Answers, the fourth!

OK, I need to get going on these...last week's time-sucking did not do the blog any favors. So let's get going here!

A reader who prefers anonymity asks:

What "earworms" get stuck in your head?

"Hey Jude". That's a big one. Lots of Beatles songs, actually. Songs from Les Miz -- "Do You Hear the People Sing?" is a big one that I often find myself humming. Show tunes of all sorts! Generally, I often have some kind of music traveling through my head, and I'll often find myself humming it. I suppose it would be more useful to talk about earworms that don't get stuck in my head!

What's funny is how often I'll get earwormed with a song I can't stand. "Red Solo Cup" may be the single stupidest musical act ever committed by the hand of man, but damned if that horrible thing doesn't end up stuck in my ear for an hour after I inadvertently catch it on the radio.

Can you deliberately think of a piece of music and "play it" in your head? Can you bring to mind the music pieces you've played yourself?

I can do this with a lot of music that I know very, very well. I can sit back and listen, in my head, to the entirety of Rachmaninov's Second Symphony, for instance. Ditto Berlioz's Fantastique, Beethoven's Seventh and Ninth, and so on. Large sections of John Williams's filmscores, and large portions of The Lord of the Rings. I have a very good musical memory...with one exception. Lyrics don't tend to stick with me, or song titles. I hear a song and I can always say, "Yeah, I've heard that," but if you mention a song by title to me, odds are I won't know what you're talking about. And if I know a song by title, there's almost no chance I'll be able to cite any lyrics without having taken trouble to internalize them beforehand. I don't pick up lyrics from casual listening.

What little time-waster games do you play, if any? Any logic puzzles (minesweeper, say)? Solitaire?

I don't really do this, for some reason...I like the default Windows games like Minesweeper and Solitaire and Free Cell; my computer shipped with a chess game that I like but never use any more, and I dug the Mah Jong game too...but I haven't played that one in a long time, either.

The only real game playing thing I have right now is that accursed "Words With Friends" on Facebook. I love that thing...but I only check it twice a day. Otherwise I'll stare at it for hours. (Anyone wants to play, go ahead and drop me one of those challenges!)

More to come! I should be able to finish up next time out.