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[Error: unknown template qotd] Oddly enough I've been wondering about this recently (although the question was "what would you do with a thousand pounds", which is still less than a million dollars).

I ended up coming to the somewhat embarrassing conclusion that I don't really want the money, and wouldn't know what to do with it; when I do have money, I can't think of anything to buy with it, and the things that I could buy, I resent spending more money on than they are 'worth'. My various hobbies already have more supplies queued up than I can use, given my rate of work -- I don't really have storage space for more clothes, etc (and am busy trying to 'use up' the ones I do have so that I can justify getting rid of the worn-out-but-could-still-be-mended ones) -- I have no room for more books either, and don't on the whole wish to own them, merely to have read them -- I have no craving for foreign holidays, and not a great urge to travel in England -- I'm already going to watch as many films as I feel I have the physical endurance to do (if I had money I could actually pay to travel in comfort! but I still wouldn't have the mental capacity to absorb that much entertainment) -- I don't desire to eat out, or to stay in fancy hotels, or to buy fine furniture. In fact on the whole I am quite disgustingly unmaterialistic, and fortunate in that I already live very comfortably with very little expenditure of ready cash.

Really, if I had a thousand pounds (or a million dollars) I think it would be a burden to me.

(Well, give it away then! To someone who would get pleasure out of the little frivolities of life, or who at least wouldn't feel that it was wrong to waste money... But I'm not unselfish enough to find that a very gratifying prospect either, I'm afraid.)

Fortunately I don't have a million dollars...

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The lyrics meme

Having now worked out a way of posting again, I'll add this lyrics meme (borrowed from pedanther: the original challenge was to select thirty opening lines as chosen at random by the 'shuffle' feature of your computer's music player and challenge people to identify the songs from which they came (and name the performers!)

In my case I only went up to ten and wouldn't expect anyone to be able to identify the majority of those in any case -- I was amused by the way that my sample came out as an almost-coherent narrative in its own right, though.

The results (with answers linked back to the actual file in most cases, as almost my entire computer music collection comes from period downloads in the first place; hence the predominance of 78rpm recordings in this selection):

(due to the settings of the music player, the randomised results then came out in alphabetical order!)

1. Don't want my mammy, I don't need a friend
   My heart is broken, it won't ever mend
   

   I Must Have That Man (Jack Hylton recording, 1929)

   
   
2. I'm a very ordinary man
   Trying to work out life's happy plan
   

   I Want to Be Happy (From the hit show "No, No, Nanette": Binnie Hale and Joseph Coyne, 1925)

   
   
3. I love to climb an apple tree
   Though apples green are bad for me
   

   It's Foolish but it's Fun (From the film "Spring Parade": Deanna Durbin, 1940)

   
   
4. Listen to my tale of woe
   It's terribly sad but true
   

   Lady Be Good (From guess which musical? Sung here by a woman, but it could almost be the authentic male role)

   
   
5. If I were queen for a day,
   To my advisers I'd say:
   

   Let the People Sing (Jack Hylton recording, 1940)

   
   
6. "Chicks do it, Japs do it,
   Up in Lapland little Lapps do it
   

   Let's Do It (Let's Fall In Love) (Rudy Vallee, 1928)

   
   
7. She's my lady-love
   She is my dove, my baby love
   

   Lily of Laguna... and it's actually Errol Flynn singing here, in 1954

   
   
8. You made the river flow, the flowers grow
   You made the weak and the strong
   

   Lord, You Made the Night Too Long (Jack Hylton recording, 1932)

   
   
9. Come, dearest heart, 'mid the flow'rs of June,
   Come out in my garden so gay
   

   This is "Love's Garden of Roses", a lesser-known work by Haydn Wood (composer of "Roses of Picardy", etc.): this actual recording (by Webster Booth and Anne Ziegler) was uploaded on YouTube by duettists as an 'unlinked' item, so in deference to her wishes I shan't post the URL here...

   
   
10. When I remember every little thing you used to do, I'm so lonely --
    Every road I walk along, I walked along with you"
    

    Lover, Come Back to Me (sung by Evelyn Laye in the show "New Moon", but recorded here by Rudy Vallee, 1929)

    
    

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