[Kzyxtalk] What sounds like Chinese but it's Nahuatl and it means poinsettia?*

[Marco McClean]

Subject: What sounds like Chinese but it's Nahuatl and it means poinsettia?*

/"In the first drawer I keep my magic stones: One carnelian against all 
evil and envy. One moonstone to make you sleep. One red coral to heal 
your wounds. One lapis lazuli against quartan fever. One small jasper to 
help you find water. One topaz to soothe your eyes. One red ruby to 
protect you from lightning." –Kaspar, the second of three singing kings/

Here's the recording of last night's (2022-12-23) Memo of the Air: Good 
Night Radio show on 107.7fm KNYO-LP Fort Bragg (CA):
https://tinyurl.com/KNYO-MOTA-0520

Thanks to Hank Sims for tech help, as well as for his fine news site: 
https://LostCoastOutpost.com

And thanks to the Anderson Valley Advertiser, which always provides 
about an hour of each of my Friday night shows' most locally relevant 
material, going back decades. And tiny bravely struggling KNYO itself. 
Find KNYO's hidden donation heart and help the station out with a 
one-time holiday gift or, if you can, a recurring gift from your own 
hidden heart. And/or acquire a concentrated vial of new and improved 
heart's-blood-red KNYO hot sauce, for vim and pep and vibrant health. 
("It's toasted!")

New stories by Marilyn Davin, Ari Yovel (say yo-VEL), Ezekiel Krahlin, 
David Herstle Jones, Kym Kemp (/the/ Redheaded Blackbelt), Paul Modic, 
Craig Louis Stehr, John Sakowicz, Mitch Clogg, Mike Sears, Nick Wilson, 
Mike Firesmith, Garrison Keillor, the Comtesse DeSpair, and so on. I 
forgot to read the usual chapter of /No More My Echoing Song/ by 
Clifford Allen Sanders, but I'll make up for that next week. And I 
didn't read from Kent Wallace's book, because he called to read a timely 
story from the point of view of Mary-Mother-of-God's 
Chicago/New-Jersey/Florida-mob-accented donkey and King Melchior's 
equally colorful camel. (Yonda lies da camel of my faddah.) Poetry by 
John Roedel. My dream journal, and a few tentative experiments with 
ChatGPT. And the usual survey course of music, science, tasteless jokes, 
art and architecture... And at 3:45AM (6 and 3/4 hours into the 
recording of the show, see above) I put on the San Francisco Mime 
Troupe's /A Red Carol/ (58 min.), then closed with William S. Burroughs' 
quavery/gravelly reading of his own /A Junky's Christmas/.

Besides all that, at https://MemoOfTheAir.wordpress.com you'll find a 
fresh batch of dozens of links to not necessarily radio-useful but 
nonetheless worthwhile items I set aside for you while gathering the 
show together. Such as:

Tom Lehrer made all his songs available to download for free, made them 
public domain so you can do what you want with them– perform them, make 
a show of them, use creatively, whatever. He says, "You're welcome." But 
all of them in one place like this won't last forever, so jump if you're 
gonna jump.
https://tomlehrersongs.com/

Shari Lewis and Lamb Chop's Special Chanukah. (57 min.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71U-3s_2e-U

The 1987 Muppet Holiday Special, with original commercials. (55 min.)
https://boingboing.net/2022/12/22/you-can-finally-watch-the-1987-henson-holiday-special-complete-with-original-commercials.html

And the Singing Sisters. This is my favorite short Xmas bit ever (right 
up there in the pantheon with The Bloody Olive) all the way through the 
final line, nearly the only line from the bartender; I'm not about to 
spoil the gag by quoting it here, though you'll see it coming a mile 
away. As with many three-or-four-women full-range-of-talent sketches 
(singing, acting, timing, bathing suit competition), my brain plays with 
replacing the ladies with Tracy Burns, Pamela Stonem, Ellen Callas 
and/or Kathy O'Grady.from Hit and Run Theater in the early 1980s, and 
replaces the men with Harry Rothman, Steve Weingarten and Doug Nunn from 
the same era. Same flavor of casual improv-ish excellence, like 
flashbulbs flashing in your face, but in a nice way.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSBpvh4y_lU

*It's cuetlaxochitl (say kwet-luh-sho-shee).

Marco McClean, memo at mcn.org
https://MemoOfTheAir.wordpress.com