Question: Help. In last weeks ...

Question: Help. In last weeks season finale of Providence Syd's sister Joanie played a song for her in the hospital. What was the name of the song and who was singing it? Thank you.

Televisionary: I believe the song you seek is Joni Mitchell's The Circle Game, which is on the classic album Ladies of the Canyon. (It's also available on the recent collection Hits, a reasonably OK primer for the uninitiated. However, the purist in me insists you buy Ladies.)

Once again, I've been buried with mail from people wanting to ID a song from a favorite episode. I know the feeling, though I must admit years of living in harsh old New York pummeled the sentimentality out of me, rendering me unable to listen to that song all the way through and certainly unable to sit through an episode of Providence. But hey, that's why there's chocolate and vanilla, as my dear old dad would say.

Besides, I'm hoping if I adopt a hard-hearted enough stance no one I know will remember I used to sing that song around bonfires at Camp Tockwogh. (Oh, go easy — like you don't have a secret shame?)