Today's Second Oz Comic

Wow, we sure are getting a lot of them lately! But this one is especially timely, as today's edition of Warped celebrates Judy Garland's ninety-seventh birthday. However, the punchline they're using isn't that original: I've been using it on my website for well over twenty years now!

Today's Festive Oz Comic

Strictly speaking, today's edition of The Argyle Sweater isn't Ozzy, but a celebrity very closely associated with Oz is. I'm sure you'll know who it is once you get there. But, if you ask me, they gave her the wrong carol to sing, since she was the one who first introduced the world to this one:

Judy Sings a Classic Christmas Song For You

Several years in the past I've posted this video because of its historical significance, and vague Oz connection. It's Judy Garland introducing the song "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" in what may be M-G-M's third greatest musical of all time, Meet Me in St. Louis. This year, however, it's wrapped up with a little story about the song and how it changed and became the song we all know today. So go take a look already. And Merry Christmas!

Happy Holidays!

This is, strictly speaking, not an Oz post, but it's Judy Garland in probably her other greatest musical, Meet Me in St. Louis, where she looked absolutely stunning throughout. Judy and co-star Margaret O'Brien also sing a song from Father Goose: His Book by L. Frank Baum, so there's an Oz connection there. But this movie also saw the debut of one of the most well-known modern Christmas songs of them all, and who else but Judy could have delivered it?

The lyrics in this version fit extremely well in the context of the movie, but they were also a bit of a downer, so they were brightened up for general, context-free consumption for Frank Sinatra a few years later. That's why it may sound a little different than you're used to. You can read the entire history of the song over at Wikipedia.

Today's Random Oz Encounters

• In the comics, today's Trivquiz celebrates Judy Garland's birthday with a familiar looking image. It did get one of the questions half-wrong, however, as I pointed out in the comments!
• My Jeopardy! page-a-day desk calendar had this clue for $1000 in the category Songs in Musicals: "FOR GOOD" AND
  "THE WIZARD AND I" The correct response is, of course, "What is Wicked?" And yes, I have quite a few Oz clues piled up from the TV show that I need to blog. The good news is that now I'm on my summer break, I should be able to put some of them up soon.

Oz in Jeopardy!

Oh, they had a good game way back on January 21 (which was also, coincidentally, my birthday). It didn't start off so promising, with a pretty standard Jeopardy! round. And the Double Jeopardy! round was a theme board, with the categories Cotton Is King, The Blue & The Grey, "Civil", War, Gone with the Wind, and 1865 America. Yikes! That didn't look Ozzy at all! But there was one clue in, of all categories, Gone with the Wind that made me think, you, I'll be blogging this one. For $2000, the clue was:

None of them wanted to guess that the director was Victor Fleming, and that other 1939 blockbuster was, of course, The Wizard of Oz. I found it curious that they didn't actually mention that — until, towards the end of the round, the $1600 clue in Cotton Is King was revealed, and it was a Daily Double! Erin, the challenger in the middle, wagered $2000, and was given this clue: Of course she correctly replied, "What is gingham?" Despite being the only one to get an Oz clue correct, she didn't win the game, however.

Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas

In a flash, I decided that I would blog today by sharing this. It's not Oz, but it's Judy Garland at her very best (and that's saying something), which is close enough:

Yes, this is the debut of the song, with its original, more cynical lyrics. You can read more about the history of the song and how it's changed over at Wikipedia (including, it turns out, a surprising contribution from my friend and fellow Oz fan John Fricke).

Time to be a couch potato!

Set the TiVo, kids, because TCM (if you're fortunate enough to get it) has a major Judy Garland festival tomorrow. They are:

• Listen, Darling at 3:15 am
  
• For Me and My Gal at 4:30 am
  
• Girl Crazy at 6:15 am
  
• Presenting Lily Mars at 8:00 am
  
• The Clock at 9:45 am
  
• We Must Have Music, a short, at 11:17 am (costarring Journey Back to Oz Glinda Rise Stevens)
  
• The Pirate at 11:30 am
  
• Summer Stock at 1:15 pm
  
• Judy's last movie, I Could Go On Singing, at 3:15 pm
  

All times are Pacific Daylight Time, so you'll want to adjust if you don't live on the west coast. Oh, and Judgment at Nuremburg is coming up on Sunday, too. It all makes for a good run-up to TCM's annual showing of The Wizard of Oz early next month.