When the Maggie May Counter reaches one hundred fifty, my 45 will have paid for itself. The current count=61.
If you have ever looked over the main page of the site, you have probably noticed the above Maggie May Counter. I started it last April, and the premise was simple. I think that the song Maggie May is worth one penny per listen, therefore I had to listen to it one hundred fifty times before it paid for itself. I didn't think it would be a problem.
(Although another problem did crop up, in the form of an email from the Kid. He wanted to know how I had just decided on that value. Did I have a formula, he wondered, and if so, what is the worth of, say, Takin' It To The Streets by the Doobie Brothers? I told him that there was no official formula, but maybe someday I would produce a Rocksnobs Slide Rule, that allows you to quickly and easily gauge the worth of any song. And it fits in your purse or pocket!)
So anyway, I like the song Maggie May very much, so I didn't think it would be a hardship to listen to it one hundred fifty times. At the time, I was unemployed, so I spent most of my time working on the web site. Sometimes when writing an article, I could get through Maggie May five or six times. Every week, I made what I thought was a good dent in my goal.
But then I started hearing Maggie May on the radio. What? Even though the song's value was based on how much it is played on the radio, I never heard it. After I bought the 45, I heard it on the radio three times in two weeks. I really wanted to add them to my counter, but that would have been cheating!
Eventually, listening to Maggie May was not the fun time it had been. The excitement of the concept left, and there I was, stuck listening to Maggie May several times a day. At this point, it's been seven months since the counter was updated, so it's time to retire my tired concept. That means I lost eighty-nine cents on the deal, but it's better than listening to Maggie May eighty-nine more times.