Ramblin' with Roger

Tanith Belbin, resident alien, and Ben Agosto, U.S. citizen, is the team that provides the United States with the best chance of medalling in ice dancing at the 2006 Olympics in a couple months. Tanith, a Canadian, applied for U.S. citizenship in 1999, but the process is such that she wouldn’t be an American until it was too late for the Games.

A member of Congress wrote legislation allowing Tanith’s citizenship process to be expedited. However, the mother of one of the other competitors complains to her Senator, one Hillary Clinton, to the effect that a foreign national should not be given special treatment. Ironically, the only reason that the U.S. will have three ice dancing teams instead of two at the Olympics is that a team skating for the United States came in second at the World Championships. That team? Belbin and Agosto, of course. (The Worlds have different criteria for nationality than the Olympics.)

The legislation, which was attached to another bill, was defeated, but Tanith and Ben have hope that the item will revived and attached to another bill.

Will Tanith Belbin gain her citizenship before January 10, the deadline for picking the Olympic teams?

Will Ben Agosto recover from the painful injury that is keeping them out of competition in Japan this week?

Will Belbin and Agosto be on the Olympic team?

You are Kate. Breathtakingly beautiful, seemingly
pure of heart, and you can even sew your own
curtains! You listen to Patsy Cline anywhere
and know how to work a farm. Your past haunts
you. An accused criminal, are you innocent or
guilty? The only thing thing we know you’re
guilty of is not giving Charlie the attention
he needs.

Which Lost Character Are You?
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Meanwhile, two stars of the show are arrested for being under the influence of alcohol, twenty minutes apart. I suppose living in a tropical paradise seems romantic, but the work and the isolation are starting to take its toll. I know Rodriguez started this season; how about Watros?

Gordon will receive a copy of a Dave Barry book.
Both of them will get a copy of my Hello CD (a bunch of songs with Hello or Welcome in the title), plus a CD I just whipped out from Hello records. Hello was a record label that put out interesting music. I have albums from 1993 through 1996.
The track list for this is:

Backstabbing Liar-Mono Puff
Cellar Door-Laura Cantrell (who I heard on A Prairie Home Companion just yesterday)
Your New Boy-You Were Spiraling
Red Bra & Panties-Will Rigby
Dark Green-the Coctails
Jack Hammers-Chaz and the Motorbikes
Prince of Orange-Andy Partridge (yes, the guy from XTC)
South Carolina-John Linnell
Sodium Mask-Hello, the Band
YeahYeahYeah (Atomic Mix)-Alaska
Our Lady of Oklahoma-Peter Stampfel
Happy-Go-Dumpy Summer-Brian Dewan
The Ocean-Kurt Hoffman’s Band of Weeds (yes, the Led Zeppelin son, done…differently)
The Whiskey Makes You Sweeter-Amy Allison and the Maudlins
Sinners of July-Spondee
Love Song 110-Spanish Fly
Don’t Let’s Start-They Might Be Giants (live)

And they get the other stuff too. The package goes out tomorrow.

Oh, the answers:
At first so strange to feel so friendly
To say good morning and really mean it
To feel these changes happening in me
But not to notice till I feel it.

Twelve-Thirty (Young Girls Are Coming to the Canyon) by the Mamas & the Papas, written by Papa John Phillips.

So my questions:

1) Are any of the other CDs on the list worth getting?

2) What other holiday CDs that are still in print that you would recommend? (I mean I’m quite partial to a Julie Andrews LP from the mid-1960s, but that’s not particularly useful.)

3) What holiday albums are, as Peter Noone mighht put it, a must to avoid?

Please come on Sunday to an evening of beautiful music for the Advent Season, including an original composition by First Presbyterian Church music diector Victor Klimash.

The Chancel Choir will present a Vespers Service of Music for the Advent Season on Sunday, December 4, at 7:30 p.m at First Presbyterian Church Albany. The program will include A Ceremony of Carols by Benjamin Britten with a harp interlude. Soloists include soprano Deborah Rocco, alto Fiona Lewis and harpist Karlinda Caldicott. Also to be performed will be an original composition and arrangement, All my heart this night rejoices, by music director Victor Klimash. The piece was written especially for the Chancel Choir.

The church is located at the corner of State and Willett Streets in Albany, at the northeast corner of Washington Park. willett is parallel to Lark Stret. There is limited church parking, so park on the street or iin Washington Park.