Empty Items from a Cluttered Mind – Page 2

Got a feelin’ the sun will be gone, the day will be long and blue

If a cluttered desk is the sign of a cluttered mind, what is an empty desk the sign of? Here are some cluttered items from an empty mind.

Today’s trivia question: I’ve recently heard three different instrumental versions of this song on the radio—on WZUM (1550/101.1) and Eric O’Brien’s “Smooth, Relaxing & Easy,” which airs Saturdays on WRCT and Tube City Online Radio, following my show.

If you’re a child of the 1970s or ’80s, you probably know the tune. But can you recognize it from the seldom-heard lyrics? Here they are:

Got a feelin’ it’s all over now
All over now, we’re through
And tomorrow I’ll be lonesome,
Remembering you.
Got a feelin’ the sun will be gone
The day will be long and blue
And tomorrow I’ll be cryin’
Remembering you.
There’s a faraway look in your eye
When you try to pretend to me,
That everything is the same as it used to be.
I see it’s all over now—
All over now, we’re through,
And tomorrow I’ll be startin’
Remembering you.

Do you recognize the tune? Answer at the end of this column.

Every day is an endless train, but I ride it to the end of the line

Cluttered items from an empty mind:

Yesterday, I wrote that despite its creator’s increasingly unhinged social media and YouTube commentary, I hadn’t noticed any overt political content sneaking into the comic strip “Dilbert.”

Well, I generally was reading the comic strips only on Saturdays and Sundays. Apparently I’ve missed a lot. According to media critic David Bauder, writing for The Associated Press, “Dilbert” has been treading in tin-foil hat territory for a while:

In a Sept. 2 “Dilbert” strip, a boss said that traditional performance reviews would be replaced by a “wokeness” score. When an employee complained that could be subjective, the boss said, “That’ll cost you two points off your wokeness score, bigot.”

In an August strip, the boss said the company was getting into the “pandemic prevention market” and creating demand by unleashing a deadly virus.

A Black employee featured in an Oct. 20 strip noted that his boss ignored his actual accomplishments to recommend him for a job for which he was not qualified. The employee backed down when told it would be a big jump in pay.

Mike Peterson, who blogs about comic strips at an industry website, The Daily Cartoonist (and for whom I used to occasionally work), told Bauder that “Dilbert” seemed to have run out of jokes about office and Internet culture, adding, “The strip jumped the shark.”

Yipes. Sounds like it jumped the shark, flew over the dock and landed in the tiki bar.

Trivia Question: Scott Adams’ “Dilbert” wasn’t the first widely distributed cartoon character named “Dilbert.” A character named “Dilbert” was used by the U.S. Navy during World War II in safety cartoons aimed at novice pilots.

What was his aviation-related last name?

Answer at the end.

Shocked, I am shocked!

If a cluttered desk is the sign of a cluttered mind, what’s an empty desk mean? Empty items from a cluttered mind:

Well, I, for one, find it hard to believe that there could be anything unsavory about the creators of “Rick & Morty,” a show about a sociopathic alcoholic sex addict who abuses his grandchildren.

Hey, and I say that as someone who likes “Rick & Morty.” When I ruptured three discs in my back five years ago, and was in tremendous pain for months, binge-watching “Rick & Morty” was one of the things that actually lifted my spirits.

I think the show has brilliantly poked fun at cliches from science-fiction movies and TV. I also appreciate the show’s willingness to explore really toxic, unhealthy family relationships. (I enjoyed “BoJack Horseman” for the same reasons, even though I sometimes got to the end of an episode and had to take a break for a while.)

Where are we going, and why are we in this handbasket?

If you heard Saturday’s show (repeated Sunday afternoon) you heard a bunch of soundbites from Bert and Ernie of “Sesame Street.” (As opposed to Bert and Ernie of “It’s a Wonderful Life.”)

I don’t mean to disillusion you, but they weren’t in the studio with me — the magic of radio! theater of the mind! — and they also weren’t exclusive to me. Not hardly. They were part of a video series that Elle Magazine has created called “Song Association,” in which celebrities are given a vocabulary word, and then have 10 seconds to think of a song that includes the word.

You can view Bert and Ernie’s entire appearance on YouTube (it’s actually a load of fun — they also sang “If I Had $1,000,000” by Barenaked Ladies, as well as “You’ve Got a Friend in Me” by Randy Newman) and check out the other celebrity videos at the hashtag #SongAssociation. Billie Eilish, Adam Lambert, Olivia Rodrigo and Meghan Trainor have all participated in the long-running series.

If a cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind, what’s an empty desk?

*Artist’s depiction of Jay Thurber, hard at work. (1906 New York Zoological Society photo, Library of Congress collection)*

The late Phil Musick referred to them as “some things I think I think.” I call them “empty items from a cluttered mind”:

Today is “Wear a Hoodie to Work” Day, in honor of John Fetterman, who is being sworn into office as a U.S. senator at 12 noon.

In response, Republicans and Dr. Oz have declared today “bring crudites to work day.”

If Ben Garrison is going to war with Scott Adams, my biggest question is: “How much popcorn should I make?”

Adams is the cartoonist behind the comic strip “Dilbert,” while Garrison is a political cartoonist whose work has been widely shared on the Internet.