About two years ago, thanks to the Things We Said Today podcast, I learned of an album of Beatle-esque Christmas music, the Abbey Road Xmas Ensemble’s A Christmas Tribute to the Beatles. (There’s also this one, The Liverpool Christmas Band’s Beatle-esque Christmas, which looks like it’s the same material, but with karaoke versions of theContinue reading “Revisiting a Beatle-Esque Christmas”
A Grocery Store Encounter
I was at the grocery store yesterday — my stock of tea at the office is much diminished and needed replenishment — and, like usual, I asked the cashier, an older woman, probably in her sixties, how she was. (When I say, “like usual,” it’s a habit born of years of retail. I try notContinue reading “A Grocery Store Encounter”
The Dragons of Christmas
Perhaps I’d still be a Christian had there been more dragons. Many elements of the traditional Nativity scene — in particular, any animals whatsoever — aren’t Biblically canonical. They all derive from apocryphal scriptures, essentially early Church fanfic, such as this passage from Pseudo Matthew about the infant Jesus and the dragons during the flightContinue reading “The Dragons of Christmas”
A Christmas Song I Love
I love “O Holy Night.” I write that unironically. I’m not a Christian. Heck, I’m even skeptical of the historicity of Jesus, and even if he were historical I doubt there’s any truth to the Nativity story as related in Christian mythology. Yet, in the pantheon of Christmas songs, “O Holy Night,” a song explicitlyContinue reading “A Christmas Song I Love”
Christmas Cards for Strangers
I walked into Dallastown this morning and mailed over a dozen Christmas cards, all to people I don't know and have never met. Madonna and child stamps, my favorite Christmas stamps every year. The recipients are all distant cousins, all descendants of my great-great-grandfather through his eldest three daughters, two of whom I had noContinue reading “Christmas Cards for Strangers”
Adventures in the Kitchen with Cranberry Relish
As a long-time NPR listener, every Thanksgiving I’ve heard about “Mama Stamberg’s Cranberry Relish,” and this year was no exception. Stamberg made it with her granddaughter, and the granddaughter’s verdict was, “I’m never tasting it again.” I’ve never made it, I’ve never had it (as I think I’d remember a cranberry relish made with onionContinue reading “Adventures in the Kitchen with Cranberry Relish”
Coloring Christmas
After work I stopped at the grocery store, the Giant off Queen Street, because, obviously, I needed some groceries. Bread, peanut butter, milk, that sort of thing. Life’s essentials. While I was there, I browsed the magazine rack. There, on the bottom shelf, was a row of adult coloring books. Or, more accurately, magazines. I’mContinue reading “Coloring Christmas”
Life in Yoe
Yoe is a town wedged between two hills. One hill faces vaguely northwest, the other hill faces vaguely southeast. A creek runs between the two hills, and in the flat plain between them George Street runs from Red Lion to York. A century ago, the Maryland and Pennsylvania Railroad line ran through there as well;Continue reading “Life in Yoe”
Dracula In Space
As was my Halloween tradition, last night I watched a Dracula movie, specifically Hammer’s Dracula Has Risen from the Dead. The fourth film in Hammer’s Dracula series, and the third that starred Christopher Lee as Dracula, Dracula Has Risen from the Grave sees Christopher Lee’s Dracula seek his revenge on a monsignor who had traveledContinue reading “Dracula In Space”
Swampoodle, in Color!
Two weeks of work, off and on, and I’ve finished my colorization of Washington’s 19th-century baseball field, Swampoodle Grounds. The “heavy lifting” — the field itself, the McDowell & Sons building over the wall in right-center, a couple of buildings toward center, the sky itself — was accomplished two weeks ago in a blitz ofContinue reading “Swampoodle, in Color!”