There's plenty of online chatter about the true identity of Merton, an improv pianist that's been hitting up media-of-the-moment Chatroulette.

Although the pundits' popular guess about Merton being the incomparable Ben Folds is definitely a delightful one, I will have to be in the minority and disagree: they are not the same person. The vocal intonation, choice of chords, attack, and overall improvisational style is, at least to me, dramatically different.

But both are simply wonderful.

Merton



Ben Folds

Hey, friends! I am not on Facebook. I realize that I'm missing out on such things as being tagged in photos, posting hilarious comments on walls, and reviving inside jokes with friends o' yesteryear...but, you know, Facebook just isn't for me.

Those other girlies that you've been befriending are simply strangers who happen to share my name. A frightening population of them live in the Chicagoland area, no less!

But since you're already possibly chatting with them: Will you ask them to pay their GMAC loan payments? Their creditors keep calling me. And keep calling my parents, too. The bank doesn't do a social security match and just call based on voter registration...which leads me to also advise that my doppelgangers should probably start voting, too.

Thanks!


Sincerely,
Socially Unnetworked and Stuck in 2003

Spanish is the language I studied in high school and college with great relish, although my inability to roll my Rs probably led to my downfall of becoming the next great Spanish language poet.

That being said, there is a bit of a serious Francophile in me. I ache to go to France, to enjoy its cafes, to stroll its streets, to let romance sweep me as it does like the wind through Paris. "Learn French" is something that has been on my personal To Do list for a while, and until we have the extra dough for an honest-to-goodness course, my generic "intro to conversational French" CD will have to do, playing while I wash dishes and daydream.

So it's no wonder that Google's ad, Parisian Love, strikes a strong chord with me:



Ah, Paris. I love you and miss you even though we have not yet met! Ah, Paris. Je vous aime et vous manquez même si nous n'avons pas encore atteint!

PS. The entire Search Stories YouTube series by Google have been a great delight lately.

PPS. Enjoy one of my very favorite Spanish poems: Oda a la luz encantada de Pablo Neruda.