Mood Music

Happy New Church Year -- Advent has begun! As the Ironic Catholic lets us know,  Advent has its own moods, not necessarily reflected by the non-stop Christmas carols being piped into all the places of business. So, rerun from 2007, here is An Advent Carol:

The Ironic Catholic recently published a "conversion" of a secular Christmas song often heard in stores, dentists' offices, etc. into a proper Advent Carol. Not being able to resist the opportunity to do a song parody, I offer this Advent "conversion" experience:

"Happy Advent (We are Waiting)" by DMinor
to the tune of "Happy Christmas (War is Over)"
Apologies to John Lennon and Yoko Ono (but not many)

So this is Advent,
The Church Year's begun.
It's time to prepare for
The coming of God's Son.
And so during Advent
We pray and await.
The birth of the Christ Child
We anticipate.

We're getting set for Christmas,
Starting out this new year
We'll make it a good one
God is drawing near

And so for this Advent
Let's find time to pray,
In the midst of our shopping
And our busy day.
And so have an Advent
that reverently makes
us ready to greet Him
who died for our sakes.

We're getting set for Christmas,
Starting out this new year
We'll make it a good one
God is drawing near

So this is Advent,
The Church Year's begun.
It's time to prepare for
The coming of God's Son.
And so during Advent
We pray and await.
The birth of the Christ Child
We anticipate.

We're getting set for Christmas,
Starting out this new year
We'll make it a good one
God is drawing near

We are waiting
For the Christ Child
We await his birth

Politics Doesn't Take a Holiday, or Life is Just the Party

Donald McClarey over at The American Catholic pointed out a Democratic "cheat sheet" for use at the Thanksgiving table when confronted with pesky Republican relatives. McClarey asserted that politics would be the farthest thing from his mind as he celebrated the holiday with his family. Frankly, there is nothing more hostile to the digestion than a confrontational discussion at the dinner table.

I offered the following contribution to the discussion:

It is baffling that, after the dressing-down the Democratic party received in the last election, they are still convinced they can sell this turkey of a platform. They will continue yam-mering until we are all vegetables. They made the mistake of thinking it was all gravy after the 2008 election, but the proof of the pudding is in the tasting. If they could have squashed the political talk on this American feast, they could have gotten down to meat and potatoes tomorrow. But perhaps they feel the sauce this Thanksgiving is a little thin, so they need to butter up the faithful and roll with the political punches. But we'll just relish their disarray passively today.

Wishing all a very happy and blessed Thanksgiving.

Feline and Block

Technical Cats
by Dminor (apologies to T. S. Eliot)

Technical Cats come out to-night
Technical Cats come one come all.
My cellular phone's not acting right
It's saying something 'bout a function call

Technical Cats are gray and white
Technical Cats are big and small
Technical cats are rather bright
And pleasant to have fix a firewall

Technical Cats have business clothes
Technical Casts have glasses for eyes
They like to work on the Suns with Windows
They're fond of Apples, but not for pies.

Technical Cats don't crave attentions
Technical Cats can make phones ring
Technical Cats like their search engines
They're tops at Perl scripting and at networking.

Until a Technical Glitch appears
They pass their free time against Warcraft foes
Technicals went to school for years;
Technicals know where a router goes.

Technical Cats are old and young
Technical Cats mind their data pipe size
They know what to do when the printer's hung
Or what to do when the "UPS" fries.

They're quiet enough in the morning hours
They're quiet enough 'till they've had caffeine
It fuels their analytical powers
And brings them in tune with the troubled machine.

Technical Cats are gray and white
Technicals may (as I said) be small
If it happens to be a stormy night
You will hear them cry out "Save your work!" in the hall.
If it happens that the sun is shining bright
They might not know a thing about it at all.
They are inside applying themselves all right,
With a Technical mouse in their Technical paw.

A liberal application of Hairspray

I like Harry Potter.
I like Hairspray (the musical. Haven't seen the John Waters original.)
I occasionally dabble in parody.
I mishear song lyrics, frequently to amusing effect (just ask my husband how Lesley and the Rev. Blue Jeans are, sometime.)
I wish I had thought of this. Darn it, darn it, darn it, I wish I had thought of this.

