I rarely listen to the radio – even NPR – unless I’m stuck in a car on a long drive with my husband. A couple of years ago we were listening to a radio station somewhere between Maryland and Illinois and a song came on that we both really liked. Radio stations do not always give the name of the song and artist, so I used the search function on my cell phone to search the Internet for the snippet of lyrics I’d memorized: “no white flag above my door”.

The first link on Google took me right to the lyrics of a song by Dido.

Ok. We found a song by Dido. We liked it. The end.

That is not the exciting part!

The word Dido clicked a switch in my mind – it completed a circuit that had been going haywire for a couple of years. See, I’d been searching the Internet in vain for reference to a book about an evil doll that I’d read over and over as a child. I found a website dedicated to finding lost stories, but never found reference to the story I’d read. But now I had a name for the doll. It wsa Dido.

I’d been searching using the terms evil doll. There are a number of stories about evil dolls out there. But search for Dido evil doll and you get a link to a book called a Candle in Her Room by Ruth Arthur. Bingo! I eventually bought the book at a reasonable price – from somewhere – don’t recall where though. My limit was $25 including shipping and handling.

Unfortunately when I read it as an adult, the story fell flat.

Oh well, it makes for a good story.

Thanks Dido! (we bought the album too)

Watch her singing White Flag on Letterman