The Ukulele Alphabet: Fort Hood by Mike Doughty

Letter D, Week 1
“Fort Hood” by Mike Doughty

Mike Doughty used to do this gimmick at his live shows called “The Question Jar,” where audience members would write a question on a piece of paper and throw it into a jar prior to the performance.

Mike would then pick questions at random to answer/riff on between songs — very late-aughts lo-fi. (In fact, he put out a live album in 2012 called The Question Jar Show.)

We went to see one of these shows at Joe’s Pub in 2007, and because I had gone to grad school with a girl who went to high school with Mike Doughty, I had a specific question in mind.

So we asked: “Were you ever suspended for a milkshake-related incident in high school?”

(The story itself was that Mike did in fact get suspended for dumping a milkshake over someone’s head. Lo these many years later, I can’t remember if it was my friend’s head in question or another student who was the dumpee.)

Mike was visibly and amusingly shook by this blast from his past in the Question Jar. Dan recalls that he said something along the lines of, “what — is this This is Your Life up here?” And we felt like we won the evening with our excellent question.

After the show, I ran into Mike by the merch table and explained the connection so he could rest easy about not having high school stalkers in the audience.

And that, dear readers, is my Mike Doughty story.

Listen to the original version of “Fort Hood”:

What’s the Ukulele Alphabet?

Read all about my 2025 ukulele performance project (and its rules) here.

I want to A-B-SEEEE some more!

Watch all the performances in the Ukulele Alphabet project.