In the interest of full self-disclosure (to a point), people in glass houses, etc., I hereby present a brief (and by no means exhaustive) list of songs that I love that would probably be highly likely to appear on a 50 worst list somewhere, and probably, in fact, do appear on such a list (double points if you can ascertain which one actually does appear on the worst recommendations over at Stereogum):

• Jellybean Benitez/Madonna “Sidewalk Talk”
• Howard Jones “Pearl in the Shell” (and almost any other HJ song from about 1983-1984)
• Ambrosia “Biggest Part of Me”
• Garth Brooks “Friends in Low Places”
• Pat Benatar “Ooh Ooh Song”
• Fifth Dimension “Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In”
• Sheena Easton “Morning Train (Nine to Five)”
• America “Ventura Highway”
• Captain & Tennille “Love Will Keep Us Together”
• Spandau Ballet “Gold”

Oh, yeah, and one of these lists I’ve linked to places Elton John’s “Someone Saved My Life Tonight” on the list of worst. Sacrilege!!!

Says the National Weather Service:

‘Tuesday Night: Patchy frost. Otherwise, increasing clouds, with a low around 34.’

Oh, c’mon now, people, it’s pretty much frickin’ May already. This southern boy shouldn’t be seein’ ‘patchy frost and 34’ forecasts in the weather … Lord, will I make it another year amongst the yankees and eskimos? (No offense, y’all, and don’t mind me … just a wee bit homesick for Nuevo Mexico right now.)

More candidates that I hadn’t thought of for 50 worst songs (from Stereogum):

• Chris De Burgh “Lady in Red” (truly horrific)
• Patrick Swayze “She’s Like the Wind” (ditto)
• Don Johnson “Heartbeat” (tritto)

However, Swing Out Sister should not be on the list. “Breakout” is cheesy in retrospect but no other song screams 1987 quite so well as that one.

An amazing quote from a new biography of King James I by Alan Stewart that I’m saving to read until after the end of schoolwork (the quote is from a memoir by the seventeenth-century writer John Oglander):

“If he had but the power, spirit and resolution to have acted that which he spoke, or done as well as he knew how to do, Solomon had been short of him.”

I went to work around 9.00 this morning and the campus seemed blessedly deserted. I saw maybe five people cross my path as I walked from the corner of State and South University to the Undergrad Library.

By the time I got off work at 12.15, though, the campus was exploding with people. The fourth floor of the undergrad was packed with studying students. Almost every table and carrel was occupied. The center of campus was a boom town. Ambrosia was more packed than I’ve seen it in a long time. Everyone’s getting in their last push before the end.

I was disappointed, having expected this to be the start of the clearing-out and mass exodus, especially after Friday night, when everything around the Diag as I left work seemed so sunbathed, idyllic, and laid-back it could have been a scene from the video for Sheryl Crow’s “Soak up the Sun” or an advertisement for “The O.C.” But I guess the real exodus won’t really occur till this coming weekend, based on the conjecture at work and the above observational evidence. I admit that I’m looking forward to the quiet, in more ways than one.

Saw this today on Metafilter—a nice place to compare statistics and see photos of cities all over the country. I pulled up the stats for all the place I’ve lived in over the last 40 years to see how they stacked up against each other and my current residence, AA, MI. Sorta kinda interesting. (All stats from 2000):

Roswell, Chaves County, NM (Dec-63—Jun-71)

28.9 square miles

Pop: 45,293 (Male/Female: 48.2%/51.8%)

50.9% white/non-hispanic

10.8% foreign-born

Median Resident Age (MRA): 35.2 years

Median Household Income (MHI): $27,252

Median House Value (MHV): $60,100

HS Grads: 73.8%

College Grads (BS/BA): 16.9%

Graduate Degrees: 6.8%

Unemployed: 9.7%

Married: 52.7%

Never Married: 24.1%

Divorced: 11.8%

Widowed: 9.1%

Commute: 16.2 minutes

Clovis, Curry County, NM (Jun-71—Jun-74)

