My music career isn't an obscure enough fact? Allright. Try these.

1) I am dyslexic. I was never formally diagnosed. I figured it out (although, at the time, I didn't know the word for it) at the age of seventeen. I taught myself to work around with the only book I had available at the time. Mario Puzo's "The Godfather". It's a bit weird, but it seems to have worked. I am rarely without some sort of book close at hand these days.

2) Fact number one explains this one. I have never attended a college or university. What education I have has been gained through surrounding myself with people who know things. There are few people in this world who will refuse, if asked, to pontificate, ad infinitum and with grateful enthusiasm, on thier particular area of expertise.

3) I was a Boy Scout for two years. I maintained the rank of Tender foot for those two years. Can you say "underachiever"? I knew you could.

4) My first public performance was in a talent show at a summer camp called "Camp 4 Fun" (I should point out the this was in the late 1950's;long before substituting numerical symbols for words became a popular excuse for passing off illiteracy as culture). I was the "tenor" in the world's worst impression of a barbershop quartet. We sang "Bicycle Built For Two".

5) I have two cats -- Nosey and Stranger. "Nosey" because she is. "Stranger" because, like all ne arrivals, that's what she was when she first came into my home, and because that's what she becomes every day.

6) I won a spelling competition in the fourth grade. I haven't been able to spell worth a darn since.

7) I decide that I wanted to be some sort of entertainer when, at age five, I saw Red Skelton on television. He always looked like he was having such a wonderful time that I decided that I wanted to do something like that when I grew up. I'm halfway there (the "growing up" part is still a work in progress).

8) I have attended two military schools. They didn't work. I still wanted to be an entertainer.

9) I like to eat a peculiar mutation of peant butter sandwiches. I use toasted bagels instead of bread.

10) I am a coffee freak of the first order. First thing in the morning I'm worthless until after I've had my first pot. I have been told that I brew it with sufficient strength that, if allowed to go cold, it could be sold to a local auto body shop and used to strip the paint off of cars.

Stephen Lee