The Ballad of Jayne

Micah told me she'd give me anything if I could guess what song was in her head. Naturally, I clarified the rules; she offered me nine yes-or-no questions and ten notes of the song (whistled, so no lyrical or instrumental questions), then one guess.

Now, when someone offers you *anything*, you must take the game seriously. I mean, I could turn a promise of anything into this, this, or even this!

I started asking about the title of the song - four questions (and some slipped info by Micah) got me that it started with "The B" followed by a vowel (she had to do some fact checking to make sure she knew the official name of the song, which was a bad sign for this strategy of guessing). "Neat! I can probably Google that if I narrow the range" I thought, so another set of questions got me that it was made between 1970 and 2004 and was featured on a sci fi show! These questions took me wayyy too long to think of, by the way (like an hour, ha!).

The ten notes were given last - and they were not familiar to me at all! Micah's seen a limited number of science fiction, so the selections were limited (basically only things she's watched in our nearly three years of marriage - incidentally, her mother seemed disparaged to learn I've got her watching Star Trek TNG and that she loves it).

I ruled out Star Trek, then Battlestar Gallactica, and realized it must be Firefly! I did a search for "Firefly theme song" and Google returned "The Ballard of Serenity" - a ha, it fits! I knee-jerked and blurted out "My guess is 'the Ballad of Serenity'!"

Wrong! So close, and so wrong! After so much careful thought and manipulative questioning, I got hasty and missed the mark by a hair's width! Fortunately, Micah didn't specify any prize for herself if I lost, but she certainly gloated.

Oh, the song was from Firefly, officially titled "The Ballad of Jayne" (though guessing "Hero of Canton" or even "that song in Firefly about Jayne" would have sufficed):