of a fictional animal character (or characters belonging to a certain species) who likes to dress up like a bunny, cat, dog or whatever. On the internet are fanzines, furry conventions, chat lines, meet-up groups, anime, and (naturally) furry porn.

LeeLee liked my opening paragraph for “Captain Cardinal and the Mystery of the Missing Tiara” and wondered if I had sent it to others. She added one of her own, ending with these words: “In anticipation of the reunion, Leelee searched through boxes of memories, found dried corsages with dates and names attached, pictures of prom dates, and one special picture of Wendy receiving the coveted crown.” I gave LeeLee the go ahead to involve others and sent her my latest addition, to wit: “Captain Cardinal had been a classmate of Wendy’s. In fact he was a sports star who scored the winning touchdown the night Wendy was crowned Homecoming queen. Because he was African-American, they traveled in different social circles, but she was always friendly toward him and had a certain gleam in her eye that gave off a hint of flirtation. Back then, however, the taboo against interracial dating was too strong for him to have entertained the idea of asking her out. After high school he became a Philadelphia police officer, eventually rising to the rank of captain in the robbery division. After 20 years he accepted a position as chief of security at his old high school. On his uniform he put a patch denoting the school mascot, a cardinal, which soon earned him the nickname among students of Captain Cardinal. He took it as a term of endearment, and didn’t discourage people from calling him that. As a joke at the fiftieth reunion, he wrote “Captain Cardinal” on his nametag in part to see if people would recognize him. He and Wendy chatted briefly, but still he was surprised a few days later to answer his phone and hear her voice on the other end of the line.” Captain Cardinal resembles Percy Herder, a sports star who after graduation worked for Upper Dublin’s physical plant department. Still looking like a stud, he was singing the praises of Viagra.

Wednesday seems to be the new “Taco Day” at IUN’s cafeteria. It’s my favorite meal, and one only costs $1.25, including adding a generous topping of lettuce, tomatoes, cheese, and sour cream. The English department was out in force, including my buddy Anne Balay, whom I tried to convince to have her students keep “Ides of March” journals. Jennifer Greenberg, Gary Wilk’s replacement in Fine Arts, seemed interested. Maybe students in her Photography course could put together pictorial journals. Chuck Gallmeier mentioned that seven years ago his Sociology students in a course about the family did a great job and were very proud when the Shavings issue came out.

Ay bowling Rob, who goes on frequent cruises, was talking about the engine room fire that left the “Carnival Splendor” stranded at sea without power. The three thousand passengers and twelve hundred crewmembers were down to a diet of fruit and raw vegetables until spam and cans of crabmeat were airlifted in by helicopter. Tugboats are hauling the ship to San Diego, and it is due to arrive the same day as us. I rolled a 495, and the Engineers took two out of three games.