It's the holiday season again. Yes, I'm referring to TrashMasters, the quizbowl community's December festival of lights and buzzers. Congrats to Craig, Dwight, Mike, and Kenny for this year's win. Thanks to JD, JQ, and Rebecca for having me along this year.

Rebecca always manages to turn the long drive to Chattanooga into the School of Rock (and Other Pop Genres). F'rinstance: Despite my general ambivalence towards sports, she will make a hockey fan out of me yet, and this has less to do with her ferocious fanship (Lockout? What lockout?) than with musical selections like this. And this. And, at least once per road trip, I complain to Rebecca that I don't really like country, and then she turns me on to an artist and true wit like this guy. This is probably just as well. Without Rebecca to keep me outward-focused and up to date, I'd probably just keep listening to the same three or four pre-1985 EPs over and over again, and complaining that they just don't make them like this any more.

Since I did sit down at the Alesis when I came home, however, I'll finish with this piece of very personal nostalgia, circa 1982, or whatever year it was that the gummint told us that in case of nuclear war, we should all drive out of urban centers in an orderly fashion, and carry our credit cards with us. For the vast majority of readers who have never set foot in Enfield, Connecticut: Rocket Run and Missile Drive are the names of actual streets in my hometown. (The latter also names a major thoroughfare in Cheyenne, Wyoming.) Be assured that no actual streets were harmed in the process of writing these lyrics.

ROCKET RUN
c 1982 by Video Free Europe
Lyrics and music by Juliepede
------------------------

I run, I live on Rocket Run
I run, I live on Rocket Run

I live on Rocket Run
That's where it began
The place was lots of fun
They built the biggest can
And flew the biggest pan
I used to be their biggest fan
We did the Rocket Run

I run, I live on Rocket Run
I run, I live on Rocket Run

The spaceship factory
Was where we used to play
But you won't recognize
The way it looks today
We're children of the rocket age
We hoped to stay alive
'Til they blew the second stage
And warped to Missile Drive

We do the Rocket Run
We do the Rocket Run
I run, I live
I run, I live
On Rocket Run

So now if things go wrong
They've planned for all our fears
We drive north for a picnic
And stay for thirty years
We practice breathing bottled air
And leaping down the cellar stairs
We do the Rocket Run

I hate to catch the heat
Don't wanna die on my old street

I live on Rocket Run
I live on Rocket Run
I run, I live on Rocket Run
I run, I live on Rocket Run
I run, I live on Rocket Run
I run, I live on Rocket Run