Neil Diamond "Yesterday's Songs"

When was the last time you did a Google search of your own name? One of the first times I ever Googled myself was way back before Google was used as a verb. In doing so, I discovered the remnants of an important reminder: don't screw with Neil Diamond fans. I'll explain...

Back in 2003, we taped an interview with Neil for a morning radio show I produced. The show's host decided that he'd let the female co-host conduct the interview and, once complete, we would splice in questions from the host which Neil would ultimately "ignore". The joke was that Neil didn't like the host and informed us that he would not answer questions from him during said interview. It led to an awkward-sounding back-and-forth between the host, co-host and Neil. Should've been funny, right? Wrong.

After the interview aired, his legions of fans (who heard about the interview from Neil's fan club) tuned in to hear the awkward interview via the radio station's internet stream and were furious. They accused us of faking the interview...but for reasons that weren't even valid. In the interview, Diamond, a Boston Red Sox fan, mentioned the Chicago Cubs and how exciting it was to watch the team in the playoffs (up until the infamous Steve Bartman game of 2003). Diamond's fans claimed the interview was clearly fake because Neil would never talk about the Cubs (spoiler alert: he did!). They also believed Neil would never be mean to someone in an interview (they were right about that part). In doing so, they flooded our radio station with complaint calls and emails and even posted my phone number online. For years following this incident, a simple Google search turned up rants from these angry fans. I am happy to report those pages must have come down because I no longer find it in my search results. Neil Diamond's fans clearly have moved on...

Jordan Hill "Remember Me This Way"

People always associate me with the television show The Golden Girls. Like many fans my age, I didn't choose to watch the show when it first aired, but rather I watched it secondhand while staying at my grandparents house in the 1980s. My parents separated in 1985 and my brother and I spent every other weekend shuttling between grandparents houses. My grandparents lived for Saturday nights at 8:00 P.M. when they welcomed four geriatric women from Miami into their living room. Sophia (played by Estelle Getty) occasionally farted on the show which caused my grandmother to laugh hysterically.

Into my teens and twenties, the show became a sort of comfort blanket for me. Each character reminded me of someone (except for Blanche) and made them identifiable. When my college roommates first walked in on me watching an episode of The Golden Girls on Lifetime ("Television for Women...and Todd," they used to say), I was forever branded with this show being part of my legacy. This, in turn, leads to my Facebook page getting littered with articles whenever any Golden Girls-related news breaks: Bea Arthur's obituary (a sad day indeed), a Golden Girls-themed restaurant opening in New York City (which has since closed), and the recent Golden Girls cereal (available only at Target).

After trying to ignore this unwanted attention or pretending I don't really like the show, I've learned to embrace it. The show succeeded on television by targeting a forgotten audience (those ages 55 and older) on a forgotten night of television (Saturdays) and providing them with seven seasons of a well-written, well-produced comedy that still holds up today. Betty White is the lone remaining living star from the show that launched the careers of so many folks (Marc Cherry who went on to create Desperate Housewives got his start on The Golden Girls).

Before a recent lengthy plane ride, I loaded my phone with podcasts to pass the miles in the sky. Along with my usual podcasts about the dreadful Chicago White Sox, I added the first episode of Let Them Eat Cheesecake: A Golden Girls podcast. Four fans of the show (including two Chicagoans who also have a Chicago Cubs podcast) discuss and analyze each golden episode of the show. After getting past the gratuitous giggling from some of the hosts in the podcast's first few minutes, I actually found myself enjoying it and learning things about a series in which I've seen every episode at least a dozen times.

I suppose there are worse ways to be remembered, so I'll simple wear this Golden Girls thing and just thank you for being a friend... 

Barbara Streisand & Neil Diamond - "You Don't Bring Me Flowers"

The morning show I produced back in 2003 had the opportunity to interview Neil Diamond.  While we all knew of Neil Diamond, we really didn't know what to do with the interview.  The host of the show had an idea: the female co-host would do the interview solo but, after the interview, the host would ask Neil a series of questions that Neil would "ignore".  The gist of the bit would be that we received word before the interview that Neil Diamond didn't like the host and would refuse to answer any questions from him.  We taped the interview as planned and played it back.  What followed was an onslaught of Neil Diamond fans who emailed the station complaining about what we had done.  They claimed (falsely) that the interview was completely fabricated because Neil talked about the Cubs instead of the Red Sox (it was true--Neil did talk about the Cubs).  I can only imagine what these same fans did when Saturday Night Live did that Neil Diamond Behind The Music parody.

Richard Marx - "Take This Heart"

You can spend hours debating why the Chicago Cubs haven't won a World Series in over 100 years.  You can debate about the curse of the Billy Goat or even whether Steve Bartman was the reason the Cubs missed the World Series in 2003.  Just be sure to add Chicagoan Richard Marx to your discussion.  His video to Richard Marx's "Take This Heart" depicts a dream sequence in which the Cubs beat the Oakland A's to win the World Series thanks to a walk-off home run by the long-haired Richard Marx.  Bob Uecker, Ricky Henderson, Dennis Eckersley, Jose Canseco, and even Tony LaRussa made cameos in this campy video (as did then-Cubs manager Jim Lefebvre).  Even by 1991's standards the video led the league in cheesiness.