It's difficult, looking at the profile of the Belfast Blitz (April/May 1941), particularly the use of incendiaries, not to believe the intention was not only to attack the shipyards, but the terraced streets housing the workers.
Was that related to the Greenock Blitz of May 1941 just across the water? It would have been difficult to target only the shipyards with the bombing techniques of the time, so civilians were hit extensively. My grandparents were close to a direct hit a mile or two from the shipyards. They lost their house, but not their lives, which they lived out in exile in Fife, far from any bombs.
I have heard of a Luftwaffe plane strafing children in a street (on their way home from school?) Don't know who from or where, but not too many people involved in the chain it came down. It would have been Sussex or Kent.
In the spring of 1945 Allied planes strafed German schoolchildren. It's possible the planes were so high they didn't know these were children They also strafed farmers who were trying to plant their crops. Many farmers stayed indoors. This exacerbated the extreme food shortages in the following fall and winter.
The Guardian has an article about a website offering books from independent bookshops https://uk.bookshop.org/ which I have not used...
I'm planning to make an order from that very site for some books for Christmas; I've had it recommended to me but am sorry I can't at present share any personal experiences.
Further to this, the books arrived from uk.bookshop.org in good time and well packaged. I'd definitely use them again.
World of Books (https://www.worldofbooks.com/en-gb) is quite astonishing for variety and quality of both new and second hand. It is a charity, so the profits go to Good Works. After buying what was supposed to be a second hand book last year I wrote back to complain that the price was too low - the book was not only hard to find, it looked new, and I would have happily forked out more knowing the money was destined to a charity.
I have been wondering about the Christmas hymn "Joy to the World". Always used in films, which always have an American setting. I never met it in "Songs of Praise" or "Congregational Praise" or "Ancient and Modern" or "The Oxford Book of Carols". etc. I always assumed it was trans-pond. But the other day I saw a trailer for "All Creatures Great and Small" (I think, but definitely set in England) and there was the congregation singing it.
Is there a hymn book with it in over here? Or is it one of those producers showing their ignorance things? (Viking horned helmets, candles on early , Victorian altars, that sort of thing, defended with artistic licence.) Or is it that I am the ignorant one? It sounds Methodist.
Thank you. It does have an entry in Wikipedia as well. The dates in the newer hymn books would tend to confirm my memory.
Supplementary question - do Americans sing any other hymns or carols?
As opposed to the secular seasonal songs - I was quite put out by their sneaking into school concerts. I got overruled. And there are lovely things in books for schools which the children would not be hearing in shops and on the radio.
The hymn is by Isaac Watts, and the tune I am familiar with is Antioch. Here’s a link to its entry in hymnary.org.
If you click on ‘All representative texts’ it’ll take you through to a page listing all the hymn books it appears in.
The melody is by Handel adapted by (American) Lowell Mason (1792-1872)
In my tribe’s current hymnal, the text of “Joy to the World” actually appears twice—once to Antioch with the Christmas hymns and once to Richmond with the Ascension and Reign of Jesus hymns. Previous hymnals only included it in the Christmas section.
It is a paraphrase of a portion of Psalm 94, which Watts entitled, “The Messiah’s Coming and Kingdom.” He didn’t write it as Christmas-specific, and our current hymnal attempts to ref
I am particularly fond of "O Come O Come Emmanuel" and "O Come All Ye Faithful" (although I prefer the latter in Latin). And, of course, Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without a few verses of "Hark, The Angel Harold Sings!"
In the current United Methodist hymnal, there are 35 Christmas carols and hymns, and 23 Advent carols and hymns. Including some psalms and canticles. So, yes. Plenty as Nick Tamen indicated!
I was going to write the titles of some of my favorites, but they're all my favorites!! OK, my very, very favorite: Break Forth, O Beauteous Heavenly Light. There are carols from many different countries! The First Noel is one of my favorite English carols.
I'll quit now. It's difficult to do so, because I love Christmas music so much!!!
In the current United Methodist hymnal, there are 35 Christmas carols and hymns, and 23 Advent carols and hymns. Including some psalms and canticles. So, yes. Plenty as Nick Tamen indicated!
