Earworm

This is not an earworm....



...it's an earwig

This is an earworm, but not the kind I'm taking about...



That's a corn earworm...if if you ever run into one of those, get your money back.

This is also an earworm, but, once again, not the kind of earworm this blog is about.



This was a scene from Wrath of Khan.. which was the second (or third or fourth) Star Trek movie for all of you non fantasy fiction geeks out there.

This (finally) if the type of earworm I'm talking about...

Don't be a hater...go with it. For the rest of the day. While you're driving in your car...or taking a shower..or standing in line (any line...the line doesn't matter)..or during a meeting at work...or cooking supper... ad infinitum.

Get it?

It don't go away...for a long time. Although supposedly there is one antidote, which I'll share at the end.
My good friend Stephen King described an earworm as "a song that burrows into your head and commences chewing on your brain". He may even be the originator of this word, I don't truly know...ask me in twenty years when I catch up to the "newness" of it. Steve always was good in the description dept. Much better than Tom Clancy (nod to an old blog of mine)...

http://pompatusofpete.blogspot.com/2011/12/whos-guy-that-writes-those-books.html

Apparently earworms are nothing new, although the word was included in the Merriam-Webster Collegiate dictionary for the first time this year.


Other first timers were f-bomb (really? f-bomb?), man cave (kind of like that one), sexting (God forbid), and aha moment (which I have never uttered, or ever will. Trust me).



Oprah, on the other hand, says it ALL THE TIME.
Pete says it never. Never ever.

Back to earworms.

I'm sure the word earworm has been around for quite some time.

"New" trends can take awhile to reach me, possibly because
1) I live in Maine, and Maine is always the last in the nation to experience anything. Except, of course, the sunrise. Maine is the first in the nation to experience that event. Everyday, for ever and ever. Suck on that California.

2) I'm not a trendy person. I'm actually the antithesis of a trendy person. What's that? Unfashionable? That doesn't seem right. I think I'll create a new word that means the opposite of trendy, then try to get it in a future Merriam-Webster Collegiate dictionary. How about reluctantal?
Pete is reluctantal when it comes to new fads.

3) I'm a little slow.

Hell, I'm still warming up to "Where's the beef?", Ray-Ban sunglasses, and moonwalking.




Jesus, where was I ?

Oh, earworms...right.

Here's a list of earworms (generated by nothing but prior personal history - with comments in red), at least one of which is guaranteed to stick with you, at least while you're standing in line for that cup of coffee.

• Who Let the Dog's Out (who who who. This one will sap the strength right out of you)
• The Heart of Rock n Roll (is still beatin', and from what I've seen I believe 'em. Now the old boy may be barely breathing...etc. etc. etc)
• The Name Game (Shirley, Shirley shirley bo birley bonana fanna fo firley, fee fy mo mirley, Shirley!...go ahead fill in any name, try to stump yourself, can't do it, can you?)
• Another Brick in the Wall Part Two (We don't need no education...well, looking back on it, maybe we did)
• Rock and Roll (It's been a long time, been a long time, been a long, lonely, lonely lonely, lonely, lonely time...I guess it really has, hasn't it?)
• Hotel California (you can check out anytime you like, but you can never leave. Or ever get this song out of your head)
• Brady Bunch Theme (I don't even have to start the words to this one...you're already up to the part where the lady met the fellow)
• Green Acres theme (this one curses you with the words and the music, everybody all together now...da da dada da....da da)
• Kit Kat commercial (give me a break, give me a break, break me off a piece....you know the rest)
• Coconut (you put the lime in the coconut and shake 'em all up...actually a favorite of mine..though not played a lot, for obvious reasons)
• It's a Small World (and I don't even know any of the lyrics other than it's a small world after all. Truly horrible. I hope this isn't the one that sticks with you)
• Have to include, I want my baby back baby back baby back (Don't even know if this has a title, so let's call it the Chili's Torture Song)

..and a quadrillion more.

Oh, and the antidote to an earworm?

It was either visit the Eiffel Tower or say the alphabet backwards in Swahili or cross your heart and hope to die... I forget...I can't get Don't Stop Believin' by Journey out of my head.

Keep cool.