1 All you had to do is ask someone old enough to remember firsthand. And since Vicki Lawrence was married to the songwriter, Bobby Russell, from 1972-74, don't you think that might have something to do with her winding up with the song? He also wrote "Little Green Apples" and "Honey's Song," if you were curious. And, by the way, the Shelley Fabares that co-starred in "Coach" WAS the same Shelley Fabares that had the hit with "Johnny Angel" in 1962.

2 Heck--it was a surprise to my husband, when I told him. Perhaps you're just more hip than you realize, D!

3 I never thought I wasn't hip. Knowing the cultural references just never correlated with popularity in my case. But it probably kept me out of the big leagues when it comes to making a major contribution in science. My head is filled with lyrics from a bunch of '60s TV commercials and stuff, while the major players are basically one-trick ponies based on my personal experience. A local radio host with a popular comedy show once had Marilyn vos Savant, billed as being the most intelligent human based on documented IQ results, on as a guest. Before her appearance, she agreed to take a short test that he would create. A few months later, a caller brought her up, and he told the story of how much time he spent putting together the test and how she really did. He started out as a researcher/fact checker for a major local news station, so he tapped some of his sources for the math/science questions. Most of his regular friends contributed pop culture questions. He told how he debated throwing those in, putting some in and taking them out, but finally deciding to include ten TV and pop music questions that someone her age couldn't help knowing--in his estimation and based on testing every person her age he came in contact with in the weeks prior to the show. She missed them all. Since she was a guest, he glossed over it at the time. I heard the segment at the time and thought it was strange that he didn't talk about the results of a test that he had been talking about for days. The caller weeks later must have touched a nerve, because he went on about how could she NOT know the answers. I guess you have to watch TV and listen to the radio to know what's on. Or read about it.

4 Well, that sort of thing happens to me because of my sort of binary relationship with television (on-again, off-again). For instance, my friends had to tell me about Madonna as a cultural phenomenon (this was long before *Desperately Seeking Susan* came out, but still . . .). And then there was that time they were talking about Max Headroom, and I didn't know what they were talking about. "It's like talking to an ALIEN!" one of them sputtered in frustration. I probably also wasn't listening to the radio enough in those days, either, come to think of it. So I'm a nerd, too--just a novelist nerd. But I do know "hold the pickles, hold the lettuce," and that sort of thing. I watched eons of television with various grandparents and babysitters in the 1960s and 1970s, and we watched a fair amount in 70-74.