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Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Lightnin' Striking?

B"H

Nothing like listening to the words of a songs to destroy your illusions. I think the first time this happened to me was with the Police song "Every Breath you Take". I started listening to the words and realized the guy singing the song was a control freak, a stalker, a really scary guy.

I was away from home most of the past week and I took my laptop with me. I set up the laptop in the room I was staying in but I couldn't get on the internet. So I played a lot of freecell, solitaire and minesweeper. And I listened to the one music cd I had -- it had about 15 songs and in the course of my few days there, I heard that cd probably 10 or more times.

One of the songs that I got the opportunity to hear over and over and over again was Lou Christie's "Lightnin' Striking". And, while it was playing, I began singing with it. Now, mind you, it's not that I didn't know the words before, it's just that the subtleties of their meaning escaped me as a naive child.

I don't know how many of you know the words, but it starts with "Listen to me, Baby, you gotta understand/ You're old enough to know the makings of a man/ Listen to me, Baby, it's hard to settle down/ Am I asking too much for you to stick around?" -- so far, it sounds relatively innocuous. But it continues. "Every boy wants a girl/ He can trust to the very end/ Baby, that's you, won't you stay/ but 'til then/ If she's put together fine/ and she's reading my mind/ I can't stop/ I can't stop myself...."

So I listened over and over to the words and I realized (despite comments I have seen about how this is a nice little love song) that, far from being a love song, is an apologia -- an excuse, an explanation of how and why he is cheating on his "lady love" -- yes, one day, he vows, he will be faithful to her (after they get married -- SOMEday....) and, you feel that underneath it all he totally expects her to be "pure" when they do get married one day. It's the double standard, the whole "there are 'girls' you s**** and 'girls' you marry and they aren't the same" hypocrisy, the "men are expected to be experienced but women are expected to be pure" thing. (Mind you, I feel that sex is only appropriate within the confines of marriage, so I think both parties should be "pure")

I hope that some day I can forget (or forgive) the meaning of the words. I hope that some day I won't always think of the machismo or overbearingly "full of c***" words of this song. But for now, when I listen, all I can hear is a man making excuses for his infidelity.

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Sunday, February 7, 2010

Super Bowl giveth and Super Bowl taketh away.....

B"H I'll admit it -- I'm a Giants fan. If I can survive a few years of the Mets crashing and burning, I can certainly survive one year of the Giants doing the same. Because I'm a Giants fan, I was rooting for "our Quarterback"'s brother -- Payton Manning and the Indianapolis (nee Baltimore) Colts. A lot of people, however, were rooting for New Orleans because of the whole Hurricane Katrina fiasco/disaster. New Orleans, I agree, needed something big. But for New Orleans, just making it to the Super Bowl was excitement worthy, celebration worthy, Mardi Gras-type party worthy. But by winning, they gave the city, which has no baseball team (I'm having difficulty thinking of a major sports team in New Orleans besides the Saints), a needed "shot in the arm". And, though I was rooting for Indy, I'm not horribly upset that New Orleans won (it's not as the Indy is one of my favorite teams or New Orleans is a team I hate -- I was only rooting for Eli's brother -- and, truth be told, in this regard, New Orleans isn't so bad since "Dad" Archie was the quarterback of the Saints "back in the day" as they say). But, to pull this blog entry back to the title, one of the players, Pierre Garcon, is from Haiti. Haiti, which recently experienced an earthquake that it is still in the throes of, also needs to have something to "hang its hat on" from an inspirational perspective. So, while it's very nice for New Orleans (and I love that they are "back"), it would be nice to see this sort of niceness for Haiti, too. Story about Pierre Garcon and his organization that is helping Haiti Check out my other blogs: Israel and it's Place in the World Jewish Singles Strong Jewish Women Check out more of my articles: Jewish Wedding Customs Going to a Wedding Single Strong Biblical Women Strong Biblical Women 2 Strong Biblical Women Part 3 Ruth and Naomi Strong Biblical Women 5: Tamar -- Mother of Kings Strong Biblical Women 6: Yocheved -- Mother of Moshe (Moses) Strong Biblical Women 7: Miriam Why Be Vegetarian Vegetarianism: Getting Started 1 Vegetarianism: Getting Started 2 Rosh Hashana Quick Vegan Cooking Creating new recipes from old Hanuka About the Jewish Calendar Witches and Morality Presidential Trivia Quiz Christmas and the Jewish Single Math Hints 1 -- Adding Fractions Presidents1: George Washington Passover: Holiday of Freedom John and John Quincy Adams Television Trivia Quiz Jewish Perspective of G-d Purim, Esther et al Being an internet small business owner Why I'm a Red Sox fan Pythagorean Theorem My Blogs Top 10 Presidents Bottom 10 Presidents How Can We Appeal to G-d for Forgiveness? Math Tips 2 Searching for a Fashion Partner Math Hints 3 One Actor, Two Shows (TV Quiz) Presidential Tidbits Why Should anyone hire Me? Eat a Healthy Breakfast My experience on Jeopardy Project:Runway and how it got me excited about designing again Who's Buried in Grant's Tomb? My Vocational Experiences Check out my Stress Release Mix list