The world catches up with us. We all need a lift, including me. Lately, all of the talk of our nation’s collapse has gotten to me. So today is going to be a break from that.
One of my favorite things each November is that the holiday music channels begin broadcasting Christmas music. I spend most of November and December listening to old Christmas music from the greats: Louis Armstrong, Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, and others. I drive my coworkers nuts with it.
I find it to be uplifting and a great relief from the problems of today’s world. With that message, I leave you with my favorite Christmas song:
12 Comments
E M Johnson · November 16, 2021 at 7:27 am
errr not into that music but I get the feeling and am in the same mental state. my diversion is animal videos on YT. either cute or ones where stupid humans get a reality check
ChuckInBama · November 16, 2021 at 1:02 pm
Thanks.
We need to retreat to a better time or place to keep us sane.
And to remember what we fight for…
Don Shift · November 16, 2021 at 3:25 pm
I’m glad I’m not the only grown man that feels the same way. If you can stand classic music, try Ralph Vaughn Williams Christmas music.
Plague Monk · November 16, 2021 at 4:13 pm
I’m a little bit more bloodthirsty when it comes to Christmas music, I’m afraid. My favorite Christmas song is Weird Al’s wonderful and heart warming “Christmas at Ground Zero”.
For many years, a group of us would get together on Christmas Eve and do a nuclear war simulation. We used some books as the basis, such as Alas Babylon, The Guardians, and others, or we’d use scenarios from some of the think tanks.
There’s nothing like wiping out 3/4 of the world’s population while sipping hot chocolate and eating Christmas cookies.
Don Shift · November 16, 2021 at 4:51 pm
Sounds charming. How’d you do the simulation pre Internet and NukeMap era?. “Pulling Through” by Dean Ing is my favorite nuclear war book, even more than mine. “Alas Babylon” is a close second.
Plague Monk · November 16, 2021 at 7:56 pm
One of my closest friends in the late 70s thru early 2000s spent some time running simulations for a military oriented think tank, and had some maps of various parts of the world that he edited and distributed to his players.
He recruited some younger people(including me, via a chess club in upstate NY) who were heavily into wargames(such as Jim Dunnigan’s old SPI) to test various scenarios.
We met in person several times a year when we could, and by the early nineties were running on the early internet. By then, my friend was in charge of a wargaming group at a college, and was there until he died around 2004 of a heart attack.
We didn’t only game nuclear war; we gamed such things as the comet from Niven and Pournelle’s Lucifer’s Hammer, deliberately set forest fires, and how to make life “interesting” in NYC, among other things.
I’d forgotten Pulling Through, and I’m a big fan of Dean Ing. His Flying to Pieces is one of the best novels I ever read.
Plague Monk · November 16, 2021 at 8:04 pm
I grew up playing chess, followed by Avalon Hill and SPI wargames, and in high school I was a member of a group that played Diplomacy on the weekends. It was a more innocent time in the mid 70s. Of the ten of us in the core group, only two of us managed to live a normal life, and the other one has been gone for several years.
I’m very fortunate in having a wonderful wife that has stuck with me for over 40 years, even though we couldn’t have children. We do have cats, and one of them is sleeping on my shoulder as I type.
Daffy Duck SideEye · November 16, 2021 at 4:22 pm
That’s way up my list too. My top three Christmas albums are A Jolly Christmas with Frank Sinatra (Sinatra), Merry Christmas (Johnny Mathis), and A Charlie Brown Christmas (Vince Guaraldi Trio). Other good ones include An Oscar Peterson Christmas (Oscar Peterson) and A Very She & Him Christmas (Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward).
Russell G. · November 16, 2021 at 5:33 pm
Don Ho Xmas stuff and TCM and upper channel B&W movies, especially noir movies. Tivo the crap out of it. Trad vibes. At least it warms me inside. And, makes me more resolved.
Damn near every blog out there is going in circles and is boring has shit. Meh. Get off the screen and just keep on prepping and planning.
joe · November 16, 2021 at 7:08 pm
some good jazz or 80s does it for me…
Skyler the Weird · November 16, 2021 at 8:08 pm
I like Seth McFarlane’s Holiday for Swing album myself. He’s a surprise considering all his gross humor on Film.
Scrooge McScrooge · November 16, 2021 at 11:25 pm
The Ventures and the Billy Idol Christmas album!
The Billy album will cheer you up and bring laughter.
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