The AT40 effect

    I'm pretty sure I've mentioned before how odd it is hearing American Top 40 episodes from the '70s and '80s and finding that songs I thought I knew which year they came out in fact came out much earlier or later than I thought. Today I got it condensed into one record: the not very funny novelty number "Mr. Jaws" by Dickie Goodman. This is a record where a reporter is supposed to be interviewing characters from "Jaws," including the shark. All the answers were short excerpts from hit records of the day. I had no recollection that "The Hustle" was already a hit in 1975; I thought it didn't come out until I was in high school. There were a few others, but memory draws a blissful curtain. I'm not sure that I ever actually heard "Mr. Jaws" before, but then 38 years does offer a lot of blissful curtains. It's on YouTube if anyone is curious, but I can't say I recommend sharing the experience. Still, though it wasn't particularly funny haha (and I can hardly imagine it was in 1975 either), it was certainly funny peculiar.
    Last night I dreamed peculiarly as well. I was in this neighborhood built on the side of a hill. I guess I should be grateful that for once I didn't dream I was inside a world-encompassing building; might reflect an improved mental outlook. It was an old, seedy neighborhood peopled with fairly seedy individuals. However, it was rapidly gentrifying, to the extent that mansions were going up. Then I saw what the mansions were replacing; a bunch of tombstones were lying jumbled together as if a graveyard had been cleared. There was also an obelisk commemorating an archbishop of Argentina. What an archbishop of Argentina would be doing getting buried in Columbia SC (or even if there is such a thing). Presumably not a reference to the current pope. Anyway, just in time for Hallowe'en!
    I later dreamed that I was with a girlfriend, but it wasn't Alice. However, we were with my cat Amelia and Alice's late cat Madeline. It wasn't a creepy dream as it was happening, but returning dead cats are also kind of a Hallowe'en theme. Only 12 days to go!