otoh

I’m planning to switch from Blogger to Wordpress. I have the software installed, but (of course) have some configuring and converting to do. I should be able to import all the old posts and comments, but if not… perhaps it’s time to start fresh anyway.

And for some of you, “Merry New Year!”

Technorati tags: The Eve of Destruction~blog~personal~otoh

My partcipation in HNT has been sporadic and erratic this year. But OS asked for our favorite pic from the last year for our post today and I can do that. This one is a montage of several previous shots and, while it ain’t pretty, it encompasses a lot of memories. I can understand why it might not be your favorite, but it remains one of mine.

Apparently, I’m a cubist….

Technorati tags: blog~personal~otoh~photo~hnt~otohPhoto: Favorite HNT 2006

I have a short break between the various family gatherings. I should be napping….

I hope everyone is happy and peaceful today.

Technorati tags: And So This Is Christmas~blog~personal~otoh

I am a cynic. I’m well on my way to being a curmudgeon (give me a couple more years). But I’m not a Grinch or a Scrooge. (Except for when it comes to Valentines Day, but what guy isn’t? But, that’s a different story….) While I bemoan the commercialism of the Christmas season, I don’t have a problem with its shift for many of us from Jesus’ birthday to the broader message of peace and good will. Yes, there is a Santa Claus.

If we’re going to lie to our children — I should say when we lie to our children — let’s lie about something that might cause them to act a little more humanely. Even if they do it initially because they think they might get better presents under the tree. I believe random acts of kindness and senseless acts of peace are a reward in themselves. And I have enough faith left in humanity that I believe our children will recognize that and will continue to act that way even after one of their friends utters those dreaded words, “No, stupid. Your parents put all that stuff under the tree.”

I believe… I believe… It’s silly, but I believe. Wait. That’s a different movie and a different post….

Peace. Good will. Holiday cheer. Charity. Santa Claus is the embodiment of these ideals. He’s more real to me than some other people I’ve met. I’m just glad I don’t have to explain it to young kids every year like Janet does!

Technorati tags: It’s a Wonderful Lie~blog~personal~otoh

I usually buy some Christmas CDs every year so I’ve amassed quite a collection. And to keep it interesting (because you can only listen to the same dozen or so traditional songs so many times before you get either suicidal or homicidal) I buy everything from The Chipmunks to Benedictine Monks, from the Rat Pack to Squirrel Nut Zippers, from Manhattan Transfer to The London Symphony. Here are some of my favorites:

Favorite New Song This Year: Whatever Happened to Christmas by Aimee Mann on One More Drifter in the Snow. This is my favorite new CD of the year too, but Sarah McLachlin’s Wintersong is a close second.

Favorite Silly Song: Merry Christmas from the Family by Robert Earl Keen. I used the lyrics to this one in a post last year. If I write my White Trash Christmas post, it may crop up again.

Favorite Two-Timer: When My Heart Finds Christmas by Harry Connick Jr on When My Heart Finds Christmas. Some artists have more than one Christmas album. Connick has this one and Harry for the Holidays and both are good. Runner-up status goes to Amy Grant with three — A Christmas to Remember, Home for Christmas, and A Christmas Album. I really like Tennessee Christmas on the latter.

Favorite Duet: Baby, It’s Cold Outside by Lou Rawls and Dianne Reeves on Jazz to the World. Rawls’ trademark deep voice indelibly marked every song he recorded. He’s as smooth as ever on this one.

Favorite Special: Blue Christmas by Ann & Nancy Wilson on A Very Special Christmas Volume 2. The series of Very Special Christmas includes an interesting mix of styles and varying quality. I’ll always love the Elvis version of this song best, but Ann really wails on this one.

Favorite Christmas Sucks Song: Christmas Eve Can Kill You by The Everly Brothers on Bummed Out Christmas! Depression during the holidays is nothing new. Why don’t we celebrate it in song more often? Also on this disk are Christmas in Jail by The Youngsters, Christmas in Prison by Doug Legacy, Santa Came Home Drunk by Cadillac Baby Specials, and Santa got a DWI by Sherwin Linton.

Favorite Traditional Album: Christmas Portrait by The Carpenters. This one has been around for a long time and it’s packed with goodies.

Favorite Nontraditional Album: This one is a tie between Christmas Island by Jimmy Buffett and Christmas Island by Leon Redbone. (I swear I didn’t plan that.) Buffett and Redbone each have a distinctive style, but if you don’t like their regular stuff you probably won’t like these either. If you dig the off-beat though both of these are great.

Favorite Christmas Song that’s not a Christmas Song (and Not on a Christmas Album) - The Christians and the Pagans by Dar Williams on Mortal City. I included the lyrics to this song in a post last year too. Let’s all celebrate solstice! Plus, we can laugh at The Pointless, Yet Poignant, Crisis Of A Co-Ed and cry through February.

Technorati tags: My Favorite, Sings~blog~personal~otoh

Thr first great love of my life was when I was in college in Eastern Kentucky. As I prepare to travel north for the holidays an image of her keeps creeping into my mind. Snowflakes clinging to the lashes over brown eyes. Cheeks flushed from the cold night air.

We went walking around campus on a particular winter night. She wore a bright red winter coat. Snow covered the ground. The air was clear and cold and still. We held gloved hands and walked and talked for hours. I have no recollection of what we talked about, but since I’m usually so quiet the fact that we could talk so much is nothing short of miraculous to me. Even if there were nothing else special about her that alone would earn her a shrine in my heart.

