Country Christmas

There is no Christmas like a Country Christmas.
And somehow Christmas and country music just seem to go together. So it should come as no surprise that many of the best Christmas songs you will ever hear are country Christmas songs. To begin with the single best Christmas album I've ever heard is by Alabama and it's simply titled "Christmas." This is the first Alabama Christmas album issued in 1985. Every song on this album is wonderful but some of my favorites include Santa Claus (I Still Believe In You), Christmas Memories, Tennessee Christmas and Christmas in Dixie. I also like all of the songs on Clint Black's 1995 album "Looking for Christmas." Favorites from a variety of other albums include: 364 Days to Go by Brad Paisley, This Is My Prayer by Reba McEntire, When It's Christmas Time In Texas and Christmas Cookies by George Strait, Goin' Home for Christmas by Merle Haggard, and Christmas Times A-Comin' by Bill Monroe.
Among non-country Christmas songs I like Santa Baby, the original by Eartha Kitt, When My Heart Finds Christmas and I Pray On Christmas by Harry Connick, Jr., It Happened In Sun Valley by Mel Torme and Christmas in New Orleans by Louis Armstrong.
A friend who takes a somewhat dimmer view of Christmas has asked that I add Merry Christmas From The Family by Robert Earl Keen and Granma Got Run Over By A Reindeer by Elmo and Patsy Shropshire. So there, I've added them.

A Giant Falls

The death of former Congressman Henry Hyde of Illinois marks the fall of a giant. Hyde was literally and figuratively bigger-than-life. He was a throwback to the days when members of Congress weren't blow-dried and rehearsed. Hyde was authentic. He was real. Whether you agreed with his stand on issues such as abortion or not you had to respect the fact that he staked out positions as a matter of conscience. As Chair of the House Judiciary Committee Hyde led the 1998 Clinton impeachment proceedings. By all accounts Henry Hyde was genuinely liked, even by his opponents who acknowledged his wit, charm and fairness. His passing reminds us just how far Congress has strayed from the path of decency and civility.

Allen Opts Out

New Jersey State Senator Diane Allen has decided not to seek the seat of retiring Congressman James Saxton of Mount Holly. That's bad news for the GOP. The loss of this South Jersey seat which has long been held by Republicans could be pivotal in next year's Congressional election. The Democrats have already decided to field a strong candidate in State Senator John Adler of Cherry Hill. Allen says she's opting out because she doesn't want to be caught in the cross hairs as Burlington County Republicans continue an ongoing feud over control of the county organization. Allen doesn't want to have to fight Republicans while she's trying to defeat Democrats. Who can blame her? Diane has always been a class act and her decision represents a great loos for the GOP. As for the feuding Republicans in Burlington County: Shame on them!

Playing Favorites

If you listen at all to the major national conservative talk radio hosts as I do then you've probably already figured out that several of them have their favorites in the GOP presidential contest. Shawn Hannity, for example, definitely seems to favor Rudy Giuliani. On the other hand Laura Ingraham seems to want anyone BUT Giuliani. She comes down awfully hard on Rudy and keeps searching for just the right conservative standard-bearer. Hugh Hewitt seems to be leaning toward Romney. And that brings us to the Dean of all conservative talk radio commentators: Rush Limbaugh. If you can detect exactly who Rush's candidate is you must be a mind-reader. Limbaugh is so smooth, so adept and apparently so adaptable that he seems to have cleverly left all his options open. I get the impression that Rush is looking for one thing and one thing only: a winner. And when Limbaugh finds that person, I suppose he'll let us know.
Limbaugh photo, MSNBC

Lonely Life

I've been reading Ed Sikov's "Dark Victory: The Life of Bette Davis" and one cannot help but think that this great star of Hollywood's golden age was a desperately tortured soul.

Davis never resolved her relationship (or lack thereof) with her father who was a cold and distant figure in her life. And it seems she never got over her father's abandonment of her, her mother and her sister. Davis' mother was in many ways a classic stage mother who lived much of her life through her daughter. But the mother (a photographer who helped define Bette's early image) was also a successful professional in her own right, a hard working single-mom who taught her daughters strong, Old Yankee values.

Bette Davis was a combative personality and she seemed to have a particularly difficult time with men -- studio bosses, husbands, directors, beaus. In the end she defined herself through her stardom and her body of work. Her life was her craft and her films are her shining legacy. That was wonderful for us but it didn't leave very much for Bette.

