A Thanksgiving Eve Post

And the list of "tolerable" holiday songs, revealed!

By Darren Johnson
Journal & Press

A little Thanksgiving Eve post, but, first, about yesterday’s posting…

I had several people contact me about songs I missed in my list of “Top 10 Holiday Songs I Can Tolerate.”

I forgot to add a caveat — the songs I picked were originals, written by the bands, as opposed to, say, Bruce Springsteen singing “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town” (not that I would burden listeners with that dry heave of a rendition).

I also have a 1980s New Wave/Punk bias, as that’s what I normally play when I’m on the radio.

The Pretenders “2000 Miles” video

Anyway, this is the list:

1. 2000 Miles -- Pretenders

2. Christmas Wrapping -- Waitresses

3. Happy Xmas (the War Is Over) -- John Lennon/Yoko Ono (I actually like Ono's voice in the chorus with the kids)

4. Christmas All Over Again -- Tom Petty

5. All I Want for Christmas -- Timbuk 3 (After relistening to it, I'm not that big on this one and may swap it out if I redo the show.)

6. Do They Know It's Christmas? -- Band Aid

7. Father Christmas -- The Kinks (I may move this to No. 5)

8. Christmas in Hollis -- Run DMC

9. It Often Doesn't Snow on Christmas -- Pet Shop Boys

10. Merry Christmas (I Don't Want to Fight) -- The Ramones (not a great song, but I did these in reverse order and wanted to start off with a song that sets the sarcastic tone for the rest of the list)

In case you missed it, here’s the podcast (recorded via a college radio station I advise, so ignore the required station IDs):

Being Thankful

I’m not a sentimental type, and I don’t want to leave anyone out, but here’s a list of thanks on behalf of The Journal & Press. Apologies if I missed any person or group.

In random order:

• The readers of the paid print edition of The Greenwich Journal — you’re the No. 1 reason this paper survived the pandemic. Thanks for believing in the product and supporting it — and by supporting the paper you’re also supporting our digital presence, that reaches a big free audience. You invested in this paper and have helped it into the 21st century.

• The revival of The Salem Press and Jan Baxter for editorship and organization there and all of the people in Salem who helped form an informal committee to get the paper back on racks after 55 years, such as Supervisor Sue Clary, the Courthouse’s Herb Perkins and graphic artist Heather Bellanca for the banner design, among others. And thanks to the free readers in Greater Salem and Cambridge and the advertisers there.

• Thanks to the advertisers overall, especially the ones in every issue who just buy ads for the whole year. They see the value in being involved with this 182-year-old institution. Support them, too.

• The writers for the paper — currently the regulars are Lance Wang, Samantha Simmons, Mike Levy, Breanna Lundy, MaryAnne Brown, Bob Henke, Sarah Murphy, Adam Harrison Levy and some occasionals I can also rely on for great copy. There have been some past writers who I hope come back — it’s easy to burn out writing for free — and I’m also thankful for some future writers who will appear in print soon.

• Dan Pemrick for excellent and reliable sports photography. He’ll be at the big game Friday.

• The Substack readers — and the ones who have paid to make this a reality. It’s very interesting what we’re doing with this Substack. It’s essentially turning an ancient small-town weekly paper into a daily paper, maybe taking the space that used to belong to regional daily papers that had been powerful until recent years.

• The non-profit organizations that do work with us; pantries, churches, youth groups, schools, theaters, galleries, museums, libraries. We’re happy to give you free press and even ads to help you reach your generous goals. These organizations make this area special. Some larger “establishment” groups diss us a bit, but we prefer to work with the underdogs anyway. Otherwise, what good are we doing?

• The printer for doing quick quality work and letting me pay late all the time; the postal workers for getting it out fast and accurately (tip them this holiday season).

• My wife for tolerating this effort.

• The region for humoring us and letting us go on doing this, despite the general state of the newspaper industry and declining interest in print elsewhere.

• And everyone else.

So, I think that’s that. THANK YOU! Some people are asking me about holiday subscriptions for loved ones (or themselves). That’s a great idea — write me and I’ll send you a credit card link.

And Now for the Comics — ‘9 to 5’ by Harley Schwadron

More tomorrow!