'Tis the season for typos

So ... kids write letters to Santa. And most of them in Laramie wind up here at our office. And we get to type them up and put them in the paper.

The trick for us is to type "Santa" and not "Satan," which is trickier than you might think, several letters into it.

Dear Satan,

I want a barbie doll. I love you.

Little Susie may get an exorcism for Christmas instead.

This brings me to the subject of Christmas carols, and how I used get the words mixed up because I didn't know what they meant. I just tried to emulate as best I could what the children's choir director was saying, so I often wound up singing

Hark to Harold, angels sing

Good King Wesses Went to Town

Gloria in egg shell says day-o

Good tidings we bring to you and your kid

It didn't matter that the words, strung together, made no logical sense. Our parents weren't listening -- they were hoping we'd get through the pageant without picking our noses or flinging our dresses over our heads. And if they were reading lips, it all looked the same from the back of the church sanctuary, like "olive juice" looks like "I love you" to someone reading lips.

On that note, Merry Christmas to all.