Quiz #45. "Strange Condition"
Why did I think there were no 5-star reviews for the quiz--and why is the song "Strange Condition" playing in my head? Steve's Stay-at-Home Coronavirus Quiz for April 4, 2020
Leave it to my college friend Brooks to shine a light on a Monday morning.
Last week, Brooks left me with a comment in his quiz review, one of the first readers to use the new 5-star rating system (which has spaces for your comments, corrections and confessions). His comment: add music to the quiz.
Maybe you should try to work some audio clips in here. Music that helps you get through the day sort of thing. For me yesterday on a rainy lockdown Thursday it was Mickey Newbury’s original version of “Just Dropped In.”
So, in honor of Brooks, here’s Mickey Newbury and “Just Dropped In.”
It’s a great song. I don’t think I’ve heard it before, but one line of the song jumped out at me.
I just dropped in to see what condition my condition was in.
For me, one of the songs that’s been stuck in my head during this pandemic is Pete Yorn’s “Strange Condition.” I find myself playing it over and over--and even when I am not “listening” to it, it still plays in my head.
I have a strange relationship with music. Maybe it's because I am hard of hearing. Maybe it’s because I am a man and have a hard time doing two things at once. Maybe I’m just an idiot. I don’t know. The problem is that I can hear a song over and over and still not hear all the words. A line or two may jump out at me, but all together, the words just don’t register. I marvel at people who can hear a song once and then repeat the lyrics in a sing-along. My mind just doesn't work that way.
Sara can do two things at once and has an ear for music and lyrics. Often, I have found that she will explain the meaning of the words in a song to me--even though I’ve listened to it over and over. Most times--but not always--the mood of what I thought the song meant is what’s in the words. “Hearts and Bones,” a great song from Paul Simon, comes to mind.
Last week, I asked Sara to listen to Yorn’s “Strange Condition.” I even copy-and-pasted the lyrics and sent them to her. She offered little help and said it was really up to me to figure out. Art.
Here’s what I have come up with. I think it’s about a guy who’s in love--and he’s asking the woman he loves if she shares the feeling. He doesn’t know and he feels trapped, alone and in a strange condition.
And that’s the way I feel this Monday morning, May 4th--but it has nothing to do with unrequited or even unrecognized love. It’s the feeling I have about this pandmeic. Starting my 9th week of working from home, quarantined from the outside world, I simply just cannot make sense of it all. I am doing my part--but what about the rest of America? Why won’t it join in? I see more and more states poised to reopen--and yet, nationwide, the number of daily deaths last Friday hit its highest total yet. As of last week, no state had met the federal guidelines from April 16th that a state not reopen until it had a drop in new coronavirus cases over a 2-week period. And today, the NYTimes reported on a new modeling pulled together by FEMA study that projects daily deaths to nearly double to 3,000 by June 1st.
Just as in “Strange Condition,” the drum beat is clear. The virus is still here. It’s spreading. In her wonderful newsletter, “Letters from an American,” Heather Cox Richardson observes that talk of a “second wave” is premature because “we never finished the first wave.”
Steve in a strange condition.
So what can I do? What can we do? I remain in lockdown (and maybe you are too)--and yet, none of it makes sense. We need to reopen--but how? I don’t see how we get from here to there. I’m lost--and it’s a strange condition.
I texted Annie this morning and she told me to look for the light--and so I will. At least, I will try.
Loyal readers will note that in the previous quiz, Quiz #44. Large, I used Answer #44. Large to lament the fact that I had yet to receive a 5-star review in the rating system I introduced last week for the quiz.
When I went hunting for the comment from Brooks this morning about music in the Google sheet where I am gathering responses to the 5-star reviews, I discovered something that made me happy. The way the reviews work is that they use 5 separate Google Forms that all feed back to one central Google Sheet. It’s essentially an Excel document with 5 tabs, one for each of the 5-star reviews. I found the comment from Brooks under the tab for 1-star reviews.
Brooks, the author of my first 5-star review. Who knew?
Under the review from Brooks were two reviews from Kathy, a friend of Sara’s. The first had no comment; the second did.
I gave a 5 star review (no comments, though) on the Seagull quiz and on this one...
Confused, I checked the master Google Sheet. It turns out that I had made a mistake in labeling the tabs. The tab for 1-star ratings was actually picking up 5-star reviews--and vice versa. I thought I was getting a lot of 1-star ratings--and didn’t think I was getting any 5-star ratings. Wrong! Indeed, the first of those 5-star ratings was from Brooks.
A strange condition.
What did NOT happen?
A. Erica, my daughter-in-law, gave me a 4-star rating for Quiz #44. Large, ”4 stars because it might be the tenth time you’ve mentioned these peanut butter treats. And I can’t have one;
B. This morning, I noticed a story on “The Onion” about a seagull that had gotten stuck in Knoxville, Tennessee, “Seagull This Far Inland Must Be Total Fuckup.” I texted the article to my brother and sisters. Richard texted back, “If I were a seagull, I’d head to Newport, Rhode Island. No Tennessee for me.”
C. Susan texted, “LOL poor guy!!!” but Ginny observed, “He’s not dumb. Just practicing social distancing to the extreme;”
D. Ginny texted “Once when we were at the beach with Sue we saw a seagull swallow a whole fish in one gulp. It was amazing.”
E. Ginny also reported that she remembered me getting trapped by the seagulls on the dock in Hampton Bays as described in Quiz #43. Sorry Seagulls. She was on the nearby beach and, as she recalls, she was with Susan and they thought it was funny though they would have been 5 or 6 tops at the time.
Want the answer?
Answer #45. “Strange Condition,” April 4, 2020
If you’re a subscriber, the answer will be sent to you as a separate email when the question is published.
Want to start at the beginning?
Here’s the next quiz in the series: Quiz #46. Jim McNellis.
Here’s the previous quiz in the series: Quiz #44. Large.
Here’s the first quiz in the series: Quiz #1. Stella and Social Distancing, March 13, 2020
Here is an archive of all the quizzes.
The quiz is explained here: Steve’s Stay-at-Home Coronavirus Quiz.
Want to let me know how I’m doing with this quiz?
Please let me know about any typos or misspellings.
Comments, corrections and confessions welcome.
Thank you and good night.
Thanks for reading.
Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for commenting.