Setting the Alarm

For reasons I can't quite and don't care to explain, I started writing down the snippets of radio I hear when setting my alarm at night. I have this little ritual, some might call a compulsion, around setting my alarm. I set the time, which is not the same every day because sometimes I go to bed so late that I'm certain an extra half hour of hitting the snooze button will make all the difference in my day. Right, so I set the alarm, turn the little knob to the actual time, then back to the alarm, back to actual time, then back to alarm time. It's this little dance of three where I assure myself that I have actually set the alarm for A.M. and not P.M. and where I realize that I better sleep fast because there are just not enough hours between now and morning. In college we used to bid each other this blessing, "May the Lord multiply your hours of sleep, dominus possum pax probiscus, post mortem, et tu brute, puella carborundum," taken from a Ray Stevens song we seemed to have loved called The Hair Cut. In that little moment of time on the radio settings between alarm, radio and radio alarm, a tiny yet always complete bit of language makes its way to my ears. I always have my radio set to 91.5fm, which is OPB radio before midnight and the BBC News after midnight. It seems needless to say that the bits I always catch have come all the way from Greenwich Mean Time.

Here are the bits of wit, whimsy and wisdom, and I suppose a bit of news, from this week from across the pond, edited ever so slightly for continuity. Each bullet point comes from a different night, yet strangely, delightfully makes some sense when strung together.

• And that kinda stuff


• Which is offensive to minorities


• Surfaces


• Represents the type of technology that North Korea or even Iran might be able to develop. Today it may be good to travel, hopefully.


• And fired up crowds attended rallies to cheer the President


• The balance right


• Variety is nothing more than diversity