Get your news from a source that’s not owned and controlled by oligarchs. Sign up for the free _Mother Jones Daily_. It’s Saturday, and I am oh-so-tired of Donald Trump. (The latest: he

finally coughed up his favorite Bible verse, but it doesn’t actually appear anywhere in the Bible. Since this was an interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network, he knew this had to be

coming but _still_ didn’t bother to look up a genuine verse. I swear, he’s just taunting us. He’s actually a Democrat with an IQ of 300 and he’s running a test[embedded content] to see just

how far you can bamboozle the press corps and the conservative base and still lead the Republican primary race. Judging by Wednesday’s debate performance, he’s finally tiring of the gag

suddenly struck me as odd: > “Relax,” said the night man, > “We are PROGRAMMED to receive. > You can check out any time you like, > But you can never leave.” Programmed? This

song was written in 1976, before the PC revolution and the rise of Silicon Valley conspired to make _programming_ into a common word. [SEE UPDATE BELOW.] Even cheap programmable calculators

had just barely started to hit the market. It was certainly a common word among techie types, which is probably why it never seemed odd to me before, but was it common among shaggy rock

musicians? It doesn’t seem like it would be. Did Don Henley take an intro CS course at North Texas State? Or is the word being used in a different sense? Naturally, I went to my favorite

source for word usage over time, the Google Ngram Viewer. Here’s what it shows: There are two notable things here. First, the use of _programmed_ peaks in 1984. That’s odd. You’d think it

would have kept on rising into the stratosphere. It’s in common use today for everything from building a space shuttle to setting up your toaster oven. [In comments, weirdnoise suggests that

this is because _coding_ is used these days rather than _programming_. Could be.] More germane to my question, however, is the fact that its use starts to rise around 1940. What’s up with

that? This is obviously a non-computer usage, since digital computers hadn’t been invented at that point. So let’s go to Google Books and check things out. _Programmed_ appears to have been

commonly used in four basic senses. Here are examples of each: > WAR HOUSING: HEARINGS BEFORE THE COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC BUILDINGS AND > GROUNDS, 1942: “The 20,000 units in item 5b and 

the 100,000 > additional Government dormitories yet to be programmed and financed, > as shown in item 5c….” >  > VARIETY RADIO DIRECTORY, 1940: “National Broadcasting Co. Owned

> and/or Managed and/or Programmed Stations—474….” >  > HEALTH AND ITS MAINTENANCE: A HYGIENE TEXT FOR WOMEN, 1931: “She > has always programmed her work. She never undertook 

more than she > could do and do well….” >  > LIFE MAGAZINE AD, 1949: “IBM products using electronic principles: > Card-programmed Calculator….” In order, the four senses in which

_programmed_ was used are: (1) in construction and engineering scheduling, (2) in radio scheduling, (3) as a generic synonym for _scheduled_, and (4) the IBM sense, which is a precursor to

the common computer programming sense of today. The first three of these are all variants of _scheduled_, or else used in the similar sense of verbing the noun _program_. The final one is

the source of the contemporary usage of the word in the software biz. So what were the Eagles thinking of? It doesn’t make sense that it was used as a synonym for _scheduled_. That doesn’t

read right, and anyway, why not just use the word _scheduled_ instead? The computer sense works in context, but somehow seems unlikely. That leaves us with the radio programming sense, and I

suppose that’s the right one. Musicians would obviously be familiar with this usage, and so would their audience. I warned you that this was a ridiculously long post about a ridiculous

topic. Don’t blame me if you read all the way to the end. But now that you have, feel free to comment if you think there’s a possibility I’ve left out. UPDATE: Via Twitter, Dan Perkins (aka

Tom Tomorrow) reminds me that _programmed_—in the computer programming sense—was fairly commonly used in science fiction TV and movies in the 60s and 70s. For example, here it is from 1965

in the first episode of _Lost in Space_: > DR. SMITH: I have reprogrammed the robot. His power has been > activated. Exactly eight hours after launch the robot will destroy > the 

spaceship with all hands aboard. Here it is from 1967 in _I, Mudd_, an episode in the original Star Trek series: > KIRK: Who sent you? > NORMAN (an android): I am not programmed to 

respond in that area. Here it is from 1968 in _2001: A Space Odyssey_: > INTERVIEWER: Do you believe that Hal has genuine emotions? > POOLE: Well, he acts like he has genuine emotions.

 He’s programmed > that way to make it easier for us to talk to him. And from 1972 in _Silent Running_: > LOWELL: Hey, that’s really excellent. Now, um…you see, what > I’ve done 

is…I’ve reprogrammed both of you so that now > you’ll respond directly to me. And of course, from 1977 in _Star Wars_: > OWEN: You, I suppose you’re programmed for etiquette and 

protocol. > THREEPIO: Protocol? Why, its my primary function, sir. I am > well-versed in all the customs— > OWEN: I have no need for a protocol droid. > THREEPIO: Of course you 

haven’t, sir. Not in an environment such > as this. That is why I have been programmed— OK, I’ll stop now. The point is that perhaps the computer programming sense of the word was

actually pretty common in popular culture by 1976. So I guess there was no real mystery to be solved after all. UPDATE: Or maybe the song is using the word in the new-agey sense of cult

programming. That would make sense on multiple levels.