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Xmas Songs: “Mitt hjerte alltid vanker”

Despite my nearly lifelong love of Xmas music, including for many years at least six months of the year spent at least thinking about, planning, and preparing a Xmas program for one venue or another, AND having discovered a reason to explore Norwegian hymnody when I married my Wonder Woman, a true Nordic Princess, I first heard this song only a couple of years ago.

Wow.

Some have described the tune and lyrics both as “melancholy,” but before you even hive a listen, I’d like to disabuse you of any such assessment. “Melancholy” should be reserved for those things which evoke “a feeling of pensive sadness, typically with no obvious cause.” The music is definitely pensive in mood, but sad? Hardly. The lyrics? I’ll let you judge that.

In English (loosely, I would say, though I’m not a Norwegian/Danish speaker, although this was written by a Dane, it was at a time when the two tongues were even more closely similar than today, and it’s apparently scarcely sung in Denmark, while I’m told a Norwegian Xmas would scarcely be without it):

My heart will always wander
To where our Lord was born,
My thoughts will always go there
And take on their true form.
My longing does belong there,
With the treasure of my faith;
I never shall forget you,
O blessed Christmas night!

I’ll willingly spread branches
Of palms around your bed.
For you and you alone
I will gladly live and die.
Come, let my soul find joy
In this moment of delight:
To see you born right here,
Deep inside my loving heart.

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Well, I said I’d let you be the judge, but really, there’s not a sad thought to be found anywhere in those lyrics. (I’d also probably make a couple of small word changes to make the English marry with the tune better, but that’s just being picky.)

Here, give the tune a listen. Pensive, but hardly, IMO, sad. It’s definitely one of my new favs.

1

Mitt Hjerte Alltid Vanker
(Traditional, Danish folk tune / H.A. Brorson)

Mitt hjerte alltid vanker
i Jesu føderom,
der samles mine tanker
som i sin hovedsum.
Der er min lengsel hjemme,
der har min tro sin skatt;
jeg kan deg aldri glemme
velsignet julenatt!

Akk, kom jeg opp vil lukke
mitt hjerte og mitt sinn
og full av lengsel sukke:
Kom, Jesus, dog herinn!
Det er ei fremmed bolig,
du har den selv jo kjøpt,
så skal du blive trolig
her i mitt hjerte svøpt.

Jeg gjerne palemgrene
vil om din krybbe strø,
for deg, for deg alene
jeg leve vil og dø.
Kom, la min sjel dog finne
sin rette gledes stund,
at du er født herinne
i hjertets dype grunn

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Perspiring Minds. . .

. . .don’t really GARA, but I sometimes wonder, WTF are people who mispronounce “jewelry” as “jewlery” thinking?

Oh, right. They’re not.

What really chaps my gizzard, though, are Mass MEdia Podpeople and commercial “actors” who say “jewlery.” What are they taking money under false pretenses for?

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The Natives Are Restless. . .

While the savages in Ferguson and elsewhere demonstrate why ordinary folks hold them in contempt, I’m once again glad I live in America’s Third World County™, where there may be violence from time to time, but usually limited to one-on-one (and at least one of the participants was askin’ for it). There’s quite a bit of gunfire, but it’s usually limited to the range, the deer (or other game) woods, and occasionally shots fired at someone who’s askin’ for it (trespassing, attempted burglary/robbery–usually out in the country where it’s REALLY stupid to try, cos if the 00 shot doesn’t get you, the landowner’s dogs will).

It’s nice to live somewhere with the virtues of civilization and few(er) of its vices.

Keep it in the X-ring, folks!

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In the Very Best of Hands

Because my Wonder Woman is a pubschool librarian, she gets all kinds of catalogs from all over. One that hit the circular file pretty quickly was for products for sale to state and other public employees and organizations from the state correctional department. (By state law, only public employees and organizations can buy products made by state-owned slave labor.)

The catalog’s cover boldly states

“If Your [sic] Looking For Hot Deals. . . “

At all levels, local, state, national, our governments are in the very best of hands. . .

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Is It Just Me?

