Silent Night

Silent Night was first performed Christmas Eve 1818 at St Nicholas parish church in Oberndorf, Austria. The song was written a year before, the lyrics by the young priest Father Joseph Mohr and the melody by Franz Gruber.

Over the years, the song's fame spread throughout the world, but neither man enjoyed the work's success. Mohr died penniless in 1848 and Gruber lived in obscurity and died in poverty in 1863.

Sounds (that drive me) Crazy

Remember this Overstock.com commercial? It's been one of my favorite adverts of all-time. The woman is Sabine Ehrenfeld, a German model and actress born in Nov. 1963. I liked the commercial not just because she's pretty, but there's *something* about her voice that drives me wild, sending shivers down my spine. ("good" shivers) I'm not sure if it's the pitch or timbre of her voice that does it, but she's not the only female that does it to me; Shania Twain and Trisha Yearwood also affect me much the same way. 

Now, I'm not particularly a huge fan of Twain and Yearwood's music;  I like country just fine, but it's not my favorite musical genre.  I do have a few tunes of each perfomer in my mp3 jukebox, but haven't collected their albums like you might think I would, especially considering how their voices make me feel.  In fact, it's not Yearwood's singing voice that does it for me, but rather just her ordinary way of speaking.  I try to catch her new cooking show on the Food Network as often as possible, Trisha's Southern Kitchen.  I like her recipes just fine, but mostly enjoy listening to her talk.

While I'm on the subject of cooking shows, there's another lovely lady whose voice also drives me nuts and that's Nigella Lawson. I also try to watch her show as often as it comes on the network, but to be honest? Five minutes after the show was over I doubt I could tell you what she had cooked , but could definitely tell you the color of the sweater she had worn.  Worn very well. -ahem-

12 Days of Christmas

fiddlesticks

fiddlesticks fid·dle·sticks [fid-l-stiks] interjection
(used to express impatience, dismissal, etc.)

fiddlestick fid·dle·stick [fid-l-stik] noun
anything; a bit: "I don't care a fiddlestick for what they say."

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I had to laugh when I saw this as the World of the Day; just a couple of weeks ago, I was telling an employee of a store where I purchase the Beej's food that there hadn't been any on the shelf in over a month. "Oh, yeah." the young woman replied. "That's one of those things we didn't get on the truck.".

I didn't believe her.  "Fiddlesticks!" I said. "The office marks you out of the product?" I asked in a blustering manner, knowing how their inventory system worked. "Mmm-huh." the girl said with a surety I knew was feigned.

"Fiddlesticks!" I said again. I knew they had been having problems keeping employees, but it wasn't just cat food that wasn't being put out; I estimated that at least 10-15% of their shelving was empty.  "Why would they mark YOU out of the product when your other store always has it in stock?" I went on ranting: "That's where I've been having to go to get it.".

"What was that you said to me?" asked the young woman, acting offended. I repeated what I had said, that the other store had it and..."No, at first, that 'fiddle-something'?" I started to explain, but about that time the mgr. showed up and wanted to know what was wrong. I repeated my problem and the girl interrupted "He wants some sort of fiddle cat food."

The manager looked at me like I was nuts and I laughed and told her I had said "fiddlesticks", not believing they didn't have any of the cat food and that I bet it was in the back room. The manager, a woman not quite my age but quite a bit older than her employee, laughed too. "Fiddlesticks" said the mgr. to her employee. "It's an old-fashioned and polite way of saying 'Bullsh*t'!"

Anyway, long story short, the mgr. consulted her inventory sheets and the young woman was sent to the back room to dig though the mountainous pile of stock to find the cat food.  Sure 'nuff, they had loads of it. I bought a couple of cartons, enough to last the Beej for a few weeks.

From now on, maybe I shouldn't use such a polite term as "fiddlesticks".  I've got plenty of the regular curse words in stock.

Holiday Greetings

You Are Merry Christmas

You are a traditionalist when it comes to the holidays, and you aren't going to be politically correct about it. You celebrate Christmas, and you don't think there's any reason to hide it. Most other people celebrate it too. You are content to wish everyone a "Merry Christmas." It doesn't have to be a religious thing. "Happy Holidays" is just too generic for your taste. You aren't going to tone down your greeting for anyone.

What Holiday Greeting Are You?