More About That Kangaroo

In a previous post, I mentioned how I discovered music through an old novelty song, "Tie Me Kangaroo Down Sport."

What prompted that memory was attending a members' showcase concert by the local folksinging society to which I belong. Of the five performers, I am friends with three, so despite the cold and snow my wife and I happily went. It was a great show.

Just before the concert started, I was talking with one of the friends, and she turned to one of the organizers and said I should perform at a future concert! He said that would be fine. Ulp. 

She was only half joking. After she performed, she said I really should think about it.

While I have played and sung regularly at church and for my Fraternity, i have not performed in a folk setting in years! But the idea got me thinking.

One of the songs I used to perform was Tie Me Kangaroo Down Sport. I thought of the story behind the significance of the song for for me. It would be one of the songs I would consider if I did play for a members' showcase.

Each performer does six or seven songs. I started thinking about what songs I might do.

Tie Me Kangaroo Down Sport

Bottle Of Wine

I Am Going Home (original)

Hey! Hey! Hey! I'm Gonna Live Til The Day I Die (original)

Oh Sinner Man 

Get Up And Go 

Never Ending Song Of Love

Walking Down The Line 

They'd all be possibilities. Maybe Pete Seeger's version of "Old Time Religion"? Perhaps "There's a Place In The World For A Gambler"? "The Swimming Song"? 

There might be a few more I'd consider. 

It would be nice to perform again. 

Pax et bonum

Read in 2025: The Tally

I began the year with certain reading goals:

60-70 works, 15,000 pages
The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club, and Have His Carcase - by Dorothy Sayers
A Dickens novel (Little Dorrit or Our Mutual Friend)
Lord of the Rings (reread)
Kristin Lavransdatter
Apologia Pro Vita Sua (reread)
Bio/Study of Newman
The Poet and the Lunatics (Chesterton)
Some Mystery novels
Some Encyclicals

With one day to go, I'm not likely to finish another work, so here is the tally for 2025:2025 -  76 Books - Page Count -  17,312 pages

Tolkien’s Faith: A Spiritual Biography by Holly Ordway

The Sermons of the Cure of Ars

John Henry Newman: Snapdragon in the Wall by Joyce Sugg

Apologia Pro Vita Sua by St. John Henry Cardinal Newman

The Epistle of Barnabas

The Epistle to Diognetus

The Didache

Letter to the Corinthians - Clement of Rome

Simplicity by John Michael Talbot with Dan O’Neill

Peace on Earth (Pacem In Terris) - Pope St. John XXIII

Christianity and Social Progress (Mater et Magistra) by Pope St. John XXIII

The Redeemer of Man (Redemptor Hominis) by Pope St. John Paul II

St. Thomas More by E. E. Reynolds

Catherine of Siena by Sigrid Undset

God’s Troubadour: The Story of Saint Francis of Assisi by Sophie Jewett

The Consolation of Philosophy by Boethius

The Real Story: Understanding the Big Picture of the Bible by Edward Sri and Curtis Martin

