The Last The Week That Was Before The Autumnal Equinox

The Week That Was is brought to you this week by Yuban coffee. Coffee such as you have never experienced before!

Ever notice they never add cream or sugar to the coffee?

This has been a frustrating week. Every time I’ve turned around, the Internet has been out at home, and these aren’t just modem issues. Comcast has an app on which you can check the status both of your modem and the network, and recently it’s been telling me the problem is the network. I’ve already replaced my modem and router because their nice people tell me the problem is not with their network, but with my equipment. I’ve held on to the old equipment because I think the problems are theirs…

Anyway, on to the review…

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Monday was another freebie day, and I used the opportunity to play a bunch of TV Game Show Themes. It went over great, based on the comments I received, with Xmas Dolly and Naila saying, “hey, that would have made a great theme for M⁴!” Well, hey, it’s still a great theme; even though I used it, we could have a week where we share TV themes or something. I do it all the time. Kip commented that “not a single one I like better than the game show!” But would any of these games have been the same without the music? I don’t think so.

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(I think my oldest feature needs a badge, don’t you?) Cher was the featured artist this week. Everyone seemed to think that she was a unique and talented entertainer, and I couldn’t agree more.

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I hope everyone who said they’ll add Andy Leeks’s books to their To Be Read pile does just that. They’re highly entertaining, and my friends from the UK will probably understand the cultural references better, although Google comes in very handy. I wish he’d start writing a blog….

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My latest battle is Andrea Bocelli versus Englebert Humperdinck in Battle “September Morn.” Even if you don’t participate in Battle of the Bands, your votes count, so have a listen and pick a winner. I’ll announce the winner this Thursday, so be sure and get your vote in before then.

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The job was to share an elementary school memory, so I shared about a friend who I just recently found out had died. I have no idea when he did, but he was a good friend when I was in grammar school, and I’m dealing with the loss. I’m finding many of my old schoolmates on Facebook, one good thing about it. Somehow I think the separation gives us more to talk about.

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I featured five songs that I consider “EBS Specials.” Many of them are not necessarily bad songs, but were played to death when they were on the charts, and the more airplay they got, the sicker I got of them. Several of you said that, regardless of my thinking it’s an EBS Special, “American Pie” is not one of them. Fair enough; it’s an OK song that repeated playings and endless analysis (yes, the sergeants are The Beatles, the jester is Bob Dylan, and the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost are Buddy Holly, The Big Bopper, and Ritchie Valens, okay? Let’s move on) ruined for me. Don McLean had some other very good songs (“Castles In The Air,” “Vincent (Starry, Starry Night),” and “Dreidel” are personal favorites). There were your suggestions, too: Susan didn’t like “The Macarena” (does anyone?), Mollie didn’t like “DOA” or “They’re Coming To Take Me Away, Ha-haaaaa!”, and brother Pat turns off “Brown Eyed Girl” every time it comes on the radio. Several jumped to the defense of “Season in the Sun”; I’m sorry, but a perky, cheerful tune about people dying causes a cognitive dissonance for me.

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The prompt, words that end with -est, gave me the fantods, so I turned it into a playlist. Even then, I had trouble coming up with five songs, and two of them had the word “best” as the word that ends with -est. Dan suggested featuring songs from Carole King’s Tapestry album, one of the most-successful albums of all time. I’m not sure we can include it, since none of the songs had a word that ended in -est. Face it, there just ain’t that many songs with superlatives in them (where you usually see -est at the end). But you all came up with a few, and I thank you for that.

Well, that’s it for this edition of The Week That Was. I tried a different format this week; did you like it? Leave me a comment and let me know. I had to do something to break up the enormous block of text these always turn into…