Oh poo. I thought folks would welcome a little escape from reality, but since Ben didn’t give the answers to me, I’ll do a quick guess and move on.: So as not to repeat myself and use up AI’s valuable time, I’ll just list my guesses here, and ignore formal titles.

1. Oh come, all ye faithful
2. Angels we have heard on high
3. Silent Night
4. Joy to the World
5. Deck the Halls
6. Hark the Herald Angels Sing
7. It came upon the midnight clear
8. The first noel
9. Oh little town of Bethlehem
10. Little drummer boy
11. God rest you merry gentlemen
12. Silent Night
13. Frosty the Snowman
14. Here comes Santa Claus
15. White Christmas
16. I hear the bells of Christmas Day
17. Away in a manger
18. We three kings of orient are
19. Jingle Bells
20. Away in a manger
21. Go tell it on the mountain
22. We wish you a Merry Christmas and a happy new year

________________

POEMETTE

SO MUCH TO LEARN
And to unlearn too.
Whatever at 90
can an old person do??
I wasted one life
and never was me.
A race against time
is waitimg for me.

.

1. Go tell it on the mountain
2. We wish you a merry christmas and a happy new year

If anyone catchess me in an error, or an additional answer, let me know, and Merry Christmas to you!

I was still trying to thin out my fat files while feeling chastened by another of my errors on Gutenberg last week. (In responding to a comment, I didn’t know who the “author” referred to was, since all of us were authors–all three of us for that matter (authors)….Dr. John Persico Jr, Ned Hamson, and moi.___ At any rate, today’s column has but one major entry, a puzzle, and the answers will be shared tomorrow or the next day. I discovered it in my old files from years ago by another prison staff member, Ben Braden of the Education Department, at Hocking Correctional Facility in Nelsonville, Ohio, now deceased. CONFESSION:: BEN DID NOT GIVE ME THE ANSWERS SO WE BOTH NEED TO GUESS…

1. Move hitherward the entire assembly of those who are loyal in their beliefs________________________
   
2. Listen, the celestial messengers produce harmonious sounds_______________________________________
   
3. Nocturnal timespan of unbroken quietness__________________________________________________________

4. An emotion excited by the acquisition of expectation of good given to the terrestrial sphere_______

5. Embellish the interior passageways__________________________________________________________________

6. Exalted celestial beings to whom harkened___________________________________________________________

7. Twelve o’clock on a clement night witnessed its arrival_______________________________________________

8. The Christmas preceding all others_____________________________________________________________________

9. Small municipality in Judea southeast of Jerusalem______________________________________________________

10. Diminutive masculine master of skin covered percussionistic cylinders__________________________________

11. Omnipotent supreme being who elicits respite to ecstatic distinguished males________________________

12. Tranquility upon the terrestrial sphere____________________________________________________________________

13. Obese personification fabricated of compressed mounds of minute crystal.____________________________

14. Expectation of arrival of populated area by mythical masculine perennial gift giver____________

15. Natal celebration devoid of color________________________________________________________________

16. In awe of nocturnal timespan characterized by religiosity________________________________________

17. Geographic state of fantasy during season of mother nature’s dormancy__________________

18. The first person nominative plural of a triumvirate of far eastern heads of state._______________

19. Tintinnabulation of vacillating pendulums in inverted metallic, resonant cups.________________

20. In a different location the existence of an improvised unit of newborn children’s slumber furniture____________________________________________________________________________________________

21. Proceed forth declaring upon a specific geological alpine formation_________________________

22. Jovial yuletide desired for the second person singular of plural by us________________________

Answers surely before Christmas

_____________

BURMA SHAVE

Did your toes ever ache
With a-wanting to kick
But no one’s there but you?

NH

Write poetry? Give me some examples please…(Oh no I think my comma’s bit the dust…) Oh no another idea: Does Grandfather God speak to us in Classic or Gutenberg? I’m talking about the Father of them all; Catholics Unitarians Quakers,,,,,,, Agnostics Israelites (told you my comma was dead didn’t I ?)… Even Muslims and those who believe in stoning miscreants. Or mass killings in the name of a whim.

If I tried to write a poem as a conservative I might be afraid of criticizing the Chief and therefore speak through the mouth of…the War Departmenr. (No truth no need for excuses). …Yay for my brilliant daughter who rescued my sunken comma key by punching it harder.

FOLLOW OH FOLLOW…
Time in your flight. Bring back
my reputation if
just for one night.
Rudeness is a habit
that I cannot eschew
but stop by the back door
I’ve got a bargain for you.
_____________

SEPARATE SUBJECT
Who whitewashed the Epstein files?

Ho hum. Enough for yesterday at 11:12 a.m.

.

Is it me about to burst or the bubble? I know I’m about to burst…as in the toilet overflowing…but surely the USA won’t be able to continue to live with the “gang’s” selfish quackery much longer! What was that movie about the mafia? So blatant as to skip mention. What do we have against Venezuela anyway? After pointing out that Venezuela is not the problem with fentanyl, silence. While apparently most folks know, it need not be said that Venezuela leads the world in natural gas exports. The silence is deafening as well as stinking. But blatant stealing of another’s oil kinda look bad?

