All I really need to do to work this blog is steal stuff from Tom the Dog, Tosy, Gordon, and especially birthday boy Lefty.
The latter asked last week the favorite thing his readers have won. In the day, I was very good at winning things from the radio stations I listened to, because I had very good dialing fingers, an advantage lost when the redial button was invented. WENE in Endicott, near Binghamton, was my first station of choice, when I was in high school.
It was followed by WNPC, the New Paltz College station. From them, one of the first things I won this album by this singer I’d vaguely heard of named David Bowie, an album called “Hunky Dory”, with a bunch of weird songs which I liked for the most part. My roommate Ron, however, did not, except for this one song called Changes.
In my early Albany days, I listened to, and got stuff from WQBK-FM, Q-104.
But my favorite win was from a station I actually seldom listened to. In the summer of 1977, I was living in NYC, specifically Jamaica, Queens, with my sister Leslie and her then-husband Eric. One day, they had the radio on, and one had to be the ninth caller “with the phrase that pays, ’99X is my radio station’ ” AND be able to identify the last song played. Well, I was the ninth caller, I said the phrase that paid, and I knew that “She’s Gone” by Hall and Oates was the last song played. I won twice my age, which meant $48, real money for an underemployed telephone solicitor (TV Guide, Encyclopedia Britannica). I had to spend SOME of it though, and that turned to be the ONLY time I’ve ever seen the New York Mets play in person. Don’t remember the game or even the score, but I remember the joy being there with my sister. I also have an unusual affection for the song “She’s Gone”.
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Then there’s Eddie, the Renaissance Geek, who asks if a tomato a fruit or a vegetable? Answer: Yes, both. But if the Supreme Court says it’s a vegetable…
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Oh, I added two blogs to the roll, both guys from upstate New York with long hair, as it turns out. One, Byzantium Shores, I’ve been reading for quite a while, and just forgot to add. The other, Hydrogen Jukebox, is one I’ve waiting for him to post a second item within the same month. (And you may recognize the person in his very first post.)
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The Post Office has new superhero stamps. One guy I read, Gay Prof, will want two of the twenty stamps on the sheet. Belated happy birthday, GP.
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And lest I forget, happy birthday, sister Leslie!