In the end, Bette's own autobiography "The Lonely Life" was aptly titled.

http://www.henryholt.com/searchnn.htm

The Sky Is Falling

In his new book "Day Of Reckoning" Pat Buchanan declares that America is "on a path to national suicide." He finds that "America is coming apart, decomposing, and...the likelihood of her survival as one nation...is improbable -- and impossible if America continues on her current course."
He sees our nation in an "existential crisis" with the army too small to defend us, the dollar too low and US manufacturing dead. But above all, he's alarmed that an invasion of immigrants into our nation will completely destroy our culture and even lead to the loss of the Southwest to Mexico.
At the end of last year in a column in the Philadelphia Daily News I picked Buchanan as one of those people who should get lost. Here's what I said:
"Patrick Buchanan can go the way of President Buchanan as far as I’m concerned. Buchanan excoriates everything un-American and says we’re witnessing the death of the West. But I’m not buying Buchanan’s alarmist rhetoric because I think the power of Western thought and the pull of assimilation will prevail. Pat, take a walk and allow the melting pot to do its work."
For the record, I have not changed my mind about Buchanan.

Her Teacher, Her Hero

Aimee Cirucci's essay, "My, Teacher, My Hero, My Aunt" will appear in the upcoming anthology, "My Teacher Is My Hero" published by Adams Media http://www.adamsmedia.com/ and edited by Susan Reynolds. The publication is due out in the spring, toward the end of the school year. Aimee is an educator, writer, and communications professional who advises select public relations clients on a freelance basis. Her articles and personal essays have appeared on the following websites: Absolute Write, Identity Theory, The Imperfect Parent, The Savvy Gal, Sister Divas Magazine, and Women’s Web. And, you can sample Aimee's writing on her own website: www.cirucci.com/home

Congratulations, Aimee!

Bagel Bastardization

I confess: I'm funny about bagels.
Most bagels are just too gooey in the center -- too doughy -- for me. So, I've taken to cutting the bagel in half and then clawing out much of the dense dough in the center of each half. I then roll the dough into a golf-ball size or smaller sphere and think how much better I am without that ball of spongy dough in my gut. I toss the sponge ball and then toast the bagel and dress it with "I Can't Believe It's Not Butter." I suppose bagel aficionados consider all this sacrilege.
I don't know how many calories I may be saving by digging out the dough or by using the fake butter. It's just that a whole bagel with all that dough is too much and yet half a bagel doesn't do it for me either.
Call me crazy but now the whole damned thing has become a morning ritual.

The Bionic Man

Vice President Cheney had another brief coronary scare (an irregular heartbeat) but a carefully administered electric shock got the Veep's ticker running normally again. All this and I don't believe Cheney even missed a day of work.
It's hard to decide whether Cheney is the Bionic Man, the Cat With Nine Lives, The Hulk or just a cranky old Republican who seems destined to outlast all of us. Whatever it is, I get a great kick out of watching Cheney defy the odds and I'm sure that every time he gets a new part or gets himself recharged it drives his critics crazy. The truth is that Cheney is not nearly as old and nowhere as mean as people make him out to be. He's simply become an easy target.
Dick Cheney doesn't need to be Vice President and he doesn't need to be in Washington. He can make lots more money sitting on corporate boards and/or going out on the lecture circuit. And, he wouldn't have to work nearly as hard. But I think he honestly cares about the nation and the job at hand. Ditto, by the way, for Lynn Cheney. They're a true power couple -- but without all the boastfulness and showiness. I'm glad that Cheney is determined to complete his term and I wish him and his family nothing but "Blue Skys, No Fences" in the years ahead.

Teddy To Tell

It's just been announced that Senator Edward M. Kennedy's autobiography will be published by Hachette Book Group in 2010.

If Teddy is even reasonably candid you've got to figure this will be a major bestseller. In fact, it has the potential to be mammoth. So many books have been written about so many Kennedys (one of the best of them being "The Kennedys" by Collier and Horowitz) that you would think we'd be satiated. But this is different. This will be from the The Survivor -- the man who was there and who witnessed it all closeup. Whatever you may feel about Teddy he has certainly known the highs and the lows and it's fair to say he's been through hell over the course of his 75 years. Maybe he'll give us some insight as to where and how he got the strength to carry on.

Still, I'm not sure I'd agree with historian Douglas Brinkley who has called Kennedy "probably the most durable and interesting American politician that's had a sustained career, decade after decade, since Franklin Roosevelt."

Sorry, but I'm just not terribly comfortable putting Teddy and FDR on the same plain, regardless of the criteria.