I remember first hearing the name Bridget Bardot in the lyrics to “Message of Love” by The Pretenders. Thinking about that led me to remember what is perhaps my favorite Christmas song:

httpv://youtu.be/vKgjyutgbwk

Budapest (along with Sofia) is one of the Eastern European cities I’d like to visit. I have a Hungarian lawyer friend in New York who is heavily involved in The Nylon Fusion Theater Company. I am jealous of him for the time and opportunity he has. But, he graduated from Duke.

The Alabama reference at this point in the song is most likely about Ms. Rosa Parks and the start of the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Thank you for your courage and strength.

Nikita Khrushchev filled the power vacuum in the USSR after Uncle Joe stroked out. At least he did after a multitude of killing off his opponents and further Party wrangling. Cuban Missile Crisis, shoe banging at the UN, forced out of power in 1964. He was allowed by the Party to retire in Moscow and write his memoirs before he died in 1971.

It has been a while, life and pneumonia get in the way some times I guess.

Elvis. The King of Rock -n- Roll. The Pelvis. Fat Elvis, Young Elvis, Comeback Elvis. Film star, died on a toilet.

I think my “ditty” for Hesston High Singers had a pelvis joke in it my junior year. Like I knew what to do with a pelvis then.

Anyway, here’s a nice rendition of a song Elvis is well known for:

httpv://youtu.be/_bCge-JzkWU

Disneyland opened the year this stanza references (1955) in Anaheim, California. I think I’ve been there but I don’t really remember it. I don’t think I’ll ever take my kids to a Disney park. Too much money, too many people, and not my sensibility.

Davy “King of the Wild Frontier” Crockett left for Texas when Martin Van Buren was elected president. He is currently buried in the basement of The Alamo along with a really cool bike (that is NOT FOR SALE FRANCIS).

He’s also famous for wearing a dead animal on his head. He’s basically Donald Trump from the early 19th century.

I once saw a rabid raccoon at the following location:

Except there was a bunch of snow on the ground. We were going sledding by the ravine. I don’t remember for sure who was with me. I think my sister Lisa was there and one of our dogs. I was worried about the dog getting rabies.

Peter Pan is the “boy who wouldn’t grow up”. The character was created (formalized? I mean, the archetype has been around forever right? Did some Scottish poet really create him? Will this parenthetical ever end?) by J.M. Barrie.

The Llewelyn Davies boys are usually cited as the inspiration for Peter Pan and the other Lost Boys. The new Coen Brothers movie is “Inside Llewyn Davis” but it’s about a folk singer and according to NPR based on Dave Von Ronk.

Dien Bien Phu was the site of the final French-led battle in Indo-China (Vietnam). I’m still trying to figure out how France thought they could actually win at any thing, let alone a large military endeavour, less than a decade after the end of World War II.

Even more baffling to me is the fact that the United States would think it was a good idea to stick our collective noses into this mess. Reviewing history and spotting insane geopolitical decisions is easy. And, we still invaded Afghanistan. Because that was so successful for Soviets in 1979. And the British in 1878. And the British in 1839 (yes, twice). And Timur in 1383. And Genghis Khan in 1219. And so forth all the way back to Alexander the Great in 330 BC.

All of that nonsense and death reminds me of this song:

httpv://youtu.be/YxWjibkDwPw

I also have to admit that I never really knew what Billy Joel was singing for the lyric here. I guess I heard it as “Den Ben, Fool Falls”.

Rock Around the Clock is probably best known as a hit for Bill Haley and His Comets.

I will always remember it as the theme song for the first season of Happy Days:

httpv://youtu.be/bwG9HWC_tmM

Roy Cohn was the Red Scare Robin to Joey Mac’s Batman. He was instrumental in the case against The Rosenbergs. After his liaisons with Joe, he went on to have a long career as a lawyer representing reproach-less stalwarts like Donald Trump and John Gotti. He died of complications from AIDS in 1986.

Tony Kushner’s play Angels In America contains a fictionalization of Cohn in which Roy is haunted by the ghost of Ethel Rosenberg. This New Yorker article is an interesting review of the play and contains the following tidbit regarding the AIDS Quilt:

and a panel was added anonymously to the Names Project quilt. It read, “Roy Cohn. Bully. Coward. Victim.”

Juan Peron is famous for making tequila. Or maybe being a leftist dictator of Argentina with a second wife who could barely sing better than she could act.

httpv://youtu.be/4Spy3Nd2D6w

Arturo Toscanini was an Italian symphonic and orchestral conductor who lived from 1867-1957. He was also an early Fascist who eventually renounced that political school of thought. He is seen below holding either a tiny dog or a hirsute baby Hitler.

Dacron is the brand name for Polyethylene terephthalate (also known as PET). This thermoplastic polymer is used in things like fiberfill for bed pillows, sailcloth, and plastic drinking bottles. The Dacron brand is owned by the Invista Corporation which itself is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Koch Industries.

I’ve included photos of Charles Koch below showing first his typical business attire followed by his favorite Dacron evening-wear –