OK, so the night John was killed i was on a date with this guy who was a photographer. But I never went out with that guy again. Not because he didn't like my band at the time. We walked out to 72nd and Columbus, where we stopped to get ice cream (it was December but I guess not too cold yet?). You could see flashing red lights down by the Dakota, but I didn't really think much of it--I mean it was New York. There were always flashing red lights and sirens going off. The girl who scooped our ice cream said sort of nonchalantly, "Did you hear John Lennon got shot?" WHAT? I told her "never mind the ice cream..." and this guy I was with went ahead and asked for chocolate. She was digging, like with a shovel, down into this dark muddy tub of ice cream and this guy I was with, he took it and said "Thanks." And he ate the ice cream. That is why I never dated him again. He could still eat ice cream while John Lennon bled. No, you do not eat ice cream when a Beatle is dying. Sorry. Even though my favorite Beatle was still hale and hearty at the time (though perhaps the cancer that eventually claimed him lay coiled and waiting in his bloodstream already--), well, it was like a nightmare. I loved John. New York loved John. So I parted ways with that fella and joined the clots of people in the streets who gathered, crying and shaking their heads...then the next night Yoko lit a candle and everyone keeping vigil outside the Dakota could see it....anyway...Happy Birthday John. You would have been 71. Wish you could have some ice cream today. Here are a couple of his poems from "In His Own Write," and "A Spaniard in the Works." The Moldy Moldy Man I'm a moldy moldy man I'm moldy thru and thru I'm a moldy moldy man You would not think it true I'm moldy till my eyeballs I'm moldy til my toe I will not dance I shyballs I'm such a humble Joe The Fat Budgie (excerpt) I have a little budgie He is my very pal I take him walks n Britain I hope I always shall. I call my budgie Jeffrey My grandads name's the same I call him after Granddad Who had a feathered brain. And of course...a song... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvTCpApk6Ak&feature=related