Years ago, as I looked forward to my mature age, I never really thought I'd still be here to see 2005. The Lord has been gracious. If it were not for the miracle treatment for prostate cancer in 1999, I wouldn't be here anticipating a prosperous and exciting 2005.

Wow, "time" in our present dimension really does vaporize and is gone as quickly as a passing cloud. Isn't it great that events, experiences, thoughts and ideas stay in our mind so we can mull them over in our heart? God's gift of memory is something we must never take for granted. It's essential to coping with the rapid passing of time and such a gift it is.

But memory is not God's greatest gift -- his grace, love and forgiveness it the great triumverate that has its focus on an in the Cross. That's God's greatest gift. Have you taken that gift and opened it?

This is my first New Years as a married man after two years as a widower. During the last month's of my precious Nancy's battle with the bastard invader, she encouraged me to get to renew my acquaintance with Mary Osgood, with whom I went to school with from 1947 to 1953. It's a great story and I have it linked below if you'd like to read it. What a great gift my wife of 44 years and friend for 49 years gave me. Any doubt about what kind of person she was?

What better way to observe (celebrate for many) the passing and arrival of years, than to be aware of the culture that we have lived through -- bringing us to this point in life. Guy Lombardo was part of that culture and we want to use his contribution to honor those "who were there when it happened" and to education all those who missed it.

Norm's Ramblins and all of us connected with Peachtree Media pray for you a prosperous 2005, one that you will take advantage to know God better than you know him today. That's called spiritual growth. May we all have our purpose for life clear in mind and follow that path faithfully. -- Norm Plunkett

Guy Lombardo and the Royal Canadians, "Big Band" long associated with New York’s Roosevelt and Waldorf Astoria Hotels, and the tune Auld Lang Syne; remote broadcasts frequently heard over various radio networks from 1927 – 1956.

There’s no more fitting time than New Year’s Eve to feature tunes from Guy Lombardo and the Royal Canadians. To this day Guy’s band and Auld Lang Syne, the Scottish tune they popularized, are now synonymous with the tolling in of each New Year. If you haven't done so already, click the Sounds of the Past button on the left and hear a seven minute sample of Lombardo's band as you read about him.

But the sum of the Royal Canadian's influence wasn’t merely restricted to New Year’s celebrations, for in their day They were one of the most popular bands at large. Between 1929 and 1952 a year did not pass without at least one Lombardo disc charting on the hit parade. The band produced an astounding number of hit tunes, 21 of which would peak at number one, and with an estimated sales somewhere between 100 and 300 million albums, they’re still the top-selling dance band of all time.

Guy was born Gaetano Albert Lombardo, the son of Italian immigrants in London, Ontario June 19, 1902. The eldest of five sons and two daughters, Guy and his siblings were encouraged from an early age to take music lessons, with five of the seven Lombardo children pursuing musical careers. Guy’s instrument of choice was the violin. An incident occurred in these early years involving his first violin; Guy’s father, a stickler for having music played just as it was written, flew into a rage when he caught his son “jazzing up” a classical melody. The elder Lombardo seized the violin and smashed it over his son’s head! Years later Papa Lombardo would comment, “Of course it was a small violin.”

The Lombardo parents, eager to have their children assimilate accent-free into Canadian culture, forbade the speaking of Italian in their home. Guy would later view his parents’ policy as a mixed blessing, and once wrote, “I often regret…as I travel around and meet so many people with the same ethnic background, who will greet me with an Italian phrase or expression, and find to their dismay that I don’t understand what they're talking about.”

The “Guy Lombardo Orchestra” had its humble beginnings in 1914, as a childhood duet with Guy on violin and his brother Carmen on flute. The group included a third brother, Lebert, and Freddie Kreitzer, the band’s long-serving pianist, by the time they played their first professional engagement in June of 1919. Performing before audiences so greatly appealed to the three brothers that within months they dropped out of school to pursue full-time careers in music. The Lombardo band grew to ten members by the time they left Ontario in 1923, to test their fortunes in the United States. The band moved to Cleveland and within a couple years had developed their patent sound, which was founded on simple arrangements of easily sung melodies and brother Carmen’s unique tones on the saxophone.

It was in Cleveland that the band, on the recommendation of their manager, reluctantly dressed in red uniforms and took the moniker of “the Royal Canadians.” In 1927 the band moved to Chicago to work out of the Granada Playhouse. It was this year that the band began attracting national attention with radio broadcasts and hit recordings. By 1930 the band moved to New York to begin a 33-year-long association with the Roosevelt Hotel.

