Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

And you shall write very clearly all the words of this law on these stones you have set up.”

• Deuteronomy 27:8

This is a mash of a few stories but updated.  It is about enunciation, but it is about listening to Country music at the laundromat.  It is about talking to my grandson.  The teenaged grandson is the only one who would go with me to the laundromat.  I challenged myself.  I kept telling him “Dad Jokes” until he finally cracked and started laughing at them.  It took three days.

My mother hated sportscasters, especially for football games.  Invariably, the ball would be placed eight yards from the end zone and my mother insisted that the sportscasters were saying, “The ball has been placed on the ‘A Charred Line.’”  Somehow, a word ending with the letter “T” and the next word starting with a soft consonant or a vowel sound morphs into a shortened first word and the second word starting with a “CH”.

I never bought into my mother’s rants, but now that I have hearing aids, I can hear the music better at the laundromat.  I complained to my grandson that there was this duo that was singing a love song to chewing tobacco.  He was confused, but I explained that the chorus was “Thinkin’ ‘bout chew.”  What else could they be singing?!  He suggested different lyrics, but then what does a teenager know anyway?!?!

Turned out he was right.  When I gave him a dirty look, he just shrugged and said, “That’s just one of the reasons that I do not care that much about Country / Western music.”  This coming from a bagpiper who thinks Piobaireachd is pronounced “Pee-Brock.”  Okay, it is pronounced that way. Piobaireachd is bagpipe classical music, very solemn, at least what I have heard – and more to follow in an upcoming Sophie Yeggs mystery.

And along that same vein, here is Dustin Lynch, featuring MacKenzie Porter singing Thinking ‘Bout You. 

And wouldn’t you know it, two days later at our next trip to the laundromat, I started fussing about this singer who had dedicated a song to his mother’s sausage and rolls.  My grandson looked at me confused, but then it is hard to tell that expression.  He’s a teenager.

I told him that all the verses talked about how his mother had put up with him for years and years, and then the chorus repeated over and over again, “SAUSAGE and ROLLS.”

My grandson suggested that my new hearing aids might need an adjustment.  He suggested a different title.  Okay, his title might be right, but I still think the singer is singing, “Sausage and Rolls.”  His mama might make the best in the world.  Who knows?!

Here is the actual song, with a couple of cuss words.  Morgan Wallen singing Thought You Should Know.

Not much of a theological argument other than the Scripture above.  If we do not enunciate clearly, others might miss the message entirely.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.