Saturday, September 16, 2006

Song Sticking

When I worked at a coffee shop, we had an unofficial game. Let’s call it Song Sticking.
The rules are simple. Hum or sing a song. If one of your colleagues picks up the melody, you can score a point for yourself. If the same colleague (or a different one) sings the song five minutes later, you can gloat. If the colleague gets cranky because the song isn’t leaving the colleague’s head, make yourself a Mocha Steamer and go home.
The point system is vague, of course. In the case of Julie and “Buttercup,” I could at least gloat now, if not make her take out the trash or something.
Obviously, certain techniques work better than others. Tailing off after an antecedent phrase, for example, makes your colleagues want to supply the consequent.
And some songs work better than others. Beatles’ songs get stuck easily, for example, but people aren’t usually upset about this.
There are also secret weapons, of course. I can’t tell you how often I’ve heard, “Dammit. Now I can’t get ‘Christ lag in Todesbanden’ (BWV 4) out of my head.”

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