33 Days to Eucharistic Glory

Set All Afire (St. Francis Xavier) by Louis de Wohl

Because God is Real by Peter J. Kreeft

The Poet and the Lunatics by G. K. Chesterton

The Man Who Was Thursday by G. K. Chesterton

Descent Into Hell by Charles Williams

Kristin Lavransdatter by Sigrid Undset 

     The Wreath by Sigrid Undset 

     The Wife by Sigrid Undset 

     The Cross by Sigrid Undset 

The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro

The Heart of the Matter by Graham Greene

Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens

The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien

     The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien

      The Two Towers by J. R. R. Tolkien

      The Return of the King by J. R. R. Tolkien

Notes from Underground by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

The Fool Of New York City by Michael D. O’Brien

Father Malachy’s Miracle by Bruce Marshall

The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club by Dorothy Sayers  

Have His Carcase by Dorothy Sayers

Murder in the Lincoln White House by C. M. Gleason

Murder at the Capitol by C. M. Gleason

The Vanishing Woman by Fiorella De Maria

See No Evil by Fiorella De Maria

Death of a Scholar by Fiorella De Maria

Sleeping Murder by Agatha Christie

A Murder is Announced by Agatha Christie

Rough Cider by Peter Lovesey

The Thin Man by Dashiell Hammett

The Holy Thief by Ellis Peters

Dead Man’s Ransom by Ellis Peters

The Surprise by G. K. Chesterton

The Judgement of Dr. Johnson by G. K. Chesterton  

No Exit by Jean-Paul Sartre

Medea by Euripides

Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea by Jules Verne  

John the Balladeer by Manly Wade Wellman

The First Men in the Moon by H. G. Wells

The Food of the Gods by H. G. Wells

In the Days of the Comet by H. G. Wells

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson

Dracula by Bram Stoker

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Selected Poems

The Life and Zen Haiku Poetry of Santoka Taneda by Sumita Oyama (translated by William

        Scott Wilson

A Good Time Was Had By All by Stevie Smith

Tender Only To One by Stevie Smith

Mother, What Is Man? by Stevie Smith

Harold’s Leap by Stevie Smith

Not Waving But Drowning by Stevie Smith

Haiku selected and edited by Peter Washington

Ginko Gold anthology

Christmas Presence: Twelve Gifts That Were More Than They Seemed 

     edited by Gregory F. Augustine Pierce

Christmas Curiosities: Odd, Dark, and Forgotten Christmas by John Grossman

The Autobiography of Santa Claus by Jeff Guinn

Making the Best of What’s Left by Judith Viorst

Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt

Black Potatoes: The Story of the Great Irish Famine, 1845-50 by Susan Campbell Bartoletti  

John Adams by David McCullough

The usual eclectic mix. I read more works and pages than I had planned. Some good reads. Some clunkers.

I'm now up to 597 works read since I started keeping count in 2013.

Pax et bonum

About That Kangaroo

As a young child, I lived in a home where there was little to no music. My mother was hearing impaired, and my father was painfully tone deaf.

Then one day my father and I went fishing. As we were driving to a favorite fishing site, my father turned on the radio.

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Suddenly a novelty song that was popular at that time came on.

“Tie Me Kangaroo Down Sport.”

I listened, transfixed.

It was in that moment that I discovered music.

From that moment on I began listening to the radio, and eventually got a record player and began acquiring records.

Later, when I learned how to play guitar, I learned that song. It was one of the first songs I performed back in my coffee house days.

Yeah, I know the man behind the song, Rolf Harris, later ran afoul of the law for sexually-related offences, was convicted, and went to prison. I also know the original version of the song contained a lyric that racially incentive. But that verse got eliminated, and I certainly don’t include it.

But hey, the song remains. And I will continue to perform it.

Even if they tan me hide.

Pax et bonum

2026 Reading Goals

I had a good reading year in 2025, meeting all my goals. Time to set the goals for 2026.

60-70 works, 15,000 pages
A biography/autobiography of a saint
A book about a saint
A secular biography
At least two documents of Vatican II
Several spiritual works
A book by G. K. Chesterton I have not yet read
A book about G. K. Chesterton
The Adventures of Tom Bombadil by J. R. R. Tolkien
A book by C. S. Lewis, possibly a reread.
A book by Charles Dickens I have not yet read (Our Mutual Friend?)
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
A book by Michael O'Brien
A book by Dostoevsky (The Possessed?)
At least one history book
Several mysteries
Several poetry collections
Several plays

Pax et bonum

Tolkien - Bilbo's Last Song

Bilbo's Last Song
(At the Grey Havens)

Day is ended, dim my eyes,
but journey long before me lies.
Farewell, friends! I hear the call.
The ship's beside the stony wall.
Foam is white and waves are grey;
beyond the sunset leads my way.
Foam is salt, the wind is free;
I hear the rising of the Sea.

