Image by Matt Dempsey.  Retrieved from http://www.flickr.com/photos/matt44053/3303349031/, and used under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 2.0.

With the start of the semester being such a stressful time I’ll post on a lighter subject, the song parody.  Though I am not a musician–as anyone who has heard me sing can attest, I enjoy playing with lyrics.  I’ve even used some parodies as study aids.  Here’s a recent one on database searching (roughly to the tune of “Do Wah Diddy Diddy”*):

 

Here I am searching through a database, singing do wah diddy diddy dum diddy do;

Ten thousand hits, all that time I’m going to waste, singing. . . .

My search is out of hand.  This is when I should use AND.

Here I am on the database again, singing. . . :

Only one hit, now I really must complain, singing. . . .

I need to find some more.  This is when I should use OR.

Parodies can also open up discussions on issues of fair use, but I’ll elaborate on that point next time.  Here’s wishing you a fun semester.

*My apologies to Jeff Barry and to the late Ellie Greenwich, the original songwriters.   Thanks to Oxford Music Online for helping me verify the songwriting credits.