Not the only, nor even the first, Good Morning, Baltimore parody featuring Voldemort on the nets. But the unrivalled best, no room for argument, in terms of lyrics, performance, and production. Enjoy, ye Potter nerds!

(Alert: Innuendo aplenty. Don't share with the kiddos without first reviewing it yourself.)

Groping for an Answer

The fuss and bother over the new airline screening machines and techniques have spurred the parody department into action:


Frisk You (to the tune of the Rolling Stones' "Miss You")
By Dminor (apologies to Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, and Billy Preston)

Find more artists like DMinor Music at Myspace Music

I'm on business far from home
Gotta leave for San Antone
But there's issues
The new scanners, what they show
is too private -- I say no!
But then they frisk you

Oooh oooh oooh oooh oooh oooh oooh
Oooh oooh oooh oooh oooh oooh oooh
Oooh oooh oooh

Oooh oooh oooh oooh oooh oooh oooh
Oooh oooh oooh oooh oooh oooh oooh
Oooh oooh oooh oooh

Well, I've been haunted in my sleep
TSA is in my dreams
with a clear view
of my good side and my bad
Doughnuts that I had --
Embarrassing!

I can just imagine they say
"Hey, what's the matter man
You're never passing up buffets,
Don't stop at just one plate, no! when you can manage to eat two.
I bet he needs a case of wine
to wash down all the fancy foods
it looks like he's used to"

Oh, and you know the wait's so long
Ooh maybe they might find one bomb?
Even one bomb! one bomb!

I've been singing those trav'lers blues
Taking off my shoes
Security's crazy.
Now the scanner's raised up the bars
Sees through underdrawers
Want to ask them, tsk tsk tsk,
"What's the matter with you boy?"

Somethings I want to keep to myself
But then they frisk:

Oooh oooh oooh oooh oooh oooh oooh
Oooh oooh oooh oooh oooh oooh oooh
Oooh oooh oooh

Oooh oooh oooh oooh oooh oooh oooh
Oooh oooh oooh oooh oooh oooh oooh
Please don't frisk me, child!

I guess I'm lying to myself
to think I can skip this hell
Lord, they'll just frisk your child.
To keep bra bombs off the plane
Bombshell's can't refrain
Or, they will frisk you, gropingly

Oh, they'll frisk you, child

Aaah aaah aaah aaah aaah aaah aaah
Aaah aaah aaah aaah aaah aaah aaah
Aaah aaah aaah aaah

Lord, you'll feel defiled

Aaah aaah aaah aaah aaah aaah aaah
Aaah aaah aaah aaah aaah aaah aaah
Aaah aaah aaah aaah

I detect a smile!

Aaah aaah aaah aaah aaah aaah aaah
Aaah aaah aaah aaah aaah aaah aaah
Aaah aaah aaah aaah

Five Year Plan and Pulp Faction

Happy Blogaversary to us! Five years ago (that doesn't seem possible, does it) I posted a test message expressing a hope to comment on "life, the universe, and everything." While we have not been consistent in our blogging efforts (sometimes out of necessity), we have kept it going as an outlet for our views on anything and everything. Hopefully it has provided some enjoyment and maybe even some useless information.

On that note, my eldest son, who is an aficionado of Japanese pop culture, explained to me that there was a manga series, Read or Dream, where the major superpower involved the manipulation of paper. "Finally," I observed, "a show where the heroes must all be bureaucrats.

Remember

Remember the Argonne Forest.
Remember Iwo Jima.
Remember Frozen Chosin.
Remember Khe Sanh.
Remember the Marine Barracks, Beirut.
Remember Khobar Towers.
Remember the Cole.
Remember "Desert Storm," "Enduring Freedom," "Iraqi Freedom."
Remember who fought for you, who fights for you, who fights for freedom.
God Bless our Troops.

A Dawning of Day

"I really only love God as much as I love the person I love the least."
— Dorothy Day 

 Today's quote courtesy of Hon. Daughter number 1.

Remember the Saints

All Saints' Day is a suitable time to remember the lives prematurely ended by abortion.  Our blog friend Darwin, at Darwin Catholic directs us to the blog Pentimento's account of a move in New York City to put new rules on the advertising of abortion alternative facilities/ emergency pregnancy centers. What was most striking was a comment which told of a "slightly different abortion experience . ",

If you are a United States citizen, don't forget to exercise your franchise on the day of All Souls.