Twelve Images of Christmas -- #10

Late addition: Pirate Update, good guys score one! http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081213/ap_on_re_af/piracy

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A pair of Christmas toys from my childhood today.

First, from Marx, is the Big Bruiser tow truck that I got when I was eight or so. Big Bruiser was huge in comparison to my other toy cars, made of white nylon-like plastic, and incredibly brawny. It had an electric winch that could pull any of the toy cars, except that Big Bruiser's tires were a pretty hard rubber that slid on the tile floor, so you couldn't hook up to his collar and pull the dog across the kitchen. Equipped with blinking lights and a siren, too (I think), Big Bruiser had one overriding flaw: it had an alkaline battery appetite in a non-alkaline world. It simply ate batteries like crazy. I loved it. Still photo below, and a commercial here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJHO8AP8Gx0


Toy number two today is even cooler http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCVjT2N8dIg This is maybe the ultimate child's toy from a cold war world: the Steve Canyon fighter jet. Play the video, and imagine little me sitting there at the controls. It was all about air superiority in my childhood.

Scary Christmas.

Twelve Images of Christmas -- #11

Christmas Eve dinner in Polish homes is the celebration of the Wigilia, the Vigil. Dinner gets started by sharing bits of these wafers, oplatki, with your family. They're made of the same stuff as a communion wafer and may be plain or, like these, embossed with a scene. The dinner itself is traditionally meatless, but as the elders got older in our family the rules were changed on the fly. When I was a small boy, the main entree was perch. The kids complained, so french fried shrimp was added. Over time, the perch disappeared, the shrimp got top billing, and then one day Grandpa decided that polish sausage was acceptable, partly because he had made it himself. Mushroom soup, using incredibly costly imported dried mushrooms, has also been a headline item for the Wigilia dinner.

Twelve Images of Christmas -- #12

There's 12 days 'till Christmas, so here's the first of 12 days of images that are Christmas in our house.

We begin with Mr. Christmas himself, Clark, leader of the Griswold tribe, and his sidekick, Cousin Eddy. The first time our friend Pam next door met our Cousin Eddy she thought that I had hired an actor to spoof her.

On Christmas Eve, everybody in our house sits down and we watch this, again, and we laugh, again, because it is us.

Again.

Different Topic:

Think that our Illinois politicians don't cost us all a ton of money? Look at this ( as we sink further into the mess that our elected representatives create for us). As they work on commuted sentences and new felonies, Michigan, king of the rust belt, scores a big plum project that should have been ours:
Argonne loses out on $550M research project
Jeff Finkelman on -->December 11, 2008 at 11:14 PM

The Department of Energy awarded a $550 million research project to Michigan State University today, disappointing officials at Argonne National Laboratory, which was the other finalist for the prized facility.
Federal officials say the university's application was superior, in part because its proposed budget is "reasonable and realistic" and because it offered to share some of the costs to build the facility for rare isotope beams. Argonne officials had estimated the cutting-edge research facility would have brought $250 million into the local economy during its eight-year construction, with a total local economic impact exceeding $1 billion. Once completed, the facility would have created 290 jobs and had an economic impact of $80 million a year, they said.The Department of Energy said the facility will provide research opportunities for about 1,000 scientists and students from around the world.

Maybe we can get a new WalMart or something, and George and Rod and Dick and all their pals can cut the grand opening ribbon as they preen with pride over the handful of new $8 per hour jobs.

Or maybe not.

10 Christmas Songs I'm Already Sick Of

First of all, that title isn’t mine, it from another guy who wrote the list to which I’m responding. I’m disavowing the title ‘cause of the preposition hanging out in space at the end. I take a lot of grammatical liberties in writing here in order to try to create a tempo or mood, but I gag up on ones like that up there, just sitting, staring at me, being all preposition-like in its wrongness.

Now about the list…Geek Dad on Wired Blog Network is fed up with these 10:

Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer by Gene Autry
Awww, man, why’d ya have to start by picking on Gene Autry? This is so old and contrived, you just have to love this song. Geek Dad complained about not understanding what “reindeer games” are. Dude, they’re REINDEER GAMES—let ‘em be.

Santa Baby by Eartha Kitt
Hot and sexy and who cares if she sang this over 50 years ago? The subsequent cover versions are mere pretenders, Eartha Kitt, eventually the original TV Catwoman, rendered this a timeless classic.

