Musical Interlude For Christmas Day — And Beyond

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

If you love excellent choral music, cue up the video below and play this 1991 recording as you enjoy Christmas Day and the remainder of this Holy Season. If you have a Smart TV with a sound bar, as Warren and I do, even better!

The Choral Arts Society of Washington has been a choir of the top order, both nationally and internationally, since 1965.  Members of the choir are not paid!  If approved by a grueling audition (fewer than one in four pass the test), these "amateur" musicians sing because they so love music.

(Personal note: I had the privilege of being in the alto section of the Choral Arts Society of Washington from its founding under the baton of Maestro Norman Scribner, until the spring of 1968, when I resigned so that I could prepare to go to college.  I'll be ever grateful to Maestro Scribner on taking a chance on a child of thirteen to be join a choir of adult singers.  Oh, the training I received!)

00:00 JOY TO THE WORLD for brass 00:57 OF THE FATHER'S LOVE BEGOTTEN 04:11 JAUCHZET, FROHLOCKET! | Bach 12:20 TOMORROW SHALL BE MY DANCING DAY | Rutter 15:23 I SAW THREE SHIPS | Vaughn Williams 16:54 THE HOLLY AND THE IVY | Rutter 19:48 FANTASIA ON ‘GREENSLEEVES’ | Vaughn Williams 24:32 IN DULCI JUBILO for organ | Bach 25:46 NOEL NOUVELET 29:12 BOGORODITSE DEVO, RADUYSA | Rachmaninoff 32:14 WELCOME, ALL WONDERS | Dirksen 39:13 VOLTE | Praetorius 39:58 INTONATION for organ | Gabrieli/IN DULCI JUBILO | Scheidt 44:41 O COME, ALL YE FAITHFUL | Willcocks 48:11 DECK THE HALLS | Shaw-Parker 49:21 MARY HAD A BABY | Dawson 52:35 CANDLELIGHT CAROL | Rutter 56:51 STILLE NACHT | Gruber 59:44 ZITHER CAROL | Sargent 1:01:32 BRING A TORCH | Shaw-Parker 1:03:01 WILLIE, TAKE YOUR LITTLE DRUM | Hall 1:04:37 CANTIQUE DE NOEL | Adams 1:08:55 SHEDRYK 1:10:06 A MERRY CHRISTMAS | Warrell 1:11:30 HARK! THE HERALD ANGELS SING | Willocks

Democrat Chickens Roosting

Silverfiddle Rant!

Its a sad commentary that a police chief has to state what was once considered obvious common sense in this nation:

Washington DC Police Chief at the scene of another violent crime

"You cannot coddle violent criminals," he said. "They might not want a job. They might not need services… They may need to be off our streets."

He also decried reductions in police personnel: "The reality is we have a shrinking workforce. I have a definitive amount of resources. 200 and some officers less this year than I had last year."

Recommended Reading

See The unbearable pettiness of the Washington press corps at American Thinker, dated March 30, 2020. Excerpt below the fold:

Voices From The Past

Please take a few minutes to watch the two short videos below:





Below is the most-watched YouTube documentary on the topic of the 1918 Spanish Flu epidemic — if you have time to watch (over 4 million views):


Now for my family's own stories.......


My father's younger sister, about age 7, died of "the aftereffects of the flu." Something like the 1990 film Awakenings? Full movie HERE at YouTube, albeit poor quality.  I highly recommend the film! It is available via Amazon Prime Video.

Dad occasionally spoke of what happened when his sister died: "The undertaker embalmed Chrissie at the house — and dumped the blood behind the barn."  The funeral service and burial were private.  The influenza didn't stop until everything was shut down: schools, funerals, churches, etc.  And the government refused to believe that something terrible was happening with Americans' health.  Until, that is, bodies began piling up on the sidewalks and in the streets of Washington, D.C.

My maternal grandmother (1898-1981) had a robust immune system. It fell to her to take care of her brother Walter, who brought influenza to their remote location in the mountains of East Tennessee when he was discharged from the US Army, fell ill himself, and gave the flu to his brother-in-law Fred, my grandmother's husband.  My grandmother sent her two children, one born in 1916 and the other in 1918 to her parents' farm and took care of Walter and Fred.

My grandmother related the story of those days in this way: "I got almost no sleep.  I went back and forth between the river for cold water and the menfolks' foreheads.  They were out of their heads with fever.  My sister brought food, called to me, and set the food down about 25 feet from the house; I fetched the food from there.  I don't remember how long all this went on.  Seemed like forever.  But Walter and Fred got well, and life went back to normal."

I asked Wawa how she stood those weeks of hard work as a nurse.  Her response: "Life isn't about what you want to do.  Life is about what you have to do."  She also told me of a particular safely measure she used: teetotaler though she was, she gargled in moonshine morning and evening.  And she swallowed that moonshine, too.