The postal card at the top of this article is a valued part of my dad's large radio memoribilia collection. It's a card announcing the opening of Guy Lombardo's band at the Roosevelt Hotel. Quite an amazing piece of history and a valuable artefact.

Throughout the 1930’s and 1940’s “The Royal Canadians” toured extensively, by this time a fourth brother, Vincent, and sister Rose Marie had joined the band as well. From 1928 up into the 1950’s Guy and the band also held various weekly radio broadcasts. It was on the Robert Burns Cigar sponsored Guy Lombardo Hour in 1932 that comedians George Burns and Gracie Allen began their first regular radio appearances. Guy Lombardo and his band also expanded into Hollywood at this time, with appearances in such films as Many Happy Returns (1934), Stage Door Canteen(1943), and No Leave, No Love (1946).

Due to the simplicity of their arrangements and lack of improvisation, Lombardo’s band generally drew poor reviews with critics. Sousa and his band had bad reviews and the critics hated his work but the American populus loved him and make him what he became. In the same way, Guy Lombardo and his Royal Canadians were immensely popular with the public at large, and known for playing “the sweetest music this side of heaven.”

Much to the chagrin of critics and those who didn't like the music, jazz greats Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald were among Lombardo’s biggest fans. Guy and “the Royal Canadians” would produce over 250 hit tunes in their long career together, including such titles as: Boo-Hoo, Charmaine, By the River Saint-Marie, Red Sails In The Sunset, The Band Played On, and Young at Heart.

It was while making an appearance before a largely Scottish crowd in Glencoe, Ontario that the band first arranged and performed the tune Auld Lang Syne. Lombardo’s rendition gained appeal with wider audiences, and this Scottish tradition was adapted into their New Year’s Eve performances in New York.

In addition to his great love for music, Lombardo held a passion for boat racing. He actively competed in and won many tournaments, including a national championship in the late 1940’s.

In 1954 Guy took over the operation of the Marine Theater at Jones Beach in New York, and continued to host and produce seasonal musical performances there with “The Royal Canadians” until shortly before his death in 1977. Lombardo once joked with friends that he would take New Year’s Eve with him when he died -and in some respects he’s probably right! On the day of his death the CBS switchboard received more phone inquiries than during the recent passings of Bing Crosby and Elvis Presley.

Matthew 21:43 The Living Bible published by Tyndale Press, Wheaton, IL

“While today a CORNERSTONE is placed at the corner or entrance of a building at the foundation to celebrate its completion or dedication -- in ancient Israel, a CAPSTONE was placed at the very top of the structure to signify the same meaning. The CAPSTONE was a true “head” stone.

Jesus is the Stone, the CORNERSTONE or the CAPSTONE, that serves as the alignment and completion of our lives.” If Jesus does not have that role in your life, maybe that's what's missing for you!

'TWAS GATHERD FROM THE ONLINE ROBERT BURNS ENCYCLOPEDIA. JUST CLICK BELOW IF YOU'D LIKE TO VISIT SOME INTERESTING AND INFORMATIVE SITES ON THIS SUBJECT. WE RUN THIS EVERY YEAR SO IF YOU WERE WITH US A YEAR AGO, SKIP IT! BUT IT'S A GREAT MELODY, AIN'T IT? SUCH MEMORIES COME CRASHING THROUGH. ]

This dismissory song. "Auld Land Syne" is now used throughout the English-speaking world. In Scotland, it gradually displaced the century-old 'Good-night and joy be wi' you a'.' In spite of the popularity of 'Auld Lang Syne', it has aptly been described as 'the song that nobody knows'. Even in Scotland, hardly a gathering sings it correctly, without some members of the party introducing the spurious line: 'We'll meet again some ither nicht' for the line which Burns actually wrote: 'And we'll tak' a cup o' kindness yet'. To say nothing of adding 'the days of' to the line 'For auld lang syne'!

On 17th December 1788, Burns said in a letter to Mrs Dunlop: 'Your meeting which you so well describe with your old schoolfellow and friend was truly interesting. Out upon the ways of the world! They spoil these 'social offsprings of the hear'. Two veterans of the 'men of the world' would have met with little more heart-workings than two old hacks worn out on the road. Apropos, is not the Scotch phrase Auld lang syne exceedingly expressive? There is an old song and tune which has often thrilled through my soul. You know I am an enthusiast in old Scotch songs. I shall give you the verses on the other sheet... Light be the turf on the breast of the heaven-inspired poet who composed this glorious fragment! There is more of the fire of native genius in it than in half a dozen of modern English Bacchanalians.' The song 'on the other sheet' was Burns's first version of 'Auld Lang Syne'.