And doesn’t our leader just love tooting his own horn! National park visits free on his birthday but not on
MLK’s birthday or Juneteenth.

_____________

I NEVER SAID….
I was Super Woman–maybe the reverse, and I admire to the hilt those stalwart bloggers for their principled continuation of reflecting current reality. I’ve said this before and I may say it again, but I’m trying to quit being one of the strong bloggers who must suffer. So, knowing that I won’t be likely to keep my resolve, I’m going to share a few lovely memories from my life, primarily from 1961, the year my husband and I caught hepatitis 2 (along with many others) from the UF’s food line. We were advised to take it easy, and so we booked a winter passage along a northern route on the slow freighter the S.S. Marengo. Fortunately no one bombed us.

It was not a luxury liner, and we always got to eat at the captain’s table. Although not a favorite memory, the first strong one that comes to me was lying on the bunk, watching the porthole chains on the inside of the room march left and right, pulled by the gravity caused by the tossing and turning of the boat. The movement was mostly continuous.

Being poor recuperating students, we stayed in a tent and youth hostels,traveling by bicycles (which we sold to a one-legged communiist in St. Remy) and, thanks to brief train trips, also on one Vespa motor scooter, which we were to bring home with us. Being a little less in rolling dough than most tourists, we had mixed feelings when we slept in a tent at Pompeii, and someone set off firecrackers during the night. The next morning when we ordered breakfast at the little road stand, the shopkeeper lowered the tab when he learned we were campers.

The single most moving memory of the entire trip for me occurred early one morning when waking up on deck of another boat, hearing a taunting train whistle far above while the boat traveled slowly and carefully through a very narrow and high-walled passage through the Corinth canal. These memories are fun. Perhaps I’ll include some more another needy day.

____________

POEMETTE

Sorry if this is a re-do. I lose track:

EPHEMERAL
I wrote a poem in the sand
The ocean claimed it back.
I sang a song up to the sky
Blue birds towed it away.
I kept a thought to myself
Dreams featured it last night.

Travel 1961, Corinth, Poemette, Trump,

_____________

I’m not talking Republicans or Democrats–just flesh and blood humans. Can you remember back when our best wish for our child was to grow up to be president some day?

Today I wouldn’t wish it on a dog–That is, not our current president and his collected “hood.” How can anyone willingly trade their precious humanity for merging with behavior typified by

Lying, cheating, double-dealing______
greed______
unfaithful______
rude, lack of statesmanship, name-calling______
threatening_____
braggart, egocentric, illogical, self-agrandisement_____
misogyny_____

Which of the above behaviors would you like your child to engage in? How about you.
NOTE that I did not include underage girls which has not yet been proven.
_________________________

Thanks for stopping by, but I want to let you know I’m a newbie and don’t do things right on this enterprise. Unless it starts out as an accident, I don’t respond to my viewers, limited in part by not having a cell phone. Just thought I’d let you know if I seem to be ignoring you.

Anyhow, just thought I’d say Hi to the Malta transgender. As for my dreams last night, I did retrieve a horrendous memory or realization of mine that I’ve been keeping out of awareness for years. It’s so bad I won’t tell you, but hopefully my realization will help me “earn a better place” if there is one. Maybe my inviting a negative dream was rewarded by a clearer view of a lifetime of my unaware destructive behavior. Can I handle another night of self reflection? idk
______________________

THE GREAT JIGSAW PUZZLE

In the beginning there is chaos,
the boundaries unknown.
As some edges appear, others
remain missing until the end,
when we run out of pieces,
already knowing that some
never existed,
having been lost forever.
Check the box–How many pieces
did we begin with?
Where
did
they go….

Nan

____________

Still unpacking and sorting after my condo was attacked by flooding misfortune and black mold. The bottoms are still off the walls and the chihuahuas still visiting safety in Atlanta. To my great surprise, a large box surfaced today containing files from my grad school years I had forgotten all about. Included was material from three year’s attendance at the International Dream Conference. In addition to recent findings in research, I recall a Dream Ball where one was invited to come attired as in one of our dreams. (I do recall the woman who came and danced with us in the nude. Why didn’t I think of that?!)

The first dream conference I attended was in Charlottesville, Va., in 1985, and I learned about content analysis of dreams, astral projection, dreams as disease alerts, Julian Jaynes’ ideas and much more. The topic of dream journals over time was stressed, and during a later dream conference one professional related a brief dream scene she had experienced, identical to her client’s. I don’t believe she shared the experience with the client.

All this is leading to wondering if the figure of our president appears in my dreams, possibly reflecting traces of his personality in me. Surely he is a powerful force, and a concern in my life. I’m going to keep a watch out for him….
________________________

OUR OWN HOMELESS REFUGEES

From he of the slow step,
unfocussed stare and hangdog
posture:

Mom, you would not recognize
your boy today. Without a home
or job he is lost to the world. He
has joined Earth’s refugees.

Nan