Did you ever have an earworm? (08/04/2008)

I have an earworm. I was infected with it the last time I attended the book reading group at the library. I am pretty sure that one of the ladies, let's just call her Liz, is the one who gave it to me and I really wish she would take it back.

For those who are unfamiliar with the word, an earworm is the name for that snippet of music that gets stuck in the memory banks and constantly replays itself until a person is completely batty. It reminds me of our old Victrola that would stumble when the needle encountered a piece of dust or a scratch and play the same few notes over and over until it was jostled or cleaned. No such simple solution seems to be working this time.

Thanks to Liz I have been humming, "Fifteen years on the Erie Canal," followed by "Low bridge, everybody down; for it's low bridge we're coming to a town, da, da, da, dah, ..." for two weeks now. I even went so far as to look up the lyrics but still get hung up on the da da part. Is this what is meant by Dadaism?

Most of us get tunes stuck on instant replay every once in awhile. Seldom does it last for more than a few hours. This must be an especially virulent earworm because I am still hearing the song after all this time.

There is no known cure for this affliction except for time. It eventually goes away by itself. I am beginning to have my doubts about this and worry that I will be humming this little ditty for the rest of my life.

I thought I had achieved a cure last Thursday when we went to the Phil Dirt and the Dozers concert at the fair. For a short time the Erie Canal song was replaced by the theme music to Green Acres. Unfortunately, when I woke up this morning the Erie Canal was back, as cheerful as ever.

I used to like worms. They were silent little creatures that went about the business of enriching and aerating the soil. I saw them as harmless and mostly beneficial.

Then this earworm attached itself to my brain and I want to murder every worm in sight. Plus my computer at home picked up its own case of worms of a different sort and they are causing more problems than a certain repetitive little song is.

Earworms sound like science fiction. I seem to remember several stories that featured various aliens gaining access to the body through the ears. They were always nasty creatures intent on taking over their hosts and eventually the world.

I wonder how worms came to be associated with something so persistent and in the case of computer worms, harmful. Maybe we are talking about something less like the friendly earthworm and more akin to heartworms, which can kill a dog or cat if there are enough of them.

There are more than 4,000 different types of worms - I'm talking about the living things not the computer nasties.

I saw an enlarged picture of an intestinal worm once and it truly was a frightening thing. And to think they can live inside us! Yuck!

There are worms that thrive in almost every environmental condition on earth. There are parasitic worms that live inside of pandas, hairworms that live inside of grasshoppers and cause them to commit suicide (according to the National Geographic magazine), worms that live near 212-degree hydrothermal vents in the ocean, and even worms in frigid Alaskan glaciers. No wonder they are so hard to get rid of.

The only worm I am concerned about is the one that is replaying that song in my brain. I am wondering if it related to the grasshopper suicide worm.

I was hoping that by writing about this common malady it would cease and desist its constant barrage of the Erie Canal song.

No such luck. I sure hope it's not fifteen more years of the Erie Canal.[[In-content Ad]]