crazy

Thursday Inspiration — You Might Think I’m Crazy

Fandango7 Comments

For this week’s Thursday Inspiration prompt, Jim Adams has given us the word “think” and asked us to repond by writing about a song that uses that word, and/or a song that mentions a car. In this case, I chose a song by The Cars called “You Might Think.”

The song was released in February 1984, as the first single from Heartbeat City. “You Might Think” peaked at number 7 in the United States and number 8 in Canada. It also reached number 1 on the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart in the U.S., the band’s first song to do so.

The flirty couple in this new wave number is involved in a series of risky rendezvous. The guy in the song celebrates his love interest — a girl who is wild, has a quirky style, and enjoys a flair for the dramatic.

Rather than taking their relationship public, the couple enjoys “chancy rendezvous” that can feel so dangerous that they are almost like being “in the movies.” Such clandestine meetups are more her idea than his, but the man covets his sweetheart so much that he goes along with her requests. Although the narrator supposes that she paints him to be a crazy, foolish, and delirious man (he certainly denies the charge), their secret runarounds do make him feel adventurous.

Interesting factoid: The music video is one of the first to use computer graphics. The video features Ocasek and model Susan Gallagher in a series of quirky encounters. This won the first-ever Video of the Year award at MTV’s Video Music Awards. It beat out “Thriller” by Michael Jackson and Herbie Hancock’s “Rockit,” among others.

It also won five awards (Best Video, Best Conceptual, Most Innovative, Best Editing, and Best Special Effects) at Billboard’s 1984 Video Music Awards and four awards (Best Achievement In Music Video, Best Editing In Music Video, Best Engineering In Music Video, and Best Camerawork In Music Video) at the Videotape Production Association’s 1985 Monitor Awards.

Here are the lyrics to “You Might Think.”

Oh well, you might think I'm crazy
To hang around with you
Or maybe you think I'm lucky
To have something to do

But I think that you're wild
Inside me is some child

You might think I'm foolish
Or maybe it's untrue
(You might think) you might think I'm crazy
(All I want) but all I want is you

You might think it's hysterical
But I know when you're weak
You think you're in the movies
And everything's so deep

But I think that you're wild
When you flash that fragile smile

You might think it's foolish
What you put me through
(You might think) you might think I'm crazy
(All I want) all I want is you

And it was hard, so hard to take
There's no escape without a scrape

But you kept it going 'til the sun fell down
You kept it going

Oh well, you might think I'm delirious
The way I run you down
But somewhere sometimes, when you're curious
I'll be back around

Oh, I think that you're wild
And so uniquely styled

You might think it's foolish
This chancy rendezvous
(You might think) you might think I'm crazy
(All I want) but all I want is you
Oh, ooh, all I want is you
(All I want) all I want is you

Image conjured using Gemini.

It Makes You Wonder

Fandango5 Comments

Every so often I read an article that expresses something I had been thinking about. Such an article appeared in the only magazine I subscribe to, The Week, and the writer expressed it better than I ever could hope to.

Written by Editor-at-Large William Falk, it appeared in the September 5, 2025 issue of the magazine. So, without further ado…

As the United States descends into one-man, authoritarian rule, I sometimes wonder what Donald Trump’s collaborators really think. By collaborators, I do not mean the true MAGA cultists, who welcome his tyrannical intrusion into every aspect of American life, his military occupation of American cities, and his unrestrained use of government power to intimidate and punish opponents, critics, and immigrants.

The collaborators I am referring to are the once-principled Reaganites, the small-government libertarians, and the conservative commentariat who, through fear or tribal allegiance, are still defending or downplaying the Maximum Leader’s insistence that everyone — private companies, universities, museums, states, cities, the Fed, the Justice Department, other countries — must capitulate to his will or suffer his wrath.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio is a useful example. In 2016, Rubio compared Trump to a “third-world strongman” and warned that “many people on the Right” will have “to explain and justify how they fell into this trap of supporting Donald Trump because this is not going to end well.” Does “Little Marco” now feel this is likely to end well because he’s sold his soul?

Before his own cynical conversion, Vice President JD Vance observed that Trump was “an idiot” who was “unfit for our nation’s highest office” and might turn into “America’s Hitler.” Is the sour tang of tyranny more palatable now that JD sits at the ruler’s table?

