I don't even like 10cc...

...but I always liked this song. Even the first time I heard the lyrics all the way through I "got" it, at least the "Methinks thou dost protest too much" meaning.

I'm not in love
So don't forget
It's just a silly phase I'm going through
And just because I call you up
Don't get me wrong
Don't think you've got it made
I'm not in love
Oh no
It's because

Listening to it today, though, I hear the absolute delusion in the lyrics. I'm just not sure who really is deluding whom. Is the singer deluding his girlfriend? Or is she deluding herself into hearing/seeing things from him that he never meant?

I'd like to see you
But then again
It doesn't mean you mean that much to me
So if I call you
Don't make a fuss
Don't tell your friends about the two of us
I'm in love
Oh no
It's because

There are certainly a lot of mixed signals for boys. In the end, I do think he is lying to himself, probably aware that he's trying to talk himself into thinking he doesn't care.

(Be quiet...big boys don't cry...)

I read or heard somewhere awhile back that women just don't know how much they hurt the men in their lives. I'm beginning to get the idea that words are much more terrible swords than swords. You can shield yourself from a sword, but not many men have the emotional skills to parry words with a woman (some do--I'm generalizing here, while speaking specifically about someone in my life).

I keep your picture
Upon the wall
It hides a nasty stain that's lying there
So don't you ask me
To give it back
I know you know it doesn't mean that much to me
I'm not in love
No no
It's because

I wonder if that stain on the wall is the same as the stain on Martin Luther's wall?

Ooh, you'll wait a long time for me
Ooh, you'll wait a long time
(repeat)

Which sometimes is the only recourse, eh?

I'm not in love
So don't forget
It's just a silly phase I'm going through
And just because I call you up
Don't get me wrong
Don't think you've got it made
I'm not in love
I'm not in love

I'm sorry to be oblique, but there are some things about my kid that are well-past oblique right now. I think, to still work with O-words, that we're living in Opaqueland.