“Twas the day after Thanksgiving and all through the house…..”
Nah, not in the mood. It’s an ugly day here in the hills. Cloudy, only slightly cooler than properly muggy, foggy and awfully damp. For anyone who’s ever broken a bone or bones, you know today is a do nothing day. Cold, rain, the occasional tornado if close enough, and approaching hurricanes with their damn barometric pressure drops wreak havoc on the breaks, even the healed ones which contrary to what any orthopedic expert might tell you, is never the same again. Once a bone is broken, that’s it. Partially cracked and not all the way through..okay, maybe, but compound (broken in half) AND comminuted (virtually ground down to boney sand) and we’re talking never ending pain which hates weather and not a huge fan of weather people either.
There should be awards given out for those for living with chronic pain.
But I digress.
I have meteorologists from all over, including the National Hurricane Center and the National Severe Storms Forecasting Center calling me and asking me what my infamous “AccuShin” is predicting.
No, I don’t. Total lie.
Aside from that, everyone is bloated and miserable from yesterday’s caloric get down, refusing to even discuss the country of Turkey, much less the picked apart remnants of the bird with same name.
Having hosted many Thanksgiving dinners, both formal with china and crystal and sterling flatware to extremely informal with plastic disposable plates and plastic flatware with few forks with a tines missing, I know how much work it is. Exhausting, really. I’d like to think that most host families said goodbye to their guests with glad bags full of turkey, some ham and dressing. If not last night, I hope breakfast was served and then came the goodbyes.
Or maybe this afternoon.
Or surely tomorrow morning……noon at the latest. Then, there will be some guests who are clueless and inconsiderate and won’t leave until Sunday afternoon. At least you’ll be out of leftovers.
I went to my niece’s home in a nearby berg last night and it was lovely. I left with no turkey or any dinner remnants. I got home, went to sleep, woke up in time to watch pregame falderal between the Longhorns and Texas Tech. I wasn’t optimistic, especially after watching the first play of the game and then Tech scored two TDS. soon after. I sighed. It was the most anemic start to a football game since cheerleading one of my seventh grade games in Jr. High.
Then, either uncut meth or liver and whey shakes were administered during half- time, because the Horns came back like gangbusters and ultimately won 49-24.
And the Texas Tech Red Raiders go back to Lubbock, heads hung low.
Lubbock.
I’ve been there, twice. There’s something to that song about the overwhelming joy one feels when seeing that city in one’s rear view mirror.
But I digress a second time….
Texas will get to play in some irrelevant post season bowl sponsored by some small entity that saved enough S&H Green stamps to be able to afford said sponsorship. From beating Georgia in the prestigious Sugar Bowl last year to the Hydrox Cookie Bowl playing Sarah Lawrence somewhere in Florida. Wait……do they still make Hydrox and does Sarah Lawrence have a football team?
Yes, Virginia there is a Santa Claus and Sarah Lawrence playing in a post season college football bowl was a sarcasm. As for Hydrox still being a poor man’s Oreo? I’m clueless.
Tomorrow, I plan on doing a lot of nothing and waiting for tomorrow night’s first network broadcast of “It’s A Wonderful Life”, my favorite movie. Love it. Love Capra and his style that”s dotted with little witticisms that still hold up 70 yrsrs later. You know, any time I’m tired, emotionally worn and discouraged, I’ll find “It’s A Wonderful Life” somewhere in my collection of movies stored in the Cloud and I’ll play it and watch just a few minutes of it and you know what? I feel even worse.
If you’re a sap like me and love holiday TV programming from now through New Year’s Day,
Go here to get there
All times are a Eastern, by the way.
But if you’re also old and farting dust like me and hoping to watch some old school Christmas Faves come on The Tube other than the animated Grinch, Charlie Brown and Rudolph, (Frosty too, but I was 11 when that premiered so I’ve no real holiday symbiosis with it) don’t look for little known known classics like Mr. Magoo’s “A Christmas Carol”.
When I was a kid growing up in the 60’s, it was never part of standard nighttime holiday programming. It was more like filler materials and came on at random times on random Sunday afternoons as Christmas neared. It was broadcast in prime time a few years ago as nostalgia for adults, but the kids didn’t understand it.. The animation we grew up with looks like silent films to today’s kids. So, it’s never been included in any line up since.
Of all the boring Mr. Magoo’s cartoons which I never cared for, I only like this one. Maybe I’m a sentimental old crone, but it’s a poignant holiday musical and stars Jim Backus (Gilligan’s GotRox passenger, Thurston Howell III) as Mr. Magoo’s voice, Jack Cassidy as Tom Cratchet (Tiny Tim’s pappy) and that old Borscht Belt bore, Morey Amsterdam in some capacity. Music and lyrics are courtesy of Jule Styne and Bob Merrill, famous for writing “People” the song essentially helped in large part, make Barbra Streisand’s career.
You can catch bits and pieces of Mr. Magoo’s A Chrimas Carol on YouTube or buy it outright on Amazon and other places.
One of my favorite numbers happens to be the show’s saddest. It’s when the Ghost of Christmas Past magically transports Ebenezer back to the orphanage where he spent his childhood and one particular Christmas in which was completely alone.
The song is a heartbreaker. Peel an onion as you listen. You’ll need it for an excuse.
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