Earworms on roses and whiskers on kittens

Nope, that is not a line from the Sound of Music.

First, the earworms -- (the German word is Ohrwurm) -- a portion of a song or other musical material that becomes stuck in a person's head or repeats compulsively within one's mind. Other words are repetunes, aneurhythm, and perhaps best for the season: humbug. It is a particular plague this time of year when you are exposed to the same dozen or so Christmas carols played over and over and over and over and over and over and ... in every store you walk into. The one that drove me crazy last night was Sleigh Ride:

Just hear those sleigh bells jingling
Ring ting tingling too.
Come on, it's lovely weather
For a sleigh ride together with you.

Outside the snow is falling
And friends are calling 'Yoo-hoo.'
Come on, it's lovely weather
For a sleigh ride together with you.

Giddy up, giddy up, giddy up,
Let's go, Let's look at the show,
We're riding in a wonderland of snow.

Giddy up, giddy up, giddy up,
It's grand, Just holding your hand,
We're gliding along with a song
Of a wintry fairy land.

Our cheeks are nice and rosy
And comfy cozy are we
We're snuggled up together
Like two birds of a feather would be.

Let's take that road before us
And sing a chorus or two
Come on, it's lovely weather
For a sleigh ride together with you.

There's a birthday party
At the home of Farmer Gray
It'll be the perfect ending a perfect day
We'll be singing the songs
We love to sing without a single stop,
At the fireplace while we watch
The chestnuts pop.
Pop pop pop.

It makes me want to shoot Farmer Gray!

Second, the roses are for Gaudete Sunday, the third Sunday of Advent, the four-week season that precedes Christmas for Catholics, Orthodox, Episcopalians, Lutherans and various other Christian communities. The color of the robes worn by the priest or minister during this time is purple or violet, a note of the need to repent in order to be ready to welcome Christ. The third Sunday, being about halfway through this period, has scriptural readings about rejoicing, and so the penitential message is softened by the promise of joy. A tradition grew up, then, to make the robe colors lighter -- more of a rose shade than dark purple. So this Sunday (and a similar one in Lent) is also called Rose Sunday.

As for the whiskers on kittens, that was just to follow through on the allusion to the song, My Favorite Things, from The Sound of Music. In the song, of course, it is raindrops that are on the roses -- and since we are supposed to get rain today, we will have raindrops on the flamingos. Who are more of a rose color than purple. Except for the special one Tom made for Peggy, that is, which now decorates the inner circle of her driveway.

And all this reminds me of Fr. Michael Ciullo's adaptation of the opening words of the song, The Sound of Music:

The hills are alive,
and it's kind of frightening...

And I'll promise to stop before I turn into some sort of blogworm.