I am normally an even-tempered man, despite what you may have heard or incorrectly deduced from my feverish rants on these very pages. But I do have an extremely low irritation threshold, which gives the lie to the above. Allow me to illustrate the point.
I generally wake up in the morning a little after New Wife leaves for work, or a considerable time later if I had a late night.
Whatever the time, my first activity after leaving the bedroom is to make myself a cup of coffee, and some explanation thereof is in order.
Because I am often concentrating on writing this blog, I often forget about the coffee, yea even though it rests but a few inches from my hand.
So a while back, I decided to take action to remedy this circumstance, and started using an insulated metal mug (cheap, from Academy). It works really well, but here’s where the problem starts.
You see, after I’ve dumped my sugar in the coffee, I tap the spoon three times on the rim lightly, to shake off any extraneous sugar granules into the coffee. And the musical sound the spoon makes on the full metal cup is exactly same as the opening three chords of the Kingsmen’s horrible Louie, Louie song.
So those opening chords make it almost impossible for me not to continue humming the whole bloody intro, and that makes: EARWORM. Which persists in its brain-rattle until I can sit down and open up a decent song video on EwwwChoob and banish the fucking thing from my consciousness.
Until I make myself a cuppa the next morning, whereupon the whole bloody thing starts all over again.
And of all the songs ever written, I would submit to the jury that Louie, Louie is quite possibly the worst earworm material of all time.
I know, I know: “But Kim,” you may ask (and quite reasonably so), “all you have to do is to stop tapping your spoon on the rim!”
Might as well expect me not to snarl every time I see Jane Fonda’s face on TV, or not to start playing with my M4 bayonet when Chuck Schumer makes the news.
No, I’m afraid that this particular habit is far too deeply ingrained for me to stop it just like that. Of course, were I actually awake when I stagger into the kitchen then I might be able to consciously forestall the tapping, but that would be to miss the whole point of making coffee so soon after getting out of bed.
Hence my irritation first thing in the morning. Don’t blame me; it’s the fucking Kingsmen’s fault.
I’m getting grumpy just thinking about it.
Shift from sugar to honey that you squirt in from the plastic bear. Stir with a stir stick to dissolve the honey. No spoon involved and the taste is IMHO better.
Shift to sugar cubes. Stir with a stir stick. See above.
Use a wood spoon. The sound will shift from a tink to a clunk and won’t sound musical at all.
You’re welcome.
HA HA HA HAAAA
Dood. I am severely handicapped by that sort of thing because it happens to me everyday and all day. Anytime I encounter multiple sounds in a row they automatically cause me to associate them with a song from the past.
I’ve tried to make a game of it with my wife. Whatever my recent earworm is, I’ll ask her to name this tune in 4 notes and then I’ll hum, whistle, knock on the counter, 4 times to mimic that song. She usually just shakes her head and says she hears no song in that jibberish. lol
I’ve always thought this was just one of my odd traits that I mostly keep to myself. Another one is my addiction to counting things. Spokes on (car) wheels, lamps in a parking lot, stripes on a shirt pocket, and on and on. I can’t help it….
The idea that there is any reason at all to stop the 3 tap ritual horrifies me. One must always clash the BBQ tongs 3 times before attempting to use them and again immediately after.
When I have a cheese and crackers snack I tap the edge of each cracker on the plate 3 times before I eat it. Drives my wife mad, but it’s vital.
I was going to mention the clacking of BBQ tongs but you beat me to it.
I finally beat that addiction by consciously going to zero times. But I still think of it every time I head to the grill.
Why in the name of all that is holy would you put sugar in coffee?
Coffee’s too bitter for my sweet tooth. Always has been. No sugar, no coffee.
Ting….Ting….Ting…..
that’s the price you pay for polluting good coffee with sugar
It’s not good coffee. It’s just Dunkin.
I am rather happy that I never get earworms.
I find that one good earworm drives out the bad, too. But I don’t go looking on YouTube. The ones that work for me lately are the themes to Buckaroo Banzai or The Omega Man, or the Monty Python song Sit On My Face.
Hey, whatever works.
As a practical note, you might try some sort of acoustic dampener on your mug. A thick rubber band wrapped around the rim, or a plastic lid that’s open in the middle.
OTOH, based on your near-daily postings about earworms, you will likely just get another one a few minutes later anyway. You may be doomed.
I would think the level of the coffee could affect the tone of the tink. Fuller would be flatter. Or at least that is what I would try first.
But then there’s no room for the cream…. [ducks]
I can think of worse earworms, mostly of the happy-joy-joy genera. I won’t list them because why should I burden you? Two thoughts;
Maybe a different spoon would change the key?
And when seeing Ms. ‘Please Fondle, I have no actual talent’ I tend to think of her roasting on a spit, which soothes wonderfully.