With slight emendations, the poet sent a copy of the song to Johnson, who delayed publishing it, possibly because the air to which it went had already appeared in the Museum with words by Ramsay, beginning: 'Should auld acquaintance be forgot.' But Johnson changed his mind and put the song into the fifth volume of the Museum, which appeared about six months after Burns's death, but which there is plenty of evidence in Burns's letters to suggest he had seen in proof stage. The tune to which it was matched in the Museum first appeared in Playford's Original Scotch Tunes, 1700, though doubtless it was then at least half a century old, for it was the tune to which the antecedents of Burns's poem were written.

The 'exceedingly expressive' germphrase has been taced back to an anonymous ballad in the Bannatyne Manuscript of 1568, 'Auld Kyndnes foryett'. The last of the eight stanzas goes:

"They wald me hals with hude and hatt, Quhyle I wes rich and had anewch, About me friends anew I gatt, Rycht blythlie on me they lewch; But now they mak it wondir tewch, And lattis me stand befoir the yett; Thairfoir this warld is very frewch, And auld kyndnes is quyt foryett."

From that anonymous old poet's complaint of man's ingratitude, we move on to a slightly later ballad, probably by the courtly poet Sir Robert Ayton (1570-1638) who accompanied James VI and I to England, though sometimes attributed on little evidence to Francis Sempill of Beltrees (d. 1683?). First published in Watson's Choice Collection of Scots Poems, 1711, the anthology upon which the whole of the 18th Century Scots Revival was based, Ayton's poem begins:

"Should auld acquaintance be forgot, And never thought upon, The flames of love extinguished, And freely past and gone? Is thy kind heart now grown so cold In that loving breast of thine, That thou canst never once reflect On old-long-syne?

Chronologically, the next reference is a prose one: to a scurrilous work, Scotch Presbyterian Eloquence Display'd published in London in 1694. The author quotes a sermon: 'Did you ever hear tell of a good God and a cappet [pettish] prophet, Sirs? The good God said, Jonah, now billy Jonah, wilt thou go to Ninevah, for Auld lang syne? [old kindness].'

Henley and Henderson refer to a street song, dating from the end of the 17th Century, which had the refrain:

"On old long syne. On old long syne, my jo, On old long syne: That thou canst never once reflect On old long syne." This, attributed to Francis Sempill, appeared in Watson's Choice Collection, but clearly derives from Ayton.

The song which Ramsay wrote to the tune, printed with his words in the Museum, was published in his Scots Songs, 1720. The first eight lines establish the connexion, and at the same time demonstrate that the poem represents Ramsay at his least inspired:

"Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
Tho' they return with scars?
These are the noble hero's lot,
Obtain'd in glorious wars:
Welcome, my Varo, to my breast,
Thy arms about me twine.
And make me once again as blest,
As I was lang syne."

At least two other political ballads of the period exist which exhibit turns of phrase, the echo of which sounds in Burns's version: and in 'The Old Minister's Song', 'Tullochgorum' Skinner came nearer than most:

"Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
Or friendship e'er grow cauld? Aye as we're growing auld?
How comes it, then, my worthy friend,
Wha used to be sae kin',
We dinna for ilk ither spier
As we did lang syne?"

Was Burns, in fact, aware of these older poems? Almost certainly he was. But if his claim to Mrs Dunlop was correct, and the forces of Nature have honoured his request, the turf must by lying lightly upon the breast of an unknown poet of whose intermediary version not a trace can be found.

Cromek alleged evidence that the two best stanzas were by Burns. William Stenhouse, the editor of an early 19th Century reissue of the Museum, stated that Burns admitted to Johnson that only three stanzas were old, the other two being written by himself. George Thomson was certainly suspicious of the supposed old originals. In September 1793, Burns forwarded him the third known manuscript of the song, with some minor changes, the most important of which is the substitution of 'my dear' for 'my jo' in the chorus. In the accompanying letter Burns remarked: 'One song more, and I have done, 'Auld lang syne'. The air is but mediocre; but the following song - the old song of the olden times, and which has never been in print, nor even in manuscript, until I took it down from an old man's singing - is enough to recommend any air.'

