Alice Deejay – "Better Off Alone" (1999)

Do you think you're better off alone?

Do you think you're better off alone?

Do you think you're better off alone?

Do you think you're better off alone?

(Yes and no.)

Before visiting my mother at her assisted-living place last Sunday, I stopped at the local Panera to pick up lunch.

Here’s the conversation I had with the young man who took my order – an “associate,” to use Panera’s terminology:

Me: I’ll have a small black bean soup and a plain ham and swiss on a baguette.

Panera associate: What exactly do you mean by plain?

Me (somewhat taken aback by the question): Just ham and swiss.  No lettuce or tomato – just plain.

PA: What about red onion?

Me: No.

PA: Any mayo or spicy mustard?

Me (becoming a bit exasperated): No.  Just plain.

PA: OK. . . . salt or pepper?

Me (wondering if anyone actually puts salt and pepper on a ham-and-cheese sandwich): No.

PA (after a long pause): You do want cheese, right?

Panera black bean soup

One other thing.  My black bean soup looked nothing like the soup in the photo above – it had fewer than a dozen beans in it.  The soup liquid was tasty, but I’m not being unreasonable to expect my black bean soup to have some actual beans in it . . . am I?

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Alice Deejay is the name of a trance music project of a Dutch music producer and DJ named Jürgen Rijkers – who was better known as DJ Jurgen.  (I’m not sure what happened to his umlaut.)

The singer on “Better Off Alone” was an Amsterdam native named Judith Pronk, who later became a freelance makeup artist.

Alice Deejay released only one album, which was titled Who Needs Guitars Anyway?  (Good question.)

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If you’re trying to figure out what the connection is between my conversation with the clueless Panera guy and today’s featured song, you’re wasting your time because there is none.

Here’s the official music video for “Better Off Alone” – which has been viewed over 25 million times:

Click below to buy the song from Amazon: