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Our Daily Thread 11-30-13

Good Morning!

On this day in 1782 the United States and Britain signed preliminary peace articles in Paris, ending the Revolutionary War. 

In 1897 Thomas Edison’s own motion picture projector had its first commercial exhibition.

In 1940 Lucille Ball and Cuban musician Desi Arnaz were married. 

In 1986 “Time” magazine published an interview with President Reagan. In the article, Reagan described fired national security staffer Oliver North as a “national hero.”

And it’s the day my lovely wife Cheryl was born. 🙂

Happy Birthday Honey! 🙂

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Quotes of the Day

“All the great things are simple, and many can be expressed in a single word: freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope.”

Winston Churchill

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“Anger is an acid that can do more harm to the vessel in which it is stored than to anything on which it is poured.”

Mark Twain
(Samuel Langhorne Clemens)

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Since Thanksgiving is over, the Christmas music can now begin. My wife picked this one. 🙂

Today is also Bryon Goggin’s of Smalltown Poets birthday.

And it’s Roger Glover’s too.

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Anyone have a QoD?

101 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 11-30-13”

  1. I will be bookmarking this page so that I can listen to the beautiful music when I get to the land of free internet.
    Happy Birthday Mrs. Aj!
    Have a wonderful family celebration.

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  4. Happy birthday, Cheryl! (What a nice name!) This Cheryl’s hubby has a birthday tomorrow, but I’m not sure that we’ll celebrate tomorrow, since he’s sick. He’s on antibiotics, though, so hopefully within a few days he’ll feel a bit better.

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  10. AJ- Tell your Cheryl Happy Birthday.

    I enjoy the seasonal hymns, for the most part. My complaint is that people think they should only be played in December. If Christmas is so important, why not play the music all year?

    But I don’t like the secular songs. I am glad they only get airplay in December. And now that I have an mp3 hooked up to the car stereo, I don’t have to listen to so-called Christian radio stations playing secular garbage. (Rant continued on the R&R thread.)

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  13. We actually have sung some of the Christmas carols in “off-“season. 🙂 But I do love them this time of year especially.

    (And I’ll confess to also liking much of the secular music at Christmas, too.)

    I don’t have holiday CDs. But for those who have access to satellite radio, the “pops” station offers the best Christmas music with the classics, both familiar and rare, including a lot of the church music that today’s churches have sadly left behind. 😦

    Seems like there’s a holiday music station this year for just about every taste, from traditional to country to soul:

    http://www.siriusxm.com/holiday

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  14. Donna- Some of the secular stuff is okay, like “White Christmas”. At least it is listenable. But the junk with Santa or tinkling bells and tunes that aggravate and won’t leave the brain are the ones I despise.

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  18. All year here, as well. Sometimes people walking in will look at us askance. Others say, “Christmas music?” Still others, “Christmas music!”

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  19. Good Morning…we listen to Christmas year round…mostly carols…oh but I do so love Bing Crosby, Perry Como, Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, singing Christmas music…sometimes I have to wonder if the secular artists singing worshipful carols giving praising to the King ever listen or hear the words they are singing…I recall when Kenny G recorded his Christmas CD, he received flack from some in the Jewish and Christian community….he said he loved the music and melody of the carols and the words meant nothing to him…I didn’t buy the CD….

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  20. I had a couple of Josh Groban carols on my mp3. When we were in the car D3 heard one and asked why? I said I like it and don’t need to only hear it in December. She understood.

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  23. I like to listen to the music cd Star of Wonder put out by Majesty music. It is beautiful piano music of the season which I have enjoyed all year long. I tried to copy and paste the link but could not get it to work. It is a great cd.

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  28. Elf on a Shelf purchased, wrapped, and on it’s way to Maryland
    Lulabelle’s Christmas Ornament purchased
    Stockings to stuff for the three men I will have home at Christmas
    One of the items BG put on her Christmas Wish List
    Fannie Flagg’s new book autographed for me
    New white sweater to wear with jeans and boots for me

    I have done my part to support Small Business Saturday. Now the sausage and onions are in the pot cooking and soon I will make the roux and later today Mr. P and I will have Kim’s Southern Christmas Sausage and Shrimp Gumbo. In deference to the Alabama/Auburn Game I will put up my Christmas tree tomorrow after church.

    Life is Good here in Paradise, AL

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  30. You may find me humming a Christmas song at odd times during the year, but we only listen to them during the Christmas season. I think that preserves their “specialness” for me. I do enjoy some of the secular ones, like Winter Wonderland & Silver Bells, but there are some that are just insipid.

    I went through a period of time as a young Christian when I thought it was wrong to listen to the secular Christmas songs. Then I got a Larnell Harris Christmas cd, & there was a medley of some secular songs, & I realized I had really missed them. The realization came to me that they were harmless & fun, not wrong at all.

    kBells – As a New Englander, I heartily disagree with you about the snow songs. 🙂

    HAPPY BIRTHDAY, CHERYL J!

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  31. i love stepping out the door to start on my chores and waking up the children with a nice loud rendition of “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas” usually starting in July. They sure come out cheerful when I do that.

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  32. Peter L, by the way, I was talking about when the drinking age in Idaho was nineteen and twenty one in Washington. Lots of traffic from WSU to Moscow, lots of accidents on the way back.

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  34. Donna,

    I was gonna wait…… but since you brought it up……

    And it’s new and improved. Now it has synchronized flashing lights too. 🙂

    I don’t care, I’ll use it again closer to Christmas. 🙂

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  35. I cannot tell you all the degree to which I loathe that horrid, meant to play on your emotions excuse of a Christmas song–that one about the shoes. Did I mention I hated it?

    The only thing I do not like about my church is that we do not sing Christmas songs until Christmas Eve when we sing Joy to the World and Silent Night. We only sing them until January 6th or the closest Sunday after. Then we have have the weeks of Christmas and then head into Lent.

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  36. Kim, I too hate that song!!! I do not like to be manipulated like that. I also dislike Dominic the Donkey – ever heard that one? If not, don’t look for it!

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  37. Lee & I love Dominic the Donkey, because it is so goofy & joyful (at least to us). I love to sing the “hee haw hee haw” part (or however that might be spelled, ’cause it’s not quite pronounced “hee haw”). 🙂

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  38. Secular Christmas songs. I like them too.
    White Christmas
    Blue Christmas
    It’s Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas
    I’ll Be Home for Christmas is an old WW II song.
    Silver Bells
    Deck the Halls
    Etc.
    Bur I don’t know no Christmas song about shoes.

    One of my favorites, not generally popular, by Perry Coma,
    My Christmas Dream: A commercial is in front of it.

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  39. Cheryl, I’d also heard about “Joy to the World” — so interesting since it’s been tied to Christmas and used to praise the first coming of Christ. But that’s probably why we sing it “out of season” at our church from time to time.

    We usually start singing one carol a week after Thanksgiving. We always sing O Come O Come Immanuel at some point, it’s one of our pastor’s favorites (and he based an entire Christmas Eve sermon on it one year).

    Ah, AJ, with that wanderers’ blog holiday standard, the crazy-psychedelic version of Carol of the Bells. I knew you would not disappoint.

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  40. Some of those Christmas songs on Chas’ list I find rather sad and wistful I guess, especially “I’ll be Home for Christmas” (probably because it always made my mom sad). I usually avoid them.

    But I do love the carols and like the more upbeat secular songs for the holiday. I watched “Elf” the other night and still find it a fun movie — along with “Polar Express.” “Miracle on 34th Street” was a big favorite of mine for many years. And who can forget the Charlie Brown Christmas. So sweet.

    So yeah, I’ve been known to hum “Ya better watch out … Ya better not pout. … Ya better not cry …. I’m telling you why … ” on occasion during the holiday season.

    Shhhh. No one tell Peter.

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  43. I love Christmas music, both sacred and secular, but I do save it for the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Just to keep it special, I think. I love the old movies like White Christmas or Holiday Inn or Miracle on 34th Street. Polar Express was okay, Elf is a little weird for me unless I’m in one of those silly moods. I think I saw so many versions of “A Christmas Carol” when I was growing up that I’m completely turned off by it now.

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  44. I also love the old Christmas movies. Modern remakes are fun, but just not the same. My 6’2″ metal loving son loves to watch White Christmas with me 🙂 He says he hates all Christmas music except for Trans Siberian Orchestra and Bing Crosby. (It’s not really true though). We’ll probably have a time of guitars and carols at Christmas and he’ll play along by ear and make them so interesting and pretty. 🙂 I can’t wait for Christmas!!!!

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  45. KarenO, I bet Forrest likes Dominic too! The radio station I listened to at work played it several times a day the whole month of December – it’s no wonder I don’t like it!

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  48. I think that ‘The Messiah’ is my favorite music of all time.
    ‘I’ll be home for Christmas’ makes me cry.
    Last year I used that tune and tried writing something…
    Let’s keep Christ in Christmas
    It’s His Holy Day
    Let’s keep Christ in Christmas…
    I had several verses, but don’t remember them now.
    Anyone want to add some?

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  50. Hey, it’s snowing again this year! 🙂

    I like anything Nat King Cole sings . . .