The current hymnal of my tribe (the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)) has 26 Advent hymns and just under 50 Christmas and Epiphany carols/hymns.
The BBC evening news has just used Joy to the World as the backing to a what people will be doing for Christmas item. I think we would have gone for "O come all ye faithful*" in the past. It is as if the media do not know anything else nowadays, which is odd.
*Perhaps they have picked up on the cryptic coding and don't want to be identified as Jacobites.
I tend to think of Deck the Halls as specifically American; very seldom hear it hear apart from on American telly programmes and films
It's Deck the HALL - singular because there is only one hall in either manor or cottage. Yes, first set to music by a Welshman.
Favourite carols? The Coventry Carol but only the original 3 part version (counter-tenor/tenor/bass). This Endris Night, both the original words and using the tune for Behold, the great Creator makes. Macpherson's Cradle Song is usually worth an airing, as is Up! Good Christen folk and listen and the Cornelius Three Kings.
There was one we sang at my boarding school in the late 50s that I've never heard since:
Like silver lamps in a distant shrine
The stars are sparkling bright
The bells of the City of God ring out
For the son of Mary is born tonight
There was one we sang at my boarding school in the late 50s that I've never heard since:
Like silver lamps in a distant shrine
The stars are sparkling bright
The bells of the City of God ring out
For the son of Mary is born tonight
That would appear to be this hymn. I confess that I don't recall ever hearing it.
And if I’m correct in guessing which one (maroonish-brown cover?), I have that one on my shelf. Nicely done!
There’s one that was in our hymnal in the 1970s, but hasn’t been in either hymnal since: “Every Star Shall Sing a Carol”, by Sydney Carter, who also wrote “Lord of the Dance.” I really like it, and am sorry it didn’t get carried forward to newer hymnals. I think we’ve discussed it on the Ship before.
There’s one that was in our hymnal in the 1970s, but hasn’t been in either hymnal since: “Every Star Shall Sing a Carol”, by Sydney Carter, who also wrote “Lord of the Dance.” I really like it, and am sorry it didn’t get carried forward to newer hymnals. I think we’ve discussed it on the Ship before.
You have given me the most wonderful earworm this evening. I love that carol, too.
And if I’m correct in guessing which one (maroonish-brown cover?), I have that one on my shelf. Nicely done!
There’s one that was in our hymnal in the 1970s, but hasn’t been in either hymnal since: “Every Star Shall Sing a Carol”, by Sydney Carter, who also wrote “Lord of the Dance.” I really like it, and am sorry it didn’t get carried forward to newer hymnals. I think we’ve discussed it on the Ship before.
Thanks! We called it "burgundy," but yeah. Funny thing was, how little ARGUING there was in the Synod about it (and if you know us, we argue about everything). Something like 60% adoption rate and more, in a handful of years. Which is wild, since some of us are still using the 1945 hymnal.
On the astronomical theme, we had one at school (in the days before wishing it could be Christmas everyday) which began "Who can name that bright flame which the (shepherds?) saw that night? Was it some God sent glow or a (missing word) star we know?
I thought it came from one of A&C.Black's school music books, but apparently not. It runs through a number of the stars in the vicinity of Orion, and has a good tune.
And if I’m correct in guessing which one (maroonish-brown cover?), I have that one on my shelf. Nicely done!
There’s one that was in our hymnal in the 1970s, but hasn’t been in either hymnal since: “Every Star Shall Sing a Carol”, by Sydney Carter, who also wrote “Lord of the Dance.” I really like it, and am sorry it didn’t get carried forward to newer hymnals. I think we’ve discussed it on the Ship before.
Thanks! We called it "burgundy," but yeah.
Yes, burgundy would be a better descriptor than my "maroonish-brown." Our current hymnal comes in the choice or purple or red. Purple has been more popular.
Funny thing was, how little ARGUING there was in the Synod about it (and if you know us, we argue about everything). Something like 60% adoption rate and more, in a handful of years. Which is wild, since some of us are still using the 1945 hymnal.
