{"id":753,"date":"2009-07-13T19:04:43","date_gmt":"2009-07-14T02:04:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.poorluckyme.com\/blog\/?p=753"},"modified":"2025-05-23T17:33:50","modified_gmt":"2025-05-23T22:33:50","slug":"npr-blows-minds-again-tuesday-july-14","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.poorluckyme.com\/blog\/npr-blows-minds-again-tuesday-july-14\/","title":{"rendered":"NPR Blows Minds Again – Tuesday July 14"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"kakapo2\"<\/a>
\nDear Poor Lucky Me,<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nYou’ll never believe this (unless you already know) but Shel Silverstein wrote the song “A Boy Named Sue<\/a>“.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nAre you blown away? I was. I found out listening to NPR tonight and I feel like an idiot that I had no idea. I mean I was a hippie in college! <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nThis is sort of distressing to tell you the truth, because I’ve always prided myself as a worthy musical snob. How could this knowledge have slipped by me? <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nAm I right to feel to ashamed of myself? <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nSigned,
\nA Boy Named Idiot <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Dear Idiot, <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nI am officially blown away.\u00a0 I am similarly disturbed that Shel Silverstein’s catalog of achievements has escaped my attention until now. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nHowever, because I am working diligently with a therapist to create an internal dialogue more consistent with my external achievements- I refuse to call myself an idiot for this lack of knowledge.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

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\nInstead I spent an evening looking of Silverstein’s impressive artistic forays and appreciated what a renaissance man he was.\u00a0 I was even inspired to pick up an art project I had abandoned a few weeks ago. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nSurely a profound feeling of inspiration trumps any initial embarrassment you or I should have because of our ignorance.\u00a0 We learned about Silverstein when we were kids, now we can learn about another side of him as adults.\u00a0 And it’s a really funny, creative, impressive side.\u00a0 I’m so glad you wrote in. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nAs usual I started my research with Wikipedia.\u00a0 I know people poo-poo Wikipedia because it can be user-edited…but don’t only smart nerds bother to do that?\u00a0 Oh and evil corporations I guess.\u00a0 But I never look stuff up like “Coca-Cola” or “Haliburton”.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nI did get lost on a funny trail though where I learned the following important facts: <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n-Silverstein composed most of the soundtrack for the 1970 movie “Ned Kelly” starring Mick Jagger.\u00a0 The film was about a famous Australian bushranger who was eventually hanged for murder. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n-The Kakapo is a flightless parrot from New Zealand.\u00a0 They can live up to 60 years and only breed every four years depending on their food source. <\/p>\n

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\n-Some experts argue that Easter Island was not solely settled by Polynesians, for reports of residents with red hair and sun burnt skin were written by early European explorers. <\/p>\n

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\n-Tamed rats are friendly and can be taught many tricks when kept as pets. <\/p>\n

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\nWow.\u00a0 What an amazing journey of intellectual curiosity.\u00a0 I can now watch at least 15 hours of guilt-free reality TV.\u00a0 I love the Internet ever so much. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nSincerely,
\nPoor Lucky Me <\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dear Poor Lucky Me,   You’ll never believe this (unless you already know) but Shel Silverstein wrote the song “A Boy Named Sue“.\u00a0   Are you blown away? I was. I found out listening to NPR tonight and I feel like an idiot that I had no idea. I mean I was a hippie in … Continue reading “NPR Blows Minds Again – Tuesday July 14”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-753","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.poorluckyme.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/753","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.poorluckyme.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.poorluckyme.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.poorluckyme.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.poorluckyme.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=753"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"http:\/\/www.poorluckyme.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/753\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3752,"href":"http:\/\/www.poorluckyme.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/753\/revisions\/3752"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.poorluckyme.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=753"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.poorluckyme.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=753"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.poorluckyme.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=753"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}