Bringing us back to today....A view of the front lines of this grim war against Coronavirus (dated March 23, 2020): The Growing Chaos Inside New York’s Hospitals.

And one more thing...in the immortal words of Gilda Radner:

Musical Interlude

(For politics, please scroll down)

GO, NATS!

WATCH: Washington National Cathedral choristers sing “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” in honor of the @Nationals playoff bid. More: https://t.co/JAuM5U3Dnt (📹: Courtesy of @WNCathedral) pic.twitter.com/0DHYchqlTw

— WTOP (@WTOP) October 3, 2019

Yep, I'm a baseball fan — never mind that, decades ago, Dad turned down an offer to pitch for the New York Yankees (control pitcher).

Recommended Reading: Deals For Furloughed Federal Employees

[Note: this post was queued up before President Trump caved yesterday and opened the government without funds for The Wall]

See Shutdown specials: DC-area deals for furloughed government workers at WTOP.

Brief excerpt (Yes, brief. The list is extensive):

The Harlem Globetrotters are offering two free tickets to the 2019 Fan Powered North American tour for furloughed workers. Just show a valid government ID at the box office.

Alamo Drafthouse Cinema at Stonebridge in Prince William County is offering free movies to federal employees throughout January.

Anytime Fitness locations in Poolesville, Maryland, and Kensington, Maryland, are offering 14 days free for furloughed workers, which includes access to fitness classes and private fitness consultation.

The Audubon Naturalist Society has free memberships available for furloughed workers. But, if you’re already a member and a furloughed employee, there are free extensions on membership renewals. Also, free “Yoga in the Woods” and guided sanctuary tours. Get the full details here.

Government workers that need to sweat it out can try an indoor cycling class at the CYCLED studio in Silver Spring or try the Cycling, Barre or Yoga Sculpt class at the Takoma Park location. Furloughed feds should use the code “SweatItOut@CYCLED!” to sign up and flash a government ID at the check-in desk.

Burns Heating & Air says it will help furloughed workers stay warm in the freezing weather with furnace repair. The company, which serves Loudoun and Fairfax counties in Virginia, is offering a payment plan allowing furloughed workers to pay their bills whenever the government reopens. Call 540-208-5660, or text and call 703-884-7130, and have a pay stub and government ID ready.

Michael and Son is doing something similar, offering furloughed employees six months of no payments on plumbing, electrical, heating and cooling repairs carried out while they go without a paycheck....

Much, much more HERE.

Your thoughts?

Recommended Reading

With a hat tip to Z:

See Fox News Anchor Fears For Her Safety at SCOTUS Protests, Cancels Live Show (dated July 9, 2018).

This is America? In the heart of Capitol Hill?

BREAKING NOW: HOUSE MAJORITY WHIP STEVE SCALISE HAS BEEN SHOT AT AN EARLY MORNING GOP BASEBALL TEAM PRACTICE IN ALEXANDRIA, VIRGINIA!

(Note to readers: tomorrow, I will republish the original post I had already put up for today)

The scene this morning (image credit)

Details everywhere on the web (Google search term: steve scalise shot), including at Infidel Bloggers Alliance, where I have been frenetically posting updates.

Congressman Steve Scalise (R-Lousiana) was shot and was lying wounded on the outfield for about 10 minutes.  Two Capitol Police officers have also been shot.

Among the updates I've posted at Infidel Bloggers Alliance:

This shooting appears to be a deliberate, target attack on the GOP (CNN).

The weapon appears to have been an AR-15 (according to some gun-savvy witnesses, Fox News).

Fox News: the shooting went on for 10 minutes. The shooter reloaded at least once.

The Congressional Teams Baseball Game was supposed to take place tomorrow at Nationals Field and has been well-publicized (Fox News).

One of the Capitol Police officers, although shot, was able to take down the shooter. The shooter is now en route to a hospital (Fox News).

Congressman Scalise was airlifted from the scene and is now in the hospital, probably INOVA Fairfax Hospital, which has a trauma center (Fox News).

"It was a shooting field" (Rand Paul, interviewed by phone on Fox News). Some 50 rounds were fired by the gunman.

According to Jeff Flake (R-Arizona), Steve Scalise was playing 2nd base. When he was shot, he dragged himself into the outfield so as to be further away from the shooter, who was behind the 3rd base dugout. Congressman Jeff Flake went to the outfield to put pressure on Scalise's hip wound. The Congressional Baseball Game has been a Washington tradition for over 16 years (Fox News).

Report on Fox News: before the shooting started, a man in running shorts came up and asked if the baseball team was Democrats or Republicans.

UPDATE: Congressman Scalise may be at Georgetown University Medical Center. Police in assault rifles all over the ER entrance there.  The Today Show Twitter feed is showing that he may have a groin wound:

New video shows Congressman @SteveScalise after Alexandria shooting. https://t.co/afPAJ2WT6x

— TODAY (@TODAYshow) June 14, 2017

As Anonymous posted at Infidel Bloggers Alliance:

If the shooter is tied to the right Trump will be blamed. If the shooter is tied to the left the gun will be blamed.

