Feb112008
Blinded by the light
Filed under Uncategorized by jennifer o'callaghan at 4:52 pm
I have a unique vantage point in the newsroom. When the golden sun of late afternoon starts trickling in before the sunset, it generally focuses directly on my screen.
Most of the times, the blinds are pulled, tight, so the evening rolls in without my noticing it. But when the newsroom is feeling a little starved for sunlight, every once in a while, the sun shines in and leaves a bright glare across my screen.
I am always hesitant to ask that the blinds be pulled to block it out. Regardless of what the groundhog has prognosticated, by the first week in February, I am done with winter.
So, today when the swath of gold washed across my monitor, I let it be.
As one co-worker walked by, he sang a bar of Manfred Mann Earth Band’s "Blinded by the Light" - the obvious line.
"I’ve always wondered about that song," I chirped. It’s such a weird opening. "Blinded by the light! Wrapped up like a douchebag in the solar of the night."
"I’m pretty sure those aren’t the words," said my clustermate and Lifestyles editor extraordinaire, Deidre.
"Really?"
"Wait… What?" Community news editor Deb Cad, a recent addition to our cluster, indulged me.
I repeated in my off-key warble.
"Blinded by the light! Wrapped up like a douchebag in the solar of the night."
"Nooooo," she said, shaking her head at me in emphasis.
"Are you sure?"
I was skeptical, so I turned to the powers of Google.
Sure enough, the first page I found reported the words as
"Blinded by the light,
revved up like a deuce,
another runner in the night."
Huh.
"Wow. That wasn’t right at all, was it?" I asked.
"Nooo."
At least they didn’t laugh in my face.
I have a history of mishearing lyrics and insisting - beyond all possible realm of logic - that mine are correct.
For years, I thought Elton John sang of cows with head lice on the highway in "Tiny Dancer."
No.
Actually, he was instructing us to count the headlights on the highway.
And I believed, rather infamously, that all Sheryl Crow wanted to do wasn’t have some fun, but "Hooked on Phonics."’
Well, she was a teacher once, wasn’t she?
I would be a terrible contestant on "The Singing Bee."
I am one of the few people who doesn’t laugh at Kissthisguy.com. I see it as important educational outreach for people like me.
The ones who think ABBA’s "Take a Chance on Me" had something to do with Jackie Chan.
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