The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #41457   Message #598450
Posted By: Amos
27-Nov-01 - 09:47 AM
Thread Name: Night before MudCatChristmas 2001
Subject: RE: Night before MudCatChristmas 2001
With a twinkling Webmeister so jivey and regal,
I knew in a moment it must be Max Spiegel!
More rapid than eagles his folkies all picked,
And he whistled, and shouted, and made them look slick;
"Now, Catspaw!! now, Fielding! now, Big Mick and Kendall!
On, Áine! on Amos! on, Peter and Jendle!!
To the top of the range! til your vocal cords haul!
Now capo up, capo up, capo up all!"
As dry leaves that before the wild hurricane fly,
When they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky,
So over the chord-change transitions they flew,
With the air full of tenor, and Maxie sang too!
And then, in a twinkling, I heard from old Loki
Three thousand new thread-thoughts, half sober, half joking.
As I turned toward my Puter making all this commotion,
On the screen came old Maxie, with a bag full of notions!
There were song threads and lyrics, and a Challenge or two
And a pack of obscure queries that nobody knew!
There was history, discussion, Pete, Huddie and Woodie,
And he looked like a peddler with a bag full of goodies.

His eyes -- how they twinkled! his dimples how merry!
His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry!
His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow,
And the skin of his chin was as white as the snow;
He smoked unfiltered Camels from butt-end to start
And he didn't much care what it meant to his heart,
He had five quarts of lager, laid out in a row,
He was suave, he was slick, a Dude in the know.

He was lean and amusing, a right Meister of blues,
All covered with songs, and web-posts and news;
A wink of his eye and a twist of his head,
Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread;
He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,
And rebooted the servers, while cursing some jerk
Who had hung up Cold Fusion; but he got it all right,
And giving a nod, he displayed the whole site!
Then he sprang to the microphone, gave his folkies a roar,
And called "Stagger Lee, Version 20! On four!"
And I heard him exclaim, as the song rang out bright,
"HAPPY CHRISTMAS TO ALL, AND TO ALL A
GOOD-NIGHT."