As you’ve been flying through your days and nights, have you ever heard the term “night fly”?
I just googled “nightfly,” “night-fly,” and “night fly,” and this was the only definition that came flying back (from Webster’s 1828):
NIGHT-FLY, n. An insect that flies in the night.
I expected a definition like this:
Somebody who prefers to stay awake during the night, as opposed to the day.
But, apparently, I was thinking of “night owl,” whose definition flies back immediately, from Google:
night owl
noun informal
a person who is habitually active or wakeful at night.
My boyfriend, Michael, is a night fly … I mean, night owl. I used to be one of those night-preferring creatures too; as I get older, I love being awake during the day.
Yesterday, when I was walking– and pretty fly (for a white non-guy) — in an unseasonably warm day in the northeastern USA, this song flew through my headphones:
(Donald Fagen‘s title song from the album The Nightfly flies here, night and day, on YouTube)
I shall now fly to you the lyrics of “The Nightfly” by Donald Fagen (with some interruptions for images that flew through the sunlight and the night into my iPhone, yesterday):
I’m Lester the Nightfly
Hello Baton Rouge
Won’t you turn your radio down
Respect the seven second delay we useSo you say there’s a race
Of men in the trees
You’re for tough legislation
Thanks for calling
I wait all night for calls like these
An independent station
WJAZ
With jazz and conversation
From the foot of Mt. Belzoni
Sweet music
Tonight the night is mine
Late line till the sun comes through the skylight
I’ve got plenty of java
And Chesterfield Kings
But I feel like crying
I wish I had a heart of ice
If you want your honey
To look super swell
You must spring for that little blue jar
Patton’s Kiss And Tell
Kiss And Tell
An independent station
WJAZ
With jazz and conversation
From the foot of Mt. Belzoni
Sweet music
Tonight the night is mine
Late line till the sun comes through the skylight
You’d never believe it
But once there was a time
When love was in my life
I sometimes wonder
What happened to that flame
The answer’s still the same
It was you, you, it was you
Tonight you’re still on my mind
An independent station
WJAZ
With jazz and conversation
From the foot of Mt. Belzoni
Sweet music
Tonight the night is mine
Late line till the sun comes through the skylight
Not too bad, for matching words and pictures on the fly, don’t you think?
Whether you, dear reader, are a night or day owl or a day or night fly, you’ve probably noticed that the nights and days have been flying from autumn into winter, from November into December, from Day 1 to Day 700 (or however else you number your days). Lately, in this blog, I’ve sometimes wondered what happened to the flame of
- warmth,
- energy, and
- health
as those flames have seemed to flicker, back and forth, day to night.
However, a true detective might look more closely at this photo (which flew by above):
That’s me, your respectful blogger, in the light of day, flying and dancing in the street. My having the energy to do that yesterday, for way more than seven seconds of sweet music, made my heart fly with hope for the future.
While The Nightfly says
I wish I had a heart like ice
I wish my heart could stay the same, like it is, without surgery. I shall fly through several more nights and days before I know more about that (as I fly to consult with several cardiologists, one of whom I KNOW is a night fly/owl).
Am I being too obscure, oblique, or mysterious (like the Nightfly, perhaps)? If so, please let fly with comments or questions, during your night or day.
In the meantime,
the sun’s come through the skylight.
Many thanks to all night and/or day flies, owls, moths, cats, snow-people, reindeer, and humans (including you, of course!).