Yep, and I've also got a handful of the little teeny hymnbooks that are words only that people used during the 1800s. Really cool. I understand there was more arguing about the adoption of the 1982 hymnal, probably because of simultaneous changes involving the (then) new three year lectionary, stuff "leaking over" from the post Vatican Two movements, and so forth. But I was too young to be paying much attention.
Yep, and I've also got a handful of the little teeny hymnbooks that are words only that people used during the 1800s. Really cool. I understand there was more arguing about the adoption of the 1982 hymnal, probably because of simultaneous changes involving the (then) new three year lectionary, stuff "leaking over" from the post Vatican Two movements, and so forth. But I was too young to be paying much attention.
Plus, if I recall correctly, perhaps some resistance to the product of initial cooperation with the predecessor bodies to the ELCA in preparing what became The Lutheran Book of Worship?
And yes, I have a few of those old words-only hymnals, too, though mine are Presbyterian and Episcopal. The Episcopal church in my hometown used a small words-only hymnal until The Hymnal 1982—aka, the heaviest hymnal ever—came out.
Yeah, well, they tried to cooperate on what became LW vs LBW, but things fell apart, as they often do. Oddly enough, I was married out of LBW, because our pastor/professor was a transfer to the LCMS out of the ALC, and retained a fondness for LBW--and we were good with it.
Er, did I mention that the ALC is one of the forerunner bodies of the ELCA? Along with the LCA, of course, and I believe (but could be wrong) the AELC.
Small, words-only hymnbooks are pretty common still (though there are full music and usually melody editions available too). The CofS did a big push to encourage churches to buy melody editions of CH4 for congregational use, but some folk bought their own words-only copies because the melody editions are pretty hefty.
This raises something about hymn books that I've wondered. I prefer the hymnals with the music, as there is the occasional hymn I don't know well. At my Canadian Anglican Cathedral, the only one on offer is the old, dark blue hymnal with words only. My local shack uses the newer, light blue one in two versions, one with with music, and one words only. Here's what I've been wondering about: many people, even those attending church, haven't internalised the hymns the way earlier generations did. But I would guess that the level of musical literacy is much lower today than amongst the generations who also internalised the hymns, so those who could use recourse to the music today very likely can't read it.
Small, words-only hymnbooks are pretty common still (though there are full music and usually melody editions available too).
In the UK, and judging from what @Pangolin Guerre says, maybe in Canada. In the US, they’re very much a thing of the past. They exist only for large print editions
As for heftiness, the average American denominational hymnal produced in the last few decades has maybe 700–900 hymns and pieces of service music, all music (melody only, four parts or a mix), with maybe up to a thousand pages or more, and is thinner and lighter than the music edition of CH4.
The wee hymnals I spoke of fit comfortably in the palm of your hand. We don't really have no-music hymnals in America in my experience nowadays, except for those photocopied and stapled monstrosities we suffer with at summer camp or when out caroling.
Small, words-only hymnbooks are pretty common still (though there are full music and usually melody editions available too).
In the UK, and judging from what @Pangolin Guerre says, maybe in Canada. In the US, they’re very much a thing of the past. They exist only for large print editions
As for heftiness, the average American denominational hymnal produced in the last few decades has maybe 700–900 hymns and pieces of service music, all music (melody only, four parts or a mix), with maybe up to a thousand pages or more, and is thinner and lighter than the music edition of CH4.
Do they just use Bible paper for them? (That's the approach with Complete Mission Praise, though it has something like 1300 songs in it and so still presents a fitness challenge to the average chorister).
Small, words-only hymnbooks are pretty common still (though there are full music and usually melody editions available too).
In the UK, and judging from what @Pangolin Guerre says, maybe in Canada. In the US, they’re very much a thing of the past. They exist only for large print editions
As for heftiness, the average American denominational hymnal produced in the last few decades has maybe 700–900 hymns and pieces of service music, all music (melody only, four parts or a mix), with maybe up to a thousand pages or more, and is thinner and lighter than the music edition of CH4.
Do they just use Bible paper for them? (That's the approach with Complete Mission Praise, though it has something like 1300 songs in it and so still presents a fitness challenge to the average chorister).
No, the paper feels about the same in my tribe’s hymnal as in CH4.
