Last night, my wife and I watched a rock-'n-roll retrospective on PBS. It's obviously not contemporary, since the late Davey Jones was emcee. As we saw one Sixties group after another - The Vogues, Percy Sledge, Roger McGuinn - parade across the stage, it was just a good time being had by all. A jarring moment came when Jefferson Starship appeared, doing "Somebody to Love" and "White Rabbit" (the latter one of my all-time faves). The vocalist had Grace Slick's voice, but the face didn't match.

In recent years, the commonest question I get from folks who meet me for the first time is, "Did anyone tell you how much you look like Billy Bob Thornton?" I can truthfully say there is no connection whatsoever between him and me except appearance.

Years ago, the commonest question I got was, "Are you any relation to Berry Gordy?" I said there was none, although I confess to having lusted after Diana Ross as a young man. Recently, though, one of my online searches led me to Wikipedia, where the biographical entry for Berry Gordy listed one of his ancestors as James Thomas Gordy of Chattahoochee County, GA.