Anyone else annoyed (to the point of having your gizzard chapped *heh*) by speakers and especially by writers who use the plural pronouns, “them, they, their” in place of “he or she, him or her, his or hers” whenever they simply want to obscure–or simply not specify–the sex of the (singular!) person to whom they refer?

I view such usage as lazy and cowardly. Use gendered pronouns whenever possible. Chap idiots’ gizzards.

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Getting to be that time of the year, again.

Yep. This time next week I’ll be on my second day of irritating everyone around me with almost nonstop Xmas music.1 *heh* Oh, I’m adding to the nearly two days’ worth of nonstop Xmas playlists I have already, so at least folks will have plenty of variety to irritate ’em. 😉

Added so far this year: Another Canadian Brass Xmas album; a 2-hour “fireplace video” playlist featuring pop/Xian Xmas songs sung by Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra and others (easy YouTube download, that one); And Winter Came (Enya–via Amazon Prime Music); A Family Christmas (The Piano Guys–Amazon Prime Music, again); Gregorian Christmas (APM);
Irish & Celtic Christmas Music: Folk Classics (APM); and, oh, about 20 other albums.

1Well, “almost nonstop” if I can get my lips fixed, since I have whistled tunes for years when apart from other instruments or playback devices. For the first time in almost six decades, my “whistling” capability seems to be broken. *shrugs* May have something to do with a low-grade infection I’ve been fighting for a while now, but I can’t get the same flexibility or range–or even fine tuning–I’ve been used to for almost all my life. The tinnitus has pretty well cut out playing other instruments, so whistling was about what I had left. Oh, well. . . so it goes.

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I’m Far Too Accommodating

I had someone on FarceBook ask for a better pic of me than my profile pic. (I can only wonder why. . . nah, that’s too much work. Don’t care why.) So, before anyone else asks, should there ever be anyone else who wonders what I look like nowadays (again, why?), here ya go (clipped from a Candid Capture). Don’t ask again, Mystery FB-er. *heh* I don’t have any better pics available.

me-cc-02

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A Baked Potato Salad

Baked Potato Salad
Recipe Type: Side dish
Cuisine: Good Eats
Author: http://www.food.com/recipe/so-yummy-baked-potato-salad-21304
A potato salad made from chilled baked potatoes
Ingredients
  • Cold Baked Potato Salad
  • 3 large baked potatoes, cooled, peeled and cubed
  • 1/2 cup sour cream
  • 1/2 cup mayonnaise
  • 8 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled (I use the precooked kind)
  • 4 ounces shredded cheddar cheese, divided
  • 2 green onions, sliced and then chopped (green part only)
  • 1/2 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
  • 1 dash celery salt or 1 dash seasoning salt
  • 1 dash garlic powder
  • 1 dash paprika
  • 1 tablespoon fresh parsley (optional)
Instructions
  1. Gently stir together all the ingredients in a large bowl using a large spoon, reserving a little cheddar, green onion and bacon for garnish.
  2. Transfer to a serving dish.
  3. Top with reserved shredded cheddar, green onion slices and bacon crumbles for a beautiful presentation.

 

Now, that’s the way I found this recipe, and it looks OK as is, but I can’t ever leave well enough alone. So. . .

How about some dill or mustard (prepared) or mustard powder mixed with the mayo and sour cream? And why not chop and add some bread and butter pickles, too? Frankly, a little chopped celery would be nice, I think.

Just consider this recipe as I did when I saw it: a base recipe to vary to taste for your own use. Heck, I’d marinate the cubed potatoes overnight in a vinaigrette. Several research papers suggest that would increase resistant starch levels in the potatoes and be beneficial in moderating post-prandial blood sugar levels. Besides, if a tasty apple cider vinegar or even tastier balsamic vinegar were used (of course balsamic vinegar would affect the color of the potatoes), it’d be even tastier.

