It all started with me spotting a Pac Man video game console in a bar last night while I was playing a trivia game. It did not appear to be operational.

I mentioned to my husband that I liked this game when I was a kid. Especially the “Ms. Pac Man” version!

After our game was over, I saw that my brother had sent me this image in Messenger:

After a little back and forth, I figured out that this image was from “KC Munchkin,” a knockoff of Pac Man used in the Magnavox Odyssey 2 video game system from the early 1980 s.

My brother has started collecting old video game paraphernalia as a hobby as of late.

He still has a Commodore 64 computer that my dad bought for him!

Though it was supposed to be a “family” gift, he was way more into using that thing than I was! Oh that wasted summer of 1986 where I spent way too much time playing video games on it in my parent’s air conditioned bedroom!

My brother dug into programming and other things. He made his own video game, and programmed some of his favorite music as well.

About that…rewind to Thursday afternoon, when I had a sudden and inexplicable desire to hear an old Police song called “Peanuts.” It’s not one of their hits, it’s an album track.

It’s from their debut album “Outlandos D’Amour” from 1978. You might have heard its biggest hit single “Roxanne” before.

“Peanuts” is a decidedly different song from “Roxanne.” It’s a fast-paced song with punk undertones and some intriguing lyrics in the chorus:

“Don’t want to hear about the drugs you’re taking/
Don’t want to read about the love you’re making/
Don’t want to hear about the lives you’re faking/
Don’t want to read about the muck they’re raking.”

Guitarist Andy Summers really shreds at some points! Just a great, raw energy song…

Today, my brother told me that he listened to songs by the Police that he’d programmed into his C 64!

“This just keeps getting weirder,” I told him. Adding:

Me being a goofball with my brother!