Some time later, after Thomson had discovered from Stephen Clarke that Johnson had a copy of 'Auld Lang Syne' and had noticed that the air was already in the Museum to Ramsay's words, he must have written to Burns, who replied in November 1794: 'The two songs you saw in Clarke's are neither of them worth your attention. The words of 'Auld lang syne are good, but the music is an old air, the rudiments of the modern tune of that name. The other tune you may hear as a common Scots country dance.'

What was 'the other tune'? Probably the tune which we know today, and to which Thomson published the words in Scottish Airs, 1799, claiming them to be 'From an old MS. In the editor's possession', which was at least slightly more honest.

The first strain of the familiar tune appears in 'The Duke of Buccleugh's Tune', in Appollo's Banquet, 1690, though I am inclined to think this establishes nothing beyond yet another interesting example of melodic coincidence. Its 'common Scots country dance' version appeared first in Bremner's Scots Reels, 1759, under the title 'The Miller's Wedding' and in Cumming's Strathspeys, 1780, as well as in McGlashan's Strathspey Reels, also published in 1780, in which it was called 'The Miller's Daugher'. Its commonness is attested by the fact that it appeared in at least a further five similar publications within the next thirty years; was used twice to different words in the Museum; and was employed in a slightly pruned version in William Shield's ballad-opera Rosina in 1783. It is also closely related to the melodies of 'O Can you labor lea' and 'Coming thro' the rye' which appear to derive basically from the same strathspey as 'Auld Lang Syne'.

Auld Lang Syne ~ The Lyrics!

Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And auld lang syne!

Chorus: For auld lang syne, my dear,
For auld lang syne.
We'll tak a cup o' kindness yet,
For auld lang syne.

And surely ye'll be your pint stowp!
And surely I'll be mine!
And we'll tak a cup o'kindness yet,
For auld lang syne.
For auld, &c.

We twa hae run about the braes,
And pou'd the gowans fine;
But we've wander'd mony a weary fit,
Sin' auld lang syne.
For auld, &c.

'Twas the week after Christmas, and all through the house Nothing would fit me, not even a blouse.

The cookies I'd nibbled, the eggnog I would taste
At the holiday parties had gone to my waist.
When I got on the scales there arose such a number!
When I walked to the store it was less a walk than a lumber.

I remembered the marvelous meals I'd prepared;
The gravies and sauces and beef nicely rare,
The wine and the rum balls, the bread and the cheese
And the way I'd never said, "None for me, please."

As I dressed myself in my husband's old shirt
And prepared once again to do battle with dirt---
I said to myself, as only I can
"You can't spend another winter disguised as a man!"

So -- away with the last of the sour cream dip,
Get rid of the fruit cake, every cracker and chip
Every last bit of food that I like must be banished
Till all the additional ounces have vanished.
I won't have a cookie -- not even a lick.
I'll chew only on long celery sticks.
I won't have hot biscuits, or corn bread, or pie,
I'll munch on a carrot and quietly cry.

I'm hungry, I'm lonesome, and life is a bore
But isn't that what January is for?
Unable to giggle, life's no longer a riot.
Happy New Year to all and to all a good diet!

Video games will break, pearl necklaces will be lost, golf clubs will rust, but giving the gift of love will endure.

Author Unknown

And then we have to think about the depth of the Love God has for us and are reminded of the reality that God is the source of ALL love. Romans 8:36-40 says it this way:

Do you think anyone is going to be able to drive a wedge between us and Christ's love for us? There is no way!

Not trouble, not hard times, not hatred, not hunger, not homelessness, not bullying threats, not backstabbing, not even the worst sins listed in Scripture: Because we are hated we're like sitting ducks; they pick us off one by one.

None of this fazes us because Jesus loves us.

  I'm absolutely convinced that nothing--nothing living or dead, angelic or demonic, today or tomorrow, high or low, thinkable or unthinkable--absolutely nothing can get between us and God's love because of the way that Jesus our Master has embraced us.

This is what Christmas is all about!

A JEW SAY, "MERRY CHRISTMAS!"
Jeff Jacoby - Staff Writer, The Boston Globe December 20, 2004

My one-year-old hasn't built up much of a vocabulary yet -- "wow" and "hey" and "oh" are about the only words he's mastered. But they were all he needed the other night as we drove through Boston's Mission Hill section, gazing at the lavish Christmas displays lighting up so many front yards. On one block we saw Santas and reindeer and a giant polar bear ("Wow!"); on the next there was a beautiful nativity scene and dazzling lights made to look like fireworks ("Hey!"). Rooftops were trimmed with icicle lights, trees pulsed with color, and streets normally bland and unremarkable were lovely in their holiday glow.