Haven’t tried the recipe (or my suggested variants) yet, but I am sure to do so soon. I’ll report back with “supplicants'” responses. *heh*

Here’s another one, similar but perhaps tastier from the get-go:

5 lbs potatoes, cooked and cubed (about 9-10 medium potatoes)
1 1/2 cups mayonnaise
1 1/2 cups sour cream
5 tablespoons melted butter
1 -1 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon seasoning salt (or to taste, or use white salt)
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
4 -5 green onions, chopped
1 small onion, finely
1 1/2 cups cheddar cheese, finely cubed (or coarsley shredded)
1 1/2 cups cheddar cheese, shredded (or to taste)
2 cups finely chopped cooked ham (or use cooked chopped chicken or turkey) (optional)

1 TO SERVE HOT AS A CASSEROLE; grease a 13 x 9-inch baking dish (or use a casserole dish that will hold the mixture).
2 Set oven to 350 degrees F.
3 In a large bowl, mix mayonnaise, sour cream and melted butter, garlic powder, seasoned salt and black pepper until well combined.
4 Mix in green onion and yellow onion.
5 Add in the cooked cubed potatoes, cubed cheese and ham (if using) mix with a large spatula until well combined.
6 Transfer/spread the mixture to prepared casserole dish.
7 At this point you may cover and refrigerate for up to 24 hours until ready to bake.
8 Bake 25-30 minutes or until hot and bubbly.
9 Remove from oven and sprinkle the grated cheddar on top; return to oven and bake 5-8 minutes more or until the cheese has melted.
10 TO SERVE AS A COLD POTATO SALAD; make as stated in steps 3-5 reducing the melted butter to 2 tablespoons.
11 Place in a bowl, cover and refrigerate for at least 4 hours or more before serving.

 

 

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Some Non-Random Musings on the Current Scene

N.B.: I frankly DGARA about foreign affairs, except where developments might have a local effect because of “feddle gummint” stupidities or deliberately malicious intent (toward citizens) in policies. So, by “current scene” you can expect me to comment on what was once quaintly known as “the home front,” for the most part.

Today’s topic: Censorship, “feddle gummint” skulduggery, Sharyl Atkkisson, First Amendment, Fourth Amendment, and a possibly appropriate citizens’ response.

By now, anyone with at least one firing neuron who’s not been living under a rock knows that our dear “gummint” placed spying software on Sharyl Atkkisson’s computers. Anyone in denial about the runaway skulduggery in effect in nearly every agency of the “feddle gummint” is either delusional or a part of (or expects to benefit from) the underhanded, nefarious, unscrupulous behavior that seems to now be the norm for “feddle gummint bureaucraps.” Heck, even the WaPo is “viewing with alarm” the appallingly stupid, criminal “feddle gummint” spying on a journalist.

If the feds can do it to her, they can do it to you. “Evidence” of “computer crimes” on ANYONE’S computers is now subject to The Sharyl Atkkisson Caveat: if the feds can plant things on her computer, who’s to say they didn’t plant stuff anywhere else they wanted to?

From now on, any claims by the “feddle gummint” to have found “evidence”–of ANYTHING–on a citizen’s computer should be loudly and raucously mocked.

Citizen response? So far, just the usual “view with alarm” stuff like the WaPo article. Sound and fury, etc. What would be appropriate, I think would be for a “vigilance committee” of patriotic hacker citizens to engage in a “Manhatten Project”-style effort to crack open every government computer system possible and flood the net with everything they want to hide from us. Snowden? He should be so far back he wouldn’t even be visible in the rear view mirror. Of course, it could happen that _some_ secrets could be minimally detrimental to national security, but I seriously doubt there are many such. Most “national security” secrets are more than likely just bureaucratic turf building/protecting.

Sadly, I do not have the skills necessary to make a contribution to the effort, and nor do I any longer have an audience/readership to influence toward that effort, since my work to remake this blog into nothing more than exercise space for “the voices in my head” has borne fruit. *heh*

In further mind-boggling abuses of rights supposedly protected under the First Amendment, while a student who is a Sikh has rightly received a pass on carrying a knife (“ceremonial dagger”) in pubschool, for religious reasons, Christian students who carry or read their Bibles, share their faith with other students or who are seen or heard praying or even just expressing opinions informed by their faith are continually oppressed. (Sure, schools pretty regularly lose in lawsuits over this, but the push against Christians practicing their religion in a pubschool setting is regularly, improperly, assaulted).

And cognitive dissonance never sets in with the left, because. . . it requires cognition? *sigh*