    We’re home after a wonderful trip to LA for Thanksgiving, the best one in a couple years.

    I, however, didn’t calibrate my books on hold at the library well, and I have nine of them. 😦 I hate it when I get a ton all at once when I have a lot of other things to do . . . !

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  53. Just ordered a some Christmas cds from Amazon – two by Andy Williams, one by Perry Como, & one by Nat King Cole. They each have a mix of carols & secular Christmas songs.

    Also ordered a couple Charlie the Ranch Dog books for Forrest, & . . . oh, what was that other one I ordered?

    Oh, yeah – A Pioneer Christmas Collection. 😉

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  54. Which I saw at the Christian bookstore a few weeks ago. 🙂 Hey, I though, I know an author who wrote for that.

    I used to cry at a lot of Christmas songs as a kid — including Frosty the Snowman. When it got to the part where he melted, I’d just wail away.

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  57. Thank you to everyone for the kind birthday wishes. I enjoyed reading them and having them read to me through out the day. You are all an important part of my hubby’s life, therefore of mine too! God Bless!
    Mrs THE REAL AJ

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  58. Cool Aj and the Mrs. I get snow to get me ready for coming home. How sweet!!! I have almost no clothes here to bring home for winter. I will be travelling light so friend are going to fill my suitcases with mail to send.
    Michelle, I just got Eighty Days from the Boulder library after you saying you had it on hold.

    It’s beginning to look a lot like Chistmas…..

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  59. The sixteen year old boys were really excited when they heard the sound of that video, Donna. They told me the name of the group. I let them watch it, you made their day.

    Wow! She really does exist!

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  62. Hey, I just got to listen to that same music video. Someone here downloaded it and posted. So I didn’t even have to pay to watch. Incredible voices. I was looking at the background. Does anyone know where it was recorded?

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  64. I like the Victorian era carols sung at church, but my general impression is that most Christians miss out on the best Christmas music. It is a hobby of mine to search out old and obscure Christmas carols, like the folk carol, “Remember, O Thou Man” dating from the 1500’s. I first got on its track by seeing it mentioned in Thomas Hardy’s Under the Greenwood Tree (BBC made a charming Christmas special of the book several years ago, which is worth watching just for the English folk singing). I have it on my Christmas playlist now, sung by the talented American folk singer, Custer Larue; and I never cease to be amazed at the words, “In Beth’lem, he was born, for mankind’s sake… And therefore took no scorn, Our sins to bear.” Clearly, the simple peasants who first sung the carol had a better understanding of the reason we celebrate the birth of Christ than many more sophisticated people.

    I also enjoy the Messiah – I have the entire oratorio on my playlist as well, and find myself singing along as I work around the house. The Messiah, like a lot of Christmas songs, could be played all year, but I save them for Christmas because something that only happens once a year is all the sweeter when it happens. Growing up, we listened to a classical station which would play what they cheekily termed “The Real Music of Christmas” (they had an ad which said, “Tired of a holly, jolly Christmas? Listen to ___ and the REAL music of Christmas.”) They were a secular station, but they shamelessly promoted the sacred music of Christmas. The Sunday before Christmas, they always broadcast the entire ‘Messiah” [I’m all for seasonal performances of the Messiah – just think how many times the Gospel message is given!]. They got me started on my search for old carols, as they played many songs that I couldn’t find on CD and have only recently been able to track down via iTunes and Youtube.

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  65. It’s hard to get ready for church when the power keeps going out. I wonder what the occasion is that has things on the blink? I will have to take my coffee with me. At least my hair wasn’t wet and needing drying!

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  67. Cowboy got out of the yard somehow this morning between the time I opened the doggie door at 6:30 and 7:30 a.m. when I got up.

    I threw on some clothes, grabbed some treats & the car keys (Tess wanted to come so I leashed her up). Opened the front door and there he was, just standing there. It was, after all, time for breakfast.

    I don’t know how he got out, will have to do a thorough search of the back fence … and I’ll just keep them both locked inside until I get back from church.

    Usually he’ll lead me to the spot, so when I let him out later I’ll keep a close watch on him to see if I can figure it out.

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  69. kIm, I’m not sure if Katlin was referring to the missed kick yesterday that was run back for the game winning touchdown, but I understand it was over fifty yards, which is usually beyond pro range.
    Pro’s don’t “guarantee” a kick outside the 30 yard line, though they often make it.
    The kicker didn’t lose the game.

    The guy I feel sorry for is the Missou kicker who missed a chip shot in the third overtime that let SC win the game. It was almost extra point range, and he missed it. I’m sure he had a hard time going to sleep that night.
    But I’m glad the Gamecocks won.

