Back in 1980, my wife sang the National Anthem at Dodger Stadium before a game against the Expos. They offered to have her sing “O Canada” as well, but she didn’t know it, or feel that she could learn it adequately in the time available to her.
Screw the Star Spangled Banner, it totally bites it. Can’t be sung, lyrics stink, and I’ve had quite enough glowing admiration for bombs bursting in air, and rockets red glare. Fuck that shit! Brotherhood, from sea to shining sea, now that I can sing. Badly, perhaps, but loudly. In the People’s Key of C, natch.
Pretty sure that’s how you’re meant to sing national anthems. Well, except for the second verse, where you’re supposed to go “mumble mumble mumble” *sotto vocce *with a rapid crescendo in the run up to the chorus.
Only die-hard nationalists ever sing third verses at all.
As per the Ankh-Morpork National Anthem:
"When dragons belch and hippos flee
My thoughts, Ankh-Morpork, are of thee
Let others boast of martial dash
For we have boldly fought with cash
We own all your helmets, we own all your shoes.
We own all your generals - touch us and you’ll lose.
Morporkia! Morporkia!
Morporkia owns the day!
We can rule you wholesale
Touch us and you’ll pay.
We bankrupt all invaders,
We sell them souvenirs,
We ner ner ner ner ner ner by the ears,
Er ner ner ner ner ner ner ner ner ner,
Ner ner ner ner ner ner, ner ner ner ner ner,
Ner your gleaming swords, we mortgaged to the hilt.
Morporkia! Morporkia!
Ner ner ner ner ner ner ner ner ner ner ner ner ner ner ner ner
We can rule you wholesale
Credit where it's due."
The final part of the anthem is usually sung much louder than the rest of the second verse, since the singers want to show they know the words…
Where’s Kanye West when we need him?
I just listened to it and I think Santorum is, pardon the pun, getting a bum rap.
What I hear is “I don’t want to make… blive… people’s lives better…” He gets crossed up saying lives and people.
Bill Kristol is “a little offended” that Obama plans to have some sort of internet chat with Democratic Iowa caucus-goers. He’s “butting in” and, gasp, it will hurt him and make him look unpresidential!
Sing it in the key of love man.
Check out state house districts 48 and 10. The state senate districts are pretty freaky too, look at 32 and 20. Some of this may be due to majority minority districts, & I don’t get that offended at weird district lines, but it just brings me back to my contention that single-seat districts are an inferior method of picking parliamentary bodies.
I htank ** polycarp and foolsguinea** for their posts.
What about the Congressional district (can’t find it now :smack: ) in Houston(?), Texas in which two separate areas are connected with a very narrow strip running alongside a Park … (are you sitting down?) … named after George Bush, (IIRC). Googling now … 
… Has a Court overruled Texas’ 2012 redistricting plan?
Way back in the day, I was roped into directing the college pep band. The official music department wanted nothing to do with us, so we ended up borrowing drums and large brass instruments from the attached prep school.
Whoever showed up on game day played with us. For one basketball game, we were a small group, with a number of lesser talents. The school actually got a letter from some fan complaining that we had butchered the anthem (in fairness, we had). I guess Indiana would have arrested us (a fair cop).
Why is it that the party that trumpets individual freedom keeps pressing for laws that restrict individual freedom?
The following may be off-topic here, but is too funny not to post somewhere. It’s from Nevada pages in a news blog. The whole article is amazing or hilarious, but to comply with rules I’ll show only excerpts:
They only care about the freedom to do things that make money. Freedom of non-money related things (like gays getting married) is bad freedom.
I read a dead-on summation in a letter to the editor the other day, “It’s not so much that they want smaller government, it’s that they want more power in the hands of fewer people.”
One of my local (R) critters tried to bring a loaded Colt .45 onto an airplane. The TSA was not amused:
And no, it does not appear he has a permit to carry a concealed weapon, why do you ask?
In fairness, I hear it’s pretty much impossible to get a permit issued in much of Cali. Plus I give him props for the “I hid it from my wife and forgot about it” excuse. That’s imagination this country needs!
Self defense is problematic if you can’t recall where the gun is when you need it, I would think…
Admittedly I read the story and didn’t scroll down for the actual clip. He’s now clarified that that’s pretty much what happened, that he fumbled for a word and it came out sounding like “black” though that’s not what he meant. So I’ll withdraw this one; lord knows there’s enough strikes against him anyway without it.
Is beating your mentally disabled son in public a bad idea?