WHY DO YOU LEAVE ME SO CONFUSED?

Just dropped by to let you know that I haven't gotten any smarter...

Haha Sound by Broadcast was released back in August of 2003. It was one of my favorite albums of that late summer, and remained in heavy rotation through the fall and winter and on into spring.

It has a place to this day in my ever-changing all-time top 10 list, sometimes ranking as high as fourth.

Now here's where the stupid comes in...

All these years, I admit that I've been somewhat baffled by the album's title. The mood-- as with most things Broadcast-- would not typically be qualified as "haha" funny, so I could never quite figure if the title was meant to be ironic.

Well, the other day I was reading an article on the group, which pointed out that "haha" means "mother" in Japanese. Which of course makes "Haha Sound" an absolutely perfect title for the album.

I'm hardly fluent in Japanese, but I know enough about the language to know that "haha" means mother. I just never made the connection.

I told all this to Taeko across the breakfast table the other day, with excitement in my voice and wonder in my eyes. Let's just say that she was filled with a bit less excitement and wonder...