The primary difference is that CH4 generally prints the words separately from the music, so that the text is under or on the page opposite the tune. If any text is underlaid with the music, it is only 1 verse. In American hymnals, the lyrics are almost always underlaid. That means that a hymn that takes one page in an American hymnal might take two pages in CH4.
CH4 has 825 hymns and songs. The full music edition comprises 1,850 pages, is 1.7 inches thick and weighs 2.6 pounds (says that river-like online bookseller). By comparison, the pew edition of my tribe’s hymnal has 853 hymns and songs, and comprises 1,018 pages, is 1.5 inches thick and weighs 2.2 pounds.
There was a slug in the kitchen this morning - I gently removed it far away but I don't think it was very pleased with me. How can I ensure there are no more slugs coming into my home - and humanely ?
“Deck the Hall(s)” was originally Welsh, AFAIK. The English translation isn’t as good. The final verse in Welsh begins with a tongue-twister about the cold snow on Snowdon (“Oer yw’r eira ar Eryri”).
There was a slug in the kitchen this morning - I gently removed it far away but I don't think it was very pleased with me. How can I ensure there are no more slugs coming into my home - and humanely ?
Yeast and sugar in a bowl of warm water will collect them up and they'll at least die happy.
Once, a long long time ago, when I was seventeen and living with one of my sisters in tiny old Radford, VA, a fine specimen of a slug somehow got into our house and was trying, with much difficulty to navigate a thick oriental rug. I was freaked out and ran to the kitchen for the canister of salt...
That poor slug! I have been haunted by its agonizing death throes ever since. Why couldn't I have scooped it onto a piece of cardboard or something and taken it outside?! What a horrid way to die.
Thing is, I don't WANT to collect them up. I want to prevent them getting in at all! Where DO they come from?
I've seen them crawl out of the overflow pipe on the sink. I suspect they enter the shower the same way. Probably your grey water pipework isn't sealed and just opens into a drain somewhere outside and the slugs make their way up the pipe. What that means in terms of solutions I don't know, perhaps a mesh trap across the shower drain?
I came across the problem in part of my sister's house - a cottage joined on at the side - when I went to the kitchen in the night and trod on one on the living room carpet. I found out, by day, that mopping the sealed cork tile kitchen floor to get rid of the traces*, showed where all the trails were, and that they were coming in from a gap around the pipe to the radiator near the outside wall. The trails reflect the light differently. I don't know what was done with this information! But you could use the same method to find where yours are getting in and seal up the access. Hopefully by finding the outer ingress as well.
*(Mopping isn't enough to remove the dried slime.)
I remember a flat in Aberystwyth where we occasionally find these big, black liquorice ones in the bathroom. And we were on the first floor. We'd keep the plug in the bath - not much else we could do, the landlady not being given to spending anything on the property.
Comments
Was that related to the Greenock Blitz of May 1941 just across the water? It would have been difficult to target only the shipyards with the bombing techniques of the time, so civilians were hit extensively. My grandparents were close to a direct hit a mile or two from the shipyards. They lost their house, but not their lives, which they lived out in exile in Fife, far from any bombs.
In the spring of 1945 Allied planes strafed German schoolchildren. It's possible the planes were so high they didn't know these were children They also strafed farmers who were trying to plant their crops. Many farmers stayed indoors. This exacerbated the extreme food shortages in the following fall and winter.
Further to this, the books arrived from uk.bookshop.org in good time and well packaged. I'd definitely use them again.
Is there a hymn book with it in over here? Or is it one of those producers showing their ignorance things? (Viking horned helmets, candles on early , Victorian altars, that sort of thing, defended with artistic licence.) Or is it that I am the ignorant one? It sounds Methodist.
If you click on ‘All representative texts’ it’ll take you through to a page listing all the hymn books it appears in.
The melody is by Handel adapted by (American) Lowell Mason (1792-1872).
The earliest UK hymn book I can find it in (in the last 50-60+ years) is Complete Anglican Hymns Old and New (2000),
Supplementary question - do Americans sing any other hymns or carols?
