The vault of lost lyrics, chapter 51

A wistful voice-and-piano recording. Despite the negative aspect, this song portrays resilience and optimism — important qualities these days.

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"You Can't Win" (as recorded by Murray McLauchlan)

When the good times come at last
Is only when the bad times rest
Someday they're going to lay you down
Even though you did your best
All the heroes of the wars
Forgotten in the rain
Old soldiers and memories
Make them young again

You can't win
You can't win
You're just someone who plays the fool
You can't win
You can't win
I don't believe that life's so cruel

I'm going to wear my finest suit
Go walk around the town
Strangle out this emptiness
And smash it on the ground
I'm going to watch the faces on the children
While they play
Try and find the child in me
And never have to say

You can't win...

Monday Commonplace

"And what if memory itself is a foreign object which the body longs to be rid of?" — Douglas Glover

Pay attention, people!

This word is pronounced "ca-SHAY". It's spelled cachet. As a noun it refers to prestige.

This word is pronounced "cash". It's spelled cache. As a noun it refers to a hiding place or storage place.

These two words are not the same. Somewhere in the US this morning, a copy editor should be hanging her head for missing this distinction twice on a single page.

Oops.

Having seen this happen, long, long ago...

An excerpt from Jen Lancaster's new book Pretty in Plaid. This passage occurs in the chapter in which she describes wearing her early `80s Jordache jeans:

...When I take them off, my thighs are deeply indented where the seams hit and sometimes I need to punch my legs to regain feeling in them. I'm often forced to lie on the floor and use a rat-tail comb to properly zip them. (They're so tight around the crotch region that I technically may not be a virgin anymore.) ...


Ahem. Some of us used a coathanger. Good times...

The more deceived

Thought for today, courtesy of Adam and the Ants (!)...

"I'm the dandy highwayman so sick of easy fashion
The clumsy boots, peek-a-boo roots that people think so dashing
So what's the point of robbery when nothing is worth taking?
It's kind of tough to tell a scruff the big mistake he's making..."