Sticking it in the context of the song... Marlena white as stretcher sheet Watches it all from her tenth floor balcony Like it's her opera box All those Pagliacci summer frocks Otis is fiddling with the TV dial All he gets are cartoons and reruns She taps her glass with an emery file Watching three rings in the sun
I've always thought of it as the three-ring circus that Marlena is watching from the window. And it's a brilliant little piece of writing...she uses the metaphor of the tenth floor room as the balcony of an opera house, it just so happens that the opera referenced is Pagliacci, which is about a clown, which is most commonly found in a 3-ring circus, hence "three rings in the sun". Just my take on it, of course. It's all a dream she has awake... Bob NP: Hanne Boel, "How Do You Stop"