As opposed to the secular seasonal songs - I was quite put out by their sneaking into school concerts. I got overruled. And there are lovely things in books for schools which the children would not be hearing in shops and on the radio.
It is a paraphrase of a portion of Psalm 94, which Watts entitled, “The Messiah’s Coming and Kingdom.” He didn’t write it as Christmas-specific, and our current hymnal attempts to ref
Of course. Plenty.
I was going to write the titles of some of my favorites, but they're all my favorites!!
I'll quit now. It's difficult to do so, because I love Christmas music so much!!!
One of the few friends from high school (50+ years ago!) with whom I still stay in occasional touch was on the board that put that hymnal together.
*Perhaps they have picked up on the cryptic coding and don't want to be identified as Jacobites.
It's Deck the HALL - singular because there is only one hall in either manor or cottage. Yes, first set to music by a Welshman.
Favourite carols? The Coventry Carol but only the original 3 part version (counter-tenor/tenor/bass). This Endris Night, both the original words and using the tune for Behold, the great Creator makes. Macpherson's Cradle Song is usually worth an airing, as is Up! Good Christen folk and listen and the Cornelius Three Kings.
Least favourite? Silent Night by a country mile.
Like silver lamps in a distant shrine
The stars are sparkling bright
The bells of the City of God ring out
For the son of Mary is born tonight
There’s one that was in our hymnal in the 1970s, but hasn’t been in either hymnal since: “Every Star Shall Sing a Carol”, by Sydney Carter, who also wrote “Lord of the Dance.” I really like it, and am sorry it didn’t get carried forward to newer hymnals. I think we’ve discussed it on the Ship before.
You have given me the most wonderful earworm this evening. I love that carol, too.
Thanks! We called it "burgundy," but yeah. Funny thing was, how little ARGUING there was in the Synod about it (and if you know us, we argue about everything). Something like 60% adoption rate and more, in a handful of years. Which is wild, since some of us are still using the 1945 hymnal.
I thought it came from one of A&C.Black's school music books, but apparently not. It runs through a number of the stars in the vicinity of Orion, and has a good tune.
I have that one too, as well as your 1982 hymnal.
And yes, I have a few of those old words-only hymnals, too, though mine are Presbyterian and Episcopal. The Episcopal church in my hometown used a small words-only hymnal until The Hymnal 1982—aka, the heaviest hymnal ever—came out.
You think you could squeeze in a few more acronyms there? The rest of the alphabet is feeling shunned!
Does that help at all?
As for heftiness, the average American denominational hymnal produced in the last few decades has maybe 700–900 hymns and pieces of service music, all music (melody only, four parts or a mix), with maybe up to a thousand pages or more, and is thinner and lighter than the music edition of CH4.
Do they just use Bible paper for them? (That's the approach with Complete Mission Praise, though it has something like 1300 songs in it and so still presents a fitness challenge to the average chorister).
The primary difference is that CH4 generally prints the words separately from the music, so that the text is under or on the page opposite the tune. If any text is underlaid with the music, it is only 1 verse. In American hymnals, the lyrics are almost always underlaid. That means that a hymn that takes one page in an American hymnal might take two pages in CH4.
CH4 has 825 hymns and songs. The full music edition comprises 1,850 pages, is 1.7 inches thick and weighs 2.6 pounds (says that river-like online bookseller). By comparison, the pew edition of my tribe’s hymnal has 853 hymns and songs, and comprises 1,018 pages, is 1.5 inches thick and weighs 2.2 pounds.
Yeast and sugar in a bowl of warm water will collect them up and they'll at least die happy.
That poor slug! I have been haunted by its agonizing death throes ever since. Why couldn't I have scooped it onto a piece of cardboard or something and taken it outside?! What a horrid way to die.
Some gardeners do this with bowls of beer by their garden. Details should be online.
I've seen them crawl out of the overflow pipe on the sink. I suspect they enter the shower the same way. Probably your grey water pipework isn't sealed and just opens into a drain somewhere outside and the slugs make their way up the pipe. What that means in terms of solutions I don't know, perhaps a mesh trap across the shower drain?
*(Mopping isn't enough to remove the dried slime.)