As I made some hot tea this morning, I said to myself, “It’s Sundaaaaaaay.” It brought back a memory of listening to WLS (Chicago) and WOKY (Milwaukee) radio stations as a kid, and hearing the commercial announcer say, “Sunday! Sunday! Sunday!”, after which he would inform listeners about upcoming drag strip races.

I was curious about who started that particular pop-culture oddity. We’ve all said it at some point; how did it become such a phenomenon? A little digging brought up a man by the name of Jan Gabriel.

NPR, among others, did a tribute to Gabriel after his death a little over a year ago. Take a listen from All Things Considered:

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What sticks out in my memory is the line, “‘Big Daddy’ Don Garlits and the Little Red Wagon!” I don’t know who else drove in all those drag races, but it seemed “Big Daddy” Don Garlits was at every one of them. I wish I could remember more names; some of them were funny.

The name “Rat Fink” is related to drag racing. That’s also funny, because the only dragging I’m doing is to the kitchen for some more tea — slowly. Much to do this day, the most of important of which is seeing Justin and Jake for a few moments for brunch. Yay for me!

I never blog from school, but I’m taking five minutes out of my tech period to tell you a story.

We held auditions for a solo in my sixth grade choir this morning (“I Will Remember You” by Sarah McLachlan), and a little girl who had never had the nerve to audition before raised her hand to try.

She stood up, I started playing, and she got through the first two lines, visibly shaking. On the second half of the solo, she stopped and broke down in tears, holding her music up to her face. It broke my heart (and many of the other kids’ as well). I leaned over the piano and hugged her, and all the 12-year-olds in the room applauded for her and shouted encouraging comments (“Good job, Kasey,” “That’s OK, Kasey,” etc.).

It made me realize that I’ve been in this circus so long — singing solo in public since elementary school — I sometimes forget how difficult it can be for others. It would be very much like making me do an algebra problem on the board in front of the class (I’ve been there, and believe me, it made me want to barf). Easy for you, difficult for me.

The lesson here is that I need to make it a habit to look at the world through the eyes of others once in awhile, too. Empathy, ja? We could all use a little more of it. At least I could.

Happy Finkday!

J’ever do something, then wish you hadn’t? Carp.

As you might guess, the tide is threatening to go out with me in it. Rehearsal was a bit stressful last night, as a couple of weak links on the music end kind of peed on the whole evening. That, and a few other things. But hey, tonight is a  new night, and I know we’ll get lots done. We only have 90 minutes to slap this thing in shape before Saturday’s tech rehearsal, so everybody’s gotta be on their best game. ‘Specially me. Oy.

Next day off: Saturday, 2 April. Awesome! I hope all yall’s week is going well. BoomR, going to Manila I see??

Fink, back underground