Is it too early for diatribes against the consumerization of Christmas? Or for pointing out disparities between the "have"s and the "have not"s? I guess not, if we consider that Thanksgiving is lumped in with the "holiday season." So given that the Misanthrope has already thrown the first punch, I'll tag him out and join in.
From Tom Lehrer's "Christmas Carol":
(you probably know the various traditional tunes for these verses)
Hark, the Herald Tribune sings,
Advertising wondrous things.
God rest ye merry merchants,
May ye make the Yuletide pay.
Angels we have heard on high,
Tell us to go out and buy!
From the Kinks' "Father Christmas":
Father Christmas, give us some money,
we got no time for your silly toys.
We'll beat you up if you don't hand it over;
give all the toys... to the little rich boys.
But give my daddy a job cause he needs one;
He's got lots of mouths to feed.
Have yourself a merry merry Christmas;
have yourself a good time.
But remember the kids who got nothin',
while youre drinkin' down your wine.
4 comments:
B2, I almost used the Father Christmas lyrics for my quote, but the Jethro Tull was actually on when I posted.
It's nice having a conversation over the internet, instead of those archaic and messy in-person or over-the-phone methods. Seriously, I'm thinking in a few weeks we post a few of these ditties in mp3 format for our readers to enjoy.
B2, I look foward to our archaic and messy in-person chat so we can plan this new format, which now with voice recognition will ruin my Saturday night fun of making crank calls:
"Hello"
"Is your refrigerator running?"
"Yes"
"Well, you better catch it before it eats all your food."
No caller ID does not stop me because people get confused when they see EM3-6752 show up.
It's never too early for diatribes against consumerism. Well, 4am might be considered too early by some, like the poor store assistants that had to work at the local mall here when the sale started at 4am... Please GOD, don't let that be the way things are going..
I mean, who goes shopping at 4am, no matter how big the bargains are. I'd pay money for the extra hours in bed, personally..
Those poor people that most likely had no choice but to take those early morning shifts.. I've been in jobs like that, I KNOW most sales assistants don't get to choose.
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