For those of you not too young to recall, the title and subtitle slugs, above, together constitute a Dylan line (Bob, not Thomas). I realized this was going through my head today, the quote that is, and somewhat later reflected that we -- my friends and I back in the mid-60s or so -- could go for whole days of what we thought were deep and profoundly meaningful conversations without ever saying anything that had not already been sung by Bob Dylan. Plus, recall that, as this was roughly 40 years ago, he hadn't yet sung even a significant fraction of what he would eventually sing. This meant we had a pretty limited vocabulary, though we never complained or tired of parroting things like (always with the best nasal Minnesota twang we could manage): "you shouldn't let other people get your kicks for you." Or: "I wasn't very cute to him... was I?" Or: "yes, I think it can be easily done!"

Of course, if you were born any time after say, 1999, these phrases will be meaningless to you. (It's a moot point, granted, since you'd then be about five years old and unlikely to be reading this blog. Who knows, though, what with today's fast-track educational programs for toddlers.) Yes, uh... Oh, right! The point is that I became somewhat concerned as to whether I might not be regressing. I mean, here I was talking -- to myself no less -- in Dylan lyrics. What could have caused this, I wondered?

Then <snaps fingers> I realized it was all Mile Golby's fault. Yes, that was it! I'd been reading his blog recently and had been culturally infected by his fondness for (let me not say obsession with) quoting Bob Dylan. Damn, that was a close one. Whew! No, I hadn't (quite yet) entered my "second childhood." No, I had not come down with some weird form of brain damage. I mean, no worse than what I'd already incurred back in those halcyon days of dope and roses. No, it was none of those things, thank god. It was merely, that's right, you got it...

Greatly relieved to have figured this out, I lit a cigarette on a parking meter and walked on down the road.

honey, just allow me one more chance
to ride your aeroplane.
honey, just allow me one more chance
to ride your passenger train.
well, I been lookin' all over
for a gal like you,
I can't find nobody
so you'll have to do.
just-a one kind favor I ask of you...
'low me just-a one more chance.