And what of Senators Ted Cruz and Lindsey Graham, the Russia hawks, the Supreme Court justices, and Republicans who once professed loyalty to free markets, free speech, and personal liberty, and celebrated America’s role as the “shining city on the hill”? Do they privately cringe over the North Korea–style groveling at Trump’s Cabinet meetings, his fawning admiration of the war criminal Vladimir Putin, his assault on laws, alliances, science, data, and reality itself, and the authoritarian precedents he is setting for future presidents? Do they ever say to spouses or confidantes: “My God, he’s crazy. He’s out of control”?

Their silence is their acquiescence, and makes them complicit in the damage already done, and in whatever insanity is to come.

Well said, Mr. Falk.

Image conjured using ChatGPT.

Six Sentence Story — Crazy Like a Fox

Fandango13 Comments

I know you think I’m crazy for wearing this foil hat, but you know that you can’t be too careful these days.

You’ll probably say I’m paranoid and am embracing too many conspiracy theories, but I am telling you the truth.

The government is surveilling us with the help of technology developed by extraterrestrial beings in order to practice mind control on us.

They are bombarding our brains with electromagnetic waves transmitted through our smartphones so they can shrink our brains and wipe out our memories.

My foil hat protects my brain from these advanced invasive technologies that use telepathy to get inside my head.

So go ahead and think that I’m crazy or paranoid or delusional for wearing a foil hat, but one day when you realize that you have been manipulated by evil forces, you will admit that I am, indeed, crazy, crazy like a fox.

Written for the Sunday Six Sentence Story prompt from Girlie on the Edge, where the prompt word is “foil.” Image credit: Reddit.

MFFFC — My Destiny

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“What is it, Patti?” Mal asked. “Why are you turning away from me. Why won’t you look me in the eye.”

“Mal, I don’t know how to tell you this, but I’m leaving you. It’s not you, though, Mal, it’s me. It’s who I am, it’s what I am. It’s my heritage.”

“What are you saying, Patti? You’re dumping me?”

“You’re a mallard duck, Mal,” Patti said. “You can’t understand what it is like for me. I’m a white Pekin duck, my darling. I was hatched and bred for this. It’s my destiny, my duty.”

“You’re right, my sweetheart, I don’t understand. Help me understand why we can’t be together forever.”

Patti sighed. “I am a white Pekin. White Pekin ducks are the most popular duck on the planet. Our mild flavor, tender meat, and succulent fat make us the most desirable of all ducks. My parents have given me away to the finest Chinese restaurant in the city.”

“What?” Mal quacked. “You’ve been given to a Chinese restaurant to be killed, cooked, and eaten?”

“Perhaps, my darling,” Patti said. “Or they could use me as a breeder. But again, this is my destiny as a white Pekin. It is my honor to serve in whatever capacity I’m called upon to serve.”

“You and your white Pekin destiny are quacking crazy,” Mal said as he quickly turned and paddled away.

Written for Melissa’s Fandango’s Flash Fiction Challenge. Image credit: Dids . on Pexels.

Weekend Writing Prompt — The Key

Fandango7 Comments

“It won’t work,” Sam said. “I’m sorry, Ben, but your plan is just not viable.”

“Of course it is viable,” Ben said.

“What about the weather?” Sam asked. “Your plan depends upon it being windy enough to get and keep your kite afloat. And on top of that, you need a bolt of lightning to strike the key attached to your kite string. It will never happen. Pulling energy from lightning? You are crazy, Ben.”

“Yes, crazy like a fox,” Ben said.

(Exactly 82 words)

Written for Sammi Cox’s Weekend Writing Prompt, where the word is “viable” in exactly 82 words.

One-Liner Wednesday — Smile

Fandango15 Comments

“Be Happy! It drives other people crazy!”

I had to laugh yesterday morning when I poured myself my first cup of coffee, reached for a packet of Splenda (artificial sweetener), and saw what was printed of the back of the packet.

It’s too bad there’s a pandemic and I have to wear a face mask outside because no one will be able to tell whether or not I am smiling, so I won’t be able to tell if my happy face is successfully making them crazy.

But I tried looking almost unnaturally happy yesterday morning in front of my wife. When she ask why I was so happy, I said, “No reason. I’m just happy.”

And you know what? It really pissed her off. So much so that she barely spoke to me for most of the day!

Written for Linda G. Hill’s One-Liner Wednesday prompt.