22.4 square miles

Pop: 32,667 (M/F: 48.0%/52.0%)

55.6% white/non-hispanic

5.5% foreign-born

MRA: 33.1 years

MHI: $28,878

MHV: $64,500

HS Grads: 77.5%

BS/BA: 15.7%

Grad: 5.9%

Unemployed: 6.9%

Married: 54.8%

Never Married: 22.9%

Divorced: 12.6%

Widowed: 7.6%

Commute: 15.3 minutes

Duncan, Stephens County, OK (Jun-74—Apr-94)

38.8 square miles

Pop: 22,505 (M/F: 47.3%/52.7%)

83.3% white/non-hispanic

2.6% foreign-born

MRA: 40.3 years

MHI: $30,373

MHV: $59,000

HS Grads: 76.8%

BS/BA: 19.7%

Grad: 5.8%

Unemployed: 7.2%

Married: 61.7%

Never Married: 16.5%

Divorced: 10.1%

Widowed: 9.6%

Commute: 18.7 minutes

Plano, Collin County, TX(Apr-94—Sep-96)

71.6 square miles

Pop: 222,030 (M/F: 49.8%/50.2%)

72.8% white/non-hispanic

17.1% foreign-born

MRA: 34.1 years

MHI: $78,722

MHV: $162,300

HS Grads: 93.9%

BS/BA: 53.3%

Grad: 17.6%

Unemployed: 3.1%

Married: 66.5%

Never Married: 21.1%

Divorced: 8.4%

Widowed: 2.7%

Commute: 27.5 minutes

Pleasant Hill, Contra Costa County, CA (Sep-96—Feb-98)

7.1 square miles

Pop: 32,837 (M/F: 48.5/51.5%)

76.6% white/non-hispanic

14% foreign-born

MRA: 39.0 years

MHI: $67,489

MHV: $294,000

HS Grads: 93.1%

BS/BA: 42.5%

Grad: 13.1%

Unemployed: 3.7%

Married: 53.3%

Never Married: 26%

Divorced: 12.7%

Widowed: 6.9%

Commute: 30.3 minutes

Highlands Ranch, Douglas County, CO (Feb-98—Nov-98)

23.5 square miles

Pop: 70,931 (M/F: 49.5%/50.5%)

6.7% foreign-born

MRA: 32.2 years

MHI: $86,792

MHV: $235,100

HS Grads: 97.8%

BS/BA: 59%

Grad: 17.2%

Unemployed: 1.8%

Married: 73.1%

Never Married: 17.6%

Divorced: 6.9%

Widowed: 1.8%

Commute: 27.5 minutes

San Francisco, San Francisco County, CA (Nov-98—Aug-03)

46.7 square miles

Pop: 776,733 (M/F: 50.8%/49.2%)

43.6% white/non-hispanic

36.8% foreign-born

MRA: 36.5 years

MHI: $55,221

MHV: $396,400

HS Grads: 81.2%

BS/BA: 45.0%

Grad: 16.4%

Unemployed: 4.6%

Married: 38.7%

Never Married: 44.8%

Divorced: 8.6%

Widowed: 6.1%

Commute: 30.7 minutes

Ann Arbor, Washtenaw County, MI (Aug-03— )

27.0 square miles

Pop: 114,024 (M/F: 49.4%/50.6%)

72.8% white/non-hispanic

16.6% foreign-born

MRA: 28.1 years

MHI: $46,299

MHV: $181,400

HS Grads: 95.7%

BS/BA: 69.3%

Grad: 39.4%

Unemployed: 4.2%

Married: 38.5%

Never Married: 50.3%

Divorced: 7.1%

Widowed: 3.2%

Commute: 18.8 minutes

Even though AA is a place that prides itself on its ‘diversity,’ seems to me that there’s far greater diversity in my birthplace, Roswell. Heck, we even got aliens there …