Christmas Don’t be Late by Alvin & the Chipmunks
I admit it. I smile at this every year.

Santa Claus is Coming to Town by Springsteen
I’m not a big Springsteen fan, but to hear him blasting all that energy into this song as if he really believed, I love it.

We Three Kings by Mannheim Steamroller
Mannheim Steamroller is bogus, bogus, bogus. They were a nice change 20 years ago. Now it’s like listening to the band Chicago on the radio. Just can’t wait for it to be over.

Sleigh Ride by the Carpenters
The Carpenters were creepy then, and they’re creepy now.

Jingle Bell Rock by Bobby Helms
This is happy. Whatcha bitchin’ about Geek Dad?

Do They Know It’s Christmas by Band Aid
Felice Navidad by Jose Feliciano
Wonderful Christmas by Paul McCartney
I would pour out venom and anxiety by the crapload commenting on these three. Suffice it to say these songs should never be heard again, anywhere, anytime.

There are a few songs that could be played a lot more.
Is That Really Santa by the Beach Boys
Gotta have a little beach music at Christmas!

Blue Christmas by Elvis
Schmaltzy Elvis in a perfect setting.

Twinkletoes by Eddie Blazonczyk
Santa’s proud of Rudolph’s nose but he’ll get more light from Twinkletoes

Finally, the all time best. Irving Berlin’s White Christmas, played by me on the piano in the dining room, from an ancient publication of sheet music that the missus gave me many years ago. The prelude lyrics that set up the part of the song with which everyone is familiar were a big surprise to me when I saw them first. As I play, I hear Bing on the vocal. Verrrrry happy sounds.

Here's an addition in honor of the governor of the great state of ILL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cM38kN4AOys

Which Christmas songs do you love//hate?

George, Dick and Rod

Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich was led from his house wearing handcuffs yesterday. That would be his house in Chicago. You may recall that Rod refused to occupy the governor's mansion in Springfield. That is just one of Rod's charming behaviors in the Illinois political spotlight, the mansion thing.

Rod may have had much greater foresight as a salesman than he displayed as a governor or as a future felon, staying out of Springfield in favor of Chicago. After all, the action is up in Chicago. If a guy is looking to get the best price for a soon to be vacated position as a United States Senator, you probably don't want to be stuck in downstate Illinois. You need to be in a better traffic area. You gotta be around your pals. You gotta have foresight.

To hear the words of U.S. Attorney Pat Fitzgerald that Rod's actions "would make Lincoln roll over in his grave" is to hear the public damnation of a man accused of a heinous crime, those words coming from a public servant who sees the most repulsive criminal acts.

Enter Illinois Senator Dick Durbin, quick to let the good citizens of Illinois know just where he stands on the issue. Following is from CNN.com :

At a press conference Tuesday, Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin, a Democrat, said he wants the Illinois legislature to act quickly to pass a law setting a special election to fill Obama's seat, in order to prevent Blagojevich from making a tainted appointment or there being a lengthy vacancy in the Senate.
"No appointment by this governor under these circumstances could produce a credible replacement," Durbin said.

Johnny on the spot, that's our Dick Durbin!

I would like to replay three more statements about the Illinois governor.

1.) A statement made by Patrick Fitzgerald, the fellow who just arrested Rod. In this case he was talking about another Illinois governor, Rod's predecessor, George Ryan (from the Chicago Tribune online dated April 17, 2006):
U.S. Atty. Patrick Fitzgerald called Ryan's quashing of investigations into the sale of driver's licenses for bribes as secretary of state "a low-water mark for public service."

2.) A statement from Dick Durbin (December 2, 2008 Chicago Tribune online), explaining why he was asking for George Ryan's sentence to be commuted:
"For those who would argue that a commutation makes light of his crimes, it is clear that he has already paid a significant price and will continue to do so as long as he lives," Durbin wrote of Ryan in a letter to Bush. "Justice is a sword that should be tempered with compassion. Further imprisonment will not, in my opinion, serve the ends of justice."

3.) Next (Chicago Tribune online of November 28, 2008):
Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who rode into state office pledging to clean up the corruption of his predecessor, said Thursday that President George W. Bush should commute the federal prison sentence of former Gov. George Ryan to time served as an act of compassion. Blagojevich...contended Ryan had paid "a significant price" for what he termed "mistakes." ...Blagojevich said a commutation by Bush would be a "fine decision."

You gotta have pals. Next move, Senator Durbin?