If I Had A Nickel For Every Grain Of Sand In The Universe

Before I make with the videoclip that will present to you how I believe I was a part of last night's talk show activities, including Paul McCartney's Letterman appearance, I will first say a few things thru the medium of writing (I'm hoping that somehow the writing that appears in the videoclip will be seen as part of a separate medium entirely).

The "Statement of Blog Purpose" that accompanies my blogs refers to a story I wrote in 1965, "Endless Voyage", and how it led to the Beatle songs "Eleanor Rigby", "Yellow Submarine" and "Paperback Writer". I have omitted from that statement other Beatle songs that it also led to, because it would sound far-fetched - I joke, not about where the Beatle songs came from, but about the idea that the line between what everyone regards as far-fetched-sounding and what sounds ordinary generally places me on the ordinary-sounding side. Yet even within the realm of the far-fetched-sounding there are distinctions, between far-fetched-sounding, very far-fetched-sounding, very, very far-fetched-sounding - I think you can grasp this point. My frequent contentions that things created and done by The Beatles and the ex-members The Beatles, when not carefully scrutinized on a serious basis, including an extensive review of the evidence, obviously give a whole new meaning to the concept of "far-fetched".

"Endless Voyage" has much in common with the idea, "You can't go home again". In a nutshell (I provide the word "nutshell" much like one pokes little breathing holes in a pet hamster box - when you have finished with your innovation on the word "nutshell" I shall continue. Oh yes, I hear you laughing. Please, enjoy yourself! You're thinking: only a nut would - but I digress), "Endless Voyage" is about a future world where over-population leads the powers that be to consider options regarding what to do with all the people, deciding where they all belong. A pill is developed, making it possible for a person to breathe underwater, but once one takes the pill, one can never breathe air again ("you can't go home again"). So half the human race is to live underwater, the other half above-water. A separation into two peoples results, those who breathe water and cannot breathe air, and those who breathe air and cannot breathe water.

At the time I wrote this story, it was a class assignment to write only a two-page story, to be based on a photograph one selected from among a group of photographs. My 15 pages created a stir, as if an endless amount of pages had been written, especially considering that all I had was a photograph. (I understand that nowadays it is considered far less unusual for a ten-year old to immerse themselves thusly.)

Other Beatle songs that resulted: "Rain" (flipside of the single release, "Paperback Writer", wherein the first-person singular speaks of rain as if his orientation is fundamentally alien to the listener), "Get Back", "Golden Slumbers", "Octopus' Garden". There may be others, I'll have to think about it. Let me get back to you, I've been very busy.