Satirist Allan Sherman’s “Twelve Gifts of Christmas” came on the car radio just before the holiday. Strange, but even though I’m familiar with his “Camp Grenada” song (“Hello Muddah, hello Fadda”) and “God Rest Ye Jerry Mendelbaum,” I had never heard his send up of the familiar Christmas classic.
If you don’t know it, you can probably imagine. The gifts his true love gave to him included a simulated alligator wallet, a calendar with the name of his insurance man, green polka dot pajamas, and a Japanese transistor radio. (Everything gets returned on day twelve).
When I got home, I bought the track on iTunes, slotted it with my holiday playlist on the ipod and played it for the kids. They laughed and laughed. Then my son asked, “Dad, what’s transistor?” What answer could I give him? That it’s a device that controls current and voltage in appliances? That it’s the fundamental building block for all modern electronics, including computers? That as a small, mass-produced device, it made portable radios affordable and ubiquitous, creating lifestyle changes for an entire generation? “Look it up in Wikipedia,” I told him. They’d know.
What entertainment device changed your life?
