That's a line from a Morrissey song. My hair somewhat resembles his when I don't shower, which is far too often to admit. I blame unemployment. Prospective employers, I'll shower for you every day. I'll even use soap.
So I've decided that I don't believe in this lyric. It's true that I hate it when contemporaries become successful. "Contemporaries" meaning people who are my age, or those that were classmates, that had very little contact with me. When those bastards do well, they can go to hell.
But I have a friend - more like a friend of my wife's, though we contact each other directly - who is successful and will soon be more so.
Lisa used to work with Margie at the Associated Press bureau in Washington. She's my age, very petite, with unusual features. I don't mean that to sound as if she is unattractive. I guess she's not considered a beauty, but there's something about her that makes her very attractive. It's likely her great personality. She's not only very smart, but she relates well to others and is endlessly fascinating. Plus, she has the ability to focus on you, making you feel like the most important thing to her at that moment. She's wonderful, and is one of the few people from the DC area that I miss. I hope her husband, Jason, realizes how lucky he is.
Lisa works for CNN and covers Congress. She does a weekly (or thereabouts) podcast (or something like that) called "American Sauce," where she tries to give listeners the unadulterated story of what's going on there, away from the spin and pomp. It's very good, reminiscent of NPR journalism, but not at all snooty.
I listened to her most recent episode and wanted to send her an e-mail, but I don't know it. She's had a few over the years, and when I try those, I never get a response. So I looked for more info and found two great things about her.
1. In late 2009, Lisa was covering a Tea Party event for the television side of CNN, and she was basically drowned out by the unruly crowd. It came on the heels of Joe Wilson yelling "You lie!" to President Obama during an address. (For the record, I don't care how much you disagree with the president's policies. You DO NOT pull such a schoolyard move during a national broadcast. Especially when your party's last president lied, and lied, and lied some more.)
The broadcast of that remote is on YouTube and has been watched about 900,000 times. Wow. And she doesn't look bad during it. If anything, she looks good by getting the crowd to settle down and allowing them to respond in a positive manner about something: namely, Joe Wilson. Ugh. Blind allegiance is so sad. But she did a great job with it.
2. She's co-written a book that's coming out in less than two weeks, titled "Zombie Economics." It'll likely be huge, or at least big enough to find on one of those front tables in the big-name bookstores.
I decided to call her, seeing we haven't communicated in a couple of years. Friends should talk more often, yes? Her cell phone number was called, and she answered right away. We spoke for at least 20 minutes, much longer than I thought someone of her standing would or could devote to me. And of course, she made me feel important to her and even special.
She's done that before. I actually performed at her wedding reception... and her proposal! Jason told Margie and I that he was going to propose to her at a local park, and he wanted a bunch of her friends to be there. It was nice, though Jason contracted Lyme's disease while in the bushes, and I actually played "Here Comes By Baby" on guitar for them once she said yes.
Why that song, a song about a girl you can't have? Not sure. I guess it meant a lot to them, but it made no sense in context. At least it's a classic, and it's one more song for my open mike rotation.
Then they asked if I'd be willing to learn an Irish song or two for their reception. Apart from the Irish blessing, I performed "Whiskey In The Jar" and a shortened version of "Wild Rover" to the audience, which included other better-known correspondents from CNN. The first song was the better, with a few extra verses added, including one that made the place erupt for ten seconds. It was my finest moment of entertainment. (I thank Margie for projecting the words onto a wall, allowing the listeners to follow along with my attempted brogue.)
In the reception programs, Lisa and Jason wrote something about everyone that attended. A paragraph for everyone! How cool is that? We were described as something akin to "the coolest couple we know."
I remind myself of this when Margie and I have another night feeling lonely, which happens a lot with us. We have very few people that ever show interest in our lives. We never get guests. We hesitate to throw a party for fear of no one attending. If the phone rings, it's either a telemarketer or Digger, but Margie never gets a call. For the most part, we feel forgotten and ignored by the world.
But one of the world's coolest people considers us to be equally cool.
Thanks, Lisa. Glad you're doing well, and I mean it.
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