What in the world is a mondegreen? It’s when you mis-hear words, phrases, lyrics. Here’s an example: Creedence Clearwater Revival’s There’s a bad moon on the rise is heard by some as There’s a bathroom on the right. With this nod to the 25th of the month, here’s an August Christmas story. John has always been a singer. Even as a little kid, our middle child would belt out songs at the top of his lungs. Even when he didn’t…
My parents are nature lovers. (For a reason I don’t recall, this moniker was often pronounced “nay-CHOO love-OOS” over the years.) My two older brothers even went to “nature camp” back in grade school. Indeed, they each won a free week at Nature Camp for scoring highly on tests given following Saturday morning nay-choo films at the local museum in Pittsfield. I went just once. Sacrificing Saturday morning cartoons for a chance at nature camp just wasn’t worth it to…
One of my happiest moments on stage back in college was playing my soul sister, Lucy van Pelt, in “You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown.” The Peanuts gang is tasked with writing “a book report on Peter Rabbit” and the characters each approach the musical assignment in their own way. Lucy, of course, concentrates on the number of words required and is very, very, very careful to hit 100 on the nose. Funny thing, I remember back in second grade…
Nowadays, there are graduation ceremonies to celebrate moving on from nearly every grade and every activity. It used to annoy me until I realized the end result could be a photo like this one: Back in my parents’ day, though, it took many years of study to achieve a graduation ceremony. At St. Francis School in New Haven, Connecticut, there was even a group portrait taken when the class passed out of 8th grade. There’s Mom – Joan Cassidy- in…
When I showed this photo to grandson Cameron, 6, his reaction was immediate: “Goose! Goose! Is that Frosty the Snowman?” My grandson calls me Goose. I hope he never stops. The photo is from Saturday. James (the freshman who’s technically a sophomore at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology) sent it. That’s James (Uncle James if your name is Cameron) the third builder in from the right. Wearing a toasty-warm blue jacket. But no hat and no gloves. As a side note,…