Greetings. Something on the lighter side -- I think we all need it these days.

You're probably familiar with Allan Sherman's Grammy winning novelty song Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh (A Letter from Camp) -- to the tune of Ponchielli's Dance of the Hours. Sherman was actually an exec for game show production team Goodson and Todman. Sherman co-created I've Got a Secret and became its producer. His singing career took off as an accidental "cocktail party" sideline.

He peaked in the early-60s, but the Kennedy assassination put a damper on novelty humor, and Sherman was found, alone in an apartment here in L.A. at age 48, dead from obesity and emphysema, only a decade after "Hello Muddah's" fame.

OK, the backstory isn't funny. But this next part is ...

Sherman's songs covered a much broader range than most contemporary observers might realize, including some "technical" topics of the day.

One of his songs that seems particularly appropriate now came during the transition from old-style prefix dialing (Murray Hill 5-9975) to all digit dialing as we know it today. This was considered to be quite controversial at the time, much like the arguments about overlay area codes vs. area code splits currently (I'm a big fan of overlays. Splits usually suck -- to use a technical term.)

But I digress. Sherman expressed his dissatisfaction with the monopoly status of AT&T and the forced move to "digit dialing" with one of his perhaps least known songs.

If he were alive today, his take on the current state of the Internet and Network Neutrality might be amusing indeed.

For now, it's time to sing:

"The Let's All Call Up AT&T and Protest to the President March"

--Lauren--