Farewell, friends! The sails are set,
the wind is east, the moorings fret.
Shadows long before me lie,
beneath the ever-bending sky,
but islands lie behind the Sun
that I shall raise ere all is done;
lands there are to west of West,
where night is quiet and sleep is rest.

Guided by the Lonely Star,
beyond the utmost harbour-bar
I'll find the havens fair and free,
and beaches of the Starlit Sea.
Ship, my ship! I seek the West,
and fields and mountains ever blest.
Farewell to Middle-Earth at last.
I see the Star above your mast!

Pax et bonum

The Monkees - Riu Chiu (Official HD Music Video)

Last Christmas Gig of 2025

Miracle Field of Greater Rochester Christmas party, December 20, 2025.

 

Pax et bonum

Christmas Poem for 2025

Over years many a Nativity scene
has added much not there that holy night.
The cast of those who played a role has been
expanded as faith and fancy deemed right.
That night the star was there to light and guide
in Bethlehem’s sky, as were angel choirs,
with stable, Mary and Joseph inside,
and the shepherds down from their hillside fires.
The Magi and Herod’s bloody soldiers
arrived later. Creative minds supplied
ass, kneeling ox, lambs, Santa, bowing trees,
drummer boy, midwife, and others beside.
Whoever was there, all have cause to sing,
for that day we welcomed our God and King.

Pax et bonum

The Autobiography of Santa Claus

As part of my preparation for Santa season - my first two appearances are this weekend - and for my on Santa book, I decided to read some of my Santa/Christmas related books. The most recent one was The Autobiography of Santa Claus by Jeff Guinn. 

I wanted to see how Guinn treated Santa as there are some similarities to what I am writing (currently some 50,000 words in!). His premise was interesting: Santa dictating his autobiography to clear up misinformation.

The book started off well. It dealt with the early history of St. Nicholas, an and some of the myths about him in those days in a reasonable way. 

But then the book started to head off in directions I thought did not ring true. It certainly downplayed the fact that he was a bishop and a saint, downplaying his spiritual side and focusing more on the secular side. I could have lived with that, as this was a book for a secular audience. But then it started getting silly, and not in a good way.

Suddenly Santa began gathering a crew of helpers who shared in his longevity - including Attila the Hun, King Arthur, and Teddy Roosevelt! St. Francis of Assisi also joins the crew, but Guinn mistakenly identifies him as a priest. Plus, Santa began playing a role in a number of historical and literary events, including helping George Washington and Charles Dickens! I was reminded of  Forrest Gump; indeed, this book was published in 1994, the same year the Gump movie came out.  

The second half of he book had less of the charm of the first half. 

My overall assessment is it was okay, but not a book I would enthusiastically endorse. 

Pax et bonum

Syndicated columnists

Art Buchwald

I'm from the era when newspapers had multiple pages for opinions - not only editorials, but also letters to the editor and syndicated columnists. Our local dailies had one to two such pages each issue. And with two dailies, there was room for a wide variety of columns representing differing views.   

I used to enjoy reading those pages, and, in particular, certain columnists. Two of the syndicated columnists I particularly enjoyed were Art Buchwald and Sydney Harris.

I dreamed of being a columnist myself. In college I created a column called The Pregnant Pause for the school newspaper. It was a mixture of humor, satire, and commentary, combining elements of Buchwald and Harris.

After college,  although I freelanced some articles, I did not work full-time as a journalist for a number of years. Then I was hired by the diocesan newspaper. I eventually became the associate editor, and regularly wrote editorials, getting a taste of fulfilling my dream. I even won a few awards for my editorials.

But after a decade I left the newspaper business to become a teacher, a career I also loved. 

By that point, the newspapers across the country were folding - including one of our two local dailies. Editorial pages were shrinking, with room for fewer columns, and many of the great columnists of the past retired or died. I also stopped reading newspapers as regularly, disappointed by their content - or lack thereof - and finding other news outlets online. As a result, I did not keep up with the kinds of columns still being written.

