December 31, 2007 by Ro.

December 30, 2007

We have our final rehearsal of the year. We have become so bonded as a group that Ro misses the other quartet members at all her holiday events. She can’t believe that they haven’t achieved at least “cousin” status. They certainly would have enjoyed her Wassail. Here’s the recipe. It sure is festive and yummy. Just the thing to warm your cockles after an afternoon of sleigh riding or skiing (or anytime your cockles need some warming).

Ro’s Cockle-Warming Wassail

5 very small apples
1 orange stuck with whole cloves 1/2” apart
5 teaspoons brown sugar
1 bottle dry sherry or dry Madeira
1/4 teaspoon grated nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
3 cloves
2 allspice berries (yeah, hello, who has those in their spice rack) — just use 1/8 teaspoon allspice
2 cinnamon sticks
1/3 cup fine sugar
6 - 8 cups cider
1/4 cup (or as much as you like) brandy

Core the apples and fill each with a teaspoon of brown sugar. Place in a baking pan and cover the bottom with 1/8 inch of water. Add the clove-studded orange to the pan. Bake the apples and orange in a 350° oven for 30 minutes. It will smell terrific and you will start saying things like Fa-la-la-la-la.

Pierce the orange with a fork and catch the juice in a large heavy saucepan or Dutch oven. Save the apples and orange for later.

Add to the saucepan or Dutch oven: the sherry or Madeira, cider, nutmeg, ginger, cloves, allspice, cinnamon sticks, sugar, and water from the apple/orange pan. Heat slowly without letting the mixture come to a boil. Leave on very low heat. When your guests arrive, add the brandy and float in the apples and orange.

Ladle hot into punch glasses, festive holiday mugs, or, if you must, styrofoam cups. Make toasts and celebrate the season.

Even though he has missed out on the Wassail, Steve has brought lots of new music to the rehearsal, including “Happy Trails” and “Hatikvah,” two songs unlikely ever to have been on the same program before, but such is the stuff of the versatile Moderately Bright Four. The Hebrew of Hatikvah is not a problem, even for Ro, but “Happy Trails” calls for “coyote howls” and “horse whinny” sounds, which has MB4 creatively transformed into a veritable barnyard of animal sound effects, from Jeff’s inadvertent snort to Ro’s freakishly accurate imitation of a flamingo, admittedly not a barnyard animal, but hilarious enough to reduce us all to tears of mirth and effectively ruin the rehearsal from a musical standpoint. From a social standpoint, however, the rehearsal is a resounding success, and we all go out to dinner to celebrate.

We have dinner at a restaurant woefully unprepared for Moderately Bright Four and their Exceedingly Bright Spouses, being unstocked in virtually every alcoholic beverage on the menu we want to order (even to the point of being unable to make a frozen pina colada because their blender is inoperative!) and the cheerfully inept waitress is unable to operate a corkscrew or pronounce the few items left in stock (“We have Hacker Pschorr,” she says, with an accent on the “P”) leaving us all laughing merrily at the table and imitating flamingos. We are an easily entertained bunch and are happy with our drinks, even though they are our fourth or fifth choice. It is a fine way to end 2007 and we look forward to another year of music and merriment with Moderately Bright Four.

Happy New Year to our wonderful fans!

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December 17, 2007 by Ro.

Oh, we are in full fest mode right now. First we appear at the Temple Hatikvah annual Chanukah Dance, singing (what else?) “The Chanukah Song.” Ro’s part goes, “Nu! Oh! Nu! Oh! Nu! Oh! Nu! Oh!” which sounds really silly until you realize that Steve’s part goes “Ha! Ka! Ha! Ka! Ha! Ka! Ha! Ka!” and when you put them together it’s “Ha!” “Nu!” “Ka!” “Oh!” “Ha!” “Nu!” “Ka!” and if you drink a lot of wine and listen really carefully it’s “Chanukah Oh Chanukah!” while Audrey sings beautifully about candles and Jeff adds his bass part. How much fun is that?! Actually it is a lovely event with lots of kids having a blast and lots of music. Audrey moonlights with her other group “The Kvetching Schmendricks” and MB4 moonlights with their other group “Nah Cappella.”

After that we move on to Christmas mode with an appearance at a private party, performing our entire holiday repertoire, including a debut of “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas.” We are able to sing about snowmen frozen hard and figgy puddings and Cherry’s right cheek without collapsing in our usual gales of laughter. The boys are even able to choose the right word for their solo line in “Winter Wonderland.” Audrey and Ro somewhat disturbingly start off by singing to each other, “When we finally kiss goodnight” and then the boys have the manly reply, “How I hate going out in the ___.” It’s supposed to be “storm” but they usually take a multiple choice approach, selecting from among A) storm, B) snow, and C) cold, and generally wind up with a hybrid like snorm or stold. Then of course, we laugh hysterically and run for the bathroom.

Luckily this does not happen at the party and we are all grateful.

We continue our festive activities by attempting to carol in the Clover Hill neighborhood. This is not as easy as one would think. It seems that some people are frightened of carolers, assuming we are perhaps fundraisers or looters, so they don’t answer their doorbells. To top it off, we have chosen to carol on the heels of an ice storm so the sidewalks and porch steps are treacherous and slippery and there are gale warnings out. The Weather Channel warns about falling tree branches and downed power lines. The intrepid Moderately Bright Four grip icy railings, trying not to blow off people’s front porches, digging the toes of our boots through the ice crust trying to gain a foothold. We resemble, not fundraisers or looters, but a foursome of inept mountain climbers, flailing about before falling to our frozen deaths, gamely singing all the while. Such a brave, brave quartet, intent on bringing joy to the masses during the holiday season. It is so much fun!

Happy Holidays to all our fans from Moderately Bright Four! Now go have some figgy pudding!

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