Althouse: "New Year to arrive a tick later."

December 30, 2008

"New Year to arrive a tick later."

Oh! A tick!

48 comments:

campy said...: It's a BusHitler plot to delay the ascension to office of The One.; 12/30/08, 9:19 PM
Ron said...: Here I am, like some kinda lumpken, thinking it was a scoche this year! When Carmen Electra(not complex!) becomes the New Dick Clark can you say tittle?; 12/30/08, 9:31 PM
BJM said...: Adhering to their policy, immediately after Big Ben's final New Year's tick the Beeb will broadcast the blowing of Trumpets.; 12/30/08, 9:36 PM
ricpic said...: The New Year came in wobbly.
A tick or two behind.
It threw off lonely sticklers.
The rest? They didn't mind.; 12/30/08, 9:44 PM
john said...: And not a moment too soon I might add.

"From rags to Rajas", choreographed by John Travolta. (lol)

What a wonderful movie, even the closing credits; especially those. We now have a reason to watch the Oscars, as for the first time in several years we have something to root for that we actually saw.

Has anyone else seen Slumdog yet? Like it?; 12/30/08, 9:56 PM
Shawn Levasseur said...: The "leap second" is actually the interest earned on Daylight Savings.; 12/30/08, 9:58 PM
Stephanie said...: ?retal kcot a evirra ti t'nseoD; 12/30/08, 10:10 PM
reader_iam said...: Figures that 2008 would last an extra tick. The bloodsucker.** And that Ben-sorts would be right there, at and on the cusp of it, meddling away, in high anxiety and purpose, to grasp a second and bend it aright.

---

**(Oh, well, of course, 2009 could be worse. But that's the future. Why anticipate? It might, this time, sort itself the hell out.

Dreams don't always have to hurt, you know.); 12/30/08, 10:24 PM
reader_iam said...: OTOH, I actually had not one, but two, grandmothers who--actually--oft proffered this old chestnut: "A stitch in time saves nine."

Well, then.; 12/30/08, 10:27 PM
Wince said...: Speaking of arachnids, 2008 was the first year I ever had a tick. I found it on my neck the day after doing yard work. I wasn't sure what it was, so I just ripped it off with my fingers. Not what you're supposed to do. You're supposed to use tweezers (needle style) from the side so as to avoid squeezing the parasite's abdomen and injecting yourself with whatever horrible disease it's carrying. There are other methods some people use.

I did not get sick. I bought new tweezers. Reason enough to celebrate.; 12/30/08, 10:35 PM
blogging cockroach said...: tou ieduv siht kcehc einahpets yeh; 12/30/08, 10:40 PM
reader_iam said...: oh, god, yes (!!), b.c.!!; 12/30/08, 10:43 PM
Stephanie said...: !!LOL; 12/30/08, 10:45 PM
reader_iam said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 12/30/08, 10:46 PM
Wince said...: Son of a bitch is dug in like an Alabama tick.; 12/30/08, 10:55 PM
reader_iam said...: i do love the backwards elements of the cockroach nature
as don't we all
or at least should
if not ought

***

there, that s better or at least
it trips more trippingly
to my ear

all i can hope for ...
... not being in b.c.'s league; 12/30/08, 10:58 PM
reader_iam said...: (my last deletion had only to do with a simple line-break

which of course then led to a necessary additional editorial comment); 12/30/08, 11:00 PM
blogging cockroach said...: that should be tuo
which proves i ve had too much
spilled cheap merlot tonight
to be hopping around backwards
lookout when the champaign flows
tomorrow night wheee
which i hope doesn t turn into
eeehw
anyway here is tick tock gone bad
and too long
but you can stop it when it
ceases being funny about 40 seconds in
hey they can t all be gems
and i promise never to trip
trippingly to reader s ear
a cockroach doing that would
freak some people out
but just don t sleep on the kitchen floor
and we ll all be fine; 12/30/08, 11:08 PM
Chip Ahoy said...: .diputs era stac yhW

dnuora gnifoog tsuj s'ti swohs swollof taht oediv etunim 4 ehT .yllaer toN; 12/30/08, 11:31 PM
blogging cockroach said...: not having the vers libre poet in me
i fear my prosaic nature sometimes
misses the subtleties of
dear reader s lovely lines
which is not to say
reader should not write
a lot more of them
because you always want more
when someone doesn t quite
write enough rather than when
they write too much
which is also true about food
but i m not as appreciative when
the cook has cleaned up
too well afterwards; 12/30/08, 11:40 PM
Dust Bunny Queen said...: Yawn.

