Friday, 15 June 2001 | Alarm

For the past week I've had my alarm set to a station that wakes me up with the news headlines. It's not NPR—I'm not sure what it is, actually; I sort of found it by accident, when I was trying to replace the random station I'd been waking up with prior to that. I used to think my only requirement in an alarm-radio station was that there couldn't be any obnoxious DJs on it (because DJs are the best way to simultaneously wake me up and put me in a bad mood). So when I set my alarm clock at night, I just choose a station that plays classical music, which is generally pretty safe (though sometimes with this method you land a station that plays morning hymns, which might just be worse than the DJs). Maybe I'm too malleable, but this new station is affecting my morning demeanor as well, but in a different way. They're protesting in Sweden against Bush's stance on the Kyoto Accord? Good mood. Conservatives attribute the protests to Europeans' jealousy of American strength? Bad mood. It's not really that extreme or that black-and-white, but it goes something like that. It might be time to switch to the traditional beep, something that's a little more predictable.

Unrelated: be sure to check out my friend Michael's I Threw Up campaign.