mad things

It took me ages to actually learn to like my name. All the other girls had fun names like Kimberly and Heather. I felt trapped in plain old Mary. When I started school, I was called Maryann on the roll call (and that was okay because I liked Maryann on Gilligan’s Island and I had no middle name which seemed kind of unique to me) but when my mom gave me my birth certificate I found out that I indeed had a middle name and it was Ann. So I was back to plain old Mary. As I grew older and became more educated, I learned to like my name. Yes it is simple and plain but it carries so much meaning and history. And it is used in so many songs! I thought I’d start posting a Mary song each Monday, accompanied by a famous Mary.

To start things off, because Dawn Summers was curious about them, here’s Sonic Youth with Mary-Christ.

And your famous Mary of the day, Mary Surratt:

She was the first woman executed by the US federal government for her role in the Lincoln assassination. You can visit her tavern and house in my home town. Looks like Robert Redford is making a movie about her.