Dress up

There's a musical in town called Wicked, and it's based on the witch characters from The Wizard of Oz. The producers of Wicked promoted the show last week by offering free tickets to people if they would dress up like witches and show up at the landmark Water Tower downtown. I saw this crowd and was grateful that the producers of Urinetown, The Musical didn't try a similar promotion.

Ear candy

Some retailers are very deliberate about the music they choose to play in their stores, according to a New Yorker article from earlier this year. Maybe the Hershey's candy store near Michigan Avenue is one of those retailers. A few weeks ago they were playing what sounded like the dance remix of an old candy commercial. It was the sound of torture.

Sometimes you feel like-a-nut
Like-a-nut-Like-a-nut-Like-a-nut-Like-a-nut
(BAM!)
(Bam Bam BAM!!)
Sometimes you don't
Almond-mond-mond-mond Joy's got nuts
(BAM!)
(Bam Bam BAM!!)
Mounds don't...

It wiped my mind clean of whatever purpose I had for going there, so I had to leave. But jeepers the place smells good.

Human resources

From the short story "The Juice of an Orange" by P.G. Wodehouse, in which a movie studio head, Mr. Schnellenhamer, raises an issue with his cohort, Mr. Levitsky:

"Something'll have to be done about this Mulliner," he said. "I don't like the way he's acting. Did you notice him at the conference yesterday?"

"Not specially. What did he do?"

"Well, listen," said Mr. Schnellenhamer, "he didn't give me the idea of willing service and selfless co-operation. Every time I said anything, it seemed to me he did something funny with the corner of his mouth. Drew it up in a twisted way that looked kind of... what's that word beginning with an 's'?"

"Cynical?"

"No, a snickle is a thing you cut corn with. Ah, I've got it. Sardinic. Every time I spoke he looked sardinic."

Mr. Levitsky was out of his depth.

"Like a sardine, you mean?"

And I can talk about analysis of variance!

New neighbors moved in across the hall; the man and woman are graduate students and nice folks. Her studies have concentrated on German philosophers and now she's writing a dissertation about the intersection of love, existentialism, and art. So at least we'll have something to talk about in the hallway.