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Last Thursday, I bought a sandwich in the park. The woman at the kiosk asked if I had one of their “buy 12 sandwiches, the next one is free” cards. I didn’t. She rang up my purchase and punched not one, but four of the holes on the card. “You eat here all the time,” she said. For the record, I don’t. I have been there several times — it’s a couple of blocks from the office, although a little expensive — but not so often that I thought they knew me.

The next morning, on the train, I forgot my ticket. It’s a monthly pass, so of course the only day I forget it is the last day of the month. When I took out my wallet to pay the collector, she said, “But don’t you usually have a ticket? You use it as bookmark. That’s how I remember you.” She let me ride without buying a new ticket. The collector on the evening commute wasn’t so nice.

Here are the songs I discovered, re-discovered, listened to a lot in October:

Though I don’t expect any takers — there haven’t been any so far, save one — I’m always up for mix CD trades.

Via Kaleidotrope contributor Edd Vick comes this terrific 64-track cover of Michael Jackson’s “Thriller.” It pays to watch it in full-screen.

Fran̤ois Macr̩ РThriller (reprise A'cappella 64 pistes)

• I’m sorry, Roger Ebert, but “little nuggets of armadillo surrounded by microscopic carrots and curlicues of raspberry-avocado-mint juice”?
• I don’t know what I find more unsettling, that a Sarah Palin impersonator could get on stage with John McCain so easily, or that her community theater mounted a production of High School Musical.
• If there’s any silver lining in Sarah Palin’s nomination — other than the voters who ran as fast as they could from McCain when the nomination was made, of course — is that it might make people appreciate Tina Fey more. Seriously, people, 30 Rock is damn funny.
• A bookstore with a liquor license? You know, if that’s what it takes to get people to buy more books…
• But do we really need another social networking site, this one tied to Barnes & Noble?
• Michael Palin for President suggests replacing all future Presidential debates “with bouts of Fish Slapping.” I can get behind that!
• In the Wicked Playbill, there’s an interview with Frank Langella, in which he says of his Frost/Nixon director, “Ron Howard doesn’t think in less than 20 takes…”
• Just how much of Frankenstein did Mary Shelley write? I’m fascinated by this sort of thing, and I’m reminded of the relationship between Raymond Carver and his first editor Gordon Lish There, too, questions over authorship and the role of an editor have arisen — so much so that it’s not always to say what’s the definitive authorial voice. [via]
• Were the 2nd century Roman emperors Dungeon & Dragons gaming nerds? Could be… could be… [via]
• Keith Phipps on The Omen III: “At one point, I started to feel sorry for the Foley artist who had to imagine what the sound of a baby being suffocated during a baptism would sound like.”
• One of the bad things about the Joker makeup — especially the rudimentary, naturalistic version of it that Heath Ledger wore — is that it lends itself to really lame, halfhearted costumes.
• And it occurred to me, listening to the drunken boors on the train tonight, that one of the biggest problems with the lies the McCain campaign has spread about Obama is that some people will actually start to believe them. (Or just pretend to. It’s hard to tell with drunken boors.)

Last week. This week:

1. “Green Grass” by Cibelle (orig. Tom Waits), guessed by Eric B.
   Can’t tell the birds from the blossoms
2. “Strange Currencies” by R.E.M., guessed by Eric B.
   The fool might be my middle name
3. “He Doesn’t Know Why” by Fleet Foxes
   You don’t say a single word of your last two years
4. “Little Bird” by Scott Matthew
   Happy songs, they’ve worked for some
5. “Every Time” by Glen Hansard & Colm Mac Con Iomaire (orig. Britney Spears)
   I fall without my wings
6. “Hey Bulldog” by Toad the Wet Sprocket (orig. the Beatles), guessed by Eric B.
   Big man walking in the park
7. “Tenderly” by Dr. Teeth & the Electric Mayhem (orig. others)
   And lost in a sigh were we
8. “Instant Karma” by John Lennon, guessed by Eric B.
   Gonna knock you right on the head
9. “Overs” by Simon & Garfunkel, just about guessed by Eric B.
   We’re just a habit, like saccharine
10. “Cheap and Evil Girl” by Bree Shrap
    And you fantasize about the ample milky thighs you’d like to sample

As always, good luck!