rsc

I am pretty much immune to earworms derived from pop music, and most show tunes. But my brain is crammed with lots of all-too-well-remembered music, including a fair amount of opera and a whole lot of Gilbert and Sullivan, and it insists on picking up scraps of these things when it hears or thinks of certain words. Some of the results of this habit are too convoluted and obscure to be worth describing, so I'll content myself with an observation that

lcohen, at least, is bound to appreciate.

These days it seems that working in the yard inevitably brings on earworms from Ruddigore. Pulling out the oak seedlings that are showing up in a lot of beds this year triggers Hannah's second-act song ("There grew a little flower 'neath a great oak tree"), whereas fighting off the wild roses that are just about everywhere results in Margaret's from the first act ("...the wanton roses,/Who, uprising from their beds,/hold on high their shameless heads").

Just thought I'd share (isn't that what earworms are for?).