    I enjoy Christmas decorations -- and Christmas music, and the upbeat Christmastime mood -- and I say that as a practicing Jew for whom Dec. 25 has no theological significance at all. I have never celebrated Christmas, but I like seeing my Christian neighbors celebrate it. I like living in a society that makes a big deal out of religious holidays. Far from feeling threatened when the sights and sounds of Christmas surround me each December, I find them reassuring. They reaffirm the importance of the Judeo-Christian culture that has made America so exceptional -- and such a safe and tolerant haven for a religious minority like mine.

      Unfortunately, it isn't only nativity scenes and Santas that make an appearance every Christmas. The holiday season also heralds the annual return of Scrooge and the Grinch. Or, as they're known in Bellevue, Wash., these days, Sidney and Jennifer Stock.

      The Stocks are atheists who want Bellevue's city council to remove the Christmas tree from the lobby of City Hall. Since "it is impossible for everybody's religious belief to be displayed and non-religious belief to be displayed," Sidney Stock told reporters last week, "no religious beliefs [should] be displayed."       Never mind that Christmas trees themselves have no religious significance. In Bellevue, as it happens, they don't even call it a Christmas tree. They call it a "giving tree," because its purpose is to stimulate gifts to the poor. In addition to tinsel and gold ribbon, the tree is hung with requests from needy families, and passersby are encouraged to help the less fortunate by making a donation. According to KOMO-TV in Seattle, the giving tree generates nearly $25,000 in contributions.    Most Americans, whatever their faith, would regard Bellevue's tree as a beautiful demonstration of true Christmas spirit. But to the Stocks, its presence on city property is a matter of "injustice and inequality." That is the voice of anti-religious fanaticism -- what Rabbi Daniel Lapin, the Orthodox Jewish founder of Toward Tradition, calls "secular fundamentalism."

   Every year these fundamentalists renew their assault on Christmas and its Christian meaning. Sometimes they claim the Constitution bars any expression of religion in government venues (it doesn't). Or they speak of "sensitivity" to those of other faiths. Or they couch their censorship in the language of "tolerance" and "diversity." Or they simply oppose any reference to Christmas at all. One way or another they end up demanding that America's vast Christian majority keep its religious feelings to itself. It's an outrageous demand, and it leads to outrageous results:

In Maplewood and South Orange, N.J., the school board has banned all Christmas carols, even instrumentals, from holiday concerts.

In Denver, the city's annual Parade of Lights included German folk dancers, a gay and lesbian Indian group, and belly dancers -- but a Christian-themed float was banned because it would have included a message reading "Merry Christmas."

In Southwest Florida, the rule against celebrating holidays is so rigid that one middle school principal told the Sarasota Herald Tribune: "You won't see any Christmas trees around here. We keep it generic."

In New York City, official school board policy authorizes displays of "Christmas trees, menorahs, and the [Muslim] star and crescent" -- which it describes as "secular holiday symbol decorations" -- but prohibits depictions of the nativity.

In Franklin, Mich., the annual Holly Day celebration has been renamed the Franklin Winter Festival. "Holly Day," the sponsors decided, sounded too Christmassy. "We wanted to try to make it more inclusive." 

But there is nothing inclusive about silencing the 90 percent of Americans who celebrate the birth of Jesus. Christians, after all, have freedom of religion, too -- and that freedom shelters my faith no less than it does theirs. Christmas is a blessing for all Americans. May yours be filled with joy.

©2004 Boston Globe

BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OF JEFF JACOBY

Jeff Jacoby became an op-ed columnist for the Boston Globe in February 1994. Seeking a conservative voice to balance its famously liberal roster of commentators, the Globe hired him away from the Boston Herald, where he had been chief editorial writer since 1987.

The Boston Phoenix has dubbed his twice-weekly essays a "a must-read," describing Jacoby as "the region's preeminent spokesman for Conservative Nation." A native of Cleveland, Jacoby graduated with honors from George Washington University in 1979, and from Boston University Law School in 1983. He practiced law for a short time at the nation firm of Baker & Hostetler, but returned to Boston to become deputy manager of Ray Shamie's 1984 campaign for the U.S. Senate. In 1985-87, Jacoby was an assistant to Dr. John Silber, who at the time was president of Boston University.

In addition to his print work, Jacoby has been a political commentator for WBUR, Boston's National Public Radio affiliate. For several years he hosted "Talk of New England,'' a weekly television program, and has often appeared as a panelist on WCVB-TV's "Five on Five.''