Nobody's Prefect...,

I've learned a few things today.  I expect that'll surprise some of you, who find me ineducable.

I thought it was Hugh Romney, better known as "Wavy Gravy"--and you should check out the story of the origin of that name, and his whole history--who came up with the slogan "Nobody for President."  Turns out it dates from at least 1932, where it appeared in, of all places, a Betty Boop cartoon.  There really is nothing new under the sun.

There is also, apparently, a fairly organized (website and everything) and ongoing "Vote for Nobody" campaign, which premise I fully support and endorse.  It may seem strange that I'd write about election stuff at this time of year, but, as we all know, there's no longer any such thing as an offseason in politics.  The most recent polling I've heard of suggests that the electorate's confidence in Congress is hovering somewhere around 10%.  Nine out of ten citizens have no confidence in their elected representatives.

Yet we continue to vote for people to fill these offices.  Is it actually that people are okay with their reps, but no one else's-- "my Rep is red hot, your Rep ain't doodley squat" (All apologies to Billy Lee Riley and His Little Green Men)?  We've all been told that in order to be good Citizens Of The Republic, in order to make this Grand Experiment keep(?) working, we need to trot ourselves off to vote each time there's an election.  Where's that gotten us?  Stuck, that's where, on the Tarbaby of partisanship.

What's getting to me about this issue right now is the whole student loan fiasco.  Full disclosure: yes, I have two kids who will be affected by the apparently imminent doubling of interest rates.  But Jesus, does everything have to be about brinkpersonship (PC Liberal, here), about who'll blink first, about only doing it my way, or not at all?  I don't think that even the House wants this raise to happen, it's just that they, and hence we, are totally paralyzed by partisan gridlock.

So why not, next election, vote for Nobody? Would that get their attention?  Nah, and Nobody knows why.  Remember: Nobody knows you when you're down and out, Nobody hears anything we say, Nobody tells the truth, Nobody knows everything, Nobody makes a better apple pie than Mom, and Nobody expects much of you.

Lots o' "Nobody" songs this week, then, on my show, which will go, nearly, back to its normal time, Tuesday from noon till two.  It's probably going to be more like 2:30 since, although I tried to keep the playlist down,  to "murder my darlings" (not Faulkner, but Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch, of course [!]),  I'm going to play everything that made the cut.  And here they are, for those of you keeping score at home:

Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out                   Derek and the Dominoes
Nobody Number One                                                               Over the Rhine
Nobody Really Knows                                                             Van Morrison
Nobody Loves Me                                                                    The BoDeans
Nobody Knows the Way I Feel this Morning                           Aretha Franklin
Nobody Knows the Trouble I Have Seen                                 Mahalia Jackson
Nobody Knows My Name                                                        Rickie Lee Jones
Nobody Knows Me                                                                   Lyle Lovett
Nobody Knows                                                                         Paul McCartney
Nobody Knows                                                                         Allman Bros.
Ain't Hurtin' Nobody                                                                John Prine

Ain't Nobody's Business                                                           Taj Mahal
Nobody                                                                                      Crazy Horse
Nobody                                                                                      Tom Waits
Nobody                                                                                      Nina Simone
Nobody                                                                                      Paul Simon
Nobody                                                                                      The Replacements
Nobody's                                                                                    David Bromberg
Nobody's Fool                                                                            Ben Sidran
Nobody But Me                                                                         The Human Beinz
Nobody's Fool/El Tonto De Nadie, Regressa                            Poco
Nobody But You                                                                        James Taylor
Nobody Does It Better                                                               Carly Simon
Nobody Cares                                                                            Ray Charles
Nobody Cares                                                                            John Mayall
I Can't See Nobody                                                                    Bee Gees

I hope you can join me, at 100.1 FM, wool.fm on the interwebs.  And please, support Community Radio by becoming a member!  Just go to the website (wool.fm) to find out how.  We all gotta pay our dues, y'know.

...or perfect.