Lists & Indices

Do you remember the first music you bought for yourself? My first vinyl purchases included George Harrison’s AllThings Must Pass and the cast recording of JesusChrist Superstar.

Don’s made it his mission of the past several months to reassemble his first dozen or so vinyl albums on CDs. This strut down memory avenue includes: 

• JohnBarleycorn Must Die — Traffic
• TheBand — The Band
• HotRats — Frank Zappa
• Inthe Wake of Poseidon — King Crimson
• Workingman’sDead — The Grateful Dead
• Europe’72 — The Grateful Dead
• GetYer Ya-Ya’s Out — The Rolling Stones
• Takin’My Time — Bonnie Raitt
• HeartLike a Wheel — Linda Ronstadt
• Teafor the Tillerman — Cat Stevens
• Teaserand the Firecat — Cat Stevens
• TheWorst (of) — Jefferson Airplane

• Number of desks in household, per capita: 1.5
• Percentage of time individual household members work at a
  desk in own room: 10
• Percentage of time household members work at desk in common
  area: 40
• Percentage of time household members work on desk-work but
  not at a desk: 50
• Inventory of items on the family desktops: desktop and laptop
  computers, printers, lamps, electric pencil sharpeners, shopping
  bags full of loose papers, a set of rapidograph pens, sets of
  colored pencils, set of vanity pencils that say "Hit Those
  Keys", assorted dirty dishes, CDs, mystery items buried under
  more paper, empty and half-empty cans/bottles of Diet Coke and
  spa water, completed manuscript-printouts bound with shoelaces,
  file folders, bound diaries, eccentric containers holding paper
  clips and sundries, totem animals and artifacts, books that aren’t
  referenced, but stand watch over the desk owner’s activities.
• Frequency that desktops undergo clearage, per year: 7.4
• Inventory of items conspicuously absent from family desktops:
  phones, wide open spaces, clocks, calendars, up-to-date address
  books, usable writing implements.
• Percentage of family members who write a minimum of 1000 words
  a day: 100

I advocate making lists as one of the most effective blockbusting techniques in part because lists themselves can be so interesting. The monthly stats in Harper’s, where the juxtaposition and selection of facts often create startling new meanings, have long been a favorite.

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