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Overheard at Lem's:

William said...

As an adult I've always liked the Pogues, Fairytale of New York..... Gene Autry's version of Rudolph is the first Christmas song I can remember hearing, and as such it holds a special place....... Bing Crosby's White Christmas is the quintessential Christmas Song. That was the song the soldiers listened to during WWII. It was the background music for a lot of poignant Christmas celebrations. It's got echoes and nostalgia, and that's the biggest part of a successful Christmas song. 

December 16, 2016 at 12:56 PM

linky

The song isn't so much a Christmas song as a song set at Christmas. Shane MacGowan sang a duet with Kirsty MacColl. She was the daughter of Ewan MacColl, an English folksinger who wrote "Dirty Old Town" which was another Pogues classic.

I was just now reading about Kirsty MacColl's horrific death at her Wiki page. She was diving with her son in Mexico. When they surfaced, an errant power boat bore down on them. She saved her son by pushing him out of the way by mere inches. She was hit directly and killed. That in turn reminded me of a childhood story. My mother's elderly grandfather and his wife were crossing a railroad trestle bridge when they were caught mid-river by a train. He pushed his wife off the bridge at the last minute but he was hit and thrown high into the air. She survived. He did not. 

To Wit: A Challenge And Invitation

link to original

That's Mr. Sardonicus on the right, from William Castle's 1961 film, "Mr. Sardonicus." 

Sardonic: Why isn't there a noun form like "sardony"? The word sardonic is curious too and relates back to the island of Sardinia and what those people ate -- things like sardines: link

I get confused keeping the different forms of humor straight. Here's a handy guide I pulled from the linkable OED of English Etymology; the definitions come from H.W. Fowler's The Dictionary Of Modern English Usage.  

device	HUMOR	WIT	SATIRE	SARCASM	INVECTIVE	IRONY	CYNICISM	SARDONIC
motive/aim	discovery	throwing light	amendment	inflicting pain	discredit	exclusiveness	self-justification	self-relief
province	human nature	words & ideas	morals & manners	faults & foibles	misconduct	statement of facts	morals	adversity
method/means	observation	surprise	accentuation	inversion	direct statement	mystification	exposure of nakedness	pessimism
audience	the sympathetic	the intelligent	the self-satisfied	victim & bystander	the public	an inner circle	the respectable	the self

That's a very cool table. I went looking for my copy of Fowler which I bought in college but haven't seen since I can remember. So I just went and bought a copy using Lem's portal. I want to discuss this topic (and that book) at a future date. If anybody else has the book or would like to buy it and follow along at a future date, please do.

What forms of humor do you employ in your writings and comments at Lem's Levity?

The Women of Hammer Films

Overheard at Lem's:

The girls were very pretty, and there was always at least one scene where they wore a nightgown. The nightgown looked sexier than it really was. You could never see through it, but it looked diaphanous.........link

Link in case the video doesn't load

Bookmark that one as a cheatsheet for Trooper York's "Whose That Girl" contests.