Fairytale of New York
copyright 1988, Shane MacGowan & Jem Finer

It was Christmas Eve babe
In the drunk tank
An old man said to me, won’t see another one
And then he sang a song
The Rare Old Mountain Dew
I turned my face away
And dreamed about you

… [Duet:]

You were handsome
You were pretty
Queen of New York City
When the band finished playing
They howled out for more
Sinatra was swinging,
All the drunks they were singing
We kissed on a corner
Then danced through the night

The boys of the NYPD choir
Were singing “Galway Bay”
And the bells were ringing out
For Christmas day

The song was transformed from being a quirky Pogues tune into something more when Kirsty MacCool serendipitously lent her voice to a demo tape to guide the actual prospective female singer. The band was hooked on her rendition, and she toured with them, her melodic voice acting as a lovely counterpart to the harsher male portion.

What’s even odder is that I have no idea why I was taking a test to get a pilot’s license. Except that it had something to do with hunting vampires.

Did I mention I fell asleep reading a novel about hunting vampires?

Precisely what this has to do with Christmas, I’m not sure, but it was my vivid dream only days before Christmas.

-wolfe
The Vampire Hunter
But not licensed pilot.

Where? Why the middle east of course. This time, though, it was Israel:

Miriam Shear says she was traveling to pray at the Western Wall in Jerusalem’s Old City early on November 24 when a group of ultra-Orthodox (Haredi) men attacked her for refusing to move to the back of the Egged No. 2 bus. She is now in touch with several legal advocacy and women’s organizations, and at the same time, waiting for the police to apprehend her attackers.

In her first interview since the incident, Shear says that on the bus three weeks ago, she was slapped, kicked, punched and pushed by a group of men who demanded that she sit in the back of the bus with the other women.

Of course, she may have deliberately provoked this; maybe she’s lying, but a purportedly unrelated (male) witness backs her story. The bus driver doesn’t, though if she’s telling the truth, he’d certainly have motivation to lie since he did nothing to stop the attack on her.

From the sound of it she’s an annoying uppity feminist.

Well, in places where women are being told to move to the back of the bus on public transportation, maybe we unfortunately need a few annoying uppity feminists.

NB- I don’t care if a private religious orthodox bus line wants to segregate by gender, but not if it receives a shekel of public funding. Indeed, if a private bus line wants to refuse to carry women at all, that’s fine with me. (Before any yelp at that, the 3 gyms nearest me are all women-only. I don’t like that, but I support their right to do it).

-wolfe

Fairytale of New York
copyright 1988, Shane MacGowan & Jem Finer

It was Christmas Eve babe
In the drunk tank
An old man said to me, won’t see another one
And then he sang a song
The Rare Old Mountain Dew
I turned my face away
And dreamed about you

… [Duet:]

You were handsome
You were pretty
Queen of New York City
When the band finished playing
They howled out for more
Sinatra was swinging,
All the drunks they were singing
We kissed on a corner
Then danced through the night

The boys of the NYPD choir
Were singing “Galway Bay”
And the bells were ringing out
For Christmas day

The song was transformed from being a quirky Pogues tune into something more when Kirsty MacCool serendipitously lent her voice to a demo tape to guide the actual prospective female singer. The band was hooked on her rendition, and she toured with them, her melodic voice acting as a lovely counterpart to the harsher male portion.