Writes Meadow Mama (echoed by Walt of Wayzata): “I think I can release The Cab Driver from his earworm [BB, 1/5/2015].
“The lyrics are a parody of the Notre Dame fight song. Here is what I remember: ‘Cheer, cheer for old Notre Dame. / You take the Notre, I’ll take the Dame. / Send the freshmen out for gin, / Don’t let the sober sophom*ores in. / We never stagger, we never fall. / We sober up on wood alcohol / While the loyal faculty / Lie drunk on the barroom floor.’ ”
Miss Kitty of the Midway: “I want to thank The Cab Driver for bringing back a memory for me with his earworm. The song I remember my brother singing to me was as follows: ‘Beer, beer for old Wilson High. / Bring on the whiskey, bring on the rye, / Send those freshmen out for gin, / And don’t let a sober sophom*ore in! / We never stagger, we never fall. / We sober up on wood alcohol. / All ye sons of Wilson High / We’re out on the drunk again!’
“He graduated with the Class of 1958, and many times when we got together, he would sing that. When I attended the school eight years later, I never heard it from anyone there.
“Of course, he was one of the class hell-raisers. As one teacher remarked to my parents during a parent-teacher conference, his younger brother was fine, but my older brother almost drove her to drink. I still really miss him, as he passed away in 2009.”
Raindancer of North Oaks: “The song The Cab Driver referred to is one my librarian mother taught me. Time had dimmed the lines, but what I remember is: ‘Beer, beer, for old Ramsey High / You bring the whiskey, I’ll bring the rye. / Send the freshmen out for gin, / And don’t let a sober sophom*ore in. / We never stagger, we never fall, / We sober up on wood alcohol / While the loyal faculty / Lie drunk on the ballroom floor.’
“I think there was another stanza, also. Throw in endless codas, and by the time the band bus arrived at our away-game destination, we all were hyped — and the bus driver was glad to see us go!
“I’d be surprised if every school didn’t have some creative and funny versions of that Notre Dame fight song.”
The Lowest Common Consumer (responsorial)
New Handle from Mac-Groveland: “When I read Midnight Angel‘s post about never using your hair dryer while sleeping [BB, 1/3/2015], I at first thought ‘Oh for dumb,’ and then I sheepishly remembered that when I was in high school, I did just that every morning. Those were the days of rollers, and I would set my alarm to get up, wash my hair, roll it up, and then I would crawl back into bed with my GE hooded hair dryer on my head, turn on the heat and fall back to sleep. (Teenagers hate to get up early, remember.) This was much better than sleeping with brush rollers the entire night. In these wonderful days of blow-dried styling, the warning does seem to bring Lowest Common Consumer groans, but I am living proof that it is possible to be, shall I say, that dumb. Picture of GE hooded dryer enclosed.”
Mrs. P.: “Midnight Angel of Vadnais Heights wrote about the warning not to fall asleep while using the hair dryer. Sad to say it’s a valid warning. Long ago, when the style was to use the big hair rollers like juice cans, I was a college student. Getting ready to go out on a weekend meant spending Saturday afternoon getting ready. Being a college student also meant studying at every opportunity. So, while sitting under that nice warm hair dryer, I pulled out my business-law textbook to do the assigned reading. Some time later, I awoke to a pain in my wrist. I had fallen asleep with the hair-dryer hose resting on top of my wrist. The coiled wire in the hose had given me a third-degree burn where it touched my skin. The scar is still plainly visible, all these 40-plus years later.
“Maybe the warning should be not to do boring reading while using the hair dryer.”
Fun facts to know and tell
Plus: In memoriam
The Divine Mum of Crocus Hill: “From Mario Cuomo’s obituary in the New York Times: ‘A strapping six feet tall, 190 pounds at age 19, he signed a contract to play center field for the Class D Brunswick Pirates in Georgia in 1952, reportedly receiving a $2,000 signing bonus, sizable for that time. Mr. Cuomo “plays hard” and “will run over you if you get in his way,” a Pirates scout wrote.
” ‘His baseball career was short-lived. Knocked in the head with a 3-and-2 fastball that summer, he was left blind for a week and forced to give up the game — leaving with a .244 batting average.’
“It’s an excellent obit. Link: http://tinyurl.com/Mario-HBP.”
Life as we know it
Sunday email from Papawilde: “The best Christmas gifts often don’t come with bows and tinsel. Yesterday our daughter and 9-(almost 10)-year-old grandson, Benny, came over for an afternoon just to visit and play UPWORDS, etc. Best day of the season, and then some.”
‘Tis the season — still!
Bloomington Bird Lady: “Can we now say ‘ ‘Tis past the season’? [Bulletin Board says: We can, but will not! Nothing is over until we decide it is! Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Hell, no!] With the return of real winter, though, maybe we could try a rerun with snow instead of green grass and dead leaves? Nope! The tree went out today, and is now braving the wind-chill, waiting for the birds to find its branches.
“I keep trying to downsize the ornaments, but it’s not easy. The ones I received from my piano students over the 30 years I taught in our home are still precious. They are the cute kind, not the color-coordinated, beautiful and breakable variety. Sentiment rules at Christmas, don’t you think? When I remember these kids, struggling to learn a couple of carols, and suffering through getting the fingering, notes and rhythm right so someone could perhaps even sing along with them…. Whew! I still think ‘Silent Night’ sounds like ‘1-2 &3 4-5-6,’ which is what you try to teach — jumping into 6/8 time suddenly when the child barely knows 4/4 or 3/4 time. At one time, just before retiring from teaching, I never thought I’d miss this annual struggling. Wouldn’t it be a relief not to bring out the various carol books and foresee the inevitable problems they bring? No, sadly I miss those days, and I will never throw away any of those sweet ornaments, either!”
Our theater of seasons
Peggy T of Osceola, Wis.: ” ‘As the days grow longer, the cold grows stronger.’ Where does this adage come from?”
BULLETIN BOARD SAYS: It comes from very hard experience of way too many Januarys!
(Who propounded it first? Who knows?)
Our times
Or: Hmmmmmmmm
Birdwatcher in La Crescent: “Something I have been wondering about: Does each NFL team have its own tattoo artist on its payroll?”
Band Name of the Day: The Oh for Dumbs
Website of the Day: Notre Dame Victory March (with lyrics), at http://tinyurl.com/ND-victory
