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Jack,

You got me there!

How couuld I have forgotten those four boys from the banks of the Mersey?

Mea Culpa, Mea Culpa, Mea Maxima Culpa!

(if we were a little order I would have had to add a swivel hipped kid from Missisppi with greasy hair)

12/19/23 12:26 PM

#13486

Jack -- I know what you mean when you say "at Greenfield Village" (part of The Henry Ford Museum where you occasionally work), but what does "printing the trees" mean? I doubt it is a typo for "planting trees," especially at this time of year. I envision you cranking some sort of old-timey printing machine making prints of pictures or drawings of Christmas trees to hand out to visitors. Please clarify. Am I on the right track?

12/19/23 03:19 PM

#13487

For those of you thinking I must have too much time on my hands - perhaps you are right.

With the boredom of the Cable TV channel choices, this is my escape.

12/19/23 03:35 PM

#13488

It's that time of year to subject you to a replaying of one my Christmas songs. You'll notice that in it I refer to myself as being 39, and you must wonder, "What gives?" Yes, I wrote this as a poem for my parents as a Christmas present way back then. Years later, when I began dabbling in songwriting, I dug this one out of one of my notebooks to make it into a song. It's hard to imagine now that I was feeling old and nostalgic at age 39, but as Jimmy Stewart's father says to him at one point in It's a Wonderful Life, "Son, you were born old." Maybe I had a bit of that in myself back then.

12/20/23 11:12 AM

#13489

don't wanna hog the forum but thought this opening paragraph of garrison keillor's latest column would play well to this crowd. He was clearly raised by sober fundamentalists, to whom we catholics apparently looked like krazy hippies:

I love Christmas, coming as I do from fundamentalists, a bunch who don’t score high on the Festivity Scale. My mother hugged me only once, to keep me from falling out of a moving vehicle. I don’t recall my father ever telling a joke. So Christmas was a brief episode of flamboyant frivolity in an otherwise solemn life in which we looked forward to End Times and our flight up out of Minnesota into paradise, just us, not the Catholics.

12/20/23 02:06 PM

#13490

John Maxwell

Marq,
That's right I occasionally work at the Liberty Printing Office. The office is set up to be an 1880's printing office in a rural setting. We have several old-timey presses. The one we print the givaway souviners on is an 1856 model letter press, the Washington Press. Then we have an 1840's treadle press and an 1880's proof press and a 2019 etching press. We use both wooden type and the newly developed, (1880's) alloyed metal moveable type, the alloy of antimony, zinc and tin. Prior to that innovation most moveable type was either wood or lead. The developement of moveable type was slowed by the inability to adequately machine steel. Albeit some brave machinists tried but the metal was too hard and would dull the cutting edges an slow the production. It was metalurgy that saved the day. They had the technology figured, but the material needed to be invented. I delight having conversations with the kids. The letter press requires the printer to develop the skill of reading backwards. When I ask a kid if he or she can read backwards, the expression on their face changes to a more pensive look. You can practically see the brain wheels spinning. Then I'll describe this scenario, First you stand on your head, then you close one eye, and wait for someone to bring you a mirror. If they don't bring you a mirror then just wait. Then they'll ask you why you are standing om your head, you tell them you are reading backwards and could they bring you a mirror, please. Then you can read backwards.

12/20/23 02:40 PM

#13491

I realized last night (after 6+ weeks here!) that my cable TV included a Turner Classic Movie (TCM) channel. They had a lady giving some more detailed and interesting background to some old favorites - "Going My Way", and its sequal, "Bells of St. Mary's. The films were in 1944 and '45 and I beleive, won 10 and 8 Oscars repctively. Bbut what's so unique is that Bing Crosby won the Oscar both years for the same role - Father O'Malley. Both are those sappy, heart melting "feel-good" films. I hadn't seen them in years and stayed up way too late to watch both.

Loved 'em both!

Note: I watch so little TV at home that Ionly have limited Cable. I don't normally have the luxury of TCM or many other "luxuries".

12/20/23 11:28 PM

#13492

Joseph D. McCarthy

John, I may have mentoned this before, but it might be something to tell the children.

In the Navy I was trained as a Radarmen. One of the most useful things I was paid by the US Goverment to do was read and write BACKWARDS. I reached a speed of only eighty (80) words per minute. So the Children could earn a living writing backwards. I can still write bckwards, just not eighty words a minute, so it is useful/useless.

