Sunday Music: Beatles for Sale

Album Title: Beatles for Sale

Why I Bought It: Completism.

What I Like (Toe-Tapping): "I'll Follow the Sun". The tune is surprisingly bouncy for a goodbye song.... Honorable mention: their cover of Chuck Berry's "Rock and Roll Music".

What I Like (Melancholy): "I Don't Want to Spoil the Party". I knew this song previously as sung by Rosanne Cash; her cover is pretty good too.

What I Like (Nostalgic): "Eight Days a Week". I'm not sure what the first Beatles song I was consciously aware of was; it might have been "Help" or "A Hard Day's Night", but I think it was this one.

What I Don't Like (Conceit): "Everybody's Trying to Be My Baby". A fair number of the Beatles' songs fall in this self-absorbed category; I have no truck with those.

Overall: This is a pretty weak album for the Beatles, all things considered. "I'm a Loser", "Every Little Thing", and "No Reply" are comfortable songs, but there isn't really anything to get excited about on this one.

Miscellany

1. Yesterday, the washing machine tried to eat one of my pairs of pants. Somehow, the metal fastener slipped under the base of the agitator, and it took me several minutes to get the machine to let go. The fastener wound up slightly bent, but it still serves its purpose well enough. I really should start thinking about getting a new washer and dryer; I bought them when I bought the house, about 18 years ago, and the dryer in particular is being unsatisfactory lately.

2. When I adopted Gracie, the info sheet said that she was housebroken. This turned out not to be entirely true, and I've had problems with her ever since. I think, though, that we may have come to an understanding (after only three years....) Sometimes, you see, she starts barking at nothing, for no visible reason, and I finally realized that that's a signal: LET ME OUT! So, the past several days, whenever she starts up like that, I head over to the back porch door and let her out. She ambles about, sniffing or whatever else is involved, finally finds an appropriate site, does her business, and then makes a beeline for the porch door. It's not perfect yet; she still piddles in the house sometimes, but I think things are improving.

3. I grade the Leaders in Civ IV according to their Traits. Creative, Industrious, and Spiritual are "A" traits; Aggressive, Organized, and Philosophical are "B"s; Expansive and Financial get "C"s. Whenever I finish a game, I randomly select the next Leader; the higher the grade, the better their chances of being picked. (Thus Gandhi, Hatshepsut, and Louis XIV have the best chance, and Victoria the worst.) Now, Bismarck gets an "A/C" - Industrious/Expansive - and Julius Caesar a "B/C" - Organized/Expansive. So why is it that it took me many tries to get to a Space Race victory in my most recent play as Bismarck, while my latest as Big Julie (just completed today) was a relatively quick and decisive Domination victory?

4. I enjoy teaching, generally. Still, I'm going to be glad to have the summer off, even without pay; there are quite a few things that I'd like to get done, without being distracted by the demands of classes. On the other hand, there were a number of things I planned to do during the just-ended break week, almost all of which went undone....