I started a blog, and used that as an outlet. But it was not the same as being a newspaper columnist. Few people saw what I wrote. 

Then blogs started to follow the newspapers into oblivion. 

Oh, there were other outlets - like podcasts - but I was a written word person, and did not follow those technological routes.

I still write - and blog. And I edit and write three newsletters. Nothing short of something like dementia or a stroke will stop me from expressing myself through writing. 

Who knows. Maybe syndicated columns will make a comeback before my gray cells go dark. 

After all, vinyl records are now cool again. 

Pax et bonum

Stand Together For Life, November 2025

Every Saturday, a group of Catholics gather outside Rochester’s Planned parenthood headquarters to pray. Every fourth Saturday they are joined by Protestant pro-lifers for “Stand Together for Life.”

The event always begins with a Rosary by the Catholics.

They are then joined by Protestant brothers and sisters.

The event includes music …

… and talks and prayers by various individuals.

The featured speaker this month was Tim Archer, Board President of Care Net of Greater Oleans (a nearby county). Care Net is a women’s center that provides free, onsite pregnancy services, resources and support.

We also heard form Jan, one of the leaders of the local Mom Mentors, a group that provides all sorts of social and material aid for women. That aid includes baby showers, food, clothing, furniture, rides, listening even in the middle of the night, and more.

We also heard form a woman from Syracuse about pro-life efforts there (Alas, I did not catch her name.)

Someone stuck this image above in a gap in Planned Parenthood’s wall. Meanwhile, some folks who had been there before the event left messages chalked on the sidewalk like this one -

The event ended with participants placing their hands on Planned Parenthood’s street-side wall and praying for the mothers, the fathers, the babies, and the workers.

We will continue until legal abortion ends.

Pax et bonum

Political poems

For my haiku group we were to bring in some of our political haiku/senryu. "Political" was defined as including not just actual elections or candidates, but also social issues subject to political debate.

Here are the ones I brought:

steady cold rain
election results
come trickling in

blood on the pavement
mother distracts child
with an old folk song

searcher hesitates
beneath the rubble
an overturned crib

outside the clinic
unmothered mothers slowly
walk to waiting cars

crow on a bare branch
outside the clinic
car door slams

walking in the woods
noticing all the mushrooms -
August 6

a break in the clouds
gave way to that sunrise –
Nagasaki

the morning prayers
rose heavenward that day –
Nagasaki

at Hiroshima
some dead left memorials
shadows on the wall

I've written other political poems that more directly focus on candidates, primarily poems in the clerihew format. I say "clerihew format" because they are not true clerihews. They lack the silliness, the whimsy that true clerihews have, and are much more polemical and satirical than true clerihews should be.

Some come closer to the form.

Assistant Coach Tim Walz
was enjoying some spaghetti and meatballs,
but then got a sick feeling in his belly
when an ad for tampons came on the telly.

Bernie Sanders
gets uneasy whenever he spots chameleons and salamanders.
He yells and waves his hands above his head
because he knows if they get near him they'll turn red.

Chris Cuomo
hates to be called "Fredo."
Still, he turns down Andy's offers to take
him fishing out on a lake.

Vermin Supreme
awoke from a bad dream.
In it, Democratic candidates at a joint ceremony
promised everyone a free pony.

Some of the others just don't make it as true clerihews.

Donald Trump
on the stump
will almost always spout a platitude
or something rude.

The eyes of former Vice President Biden
suddenly began to widen.
"Wait, you mean now that they say I've won,
people actually expect me to get something done???"

Former Vice President Joe Biden
is content to let gender definitions widen.
He has himself long used the trick
of identifying as a devout Roman Catholic.


Washington Archbishop Wilton Gregory
says, "Communion for cafeteria Catholic Biden is fine by me.
After all, I always try to enable
whenever I am able."

