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The New York Times lists Emmy winners. The AP has an overview story here.

New York Times: “Hvaldimir, a beluga whale who had captured the public’s imagination since 2019 after he was spotted wearing a harness seemingly designed for a camera, was found dead on Saturday in Norway, according to a nonprofit that worked to protect the whale.... [Hvaldimir] was wearing a harness that identified it as “equipment” from St. Petersburg. There also appeared to be a camera mount. Some wondered if the whale was on a Russian reconnaissance mission. Russia has never claimed ownership of the whale. If Hvaldimir was a spy, he was an exceptionally friendly one. The whale showed signs of domestication, and was comfortable around people. He remained in busier waters than are typical for belugas....” ~~~

~~~ Marie: Oh, Lord, do not let Bobby Kennedy, Jr., near that carcass. ~~~

~~~ AP Update: “There’s no evidence that a well-known beluga whale that lived off Norway’s coast and whose harness ignited speculation it was a Russian spy was shot to death last month as claimed by animal rights groups, Norwegian police said Monday.... Police said that the Norwegian Veterinary Institute conducted a preliminary autopsy on the animal, which was become known as 'Hvaldimir,' combining the Norwegian word for whale — hval — and the first name of Russian President Vladimir Putin. 'There are no findings from the autopsy that indicate that Hvaldimir has been shot,' police said in a statement.”

New York Times: Botswana's “President Mokgweetsi Masisi grinned as he lifted the diamond, a 2,492-carat stone that is the biggest diamond unearthed in more than a century and the second-largest ever found, according to the Vancouver-based mining operator Lucara, which owns the mine where it was found. This exceptional discovery could bring back the luster of the natural diamond mining industry, mining companies and experts say. The diamond was discovered in the same relatively small mine in northeastern Botswana that has produced several of the largest such stones in living memory. Such gemstones typically surface as a result of volcanic activity.... The diamond will likely sell in the range of tens of millions of dollars....”

Click on photo to enlarge.

~~~ Guardian: "On a distant reef 16,000km from Paris, surfer Gabriel Medina has given Olympic viewers one of the most memorable images of the Games yet, with an airborne celebration so well poised it looked too good to be true. The Brazilian took off a thundering wave at Teahupo’o in Tahiti on Monday, emerging from a barrelling section before soaring into the air and appearing to settle on a Pacific cloud, pointing to the sky with biblical serenity, his movements mirrored precisely by his surfboard. The shot was taken by Agence France-Presse photographer Jérôme Brouillet, who said “the conditions were perfect, the waves were taller than we expected”. He took the photo while aboard a boat nearby, capturing the surreal image with such accuracy that at first some suspected Photoshop or AI."

Washington Post: “'Mary Cassatt at Work' is a large and mostly satisfying exhibition devoted to the career of the great American artist beloved for her sensitive and often sentimental views of family life. The 'at work' in the title of the Philadelphia Museum of Art show references the curators’ interest in Cassatt’s pioneering effort to establish herself as a professional artist within a male-dominated field. Throughout the show, which includes some 130 paintings, pastels, prints and drawings, the wall text and the art on view stresses Cassatt’s fixation on art as a career rather than a pastime.... Mary Cassatt at Work is on view at the Philadelphia Museum of Art through Sept. 8. philamuseum.org”

New York Times: “Bob Newhart, who died on Thursday at the age of 94, has been such a beloved giant of popular culture for so long that it’s easy to forget how unlikely it was that he became one of the founding fathers of stand-up comedy. Before basically inventing the hit stand-up special, with the 1960 Grammy-winning album 'The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart' — that doesn’t even count his pay-per-view event broadcast on Canadian television that some cite as the first filmed special — he was a soft-spoken accountant who had never done a set in a nightclub. That he made a classic with so little preparation is one of the great miracles in the history of comedy.... Bob Newhart holds up. In fact, it’s hard to think of a stand-up from that era who is a better argument against the commonplace idea that comedy does not age well.”

Washington Post: “An early Titian masterpiece — once looted by Napolean’s troops and a part of royal collections for centuries — caused a stir when it was stolen from the home of a British marquess in 1995. Seven years later, it was found inside an unassuming white and blue plastic bag at a bus stop in southwest London by an art detective, and returned. This week, the oil painting 'The Rest on the Flight into Egypt' sold for more than $22 million at Christie’s. It was a record for the Renaissance artist, whom museums describe as the greatest painter of 16th-century Venice. Ahead of the sale in April, the auction house billed it as 'the most important work by Titian to come to the auction market in more than a generation.'”

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Saturday

Dec242022

December 25, 2022

I turned on the local station that plays popular Christmas music. Frankly, I had forgot how bad it was: the lyrics, the music, the sentiment, the performances. Awful. I have very kindly eliminated almost all of them. So, Peace, everybody!

Not the worst Christmas music ever, but bad in a humorous way:

If you remember Elvis, this will tug at your heartstrings, and not just because SNL (or Radio Shack) is saying goodbye to Cecily Strong:

~~~ In retrospect, this is kind of amazing.

