Apocalypse Challenge G: end of week 18

 

Garland has had a busy couple of days; she gave birth to her daughter Wayland, and was promoted to Theorist. Her younger half-brother Christopher is an adult now, and will be caretaker to his little niece so that Garland can shoot for that final promotion to the top of the Science career.

Oddly, the thing that held up the next generation the most was the lack of a mate for Garland.  I didn't have many walkbys, and even when I did, there wasn't enough time in an evening for Garland to get to know them well enough to stay overnight or move in.  Finally Waylon Menon walked by, who she had known previously, and I quickly grabbed the opportunity to move him in. He's already in the Culinary career, so I'll have him lift that restriction.  If Wayland or her spouse can get into the Medical career, that will be good; and perhaps the other can do Military. Christy died before getting to the top of the career, and the restrictions about leaving the lot really hurt Garland.  I also have a cat ghost causing trouble, and unfortunately I didn't notice Christy getting old and her headstone is right outside the house, so I anticipate her causing trouble soon too!  But without the ability to go to college I can't lift the Paranormal restrictions and move their headstones.

Apocalypse Challenge G: end of week 16

 

Garland goes off to work while her little half-brother Christopher heads to the school bus.  Not sure why she looks unhappy here - her mood was good and I'm hoping she'll do well in her new Science career.

I've tried the Apocalypse challenge before, but this is the first time I've had any success with an adult that didn't start in college.  Garland's father Gary got to the top of the Politics career as an elder, managed to quickly meet, marry and move in Christy Stratton, and their daughter Garland was born the same day Gary died.  Fortunately Gary had socked away about 60,000 simoleons in savings, so Christy could stay home with Garland until she was a teenager.  

Christy is an elder now and has a decent shot at getting to the top of the Military career before she dies.

Important things I learned that have helped a lot in this go-round:

• Children don't get any significant hygiene benefit from washing their hands, but if I get one of the medicine cabinets and have them "brush teeth", they get by well enough.
• One of my attempts ended up with twin brothers who made it adulthood, but their mother's ghost keeps frightening them to death... I've killed the poor brothers a dozen times or more!  With Gary I made sure he was on the furthest corner of the lot when the Grim Reaper came, and he died happy, so that seems to have kept the terrible haunting at bay.

Three-Part Harmonies

• Alabama Song - Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill
• Allons gai - Jacob Buus, first published 1543 
• American Tune - Paul Simon
• Barrett's Privateers - Stan Rogers
• Big Bang - Bare Naked Ladies
• Black Pearls and Diamonds - Trevor Mills
• Canon of the Bells (a three-part canon on the melody of the Carol of the Bells)
• The Carols of Gilligan's Isle - lyrics by G. Wyle and S. Schwartz, set to the tune of five different Christmas carols
• Claire - Rheostatics
• Come Again - John Dowland, first published 1597
• Come Together - Beatles
• Down to the River to Pray - inspired by the Alison Krauss version 
• End of Days - original
• Femmes Fatales - poetry by Nik Beat (?)
• Fever - written by Eddie Cooley and Otis Blackwell, popularized by Peggy Lee
• Free As a Bird - Beatles
• Fruitcake (parody to the tune of "Fever")
• Gaudete - traditional
• Gilligan's Corollary - music by G. Wyle and S. Schwartz, words traditional
• Guinea Pig - Moxy Fruvous
• Horrible Rock Ballad - original
• I Believe in Father Christmas - Sinfield, Lake
• Kiss - Prince, but based on the Tom Jones cover
• La, la, la, je ne l'ose dire - Pierre Certon c.1510-1572
• La bête et la belle - The Real Tuesday Weld
• The Lady is a Tramp - Rodgers and Hart
• A Leonard Cohen Christmas - original/parody
• The Man I Love - George and Ira Gershwin
• Moritat von Mackie Messer (Mack the Knife) - Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill
• My Funny Valentine - Rodgers and Hart
• My Mannequin Makes Modern Music - poetry of Nik Beat set to music
• O occhi, manza mia - Orlando di Lasso, first published 1581
• Paperback Writer - Beatles
• Popsicle Toes - Michael Franks
• Reason for the Season - original
• Roadrunner Theme Song
• Still Alive - Jonathan Coulton
• Surabaya Johnny - Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill
• Throw a Shoe at Me - original 
• Touch Me - original
• Un Jambon, Jeanette, Isabelle - parody
• Wuthering Heights - Kate Bush
• You Sexy Thing - Errol Brown, Tony Wilson
• You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch - Theodore Giesel and Albert Hague
• Your Body is a Wonderland - John Mayer
• Your Shining Eyes - Thomas Bateson, first published 1604

Ukulele Group Songs

Link to Spotify playlist

Link to Youtube Music playlist

The list below are the songs that happen to be in my binder after eight months of attending our group.  If the name of a song in the list looks like a link, then it is... most of them will take you directly to the PDF on the Bytown Ukulele Group webpage, where you can print your own copy. Links in brackets after the artist name are an experiment.

The 15 songs marked with * at the end are the ones that, in my unscientific opinion, are the ones that we 1) play the most and 2) are easiest for a beginning player.

Hole punching advice:  If a song is two pages, print it single-sided, then hole punch it so that it will lie open in your binder - that is, on the RIGHT side of the first page and the LEFT side of the second page.

• 1234 - Feist
• After the Gold Rush - Neil Young
• Anyone Else But You - The Moldy Peaches
• Auld Lang Syne - traditional Scottish
• The Big Rock Candy Mountains - Harry McClintock *
• Big Yellow Taxi - Joni Mitchell (warning - NOT the key we play it in!)
• Blue Moon of Kentucky - Patsy Cline (UG)
• (suggested by Linda) Breathless - William Prince
• Christmas in Prison - John Prine
• Christmas Must Be Tonight - The Band
• The Circle Game - Joni Mitchell (key of C)
• Closing Time - Semisonic
• Cotton Jenny - Gordon Lightfoot (UG)
• (suggested by Meg) Dear Abby - John Prine
• Don't Think Twice - Bob Dylan
• Early Morning Rain - Gordon Lightfoot
• Escarpment Blues - Sarah Harmer
• Everything is Free - Gillian Welch (link to illegal copy) *
• Fairytale of New York - The Pogues (link to Bytown, but I've been working on a version more like the Vance Joy interpretation than the original)
• Five Hundred Miles - Hedy West, as popularized by Peter, Paul and Mary
• Four Strong Winds - Ian Tyson
• The Fox - Traditional
• Friend of the Devil - Grateful Dead (UG) (link to bad photocopy) (link to clean copy in BUG style) *
• Hallelujah - Leonard Cohen
• Hard Times - Gillian Welch (UG) *
• Harvest Moon - Neil Young
• Heart of Gold - Neil Young
• Helpless - Neil Young 
• Here Comes the Sun - George Harrison
• He's Fine - The Secret Sisters
• Hotel Yorba - The White Stripes (UG)
• I'll Fly Away - apparently Alfred Brumley, but we're all thinking Alison Krauss *
• In Spite of Ourselves - John Prine and Iris Dement *
• Jolene - Dolly Parton
• (suggested by Kirsten) Kwe (Changing Into Thunderbird) - Ansley Simpson
• Leaving on a Jet Plane - John Denver
• Let the Mystery Be - Iris DeMent *
• Little Again - The Secret Sisters
• Make Me A Pallet - Gillian Welch
• Me and Julio Down By the Schoolyard - Paul Simon
• Must be Santa - Originally Mitch Miller, but we all love Raffi!
• (suggested by Kirsten) A New Name for Everything - The Weakerthans
• Ooh La La - Faces
• Orphan Girl - Gillian Welch *
• Ring of Fire - Johnny Cash (actually written by June Carter and Merle Kilgore)
• Riptide - Vance Joy *
• Shotgun Song - Gillian Welch
• Sisters of Mercy - Leonard Cohen
• Somewhere Over the Rainbow / What a Wonderful World - Israel Kamakawiwo'ole
• Song for a Winter's Night - Gordon Lightfoot
• Song for the Mira - Allister MacGillivray
• Spanish Pipedream - John Prine
• Superman's Song - Crash Test Dummies
• (The) Swimming Song - Loudon Wainwright
• Take Me Home Country Roads - John Denver *
• Teach Your Children - Graham Nash
• Three Little Birds - Bob Marley *
• Wagon Wheel - Old Crow Medicine Show *
• Wayfaring Stranger - Johnny Cash *
• (suggested by Kirsten) We Could Fly - Rhiannon Giddens
• We're going to be Friends - White Stripes
• Wheat Kings - the Tragically Hip
• Wildflowers - Dolly Parton *
• Wildflowers - Tom Petty / Wailin' Jennys  * 
• Wildwood Flower - June Carter Cash
• Winter's Come and Gone - Gillian Welch (UG)
• You Are My Sunshine - Traditional

 

Some news articles just grab my imagination immediately when I see them. This was from the News Herald in Perkasie, Pennsylvania, on June 15, 1994. If I was a writer, this would be the basis for my next novel.

With subscriptions to a couple of sites I use for genealogy research, I was able to find lots of information on the family.

Thanks to the USA's penchant for making records public, I can see Zarouhi's petition for naturalization online. When she petitioned, her residence was 2020 Blavis Street, Philadephia. This address no longer exists, but in the previous block there are stretches of two-storey brick townhouses that were probably quite pretty when they were new.

The petition even gives me her description; she is 5 foot 4 inches tall, 120 pounds, with a medium complexion, brown eyes, and gray hair. 

She married her husband, whose name is given as Onnig, on Feb 2, 1925 in Havana, Cuba. Onnig/John was born at Pazar Keuz, Turkey on March 15, 1882 and entered the US at New York on August 1, 1912. He was naturalized in 1921.

The three sons mentioned in the obituary are also listed on the petition. Minas and Neishan (Frank) were born in Philadephia, and Simon in Hatfield.

Zahouri petitioned earlier for naturalization, in 1927, but was denied because she could not speak English at the time.

The Wolfsonian Library even gives me a picture of the S. S. Cuba, the ship that Zahouri traveled on. And the ship's manifest lists all the "aliens", so of course I read all those names, and just above Zarouhi are a couple of Canadians, Arthur and Pauline Hill... and don't they turn out to be buried just across town from where I sit writing this. I like to imagine that some sort of friendly interactions happened between the women, so different in age, origin, and situation in life (Arthur was a major in the 

Henry Hagans

 Henry Hagans looks on with justified pride at three of his children, eldest son Galen and twins Gauthier and Henrietta, as he leaves for work on his last day as police chief.  All three have jobs and are assiduously keeping up with their homework.  By the end of the day he will have been promoted to Captain Hero, and will pass peacefully away, content in the knowledge that his children are taken care of in areas large (10000 Simoleons each from his life insurance) and small (the fridge well-stocked with Grandma's Comfort Soup).

When the first child reaches adulthood, I roll to see which one will inherit the house or apartment.  With this round, I'm instituting a new rule, where I roll the number of children + 1.  If I roll the last number, all the children move out, and the parents move to the old folk's home in the last day or two of death.  I changed my scheme because I realized the only time people moved to the old folk's home was when they had no children, but that's a very uncommon roll in the way I'm playing the challenge.

Tia and Tiffany Do

Twins Tia and Tiffany Do have just grown to adulthood, and are looking for their own place to live.  They'll leave their elder sister Tiana to take care of their aging parents and inherit the house.