The Drawbacks of Not Sucking Up

"The Clash."

This is what my then-new boss uttered about a year ago, to the question of what his favorite band was. Surveying him was a group out during a two-day team-building session.

Ack. That's my favorite band as well. Good taste. (C'mon, "London Calling"? Best disc ever.) But do I say the same, looking like a putz and a suck-up to both him and the rest of my team?

The group expectantly looked at me, awaiting my reply, after one said Springsteen and another the Beatles. I rack my brain.

"Ummmm….David Bowie. Definitely Bowie." Can I sound a little more like Dustin Hoffman in "Rain Man", please?

Strange stares all around, I might as well have said I was (a spider) from Mars. Sigh.

And that was how I came to be singing "Ziggy Stardust" -- badly -- two months later in a karaoke bar, at another team outing. And why, in a moment of desperation, I chose the moniker "ZiggyStardust" over at Gawker.

Funny how the dominoes fall sometimes after one moment of hesitation...