Prophylactic Lullaby

Prophylactic Lullaby
Sunshine Grubinski

One day my ten year old daughter was singing in the house. Nothing loud or anything, just lightly singing as she does when she is happy. I began listening to what she was singing, “You're standing on myyyy neck,” from MTV’s “Daria.”

I gave a little chuckle, told her that she was an odd duck, and forgot about it. Last night she was humming again. I got close to hear what she was singing and heard, “Trojan Man...Trojan MANNNN.” I stopped, stunned.

I asked her (I am sure that I was actually yelling), “Do you know what that song is from?”

“A commercial,” she replied.

“Do you know what KIND of commercial?” I yelped.

“Nah, I think cleaning supplies maybe.”

After I stopped laughing at the futility of market research and advertising, I explained to her what the commercial is for. And I asked her to please never sing it in front of anyone other than me for a decade or so.