Get up, when it's light enough to see, and gradually,...slowly your body agrees that it might be time to get up. Go to bed when it becomes dark and take your time to read, relax and maybe, fool around in bed before sleeping when once again the morning light brings the circle around again to mabye fool around again in the morning before the bright light wakes you truly up.

Who cares what time it really is or how many seconds the atomic clock is away from your bedroom clock!! What a waste of "time" and energy.

BTW: I haven't had a clock in my room to force me to wake up for at least 15 years and I'm very very happy....and never ...well, hardly ever late. I wake up relaxed and refreshed. On MY own time.; 12/30/08, 11:41 PM
reader_iam said...: ah but cockroach
your trips are tweets to the ear
like birds in dawn of spring s own dawn
here here see here they sing
back again as always are we
so wake up
if only, and to ...; 12/30/08, 11:47 PM
Dust Bunny Queen said...: Ohhh esqueeze me.. I read the article and commented before realizing this was a parasite thread.

:-D; 12/30/08, 11:48 PM
TitusClassof87 said...: Why did you get divorced?

Do you ever want to get back with your ex-husband?

Do you miss him or think about him?

Are you ever lonely?

Would you like to share your life with someone?

Are you content? Happy? Do you ever think you are missing out on something?

Do you feel like time is against you and opportunities are falling beyond your grasp?; 12/30/08, 11:49 PM
reader_iam said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 12/30/08, 11:51 PM
TitusClassof87 said...: What is getting a divorce like?; 12/30/08, 11:51 PM
reader_iam said...: Yikes! I just finished one response, and there's another b.c. awaiting!

Yo. Methinks I may end up [(even)] more displaying what already I've been saying.; 12/30/08, 11:53 PM
TitusClassof87 said...: What is being in love like?

What is having children like?

What is the difference between love between a mother and child and husband and wife? Is one more intense than the other?

Can a mother ever fall out of love with her child?; 12/30/08, 11:54 PM
reader_iam said...: Ohhh esqueeze me

Interesting, that.

---

I, at least, am going to bed, so the track is clear so far as my bits of offgassing are concerned.

I shall look forward to reading tomorrow the thereafter, including, and especially, DBQ's.; 12/31/08, 12:02 AM
TitusClassof87 said...: Do you have any regrets?; 12/31/08, 12:03 AM
reader_iam said...: Oh, and I can ASSURE you that I can clench in time, no matter the materiel, or material. Not for nothing was I raised by the parents who raised me within the pervasiveness of their professions.

OK, really going to bed now.; 12/31/08, 12:27 AM
Ann Althouse said...: Oh, I'm very interested to see that "Syncopated Clock" was written by Leroy Anderson. We were just talking about him in connection with "Sleigh Ride." Have you ever noticed that "Sleigh Ride" isn't just any old Christmas pop song? It's elaborate and unusual and goes way beyond the call of an ordinary pop song.

And where is everyone? Last night, you guys were talking all night, and now here I am with insomnia and no one is around.

Were you afraid of the tick?; 12/31/08, 2:23 AM
Ann Althouse said...: Thanks for all the poetry, but it was all before midnight. If you can't stay up until midnight tonight, how do you expect to celebrate New Year's Eve tomorrow night?

I think I'll try to draw a picture of the New Year's Tick. Or see if I can get people to send pictures of the New Year's Tick. And I'm going to push for the adoption of the New Year's Tick as the new New Year's mascot, replacing that stupid -- and frankly depressing -- Old Man and Baby mascot. Or the Ball. What the hell kind of symbol is a Ball?

I hope that doesn't offend blogging cockroach. You must understand that we can't have a cockroach as a holiday symbol. Not for New Year's anyway.

This insomnia is giving me grandiose thoughts, but I really think this New Year's Tick thing can catch on. Perhaps if we draw it the right way. I think Santa Claus wasn't such a big deal until those Coca Cola ads got the character drawn just the right way. People loved him once his attributes became appealing and standardized.

Help me do that with the Tick.

Also, that "Night Before Christmas" poem helped with the popularization of Santa Claus, so maybe some of you poets can write something similarly beguiling about the annual arachnid.

Inside the kitty cat wall clock he hid/Our eagerly awaited arachnid.

See? I can't do it!

An arthropod/From God/Trod...

No... I need help with the poem. And with the drawing. And with the sleeping.

The children were nestled all snug in their beds/Not knowing the Tick crept so close to their heads....

Blah?

"Are you ever lonely?"

Well, that's a fine question from someone who so recently stood me up.; 12/31/08, 2:47 AM
chickelit said...: Have you ever noticed that "Sleigh Ride" isn't just any old Christmas pop song? It's elaborate and unusual and goes way beyond the call of an ordinary pop song.

