It’s been two years since both Jewel and Liz Phair simultaneously attempted to restart their moribund careers in similar fashion: By sexing themselves up and shooting for a more mainstream demographic than their previous niches. Both received a bit of flak over the move, mainly over the anti-feminist tones in their approaches.

So, what became of these reinventions?

It looks to me like they went absolutely nowhere. Phair, after a brief spurt of celebrity-circuit exposure, has faded back into an anonymous background. Pretty much the same for Jewel, aside from some non-news about her unpublished poetry.

So much heat, only to cool off just as fast as it was generated.

Jason, a coworker, told me about an interesting little superstition his mother had used on him while growing up:

If you leave the house, then realize you forgot something and have to re-enter to get it, you must sit down down for a full minute before exiting again.

If you don’t follow this precept? Bad things, I suppose.

This sounds vaguely familiar, but I can’t really remember if I’d ever heard of it before now. Jason claims it’s Irish in origin, but I can’t find anything about it along those lines. Anybody out there ever hear of it?

The underlying purpose of this is obvious, especially when you apply it to a kid. To avoid the embarrassment and inconvenience of having to go through the one-minute sit:

- It encourages you to become better organized before setting out, thus saving time;

- Failing that, it could instill resourcefulness, in that even if you do leave something behind, you figure out a way to do without it, or else improvise.

In Jason’s case, neither skill developed. So much for ritual.

The St. Pete Times is getting ready to go nutso with Jim Morrison in tomorrow’s print edition.

“Mary and Jim to the end” is a bank of stories about the 34-years-gone Doors frontman and his Florida/Tampa Bay connections, centering around Mary Werbelow, his early true love. She’s finally talking about their relationship, from their first meeting in Clearwater to their breakup and drift-apart in L.A.

Along the way, there’s various tidbits like Werbelow’s presence in Doors’ lyrics, Morrison’s college days at SPJC and FSU (including that promotional student video he was in), and an obscure arrest record on Morrison from Clearwater Beach.

I’m sure Doors fans will scoop this up bigtime. To me, it seems a bit like overkill; but then, I’ve never been much of a Doors fan.

Time’s up, y’all. The answer to the “Guess My Ringtone” post is:

a) KC and the Sunshine Band - “That’s The Way (I Like It)”

What can I say, I’m a sucker for the classics. Congrats to David and Chuck for guessing correctly. And thanks to everyone who took a swipe at it.

I actually do own the other three songs:

b) The Go-Go’s - “Vacation”

c) Public Enemy - “Louder Than A Bomb”

d) Sleater-Kinney - “Oh!”

But I’m not sure how they’d do as ringtones. As cutesy and stylized as we’d like to get with what bursts out of our cellphones, the key criterion would have to be audibility: I’d like to hear the damned thing ringing, and very loudly (can’t tell you how many calls I’ve missed because I couldn’t hear the ringer in a hectic environment). Any mp3 can be clipped to that the loudest portion does duty for the 15 seconds of ringing time, but I’d opt for less work and go with a tune that already has a loud opening riff.

By that standard, “Louder Than A Bomb” doesn’t work, as it has a soft, gentle gospel opening (contrast for effect, of course). “Vacation” might work, except the opening is too treble-y. “Oh!” might do nicely, except the opening takes several seconds to really gear up.

I put together a list (in no particular order) a while back of the best options from my music collection for use as cellphone ringers. Some I’ve used, others I doubt I’ll ever use, but see what you think:

1. The Jeffersons theme

22. ABBA - Dancing Queen

Nothing if not diverse. I’m leaning toward “Seether” next time.