Folk Thursday: Melanie

Melanie Safka performed at Woodstock.

This fact alone should have earned her a Folk Thursday appearance long ago.

She also has a loose Oklahoma connection, albeit in a rather vague, Six-Degrees-of-Separation sort of way: She was once a follower of Meher Baba, who was injured in a 1952 car accident near Prague.

Vocally, she reminds me of Mary Travers.

Somehow I did not realize until this evening that Melanie was responsible for “Brand New Key.” Enjoy!

Emily

Left unsaid

Here are three things I suppressed the urge to say in my classroom this week:

1. “You keep complaining that I’m not fair. Let me tell you something my dad told me when I was your age: ‘Life’s not fair. That’s why there are different bra sizes.'”
2. “You are a 17-year-old freshman. I am willing to entertain the possibility that you could be smarter than I am, but the preponderance of evidence does not support this theory.”
3. “Sweetie, if every man who dresses better than you do were gay, humanity would be at serious risk of extinction.”

I love my students. I really do. But honestly: I could park a Peterbilt in some of the openings they leave me.

Emily