And what would the Decade of Extreme Income Inequality be without indulging in a little feudalism nostalgia? Let's all go a-Wassailing from here to Twelfth Night and beyond, to demand our share of the wealth. We definitely aren't going to wait around for any of that phony Trickle Down. Read these lyrics and see if they don't sarcastically but politely demand a living wage, food stamp and unemployment insurance restoration and universal health care:
We are not daily beggars
That beg from door to door;
But we are neighbours' children,
Whom you have seen before.
We have got a little purse
Of stretching leather skin;
We want a little of your money
To line it well within.
Bring us out a table
And spread it with a cloth;
Bring us out a mouldy cheese,
And some of your Christmas loaf.
Good master and good mistress,
While you're sitting by the fire,
Pray think of us poor children
Who are wandering in the mire.
You can listen to a nice version here, minus the threatening tone I would sing it in if I could sing. The thought of wandering in the muck with a belly full of discarded rancid cheese is starting to make me irate, truth be told.
So let's move on. I think my favorite all-time tune has got to be this anti-war classic by John McCutcheon: Christmas in the Trenches.
Here's wishing all of you peace and good health no matter how you celebrate, what you celebrate, or even if you celebrate.
6 comments:
To maybe brighten you and your daughter's mood, here's MY favorite:
https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/b4_EdJ-XkUA?rel=0
Bless you for all you do...
Gute Vaynakhtn un a gut nay yor!
:-)
@Noodge--
Was that Old English?
While I admire your scholarship, having just painfully sung Benjamin Britten's "A Ceremony of Carols" in Middle English --or some reasonable facsimile thereof--I've had all I can stand of carols in dead languages!
"Wolcum, Yole!" my arse!
"Merry Christmas," I say!
Or, better still,
"Feliz Navidad!" in keeping with my adoptive southwestern New Mexico home.
Indeed, "Feliz Navidad" to all, and to all a good night!
Zee: It's Yiddish.
So is "noodge," which is Yiddish for pester or to nag. As in my mother constantly telling me not to be such a noodge.
Try this: 2 hours with Fred Child.
http://performancetoday.publicradio.org/display/programs/2013/12/24/
Then, for a chaser, you're entitled to this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFMyF9fDKzE
The Queen pardoned Alan Turing - kind of goes with 'Christmas In The Trenches'. Sad. But the sight of my dogs rioting in through the door from their morning walk with the missus. Happy. In the end it's the little things that count.
And the odds are very good that the sun, or Helios as the emperor Julian would say, will rise again. Not a little thing. And then there's that standing rib roast with Yorkshire pudding and a little, well maybe not a little, pinot noir.
Yeah, the little things have it. Enjoy whateva you enjoy everyone
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