There is a cheery little plugin called “Hello Dolly” and you, dear reader, cannot see what it does, because all it does is display random lyrics from Louis Armstrong’s classic song in the top right of my blog administration screens. Some people complain about this plugin and call it “useless.” These people lack joie de vivre (let’s see what Global Translator does with that …) “Hello Dolly” is, in fact, the first-ever plugin written for WordPress. So it was kind of a test, presumably.

But even people with joie de vivre, such as myself, can get a little tired of seeing random snatches of “Hello Dolly” lyrics at the top of their screens, right? I was strangely reluctant to disable the plugin though … I have this thing about using software if it is at my disposal. Finally, it occurred to me that I would be happier if I had a choice of song lyrics.

So I rewrote the “Hello Dolly” plugin using the lyrics from “Sympathy for the Devil” by the Rolling Stones. It was pretty simple to do, and for now, I am the only one in the world, probably, whose WordPress admin screen says, at the top right, “Pleased to meet you, hope you guess my name …”

My little hack of “Hello Dolly” is absolutely no more useful than the original. But what the hell. Maybe I’m in need of … some restraint. (woo woo, woo woo.)

Maybe I’ll make it available for download if anyone wants it.

Update: I did that little thing. Here’s the page at WordPress:

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/sympathy-for-the-devil/

I hope Mick and Keith will leave me alone now. Fifty four downloads as of May 2, woohoo …