Here’s another photo that’s made….. well, maybe not great, but certainly interesting… due to an illusion of photography. Geez, what happened to this guy’s tail? You can see right through it like some kind of kinky lingerie. Given that this photo was taken when squirrels are rocking their full winter fur, it shouldn’t be possible for their tails to be transparent. But the squirrel is much quicker than the eye… even the camera’s eye, and so this photo managed to capture both a glimpse of the tail’s original position, and the background scenery that was quickly revealed when the tail moved elsewhere while the shutter was still open. That’s certainly a better explanation than this squirrel merely being a ghost, right?
Just a friendly reminder that there are only 99 shopping days left until Christmas!
Ahhh, welcome to another festive and joyous Monday in Decem…. er… September! Who cares what the calendar says, it’s already beginning to look a lot like Christmas… and who better than the Scrooges that run The Nest to give you an early start on all of that holiday spirit with our next amusing entry in the Top 30 Novelty Songs Of All Time countdown! DJ Scratchy just got back from spiking the figgy pudding, and is ready to drop the needle on another timeless classic that comes with no assembly required… while the Sponkies continue to track Santa on NORAD’s website. What do you mean he’s still in Costa Rica?
#16. “Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer” – Elmo and Patsy
You may have deduced what this week’s countdown song was going to be before you even scrolled this far down, and were likely either giddy with anticipation or cringing in agony at the very idea of me including what has invariably become THE Christmas novelty song for all time. Now songs that are holiday themed are often novelty by nature (You down with OPP?), and to keep about ten of them from appearing in this countdown, I only chose what is, at least to my generation, the one song that when you hear it for the first time, means that another fucked up Christmas is just around the corner…
The song that has become a holiday comedy staple in the United States for over three decades now had the most humble of origins, and began a slow climb from utter obscurity to insane popularity that would be impossible in this age of the internet making something idiotic that occurred just yesterday a sudden viral sensation.
It’s so quaint now, isn’t it?
Randy Brooks wrote the song and it caught the ear of obscure country duo (and then-husband and wife) Elmo and Patsy Shropshire when he played it at one of their holiday events in 1978. The pair recorded the song on their own the following year and released it on their own regional record label. It would take a few years, but “Grandma” was finally picked up by country and, by the mid 80’s, Top 40 radio stations… getting airplay around Christmastime. Even then, it would still take until the late 1990’s for another surge in popularity to turn the ode to a hit and run from just another quirky novelty song into a bonafide holiday classic…
That’s OK…. Grandma’s never in any hurry to do things.
The song’s premise is absurd, and the family’s actions corny and inconsiderate… yet “Grandma” at its very heart captures the magic of holiday get-togethers with family in a simpler age when people never had their heads buried in their phones. And of course, like every other huge Christmas hit, it gets terribly overplayed on your radio and in fine stores across the nation in December. For me, however, this one doesn’t get old. It’s never gotten tiring. I’ve never wished to get out the big ladder and rip the store’s speakers out when it starts playing. Unlike, with other….. well……..
Related to squirrels or not, I will find you high pitched bastards and shoot your throats out!
Make sure to come back next Monday for the next entry in my novelty song countdown that you’ll want to save the receipt for…
Every year for the last decade or so of his life, me and my Dad would always make a two-day trip across the state to Kansas City to watch a couple ballgames…. this despite us having our very own Major League team at home. It was something we both looked forward to, and which I’d start planning long before the season even started. He had me take his picture in front of the statue of the Kansas City Royals greatest player ever, George Brett (Who literally inspired the Lorde song “Royals”), with a nice view of Kauffman Stadium’s famous outfield fountains in the background. A framed copy of this photo sat on the TV stand at my parents house years, and I think is still up there. It will always be one of my sentimental favorites…
Squirrel photography is like that proverbial box of chocolates… you never know what you’re going to get. With how quick and unpredictable the critters are, what exactly you’re going to capture when the picture takes probably isn’t what you saw when you pushed the button. Here’s one of my favorite examples of a “huh?” squirrel photo…. I apparently caught him in the process of turning to bite at his flea bitten rear end. The result is a squirrel who, along with the curvature of his tail, is perfectly representing the letter his species name starts with. If the song “YMCA” needed another village person to make out the “S,” this squirrel would gladly don his hard hat and volunteer to do the dance move…
I love it so much, I think I’ll just stay here permanently!
The corn cob feeder on my backyard oak tree that is a fixture of many of the squirrel photos you’ve seen here over the years was one of the first things I bought for my new home when I moved in nine years ago. Unfortunately, sometime early this summer, it was broken by the very tree it hangs on. The trunk of my oak is already very, very big… but trees, unlike humans, don’t just stop growing. Over the years, the large hook that the feeder was hung on was being slowly eaten by the trunk… to the point where about a year ago, the end of the hook became embedded in the tree, effectively trapping my squirrel feeder in place. Just like tree roots will slowly pull up a concrete sidewalk, my oak squeezed and squeezed on the feeder’s handle until it finally snapped and ruined it and has now almost completely swallowed up the hook. Since we don’t sell those feeders anymore at Mecca, I’ve just laid fresh cobs out at the base of the tree for my outdoor friends…
If you look very closely behind the squirrel in this photo I took in early January, you can see where the hook is just barely sticking out from the tree and already causing the feeder’s green handle to bow out. This news surely disappointed this very happy Saturday Squirrel, who will miss having the best seat in the house to the finest grub The Nest has to offer…
Welcome to my humble blog... Evil Squirrel's Nest!
Search The Nest!
Click on Atomic ES to be taken to my online Evil Squirrel's Nest store at CafePress.com.
All original artwork uploaded to this blog featuring Evil Squirrel and any of my related characters was created by myself, and is copyrighted by Evil Squirrel, aka Bill Brown, aka me, the publisher of the Evil Squirrel's Nest blog. It may not be used for any commercial purposes whatsoever, but may be shared on your site with due credit and a link to my blog. Thank you for your consideration!
We’ve Expanded!
Click on my art sale avatar above to be taken to my brand new shop at RedBubble! Yes, now I have two internet stores that nobody will buy anything at...
Random Squirreliness!!!
Click on MBRS to be taken to a random post from The Nest's archive!