This is another of those campy so-bad-it's-good numbers:

On the other hand, there are some who know how to turn a seasonal pop song into a classic:

If you're in the mood for heavenly, we'll leave the big stars behind:

Aled Jones & Malakai Bahot also capture the essence of "O Holy Night. BTW, here's Aled in 1985 when he was the treble." ~~~

~~~ Okay, I guess it's only fair to let these guys have a go at it:

I should have run this when TFG was pretending to be president*:

This got me to wondering what it was like to tell the Christmas story to young Donald (text borrow from Matthew 1.18-2.11):

... before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. So this Mary got knocked up? That Holy Spirit sounds like my kind of guy.

When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife, but knew her not until she had given birth to a son. What? What? Joseph married this girl that somebody else knocked up? And then Joseph didn't even have sex with her? Total loser!

And going into the house, [the wise men] saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh. Oh, I get it now: a surprise ending, like when all you losers thought Hillary would be president & I beat her by millions of votes if you don't count all the dead people & other fake voters who supposed voted for Hillary. But this lame story didn't fool me; I never said the Holy Spirit was cool. Because Joseph has this good dream, too, and he sees these guys coming with all these gifts for the kid. He was a ... a visionary. Like me. So then Joseph grabs those goodies from the kid & buys up some real estate. Cheap apartments for Arabs probably. Ha! Jews are great negotiators. Like me. No wonder everybody likes Christmas. And I'm still president*.

Stay tuned for when somebody tries to explain Easter to Donald.

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Reader Comments (9)

Merry merry to all out here in RC Land, and a special thanks to our hostess, Marie, for the gift of this oasis of sanity in a mad world. As for Fatty and Easter, I’m sure he thinks “That Jesus guy was no big deal. He only came back from the dead once. I’ve done it a bunch of times. And I’ll do it again, because only I can fix it.”

And thanks for that clip from “The West Wing”. Lots of writers try to tell good stories; Aaron Sorkin’s storytelling chops were first rate. That quick shot of Toby flinching when the twenty one gun salute begins reminded me of something I hadn’t thought of in a long time.

When I was 16, my aunt was in the hospital, not long for this world. Her son Ray, my cousin, was driving home from an Army base in Texas where he was stationed. On the trip, a drunk driver crossed the median strip and hit his car. He was killed. About an hour later, up in Massachusetts, his mother died in the hospital. Neither knew what had happened to the other. At his funeral, on a base in Massachusetts, I remember having that same reaction when the guns went off. Life can be wonderful, but there’s a lot of weirdness that comes with it.

Here’s wishing all of you a maximum of wonder and a minimum of weird, at least the bad kind.

December 25, 2022 |

Akhilleus

And on this blessed day of Christmas the Lord came down for just a minute or two to give high fives to a Marie Burns who feeds her R.C. family with food for thought throughout the year but especially on Christmas with songs and stuff which pleases the Lord who can't carry a tune to save his life. We join the Lord with our thanks and gratitude for our oasis in the desert. Now come on people–––sing some songs!

December 25, 2022 |

P.D. Pepe

Maureen Dowd's column today is worth a read–-Dickens reigns!
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/24/opinion/why-dickens-haunts-us.html

December 25, 2022 |

P.D. Pepe

If CDs could wear out, my CD of Diana Krall's jazzy Christmas
music would be gone by now. It's about the only one I can stand.

Aren't leftovers great?

December 25, 2022 |

Forrest Morris

Forrest,

The Krall album is an excellent choice. A couple more: jazz pianist Dave McKenna’s “Christmas Party” album, featuring his distinctive rolling left hand, good stuff.

And check out Tony Bennett’s “A Swingin’ Christmas” with the Count Basie orchestra. And in case you’re a Basie fan and wondering if this newer version of his big band might miss his particular style of stripped down piano phrasing, Tony has Jamaican jazz master, Monty Alexander sit in to do a remarkable Basie piano.

Also a big fan of Leon Redbone’s “Christmas Island”.

Good listening.

December 25, 2022 |

Akhilleus

Basically, I hate christmas. There are numerous reasons why but one big one is having to be, repeatedly, subjected to the months of hearing the same banal songs over and over, year after year, decade after decade. The vast majority of them bad. To me it's a physical assault on my aural cavities. Enough already.

I admit, though, that I do own one vinyl album of christmas-themed music. It's by John Fahey, an acoustic guitarist of folk tradition using finger-picking on steel strings. He released his album of christmas music in 1968, titled "The New Possibility: John Fahey's Guitar Soli Christmas Album" on his own label, Takoma. One interesting thing is that my copy has no date or copyright information on either the cover or disc label. It only lists the catalog number C-1020. I recall purchasing it sometime between 1972 and 1977. I played it this afternoon for my wife after years without listening to it.

It's a soothing album, almost meditative, particularly if seated near a fire with your favorite adult beverage. I highly recommend it, especially compared to the vocal gymnastics of others, like Mariah Carey's kitschy tune.

Lo and behold, I found it on Youtube so you don't have to. Let me know if you agree of my assessment.

December 25, 2022 |

unwashed

Thanks so much, unwashed. It's beautiful, reminding us that the peace and solitude of the cold solstice will eventually be followed by the warmth of spring.

December 25, 2022 |

Victoria

Unwashed,

Fahey’s album was groundbreaking when it first appeared. It offered a stripped down, solo guitar instrumental approach without any of the fancier, knuckle-busting finger picking starting to be in vogue.

His approach highlights the music rather than technical prowess, although Fahey’s style was anything but simple. It was clean, and well thought out; every note mattered.

Thanks for reminding us of this excellent album.

December 25, 2022 |

Akhilleus

Dog bless us every one. To the RC community: you give me hope, springing eternal, in spite of myself. Thanks and love and bushels of peace be yours. To Marie—. You keep us sane. Many many thanks for your impeccable touch and priceless work. Cheers to you and all your fans.

December 25, 2022 |

Jeanne

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