With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility
I’m not one to toot my own horn, but since I’m usually trying to convince everyone what a dork I am I thought it might be a breath of fresh air for all of us if I tell you about one of my more awesome characteristics.
I have a talent that is so incredible that I’m surprised that international stardom hasn’t yet come my way. You see, I have an amazing ability to decipher song lyrics. It really tends to come in handy for me almost everyday. Ok, I’m lying. About the only time it really comes in handy is for busting teenagers and helping my husband figure out what the heck he’s supposed to be singing in his cover band on the weekends.
One time my husband and I were visiting his parents’ house and my teenage brother-in-law was listening to music. The song was quite colorful and I looked at him and I said, “Dude, what are you listening to?”
He growled and said, “I really hate that about you Kristen!” That’s what I mean about busting teenagers.
I guess there are a few other good things about this talent. Sometimes you can learn some really interesting information from a song. For instance, I learned from Blue Oyster Cult’s “Don’t Fear the Reaper” that 40,000 men and women die everyday. Who would have known?
Sometimes it can be a bad thing too. I really like Outkast’s, “Hey Ya” but that is one nasty tune (in message at least). I noticed that it was put on a “Kidz Bop” cd and that concerns me a bit because that company doesn’t change the lyrics to suit children’s sensibilities. We don’t purchase those cds for that very reason.
This talent happens to be hereditary and I’m assuming that it’s a dominant gene. My husband does not have this talent but all of my children who speak English do. My oldest was singing correct lyrics by the time she was two and my second born was doing it even before that. I had to have a conversation with her that it really wasn’t appropriate for her to be singing, “I’ll be burning rubber, You’ll be kissing my @$%!” after she heard it in a song on the radio.
Just today as we were listening to the radio and heard these lyrics “I don’t wanna be lonely no more, I don’t wanna have to pay for this” when my son piped up from the back seat, “I guess he doesn’t want anything from the store mom.” That is what inspired this post today.
Tell me, dear reader, what are your super powers and dorky talents?
Kristen, I must be double recessive. I always thought that CCR’s lyric was “Bathroom on the right”, instead of “Bad moon out tonight”. And I’ve messed up a lot of the Beach Boys stuff too!
Comment by don — September 29, 2005 @ 1:27 pm
Come on Don — you stole that line from SNL (right?)
Comment by Geoff J — September 29, 2005 @ 1:29 pm
Dude, SNL only wishes it was as original as my dad.
Comment by Rusty — September 29, 2005 @ 1:34 pm
That would admittedly make it much cooler…
Comment by Geoff J — September 29, 2005 @ 1:36 pm
That’s the reason you don’t buy Kidz Bop CDs? ;-)
Comment by Justin H — September 29, 2005 @ 2:05 pm
Ok, it’s not the only reason. I think they are incredibly cheesey but if I might be susceptible to little girls pleading and pleading for them if I knew the lyrics weren’t going to be a problem.
Comment by Kristen J — September 29, 2005 @ 2:23 pm
That wasn’t my husband that you had to ask about the music, was it?? :) He is horrible when it comes to song lyrics. I’m always having to tell him what the songs say.
Comment by Jamie J — September 29, 2005 @ 2:38 pm
No, it was Ian and he knew exactly what he was listening to.
Comment by Kristen J — September 29, 2005 @ 3:30 pm
When my kids were smaller I was obsessed with the song “Crash Into Me” by DMB. One day my oldest asked what it meant. I said, “Uh, it’s kinda like ‘give me a hug.'”
I have the talent of being able to recognize bit actors. My husband gets competitive about it, too, and totally keeps score. I always cream him.
Comment by Susan M — September 29, 2005 @ 3:30 pm
Hmmm, guess it runs in the family :). I forgot to put my talent in the last post…My random talent is being able to guess the temperature outside pretty accurately.
Comment by Jamie J — September 29, 2005 @ 3:57 pm
hey, those are cool talents!
Comment by Kristen J — September 29, 2005 @ 4:44 pm
Geoff, Rusty is right and you can ask my wife. I’ve been a bathroom on the right guy since CCR first came out with it….and the Beach Boys “she’ll be shooting the line” was always “she’ll be fine” to me. Obviously I don’t listen very well, you can ask my wife on that too!
Comment by don — September 29, 2005 @ 5:34 pm
I guess there is a reason most (good) classical is wordless. 8-)
Comment by Daylan Darby — September 29, 2005 @ 7:31 pm
That’s true!
Comment by kristen j — October 1, 2005 @ 9:19 am
I’m awful at deciphering lyrics and at and many other things. I was feeling bad just last night that my greatest talent/curse seems to be proofreading (why couldn’t it be gardening? Or being really productive?). I keep noticing typos in print ads, newspaper stories (especially A.P. stories), newsletters from my daughters’ school, my husband’s blog posts…
It’s awful because I’m no kind of spelling/grammar/punctuation Nazi, and I don’t look down on people who create typos, but I always notice and can’t tell anyone because everyone has nightmares about their mean former English teachers armed with red pens. And of course it’s a hindrance when I’m writing, because I end up going back and editing what I write so many times I tend to lose my train of thought.
Comment by Allison — October 3, 2005 @ 4:07 pm
Hey, you can always tell my husband Geoff. He truly enjoys hearing about that kind of stuff. For his birthday one year his co-workers gave him a book entitled “The Beastly Book of Mispronunciations” because he is a pronunciation Nazi.
I think your super power is a good one. I worry a lot about my grammar when posting but since it’s definitely not my super power I just let it go.
Comment by Kristen J — October 3, 2005 @ 9:22 pm
I got this fantastic superpower, well its not a superpower just an ability to detect other peoples religion… Its happened on a number of ocassions… where I have guessed other peoples particular christian sect of faith! Weird A!
Comment by James Hernon — October 18, 2005 @ 6:33 am