Yes. That's favorite of mine too. Though I confess I like the Eydie and Steve version the best. (not available at iTunes).; 12/31/08, 3:07 AM
TitusClassof87 said...: I knew you were pissed at me for not contacting you while I was home for the holidays.

Girl, it was minus 6 when I was home. The roads were treacherous. My father raged at me for the way I was driving. I barely left the house. My mother couldn't stop crying when I left because we didn't do anything.

Girl, I still love you. It was hard trying to multi-task while I was home. I felt like I got nothing accomplished.; 12/31/08, 3:38 AM
chickelit said...: I wrote this before Titus posted his 3:38 AM letter (and bless you Titus for writing her)

'Are you ever lonely?'

Well, that's a fine question from someone who so recently stood me up.

Well Titus is a little shit for not being here (if that's what you meant)

I'll tell you true story though, if it'll help put you to sleep. My father gave his mother just such a kit-cat clock, for Christmas, after he was drafted during Korea (1951). They lived in Richland Center--you know that beautiful little town out on Highway 14. God, I travelled that so many times as a kid--over the hills and through the woods to grandmother's house we went. He sent it back to her from basic training- Ft. Knox. And it must have meant something then- not kitsch (though she hung it in her kitchen). We all ( dozens of cousins we), loved that clock- that kitschty-kitchen clock. Associations? time spent with her (sadly now gone) growing up Wisconsin.
And who ended up with that clock?
I did. It was willed to me. It hangs near me (and dear to me), as I write this.; 12/31/08, 3:49 AM
Ann Althouse said...: "Girl, it was minus 6 when I was home. The roads were treacherous. My father raged at me for the way I was driving. I barely left the house. My mother couldn't stop crying when I left because we didn't do anything."

So you were grounded?; 12/31/08, 4:04 AM
Ann Althouse said...: Hi, chicken.

A lot of hippies had that clock in the 70s. But I remember older suburbanites having it back before it was ironic. Kids loved it but I think most adults thought it was low class.

In my house, back then, we had a cuckoo clock. Kids loved that too. They'd go running into the kitchen to watch it when it went off.; 12/31/08, 4:08 AM
chickelit said...: Kids don't know crap about time :); 12/31/08, 5:17 AM
chickelit said...: (my last comment was not directed to our tireless hostess)

Good night, All; 12/31/08, 5:42 AM
bearbee said...: What else but global warming!!!!!; 12/31/08, 5:55 AM
bill said...: 1. That clock can't stick to the beat; it could never play for James Brown. Then again, cats aren't known for being team players.

2. Bootsy Collins explaining James Brown's law that you always come in on the one.

3. A couple years ago Bootsy Collins released a lusciously funky christmas album. One of the tracks took "Sleigh Ride" for a spin and included Charlie Daniels on violin and backup vocals.

4. Collins and Daniels collaborated again this past November with Fallen Soldiers' Memorial. background.; 12/31/08, 7:11 AM
Tibore said...: But... But... The BBC engineers called it a "pip", not a "tick"! Who's right???

Oh, woe is me, bloody contradicting experts... how will I know what to properly call it now?!; 12/31/08, 8:20 AM
Anonymous said...: I have that exact clock. It hangs on the wall of my cottage in northern Wisconsin, next to the fireplace in the kitchen.

It would have amused me for hours in my delta-nine tetrahydracannabinol college years. Now it amuses children and seems to annoy adults. Much like myself, it seems.

I plan to use my extra tick for an extra sip of champagne this evening.; 12/31/08, 8:34 AM
Christopher in MA said...: I have a Kit-Kat clock (which is what they're called). It hangs in the kitchen. I also have a cuckoo clock (a wedding gift from the in-laws) that hangs in the hall to the bedroom. In fact, we have clocks all over the house. I don't know why, as I'm not the most punctual fellow in the world, but I just like clocks. Nice, solid, wind-up clocks.

(and pocket watches, too. I've got five of those. Any aspiring Freudians in the Alt-house are welcome to take a gander at what it means).

And, Althouse, I expect you've already seen it, but for those who haven't, go to Mark Steyn's blog and check out his "Song Of The Week" feature on "Sleigh Ride." I've never cared for the song, but I do have an appreciation for it now after reading what Steyn had to say. (and fun tidbit - it's Luh-ROY Anderson, not LEE-roy. I never knew that before).

It's snowing here in Massachusetts. I'll use the extra tick to salt the driveway tonight.; 12/31/08, 9:27 AM
TitusClassof87 said...: Now I feel bad.; 12/31/08, 10:45 AM
TitusClassof87 said...: I am sorry for not connecting with you while I was home.; 12/31/08, 11:09 AM
reader_iam said...: What the hell kind of symbol is a Ball?

Um.; 12/31/08, 11:33 AM