From “Jessicafischerqueen,” who posted it on my chess site this morning–God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen–traditional version, sung by the Bach Choir: plus a thoroughly lovely photo that I only wish I could go into for a little while, and sing this carol, and make the snowscape echo it.
I has been chalenged “by a” Reeder he thinks Cats are like Some Axternel “Force” programbed them to cach bugs “and” Other Pests. Wel budy i sure can straiten Yiu out on that!!!
Dont yiu know Cats got to Be Cats becose of Evilution? evryboddy knows That ascept For stopid christins who hasnt Got no Collidge Edication! if yiu was In Collidge like us Interllecturals yiu wuld kno Evilution it “is” evrything!!!
OK let me explane it To yiu. Frist thare was Rocks and wehn It rainded on the Rocks they come Alive!! and first they was onely Germs and Werms and stuff, and Evilution it turned Them into bugs and Fish and then Evilution turned them Into Dinosores!!! Iff yiu looks at That thare piture up Above yiu wil see the Cat-o-Sorus witch is The ansesster of Cats and thay Has foned the Fostils in lotts of Diffrint Plases.
So yiu seee thare istnt no Axternle Force to Make cats “be” Cats becose thare isnt no god and It “is al” done By Evilution!!! thare sure istnt No god to programb “them” into bein Predditers and cachin Bugs is is al jist Evilution. It is easy to “Rembember”>>rocks-germs-werms-bugs-dinosores-aminals-cave men-Interllucturals and Climbit Sceintits.
PS.-That Photrograph of the Cat-O-Sorus it is 100 Persent Real i seen It on the Intranet!!!!
This just about brought me to tears, it’s so beautiful–The First Noel, sung by Elvis Presley. Forget the silly costumes and the rock-‘n’-roll. God gave this man the voice of an angel, and he knew how to use it.
Now, folks, Christmas is coming up fast–and don’t leave the daily hymn selection to me and Erlene. We all have very much to celebrate, and good news to proclaim to all the world. Come, get into the spirit of it all! Especially those of you who haven’t yet requested a hymn. If this is your first visit to this blog, you can still request a hymn. So step right up!
Growing up in the New York media market in the 1950s and 60s, you just can’t imagine it without Sandy Becker on TV. Which he was, from 1955 through 1968, mostly on WNEW.
This guy was a volcano of talent: nobody like him, anymore, to entertain little kids and young teens. Original puppets? Sandy not only performed them; he made them. Far-out characters? Sandy played them: Norton Nork, Hambone, the Big Professor, and the inscrutable Dr. Gesundheit. He also did cartoons.
Much of his show was live, and, alas, little of it was recorded. Much of it was ad-libbed. And you also heard a lot of Bert Kaempfert music: the theme for his daytime show, heard in this video, was That Happy Feeling. When he was on at night, it was Afrikaan Beat.
Kids’ TV in this era was overrun with talent. Along with Sandy, we had the immortal Soupy Sales and the incredible Chuck McCann, who gained national recognition by winning an Oscar nomination for his supporting role in The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter… and his “Hi, guy! One shot and I’m good for the whole day!” deodorant commercials. Remember those? The protagonist was an ordinary gtuy who had to share a medicine cabinet with McCann’s weird character. But I digress.
Well, I can’t hear any of Bert Kaempfert’s music without thinking of Sandy Becker–gone, but lovingly remembered by probably millions of people who were kids then.
Let me see if I can get you just a tiny Hambone clip or something…
Don’t you hate it when there’s some big, fat bug flying around your bedroom… just waiting for you to fall asleep with your mouth open? Bugs live for those opportunities!
But this bedroom is protected by a cat–so the bug party’s over.
Please ignore the lazy dog who doesn’t help.
I have known this melody for years–a few bars of it introduce A Christmas Carol with George C. Scott–without knowing the lyrics, or even knowing it’s a traditional English Christmas carol, first published in the 17th century. Imagine my delight when I stumbled over it today on youtube.
So here it is, The Sussex Carol, also known as On Christmas Night, performed by Maddy Prior and the Carnival Band in true 17th century style. I hope you love it as much as I do.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me. –Psalm 23:4
In Daniel 3, the Bible tells us how Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, had three Jews thrown into “a burning fiery furnace” for refusing to bow to his idol. Miraculously, those three men–Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego–survived unscathed. And the king, astounded, said, “Lo, I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt; and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God.” (v. 25)
Fast-forward into the 20th century.
As Europe was tuning up for World War I, explorer Ernest Shackleton set out on an expedition to cross Antarctica by land. But his ship was crushed in the ice, and he and his men made a narrow escape to a desert island. There they would be sure to die, unless they were rescued.
After many hardships and extreme peril on the sea, Shackleton and two companions arrived on South Georgia Island, where they then had to hike over mountains and glaciers in hope of reaching the whaling station on the other side of the island, from whence word could be sent to summon rescuers. It was a grim and difficult march, literally a race against death.
Now let Shackleton himself tell us what happened during that march, excerpted from his book, South.
“When I look back at those days I have no doubt that Providence guided us, not only across those snow-fields, but across the storm-white sea that separated Elephant Island from our landing-place on South Georgia. I know that during that long and racking march of 36 hours over the unnamed mountains and glaciers of South Georgia it seemed to me often that we were four, not three. I said nothing to my companions on the point, but afterwards Worsley said to me, ‘Boss, I had a curious feeling on the march that there was another person with us.’ Crean confessed to the same idea. One feels ‘the dearth of human words, the roughness of mortal speech’ in trying to describe things intangible, but a record of our journeys would be incomplete without a reference to a subject very near to our hearts.”
For two persons, let alone three, to have the same hallucination at the same time is exceedingly unlikely, and may not even be possible. So I believe this story, even as I believe the Biblical account of the miracle in Babylon.
It is not recorded that anyone was fool enough to call Shackleton a liar to his face.
Hi-ho! Got a quarter of a million bucks you feel like pissing into a fan? Well, then–send yourself or one of your offspring to the University of Pennsylvania for four years. For a mere $50,000 and change per year–not counting food and books–you can by educated (LOL) by idiots.
The UPenn English Dept., in order to proclaim “a more inclusive mission for the English Dept.,” recently got rid of a portrait of William Shakespeare and replaced it with that of some black lesbian “poet” that you never heard of: for the sake of “diversity.”
The Daily Mail clarifies: the English Dept. faculty voted to do this a couple of years ago but never got around to it; so “students” took down Shakespeare’s portrait and replaced it ( http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4026576/Students-remove-Shakespeare-portrait-UPenn-replace-photo-black-lesbian-writer-amid-push-diversity-English-department.html ).
Who needs Shakespeare when you’ve got a race-hustling feminist bellyacher as your literary foundation? Yo! He’s white, he’s male, he’s European–strike three, he’s out!
Our colleges and universities–making America dumber by the day.
How about this to start your day? A traditional choir sings a traditional French carol, Angels We Have Heard on High. Come on, now–this has got to get you in the spirit!
Requested by Erlene. Waiting to hear from more of you!
One thing you’ve got to say for dogs: they have a gift for joy. And you can catch it from them, if you’re not careful!
I wonder if my cats would go for plastic wading pools full of rubber balls. You think?