Step No. 6 - Revel in the kitschy pleasure of 1950s novelty songs

Riding the tide of post WWII optimism (and Cold War escapism), never was there a better time for novelty music when North American kids grew tired of the standard nursery rhymes. All of a sudden the market was flooded with such tracks as "I want a Hippopotamus for Christmas" and Patti Page's ground breaking multitracked "How Much is that Doggie in the Window." The records flooded the market pressed on coloured acetate 45s and, later, on various-shaped LPs. Now, though the fun has been partially mitigated by release on CDs and digital files, the songs have enjoyed a renaissance as musical high camp and are regarded, by and large, by hipsters and other cultural ne'er-do-wells as desirable for ironic intent.

Now that I live alone I can crank these tunes, dance around the apartment like a stroked out orangutan, and enjoy the lyrical and melodic inventiveness of mid twentieth-century novelty songwriters without shame or irony.