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  70. There were Alabama “fans” on FB and Twitter last night calling Cade Foster all sorts of names and telling him he should kill himself, they hoped he wasn’t able to father children, they hoped his girl friend cheated on him and THEN it got uglier. Finally a couple of other Alabama football players started posting messages that anyone wanting to harm Cade Foster would have to come through all of them to do it.
    It was an embarrassment to other Alabama Football Fans. I was proud of my resident Alabama Fan, his response was, “Oh well, we had to lose sometime, want to watch a movie?”

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  71. WRT to Kim’s post, I thought I might link this to the Clemson update he always sends out before every game. It’s a long story but well worth reading. Especially the last paragraph if nothing else. It puts Kim’s post in perspective.
    Todd Ellis is the “voice of the Gamecocks” on the radio. He calls all the games; a former quarterback that held all the records that Connor Shaw just broke. He has a short pro career for Denver. His day job is attorney.

    http://www.mycarolina.org/s/842/twocol.aspx?sid=842&gid=1&pgid=1802&contentbuilder=1

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  72. Cowboy’s being a wise guy.

    I locked the doggie door up before going to church so he couldn’t sneak out again. Now, I’m waiting for him to show me the spot … But every time I let him out hoping he’ll head toward it, he pauses and looks back at me through the glass.

    Then he just stands there. As long as I’m watching, he won’t go much of anywhere in the backyard and eventually just comes right back in again of his own accord.

    So I locked up the doggie door to keep them inside for the 3rd time since coming home; guess I’ll have to bide my time before I go out and do more investigating on my own to see if I can find the spot.

    A friend from church loaned me her electric drill, she brought it in a big backpack for me to take home. I’ll still need to get some wood, though, to block the spot when I find it …

    So I guess Alabamans take their football very seriously. I shouldn’t talk, we’ve had shootings between fans at games between the LA Dodgers & SF Giants.

    We don’t wait to throw out threats on FB. We just start shooting. 😉

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  75. Thanks for sharing that Chas. What a beautiful story.

    It’s funny, the people who attent the University of Alabama and Auburn University laugh and joke good naturedly. It’s the ignorant trash that can’t find university in a dictionary nor Tuscaloosa on a map that give Alabama fans a bad name.

    KBells, I am only an Alabama fan by default. Paul loves it and gets into it. If I were a big Alabama fan I would have denounced my fandom last night. I couldn’t believe some of the things people I KNOW were saying.

    How would the one jerk have felt today if the poor kid had killed himself

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  76. The Christmas tree is up. The wreath is on the door. There are ornaments hung in the window from the kitchen to the den. The mirror that belonged to Paul’s grandparents is decorated with garland.
    Tomorrow I will put out all the nativity sets. Tonight I am tired.

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  77. Question: the children are taking off the summer tires and putting on the winter tires. In my experience, one drives down the road a ways then gets out and tightens some more. They say they have never heard of such a thing. Well, one said he had heard that. Do people not do that anymore?

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  83. I am talking about finishing the tightening with the lug wrench after driving a bit. I don’t know if they used the air wrench. But I like the idea of precaution.

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  84. Hey, here’s a question, maybe for Michelle (for a book I’m editing). Does the expression “all hands on deck” refer specifically to deck hands? In other words, can it be said that “in the expression ‘all hands on deck,’ hands stand for the whole person” or is that just a misunderstanding of the term? I can look it up, and I will if I don’t get an answer, but I have a hunch I can get a more informed answer on here than by googling random answers online. The author is saying that it’s a synedoche (like “counting noses” really means counting people; in that term “noses” stands for the whole person, but is a more creative way of saying it).

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  90. The video definitely looks like LA — shot from either the Hollywood hills or Griffith Park looking south on the downtown LA skyline. I may be wrong, but it was all quite familiar looking to me.

    The voices were wonderful. I’m not a huge fan of the song in general, but I have to say that this rendition of it was very well done.

    We had a good talk at church tonight on the incarnation, a topic that will carry us through December for the evening classes. Lots to think about …

    And some of the people in our neighborhood have busy this weekend putting up beautiful Christmas lights. 🙂

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  93. Chas…Paul and I bought 4 new tires for our car to celebrate our 25th anniversary…while the tires were being put on, we walked down a couple of blocks to a place called Bentleys…we had soup and salad…with coffee….our friends thought we were nuts…we just enjoyed being together…and getting new tires! 🙂

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  94. you all are on 93 and you are going to quit. I am sure that Donna is still up. Monday at 4pm here and back from school and the weight room.
    The snow is still falling here, but it takes a while to start.

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