Dave Chapman

I'm just glad Joe Lieberman isn't here to see this. He'd be so happy.

Close up of a valerian plant with small red flowers.

Valerian flowers look like a person made out of balloons.

"Dancing in the Sheets" by Shalamar is arguably the most successful song about inviting someone to a Klan rally.

YouTube video by Talk Talk band Talk Talk - Talk Talk (Official Video)

youtu.be/2IgjUYrDbWI?...

I'd think I was too old to be radicalized, but it's one thing on top of another right now. None of this can be allowed to stand.

I know a lot has gone down over the last week, but this is as important as any of them. Trans rights are not a distraction. This is a matter of life and death.

I would really like to leave Facebook, but Bluesky doesn't (yet?) have a way to limit the audience for a post to the people I choose.

“Just keep your kids off social media and the internet entirely” is an easy out for parents but impractical, socially bad for kids, and it doesn’t work. It’s like abstinence only sex ed. They’re going to encounter these things with or without your permission and better to prepare them.

Things that used to be common problems, according to 1980s television:

** Having all your money stolen while traveling abroad
** Having your body catch fire
** Having your dental work ruined because you chewed gum
** Static cling

George and Lorraine McFly would be 88 years old this year. #BackInTime

And, most importantly, it's about how much we all NEED each other. It's a necessary reminder that the best gifts don't come from a store. (30/30)

"Emmet Otter's Jug-Band Christmas" works because it's not saccharine. It's not about how Christmas is a magical time. Much like "It's a Wonderful Life", it's about hope in the face of hardship and people trying to do the right thing (though not always succeeding). (29/x)

Paul Williams must have been going through some stuff during this time. Listen to the lyrics for "The Rainbow Connection". That is NOT a song about rainbows. (28/x)

But it's also a message of hope for those who are struggling, who might see themselves living in Ma and Emmet Otter threadbare home: You are good, and will be rewarded. Maybe not in this life, but eventually. (27/x)

Evil may win on earth, but eventually it will lose. That's a rather overtly religious sentiment for a story that is otherwise an entirely secular Christmas tale (and not, of course, a sentiment that's limited to Christianity). (26/x)

And then there's this, which takes on a new resonance after Ma and the boys get the restaurant job:

- Patience, my brother and patience, my son
- In that sweet and final hour
- Truth and justice will be done

(25/x)

- When the mountain touches the valley
- All the clouds are taught to fly
- As our souls will leave this land most peacefully
- Though our minds be filled with questions
- In our hearts we'll understand
- When the river meets the sea

(24/x)

It's introduced in the context of being Pa Otter's favorite song and is reprised at the end of the show. What's it about?

It's about how we won't know the meaning of anything until we die. (23/x)

It's a Christmas special, but there are no Christmas-oriented songs. The numbers from the talent contest stand out because of their thematic consistency, and "Barbecue" is great fun. But the song that might be most surprising is "When the River Meets the Sea". (22/x)

There's a happy ending, of course. Doc Bullfrog hires both Ma and the jug-band to play a regular gig at his restaurant. It emphasizes how important it is that Ma and Emmet -- and all of us -- stick together. (21/x)

And they win! Evil wins. Not because they're more talented or work harder. They win because they didn't have to scrounge or sell family heirlooms for costumes or instruments. They win because ... "they tell it like it is". One of the judges is the customer who wouldn't pay her laundry bill. (20/x)

The Nightmare sings:

- We don't wish to learn
- but we hate what we don't understand.

(19/x)

Emmet and his band sing:

- How much alike we are; perhaps we're long lost brothers
- We even think the same; you know there may be others
- We can always use a friend

(18/x)

Ma sings:

- Some say our world is getting too small
- I say with kindness "There's room for us all."

(17/x)

You really have to listen to the lyrics. The songs Ma and the jug-band perform are a direct counterpoint to the Nightmare's song. (16/x)

The lyrics of their song are a manifesto about why the Nightmare shouldn't be rewarded. They shouldn't even be in the contest--they didn't submit their entry on time. They represent everything wrong with the world. (15/x)

It's so unjust. Ma and Emmet's band sing songs about love and togetherness. The Nightmare sings about how awful they are and how everyone should be afraid of them. (14/x)

Ma and Emmet perform in the talent show, and they both do very well. They can't both win, of course, but it seems reasonable that one of them will. And then disaster happens. A band of rowdy hooligans from River Bottom wins the contest and the $50. (13/x)

This is a Christmas special. (12/x)