Rant #2,136: Looking /for the Good Times

I'm back ...

Yesterday was a successful day. A lot was accomplished during the day, and sometimes, you just have to take a day off from work to get things done, and that is exactly what I did.

I won't go into detail about why I took off--it had absolutely nothing to do with the job search--but it was a successful day all around.

Now it is back to work today, but let me digress ...

On Tuesday morning, I drove to work as I always do, ready for another day at the salt mine (sorry, Fred Rutherford from "Leave It To Beaver" fame).

I always get to work a bit early, park my car, and prepare for my very long day.

I go through a couple of things in the car, look at my email on my phone, and then move on to something else.

This past Saturday was my birthday, and I took my family out to eat at an all you can eat Chinese food place that we like, and when I say my family, I am including my daughter, who I don't get to see that often.

She told me that my present was coming, and that it would be delivered on Sunday.

This past Sunday was a super busy day for my wife and I, as we not only transported our son back and forth to work, but we visited my wife's father at the Veterans Home in Stony Brook, which is quite a hike for us, but which we manage to do once or twice a month.

So we weren't home the entire day, and when my daughter texted me to tell me that the present had been delivered, I couldn't wait to see what it was, but it took a long time to get back home, so it had to wait.

Once I finally picked up my son from work and brought him home--I still had one thing on the agenda, which was transporting him and a friend to a local eatery, where they had dinner--I got the package, opened it up, and it was a book about the Monkees--you would be surprised, there are a number of books about them that are out and available--and this book was entitled: "Long Title: Looking For the Good Times, Examining the Songs One By One" by Michael Ventrella and Mark Arnold.

I had heard about this book, which has a theme that is described in the title: it is a look, mainly from a fan's perspective, at each and every song released by the Monkees over the past 50-plus years.

If you didn't realize it, Peter, Micky, Mike and Davy put out numerous singles and albums since 1966 under the Monkees name, so there is plenty to go on here, and the act's continued popularity is, well, astounding, capping off with "Good Times!" their heralded 2016 LP release that actually made the Top 20 on Billboard's Top Albums charts.

I was very pleased with the gift, and thanked my daughter for it. I pledged to read it before work every day, and on Monday, that process started.

I read only about 20-25 pages the first day, and then went to work.

On Tuesday, I continued reading, and then I came to page 39 ...

This section was devoted to a Monkees song called "Mary Mary," a tune written by Mike Nesmith and sung by Micky Dolenz. It is on the "More of the Monkees" album, and while it was never released as a single in the U.S., it did find its way onto some single releases overseas.

As I continued to read their critique on the song--the authors weren't overly impressed with the song, but personally, it is one of my favorites--my eyes came to page 39, and I started to read that page ... and the more my eyes moved through the words on the page, the more some type of familiarity hit me, well, right between the eyes.

The authors included some fan reflections in the book, and I read about someone who had interviewed Micky in the 1990s while the singer was visiting New York City. The fan talked about how Micky had no idea that Run DMC had placed their own version of "Mary Mary" on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, and that while they changed the words a bit, during a large portion of the song, you can hear that the Queens rap act was simply singing to Micky's original lead vocal. And Micky knew nothing of this at the time ...

And then it dawned on me ... this was MY story, and lo and behold, after this reminiscence, my name is there, with the recollection credited to me!

When I first saw this, I must have done a double take along the lines of Oliver Hardy or Spanky McFarland! I was dumbfounded as all heck ... how did this little ditty get into the book?

The authors must have asked people on Monkees Facebook sites--there are numerous ones--to make comments about the songs that they were preparing to write about, and I must have made a submission.

But you know what? I honestly do not remember doing it!

I texted my daughter and my wife, and they were both surprised and happy.

I tell you, God does work in mysterious ways, and if my daughter would not have purchased that book for me, I might have never known that I was in there.

This discovery put me on Cloud Nine, and I have yet to come down from that perch.

And yes, I am reading the book, and it is a good one to boot.

Funny things can happen in life, and this is one of the funniest that has happened to me in my 61 years.

I highly recommend the book for both the casual and non-casual fan, and if and when you get the book, go to page 39 as your progress through the pages ... that is me!