What we could have been doing in Paris last weekend instead of recovering from jet lag: attending the 3ème Conference Internationale Zappalogie. Right down the street!

Presentation topics included: 'Why I Love Frank Zappa,' 'Take Your Clothes Off When You Speculate' and 'May You Never Hear Wampadoo Wap-Wah Again: Zappa et le Doo Wop.'

For Zappa's Baltimore roots, see Jonathan Pitts' great story on the Baltimore Zappa statue donated by Lithuanians. Zappa is huge in Lithuania. And France.

Most Baltimoreans are aware of their hometown's claim on Edgar Allan Poe, H.L. Mencken and John Waters, but fewer know that Zappa, who made more than 50 records between the late 1950s and his death in 1993, was born in Baltimore, the son of immigrants from Sicily.

His family lived in the 4600 block of Park Heights Ave., then moved to Edgewood in Harford County. Zappa's father, a chemist and mathematician, had a job nearby at Aberdeen Proving Ground. They moved to California when Frank was 10.