There's a warmth and simplicity in the older Christmas songs.

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91.3 WCSG in Grand Rapids...

... is playing a nice mix of religious and secular traditional Christmas music and bypassing the teen crooners and hip hoppers and rock-n-rollers in Santa hats.

Unfortunately, I haven't figured out the programming pattern, so can't tell you when to listen, seems to be hit or miss.

I don't usually listen to WCSG. It's a Christian station and there's more saccharine Christian Contemporary music than I care for, but the personalities are fresh and easy on the ears (especially John and Amanda in the mornings). You know you're listening to genuine people broadcasting with a purpose, but every segue isn't a bible verse or tsk-tsk.

I like that.

(Most Christians aren't morose and myopic birthers grousing over a lost election, but you'd think so by listening to most Christian radio, which is why I don't.)

c0

There's a warmth and simplicity in the older Christmas songs. And it's not just because I grew up with them. Although I can never separate a song like "White Christmas" from my childhood, I can listen to it next to today's pop holiday music and, with some detachment, say that Bing Crosby warmed more hearths in more homes more times than the others put together.

One exception: anything by Josh Groban. His "I'll Be Home for Christmas" makes me cry every time I hear it.

c0

Did you know that the composer of "White Christmas," Irving Berlin, was Jewish? How cool is that? Happy Christmakwanzakah.

[2012-11-25]

 

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Florida, 2004.

I found this picture while looking for one of me and Dad in North Carolina, just thought I'd share.

Left to right, that's my Uncle Ken, my dad, my mom, me, my sister-in-law Cindy and my brother Tom. Aunt Dorothy, Ken's wife, is taking the picture. I think this was taken at a restaurant near an old sugar plantation; the restaurant specialized in pancakes and a variety of syrups.

For the search engines: Ken Cairns, Charles Weston Cairns, Marilyn Cairns (née Grandy), Charles Scott Cairns, Cindy Cairns (née Matzak), Thomas Edward Cairns.

[2012-11-25]

c0