If you ever watch the old World War II movies with scenes that include a CIC (Combat Information Center) on board a ship you will see enlisted men standing behind a plexiglass board writing backwarsds. This so that the College educated officers didn't have to look over your shoulder to tell that abomber was headed right at the ship. Mike, how's that for a running sentence.

12/21/23 09:14 AM

#13493

Joe: Please come up to the front of the room so I can humiliate you in front of your classmates and increase you chances of growing up to be an emotionally disturbed adult all if which provides me with the opportunity to suggest that you should kneel down and hold out your hand while I get out my ruler so I can give you a crack on the knuckles with it, you stupid, stupid boy. The proper term is run-on sentence.

12/21/23 12:31 PM

#13494

Jack -- I must say that I am impressed by all the details you can rattle off about old-timey printing presses. As someone who had a part-time job in college running what was called an "offset printer," I am ashamed to say I couldn't even tell you why it is called "offset". On the other hand, when you launch into your description for the kids about standing on their heads with one eye closed to look into a mirror, I think the expression on their faces would be something more than, as you say, "pensive." I, for one, was "stupefied." That was a lot to take in and visualize. I still don't get why you need to close one eye. But the bottom line is -- damn, what a great job you have!

12/21/23 07:53 PM

#13495

Maybe 15 years aggo (or more) I stumbled across a book with an intriguing sounding title, "The Boys In The Boat". It turned out to be one of the single most enjoyable storys I have ever read!

I just watched a PBS News segment about the release of the film (on Christmas day), with the author, Daniel James Brown and the Director (one George Clooney). I can hardly wait (wish I could be out of this "prison" by then!

Note: the story is sooo good for all audiences. Not just a "guys" film at all.

And I know nor care anything about rowing. It's simply that good

12/22/23 02:11 PM

#13496

Mary Margaret: Young or old, I can't think of any man of any age who wouldn't immediately pee right down his leg when confronted by Clint Eastwood.

12/22/23 03:20 PM

#13497

Mary Margaret Clark (Schultheis)

With all the heartbreaking news around the world - Gaza - Sudan - Prague - American Politics, It saddens me to read the news from Nicaragua, where Daniiel Ortega has just arrested a seccond Catholic Bishop for some sort of "crimes" against the governmnt.

Just what we needed about now!

12/23/23 12:36 PM

#13498

My sister sent me these two links which accompany each other & pertain to the true message of Christmas as we journey through these uncertain times. May it bring a measure of peace & hope to everyone. Merry Christmas to all. 🎄🎁

https://youtu.be/H9LAVHloQq8?si=YCu3rzmFxhCD8Vi7

https://open.spotify.com/track/6ZvGIWs3Vt4cmVkuycJaFM?si=em7KUVFgSHOBbOsj6rZXmw

12/23/23 01:59 PM

#13499

I know I shared this before, but since it's the Christmas season, here it is again. This is a cover of a Robert Earl Keen song that I took the liberty of modifying quite a bit. I played down the celebration of drunkenness in the original, added a few lyrics, changed the tempo of the melody, and added in a few musical allusions to Chirstmas songs. Although this is not exactly a reflection of my family, it's close enough. Ouch.

12/24/23 11:27 PM

#13500

12/25/23 07:29 AM

#13501

Joseph Gentilini

David, thanks for sharing this wonderful singing of O Night Divine. It was beautiful. Merry Christmas and may you recuperate well and may 2024 be a good year for all of us. Joe

12/25/23 02:57 PM

#13502

Joe,

Youre welcome. I think their harmony is superb, and this is ne of my favoeite Chrismas songs. I beleive the seccond kid from (our) right has gone on to launch a solo career, but i cant recall his name.

12/25/23 03:42 PM

#13503

Nina Osborn (Rossi)

12/26/23 11:26 AM

#13504

Nina,

I'm not able to see your post - its just a question mark on the page .

Can you tell us what it was?

12/27/23 07:24 AM

#13505

Joseph Gentilini

Happy Birthday, Steve Gramm. Enjoy your special day. joe

12/28/23 10:35 AM

#13506

Sure Jack. Bob Dylan was ok. But he was no Mark Schweickart.

12/29/23 05:19 AM

#13507

Mike -- I am not seeing what comment from Jack about Dylan you are referring to, but regardless, I can see that your tongue is firmly planted in your cheek. Also, I know you don't like me mispronouncing your last name, "Glid," so I guess I shouldn't be bothered by your misspelling of my last name. You left out the "c" in front of the "k".

12/29/23 09:35 AM

#13508