The Slice: One vote for holiday songs

And now, a few words from Slice reader Donna Milbourn.

“Before you publish your annual rant about Christmas music in public venues, I would like you to consider it from a different point of view. For some of us Christmas music is a relief from the assault to our ears of modern music, especially the repetition of what passes for the top song list.

“Most Christmas music is well crafted and melodic and is soothing to our senses. In a world that makes less and less sense, it offers hope and calmness.”

Donna granted that the retail world probably starts playing this music a bit early. But she proposed a Slice question.

What Christmas song lifts your spirits most?

Slice answer: If Keith Hegg converted his family’s home into a bed and breakfast, it might be called Bacon and Heggs.

Emergency room humor: Heard from a reader who got hit in the head by a baseball. She was treated at the scene with a bag of ice. By the time she walked into the ER, it was turning into a bag of water. She told the nurse who greeted her she needed to be seen.

The nurse replied, “Oh, I thought you were bringing in your goldfish.”

Warm-up question: If you were going to fill your clothes closet with multiple copies of the exact same outfit, what would it be?

(This is not an original idea. In the 1986 movie “The Fly,” the character played by Jeff Goldblum does this. And I’m sure there are other examples.)

Today’s Slice question: Do you remember a Spokane-based musical quartet called The Mom and Dads?

The group was made up of three middle-aged men and an older woman. All have died.

According to someone quoted in The New York Times last week (in a record producer’s obituary), they played “Very, very square versions of standards. They made Lawrence Welk look like Pink Floyd.”

But apparently they sold a lot of records, many in Canada.

According to one source, The Mom and Dads peaked in popularity in the early 1970s and were seen in a string of late-night TV commercials in the 1980s.

(Full disclosure: I have, in the past, posted images of their old album covers on The Slice Blog because they seemed entertainingly bizarre. Had no idea they were from Spokane.)

Write The Slice at P. O. Box 2160, Spokane, WA 99210; call (509) 459-5470; email pault@spokesman.com. Do cul-de-sac residents have a secret handshake?