Don't need a coat and you don't need your shoes

[sovay]

I am returned from Christmas, which was celebrated this year with rushthatspeaks, spatch, choco_frosh, and my parents. The front steps were icy enough for A Muppet Family Christmas (1987). We opened stockings and exchanged presents or IOUs as needed. I have cider caramels and new socks and Alan Garner's Treacle Walker (2021), which my mother somehow managed to order from England in a year when shipping within the continental U.S. is fraught with disappointment and tears. (I did succeed in obtaining a piece of elisem's jewelry for one of my husbands and the autobiography of Arthur Anderson for the other.) We had the traditional roast beef followed by the traditional plum pudding alight with the traditional brandy. Listening to Emily Smith's "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" reminded me again that theologically-lyrically I have almost a negative affinity for that song and emotionally-musically I am deeply attached to it. I heard it first in the 1935 A Tale of Two Cities. My brother and my niece will be coming over for Boxing Day, as is also traditional, which gives us time to fashion another Paleozoic postcard. Until then, I plan to read with cats.

Comments

[asakiyume]

I love Emily Smith--I have an album of hers and several stray songs.

The humans and animals in your day sound perfect--Merry Christmas!

[sovay]

I love Emily Smith--I have an album of hers and several stray songs.

I don't know which song it was, but my mother heard her on the radio and bought my father her Christmas album, which was playing between the opening of presents and the eating of dinner. I have ascertained that I like her "Twa Sisters," too. (She does the version I think of as the Clannad version, but since it is not infrequently stuck in my head alternating with the minor-key mirror I think of as the Roger Wilson version, I'm not complaining.)

The humans and animals in your day sound perfect--Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

[asakiyume]

The song I first heard by her was her version of "The Cruel Mother"--gorgeous. I also have her "Time Wears Awa" as a freestanding song. The album of hers I have is called Too Long Away and combines traditional songs like "May Colven" with ones she wrote herself, like "Audience of Souls" (which is beautiful).

[sovay]

The album of hers I have is called Too Long Away and combines traditional songs like "May Colven" with ones she wrote herself, like "Audience of Souls" (which is beautiful).

I will look for that one!

[thistleingrey]

Treacle Walker is a stunning fusion of myth and folklore and an exploration of the fluidity of time

Somehow it seems that this could be said of most if not all of Garner's books. Anyway, good to know that there's a new one!

[sovay]

Somehow it seems that this could be said of most if not all of Garner's books. Anyway, good to know that there's a new one!

It's very true. I liked this one! It's a small spare memoir-ish myth-circle and an aspect of the ending reminded me of Patricia A. McKillip's The Sorceress and the Cygnet (1991), although it might not anyone else.

[thistleingrey]

It's a small spare memoir-ish myth-circle

Good to know! Sounds appealing--though I'm not putting anything onto the tbr list for a little while yet.

[alexxkay]

On the off-chance you haven't seen it yet, here's a fun riff on the Merry Gentlemen and their punctuation: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=sxfxy-3dGz0

[sovay]

On the off-chance you haven't seen it yet, here's a fun riff on the Merry Gentlemen and their punctuation

I have not! (I know where the comma goes—and that it is properly you rather than the more archaic-sounding but less grammatically correct ye—but I look forward to seeing how it is demonstrated.)

[nineweaving]

That's as close to perfect as this year can come.

Merry Christmas!

Nine

[sovay]

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

[pameladean]

...theologically-lyrically I have almost a negative affinity for that song and emotionally-musically I am deeply attached to it.

You've described my relationship to a number of songs, notably "Matty Groves."

Happy all the things to you, spatch, and little black cats. *hug*

P.

[sovay]

You've described my relationship to a number of songs, notably "Matty Groves."

What are the others?

Happy all the things to you, spatch, and little black cats.

To you and yours and your cats, likewise!

*hugs*

[gwynnega]

Glad you had such a lovely Christmas!

[sovay]

Glad you had such a lovely Christmas!

Thank you! I hope yours was the same.

[skygiants]

Accidentally singing the lyrics the Tam Lin lyrics to the God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen tune (and vice versa) has given me a fondness for it I never had before. I am glad you had a delightful-sounding holiday!

[sovay]

Accidentally singing the lyrics the Tam Lin lyrics to the God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen tune (and vice versa) has given me a fondness for it I never had before.

I am delighted to know that can be done! It is used to open the Christmas interlude in A Tale of Two Cities (1935), so I always associate it with Ronald Colman's Sydney Carton propping up a lamppost.

I am glad you had a delightful-sounding holiday!

Thank you!