As predicted (with thanks to Anonymous at Infidel Bloggers Alliance):

Rolling Stone, Washington Post Freelancer Blames Scalise For Getting Himself Shot https://t.co/dWKFfShEej

— Thomas Paine (@Thomas1774Paine) June 14, 2017

UPDATE...Shooter identified by law enforcement officials as James T. Hodgkinson:

The shooter at the GOP congressional baseball practice this morning is James T. Hodgkinson of Belleville, Ill., according to law enforcement officials. Hodgkinson, 66, owns a home inspection business. His home inspection license expired in November 2016 and was not renewed, state records show.

Hodgkinson was charged in April 2006 with battery and aiding damage to a motor vehicle, according to online records in St. Clair County, Illinois. The charges were dismissed, records show.

Apparently, the shooter is a Bernie Sanders supporter and rabidly anti-Trump.  More information about the shooter HERE at Heavy.com.

Curbing Crime?

Headline at the Associated Press on February 2, 2016:

DC bill would pay people stipends not to commit crimes.

Apparently a similar program in Richmond, California, provides up to $9,000 per person per year to those in the program, initiated in 2007.

According to the above-cited article:

Winter Blast!

(For politics, please scroll down)

Blizzard time. We're due.  The last horrible blast struck in 2010.

One of the prediction maps:

Photo from the Washington Post

The biggest concern, of course, is the possibility of losing electrical power.

Personal Update

(For politics, please scroll down)

On Monday, December 7, 2015, Tammy, Mr. AOW, and I ventured into D.C. to visit the National Museum of American History. The first exhibit we visited was The Star-Spangled Banner: The Flag That Inspired the National Anthem. Mr. AOW and I have visited that exhibit before, but Tammy had not. Interesting that there were no Muslimas in hijab at that museum!

Hillary Clinton's Heroine: Eugenicist Margaret Sanger

Before proceeding, please take a few moments to watch this video:

Political Satire And Ghouls

One of my recent Facebook finds:

This may or may not be satire: D.C. Residents Say Take Down Jefferson Memorial, Rename Washington, D.C.

Clearly, this is not satire (dated July 22, 2015):

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A group was fed up with waiting, so they got a shovel and dug up a patch of grass next to Nathan Bedford Forrest’s grave and statue in a public park in the Medical District.

The group says they wanted the statue and remains removed for a long time, because he was a Confederate soldier, a KKK leader and a slave trader.

“If he’s gone, some of this racism and race-hate might be gone,” said Isaac Richmond with Commission on Religion and Racism. “We got a fresh shovel full, and we hope that everybody else will follow suit and dig him up.”...

This Week At GWU

More than two-thirds of the students approached in approximately one hour signed the petition in the name of social justice:


Read the Campus Reform article HERE.

Okay, in the comments section, let's list specific Americans whom we are willing to trade for illegal immigrants.

Breaking News For D.C.

(Two posts today. Please scroll down for the earlier post today)

Patient Being Tested for Ebola at D.C.'s Howard University Hospital: Patient had traveled to Nigeria recently; is being isolated and tested

Second patient with Ebola-like symptoms in D.C. region

Sunday Break From Politics

[If you must have politics, please scroll down]

Spring cardinal 2014 (with thanks to Will, who emailed me the graphic below):

Busy, Busy, Busy

(If you must have politics, please scroll down)

Tammy Swofford has been visiting for a few days. She arrived the day after Christmas.

Good times!  We've been enjoying dining out every day and taking in a few local attractions — including a visit to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.

We went to the Gallery specifically to see Heaven and Earth: Art of Byzantium from Greek Collections:

Click on this link for more information and many photos.

No post-Christmas blues here in the AOW household!

Nincompoopery — And Worse

(Weekend roundup post.   For the definition of nincompoop, see THIS in the Urban Dictionary. Commenters are encouraged to post links that tell of more nincompoopery)

Links to read (more possibly added as the weekend progresses):

Student On Arapahoe School Shooter: "Very Proud Of Being A Socialist"

Boy, 11, Arrested For Punching Grandmother In Face After She Refused To Buy Him Toy At Department Store

School lesson portrays Obama as messiah

Objectionable Windows?

The Washington National Cathedral's stained class windows incorporate many different themes and subjects.

Upon the recent death of Nelson Mandela, objections have now arisen to two of the stained glass windows — two separate windows depicting General Stonewall Jackson and General Robert E. Lee, both of them officers in the Confederate Army:

"Flash Mob"

At the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum on December 3, 2013 (hat tip to Bloviating Zeppelin):


A Christmas surprise!

The blurb at YouTube: