Tickets to Paradise

RIP Brooklyn-born singer/songwriter Eddie Money, 70. Born Mahoney, he grew up on Long Island and at first followed his grandfather, dad and brother into the NYPD. He quit after two years to pursue music, moved to the west coast, and had considerable success. He cut 12 albums, and six of his singles cracked the Billboard Top Twenty. Walk on Water, written by Jesse Harris, made it to #9, and Take Me Home Tonight shot to #4 thanks to a big assist from Ronnie Spector (“Just like Ronnie said”), who echoed the Ronettes’ Be My (Little) Baby in the song. It was written by three of the four who did the classic, Phil Spector, Ellie Greenwich and Jeff Barry, plus Mike Leeson. My favorite track remains the first one I’d ever heard by Money: Two Tickets to Paradise, the album version with the great guitar lead by Jimmy Lyon, still a great listen decades later. According to IMDb, Money’s work appears on 71 soundtracks. He also made guest appearances on popular TV shows. He married in 1989 and fathered five children. Along the way he battled the bad habits that plague so many artists. Well done, sir. Thank you.

As a writer, I’m fascinated by the evolution of language, but am frequently well behind the curve in discovering new terms. An article at foxnews.com introduced me to “soft ghosting,” described as slowly breaking off communication with someone by “liking” their text messages, but offering no genuine response or continuation of a conversation. Okay. That led me to googling plain ol’ “ghosting,” the breaking off of a relationship by stopping all communication and contact with the partner without any apparent warning or justification, as well as ignoring the partner’s attempts to reach out or communicate. The piece closes with a listing of other terms with which I was unfamiliar, and which instigated another search that led to an article at nypost.com: “paper clipping,” when an ex contacts you months after ghosting you; “cloaking,” when you’re stood up for a date and blocked on all communication platforms; “trickle ghosting,” when someone you’re talking to slows their communication with you to only once every few days; “pocketing,” when your significant other has built a wall between you and their family; “cookie jarring” when you keep stringing someone along to use as a backup; and “you-turning,” when a red flag makes you run in the other direction. “Get it? Got it? Good,” as Danny Kaye says as Hubert Hawkins in The Court Jester (1955, screenplay by Norman Panama and Melvin Frank.) Five minutes from now I’d probably flunk a quiz on this stuff.

Sign of the times in a headline at Yahoo Sports: “Internet porn business submits $10M naming rights bid for Miami Heat home.” It’s BangBros. I’m sure league officials and the team’s owners are praying someone tops that. The devil in me hopes no one does just to see what happens.

My thanks to Wolf, who bought Constantine’s Sword: The Church and the Jews, A History by James Carroll; and to the moms who purchased children’s books; and to Marie, an artist, who was so taken by the cover of the large paperback edition of Stephen King’s Joyland that she had to have it. We agree that it’s reminiscent of 1950’s movie posters.

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