How to tell your parents aren't really paying attention to the radio ...

It starts off innocuously enough: Golden oldies, classic country or "A Prairie Home Companion."

Somewhere in the middle of Kansas, though, it fades to static, with an occasional intelligable word or two, but nothing like a coherent sentence or song. And your dad still bobs his head every now and then, as though there were a beat to bob a head to.

Soon, it's all static, and your dad is still driving along, happy as a lark, as though Willie and Waylon were still crooning over the airwaves. You slip in your headphones and flick on your iPod, blissfully unaware of what is (or isn't) on the radio for a good stretch of time and farmland.

But then, during a lull between Staind and Breaking Benjamin, you catch the unmistakable sound and lyrics of Marcy Playground's "Sex and Candy," and your dad still looks like it's the Oakridge Boys filling the car with sound.

That's when you know ... your parents are simply listening to the voices in their heads. The radio's just the background music ...