Former Vice President Joe Biden
watches Ukraine, the border, inflation, and his poll numbers slidin'.
With so much at stake
it's time for an ice cream break.

Former Vice President Joe Biden
caused some Royal eyes to widen.
His press people sighed, for from the start,
they've been battling accusations he's just an old fart.

Each encounter with Joe Biden
reveals what his handlers have been hidin':
Beneath that thinning hair,
there's less and less there there.

Good Jimmy Carter,
when it comes to presidents was one of the smarter.
Historians rank his presidency pretty low,
but it’s looking better these days thanks to “Scranton Joe.”

I don't know if J.D. Vance
has ever been to France,
but unlike Walz he doesn't lack
service to the nation in Iraq.

New York AG Letitia James
targeted Trump with legal games.
We might just see her smirking less
now that she faces her own legal mess.

Attorney General Letitia James
is fond of playing games.
Her latest was attending a trial and practicing her smirk
instead of showing up at the office to work.

Fani Willis
used Nathan Wade for some carnal bliss,
What drew him to her is not plain to see;
perhaps money and the odor of mendacity?

Fani Willis
with Nathan Wade sought illicit bliss.
Part of her appeal may have been her capacity
for mendacity.
.
Elizabeth Warren
campaigned in the restaurant of a Salvadoran.
When she tasted a pupusa she said,
"Why, this is just like my mother's Cherokee fry bread."

Senator Cory Booker
is more than a side-looker.
After all, as he told us,
he is Spartacus.

Ben Carson
has never been accused of committing arson.
That didn't stop Politico
from saying, "He may have, you know."

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo
set out to find a living dodo.
The closest he came, in the end,
were a couple of hosts at CNN.

I have a number of other political alleged clerihews, but they are so bad - given some of the ones I posted above you get an idea how bad they are - they are fit only for Twitter (X). But since I don't have a Twitter account, I'll spare the public and not post them!

Pax et bonum

All Souls Day

Today is All Souls Day. On this day we recall and pray for loved ones who have left this life. 

We pray that they have gone home to the Lord. 

 In my life I have lost some loved ones - members of my family and of my wife's family. 

 Nana Baxter, Grandma Strong, Mom, Dad, and my Brother in my family. 

In my wife's family I have lost Marge (mother), Frank (father), Aunt Toni, Nick (brother), and Cousin Joe.

One of my routines is to pray for individuals and groups at every Mass I attend. On Sundays I always pray for these deceased relatives. Today being All Souls Day adds to the routine. 

On this day, I ask them all to pray for me as well. 

 Pax et bonum

Some Scifaiku, Horrorku, And Related Poetry

Creative Solution

A doctor from South Aldersgate,
when asked why he never does date,
said, "Dating’s a pain,
and so I’ll refrain.
Besides, I can make my own mate."

despite some warnings
he started the new device
and

dental mishap
vampire faces centuries
of just blood pudding

at his sentencing
vampire grows even paler -
life without parole

mining rights sold
the full moon becomes
only a crescent

Halloween costume -
werewolf considers options
but full moon decides

time travel mishap -
alternative history
no longer fiction

Clouds

shrouding

the full moon

will not stop the

wolf.

The

thirsting

grew until

sated by one

bite.

Last words

a

vulture

hungrily

circles above

me

New Colonist

she

quickly

learned that here

the spiders have

wings

in her last moment
she suddenly recognized
the werewolf's cologne.

Prolific Stephen King
can make horror out of anything.
His wife fears what he'd do
if he tried to barbecue.

apocalypse comes -
our final embrace will last
an eternity

through the rubble
a three-legged dog carries
a tibia

robot's Valentine
card bears the image of a
mechanical heart

supernova -
on some planet are wise ones
following its light?

