They Might Be Giants

Long long ago, when I was still living in Michigan and Darling Daughter was small, I bought her a Tiny Tunes videotape with fun music and cartoons. Two of the cartoons were set to a band I'd never heard of called, of all things, They Might Be Giants. I liked the songs so much, I rushed out and bought the cassette.

And fell in love with the humor and intelligence and sheer wit of this band.

Flash forward a decade... After numerous moves and hundreds of miles, I lost track of the cassette and forgot about the band almost entirely. Until I saw a greatest hits compilation at Barnes & Noble. It had most of the songs I loved from that old tape, so I slapped down my cash and we spent the drive home listening to some of the silliest and smartest music I've found. Total geek heaven.

The reason I bring it up this morning, though, is that I woke up with one of their songs stuck in my head, and if I don't get it out, I'm going to go fruitbatshitcrazy. Here's hoping that by sharing this with you, it'll leave my head so I can get some real thinking done. I hope you enjoy it, and don't get the song stuck in your head, too. (Which is why I'm not linking to the video - I'm crazy, I'm not cruel.)

Why Does the Sun Shine?
By They Might Be Giants

The sun is a mass of incandescent gas
A gigantic nuclear furnace
Where hydrogen is built into helium
At a temperature of millions of degrees

Yo ho, it's hot, the sun is not
A place where we could live
But here on earth there'd be no life
Without the light it gives

We need it's light
We need it's heat
We need it's energy
Without the sun, without a doubt
There'd be no you and me

The sun is a mass of incandescent gas
A gigantic nuclear furnace
Where hydrogen is built into helium
At a temperature of millions of degrees

The sun is hot
It is so hot that everything on it is a gas: iron, copper, aluminum, and many others.

The sun is large
If the sun were hollow, a million earths could fit inside. and yet, the sun is only a middle-sized star.

The sun is far away
About 93 million miles away, and thats why it looks so small.
And even when its out of sight
The sun shines night and day

The sun gives heat
The sun gives light
The sunlight that we see
The sunlight comes from our own sun's Atomic energy
Scientists have found that the sun is a huge atom-smashing machine. the heat and light of the sun come from the nuclear reactions of hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, and helium.

The sun is a mass of incandescent gas
A gigantic nuclear furnace
Where hydrogen is built into helium
At a temperature of millions of degrees

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Have a great day everyone. Here's hoping the sun's shining wherever you are. =o)