At one point we made snow angels — something I hadn’t done since I was a kid and haven’t done since. Two angels wing-to-wing in the snow. One angel at my side.

The following summer she decided she wanted to date some else — a guy she later married. (Years later I would have a string of girlfriends that married or moved in with the guy they hooked up with after me, but that’s a different story….)

We stayed friends for a few years until after she moved away and started her family. I used to think it was important to stay friends with women I dated. Since then I’ve learned that it’s not always possible and not always a good idea even if it is possible, but that’s a different story….

Those snow angels were probably trampled the next day and, of course, they naturally melted away soon after we made them. But the memory of them and the night and the girl linger.

Technorati tags: That Snow Angel~blog~personal~otoh

The cable network TV Land had a marathon showing of the 60’s sitcom That Girl over the weekend. I remember the series from when I was a kid. The bits of it I watched were even sillier than I remembered. But then, as a rule, 60’s sitcoms were noteworthy for extreme silliness if nothing else.

I have heard over the years that it was considered ground-breaking at the time since it centered on a single woman (Ann Marie, played by Marlo Thomas) living alone in New York. By today’s standards it has a positively puritanical sensibility — imagine an engaged couple that never does more than kiss. Of course, watching it in my single-digit years I had no clue about any of this.

In one of the episodes I saw, Ann drags her fiance to a women’s lib meeting while he rants about how good women have it with the status quo. He was really condescending. For as groundbreaking as the show might have been in some respects, sitcoms that really pushed the envelope on social agendas would have to wait for the 70s.

But it made me think. I have three sisters that are 6, 8, and 9 years older than I am. It always seemed to me that women could do whatever they wanted to do. It occurs to me now that I have no idea what kinds of discrimination or harrassment they may have faced. Those aren’t the kinds of things one is likely to discuss with a little brother. If they ever came home ranting about limits at work (or anything else) I missed it. They all have families and jobs now with varying levels of success in each, but those are other stories….

Technorati tags: That Girl~blog~personal~otoh

As the semester winds down, this is a busy time of year — getting grades finalized, preparing semester exams, determining who’s been naughty or nice…. No, that last one isn’t supposed to be on my list.

I’ll get around to visit when I can and I’ll post erratically at best, I’m sure. Here are some titles of posts that I’m working on. (And by working on I mean I’ve thought of using the title but haven’t really written anything yet.)

• White Trash X-mas
• Coincidence on 34th Street
• My Favorite, Sings
• That Snow Angel
• It’s a Wonderful Lie

Technorati tags: Previews~blog~personal~otoh

Wordie describes itself as “Like Flickr, but without the photos.” And continues, “Wordie lets you make lists of words — practical lists, words you love, words you hate, whatever. You can then see who else has listed the same words, and talk about it. It’s more fun than it sounds.”

Well, for those of us that are word nerds (and I think there are a lot of us in the blogosphere) it is fun. I think your vocabulary says a lot about you (in more ways than one). But a large vocabulary does not necessarily impress me. I can hear a snob a mile away. For me, part of knowing just the right word is knowing just the right word for the people you’re conversing with. “Eschew obfuscation,” I always say. The sagacious person displays their brilliance judiciously.

I learned about this site just a couple days ago, but in that short time they have added a couple new features and users have doubled the number of words entered. I did my part. I started with just three words and now I have six. And because I’m feeling a little squirrelly, four of them are in this post. Leave me a note when you find me there….

Technorati tags: We are the Words~blog~personal~otoh

My crappy October stretched well into November this year leaving me a little mystified that we are in December already. As if waking, disoriented, from an unintended nap I blink my bleary eyes and try to regain my bearings. Where did the time go? Or perhaps more to the point, where the hell have I been?

The Atlantic hurricane season officially ended yesterday. It was a little milder than predicted projected forecast and yet we had one “severe weather day” cancellation of school that we made up last Wednesday. Hurricanes, of course, know nothing of calendars. Another storm this year is pretty unlikely but what the liars with maps weatherfolk call hurricane season is nothing more than a period of higher probability. I’ll be content never to suffer through another year as freakishly destructive as the one we had two years ago.

I had unexpected compliments from two administrators this week. [Hmm, compliments from administrators are always unexpected now that I think about it.] But one of them was a request to serve on a committee which in my experience is not always a great compliment. Still, it’s a chance to get on the good side of my new boss and I agreed to do it even though it means I had to reschedule a dental appointment and alter my lesson plans for Monday so I could be off-campus half the day. Grrr. I just hope it doesn’t turn out to be a waste of time. [I waste more of my own time than I should, but I try never to waste other people's time and I get really irritated when other people waste mine.]

I start listening to holiday music on Thanksgiving every year and I usually buy a few Christmas CDs each year too. I plan to write a post about some of my favorites, but in case I don’t let me tell you that I’ve been playing One More Drifter in the Snow Get the CD by Aimee Mann almost constantly this last week. (She’s probably best known as the voice singing Voices Carry when she was in ‘Til Tuesday in the mid 80s, but she’s done some great solo work since then.) Its ten songs are a bittersweet blend of traditional and original tunes. I especially like “Whatever Happened to Christmas” — I find it hauntingly beautiful — and “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch — gleefully sinister. Through the whole thing I imagine being curled up by a fire with some delicious hot drink — mocha, I think. That’s no mean feat in the 80 degree heat of a Florida winter. Perhaps there’s a reason to believe….

Technorati tags: Sweet November/Long December Suite~blog~personal~otoh