PREVIOUS THOUGHTS FOR THE DAY
January 21st to 26th 2002
MONDAY JANUARY 21
Wake up little Suzie
"Wake up little Suzie, wake-up." I was listening to this old Everly Brothers hit on the radio the other day. I had my teenage daughter in the car with me and I noticed her, noticing the lyrics. As I did so, I started to hear them differently. What got me were the lines, "the movie wasn't so hot, it didn't have much of a plot, we fell asleep, our goose is cooked, our reputation is shot" - Until that moment, I had always assumed that this is what had actually happened to the couple in question. I never associated it with the line, "what are we gonna tell your momma?" Suddenly, after 40 years, it dawned on me. That was just their lame excuse. Now I wonder, is maturity giving me insight or am I just growing suspicious in my old age? What do you think?
TUESDAY JANUARY 22
Alex will drive blind!
Last week, I wrote about Alex - the blind man who dreams of driving a Ferrari. Many people have written in with suggestions including this from a Libran called Laurie who says. "The current UK land speed record for blind drivers is in excess of 150mph. It was broken last year at an RAF base in Lincolnshire. There are plenty of off-road spaces in the UK where a blind driver could be taught. I would be more than happy to help, we could probably use my rally car." I have passed this and all the letters on to Alex and am now told that in a few weeks time, he will be taking a restored 275GTB round an old airfield in the Scottish borders... doing his best to reach 175mph!
WEDNESDAY JANUARY 23
Falling asleep...
On Monday, I asked a whimsical question about the song "Wake up Little Susie". There has since been an outraged response from people who feel sure Susie is innocent. Tina from Harrisburg writes, "In the 60's, my boyfriend and I went to the drive-in theatre in Lebanon, Pennsylvania. Al Pacino was staring in "Dog Day Afternoon". My curfew was midnight and my mother was so stringent about the time, she'd ground me if I was a minute late. At 12:40 am., I heard my boyfriend scream, "Don't shoot!"...which woke me from a sound sleep. I was startled by the blinding light shining through the car's windshield and into our eyes. It turned out to be the headlights of the theatre manager's car. He was ready to go home and we were keeping him. We spent the whole journey back in fear of my mother's wrath."
THURSDAY JANUARY 24
Suzie DID fall asleep
A reader called Viv Feeger writes, "Dear Jonathan, I was born in 1950, so I was a teenager when the Everly Brothers first sang Wake Up Little Susie. This was in a different era when just coming home late from a movie was enough to put your reputation in peril. The point of the song is that they HADN'T been 'up to mischief'! They were worried about their family and friends making the wrong assumption - just as you have." Judith Nicholson adds, "Yes, you are getting suspicious in your old age. They truly DID fall asleep. How do I know this? Because it happened to my date and me one night, when we went to the drive-in movie and awoke at 4am to an empty parking lot! Our first thought was, 'What are we going to tell my Mom?'"
FRIDAY JANUARY 25
New effect, new planet plus Astronews Almanac
Astro News today features an Almanac for the coming week.A reader called Joel says; "There has been much talk lately about the new planet, KX76. If it is so significant, does that mean all horoscope charts in the past have been wrong in some way?" Dear Joel, New planets emerge only when something radically new occurs on earth. Uranus was discovered just as we learned to fly, Neptune popped up when we took our very first photographs. Pluto emerged as we were starting to split the atom. Astrologers feel that these new planets influence only the present and the future but of course, in one way, they do affect history. They herald a new era during which we have to start seeing the past through different eyes. In a small way, you can see this effect in the debate we have been having here all week about Wake Up Little Susie. In 2002, it is almost impossible to imagine how innocent the fifties were.
SATURDAY JANUARY 26
Match Made in Heaven - Steve McFadden & Lucy Benjamin
Steve McFadden, Pisces (b. March 20, 1959)
Lucy Benjamin, Gemini (b. June 25, 1970)
Eastenders (UK soap opera) actors and real-life couple
Gemini and Pisces are both 'mutable' signs. Mutable people are adaptable and easy-going. They also tend to be eccentric and idiosyncratic. These two are very much an 'odd couple'. Nobody else understands them but they understand each other - and that's what counts.
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