Life form,
so alien
people run from it in
terror, is itself so aghast
it flees.

on the asteroid
slow dancing
in fading Earthlight

trying to recall
the species at the cantina -
pregnancy test

alien banquet -
host's toothy smile reveals bits
of missing crewman

two moons
rise above the
lunatic asylum
inspiring the Martian inmates
to howl

snow on snow on snow –
spring on the new colony
still two years away

the calculations
off by a decimal point -
debris field explained

researcher turns on
interdimensional door -
Who’s that knocking?

blind date takes
unexpected turn
her tattoos move

watching as the clone
learns to ride a bicycle -
sense of déjà vu

A doctor from South Aldersgate (limerick) Weird Tales August/September 2006

alien banquet - Random Planets 2019

apocalypse comes – Scifaikuest  AUG 2021 PRINT

at his sentencing - Scifaikuest November 2023

blind date takes - Scifaikuest November 2023 

Clouds shrouding (saturne) - Scifaikuest February 2023

Halloween costume (werewolf) – Scifaikuest online, February 2023

Last words (saturne) - Scifaikuest February 2023

“life form” (cinquain) in Scifaikuest May 2018

mining rights sold” Random Planets 2019

mining rights sold  Rochester Area Haiku Group 2020 Members’ Anthology

mirror with a painting (vampire teen) – Failed Haiku Volume 7 Issue 74 (February 2022)

New colonist (saturne) - Scifaikuest February 2023 

on the asteroid - Scifaikuest February 2019

researcher turns on - Scifaikuest November 2023

Robot’s valentine - Scifaikuest, February 2017

snow on snow on snow – Scifaikuest AUG 2021 ONLINE

Supernova - Scifaikuest – online – February 2017

the calculations Scifaikuest AUG 2021 ONLINE

The thirsting (saturne) - Scifaikuest February 2023 

through the rubble - Scifaikuest  AUG 2021 PRINT

time travel mishap – Scifaikuest online, February 2023

trying to recall - Skifaikuest February 2019 

     trying to recall – Failed Haiku Volume 7 Issue 74 (February 2022) 

two moons (cinquain) – Random Planets 2019

watching as the clone – Failed Haiku Volume 7 Issue 74 (February 2022) 

Pax et bonum

Weighing In

I weighed myself today and sighed.

I've had a life-long struggle with being overweight. When I was a child my mother used to have to shop in the department euphemistically called "husky." 

By the end of seventh grade, I was seriously overweight.

I decided I had to diet. I was helped by the fact that I also hit a growth spurt - six inched over the next two years. 

Suddenly I was skinny. I grew two more inches by the end of high school, hitting six foot. I also played basketball, ran track, and rode a bicycle everywhere. 

Between 14 and 24, I remained slender.

But then the weight came back. I dieted, and went off diets, repeatedly. My weight went up and down, but mostly up.

For years I've lead a relatively sedentary lifestyle as a writer and teacher, and then a retiree. l also have  a poor diet, full of carbohydrates and large portions, and I have a chronic sweet tooth.

Five years ago, to my shame, I found myself 50 pound overweight. I also found myself prediabetic.

Knowing my father was also very overweight and suffered a series of strokes, that many of my other relatives on my father's side suffered strokes and from heart issues, and that diabetes ran in my family, I decided I HAD to lose weight and cut back on unhealthy foods.

I did. I still fluctuated up and down, but never hitting that 50-pound level again. And I'm no longer prediabetic. 

This morning I weighed myself. I weigh about the same I did at this time last year - that's good - but I'm still about 15 pounds overweight.

Diet and exercise time. 

I hope to lose that weight over the next three months. It would be great if I could begin the new year at a healthy weight. 

Maybe I need to ask for help from St. Charles Borromeo, the patron saint of dieters!

O St. Charles, you are invoked as
the patron of all those who suffer
with stomach ailments and obesity.
You are also called upon as a helper
for all those attempting to diet and lose weight.
Please intercede for me today
and help me to control
my desires and compulsions,
so that I may fix my appetite
on the glory of heaven.

Amen.

Pax et bonum