Happy Holidays from MethodLogical and Band Aid!

MethodLogical is going on hiatus for the holidays.  We'll be back on January 17th with regular posts from our contributors.  Over the next few weeks, we'll try to post interesting links and brief items as they arise and then pick up where we left off on the 17th.

As a holiday gift to you, our loyal readers, we offer the video below, Band Aid's "Do They Know It's Christmas?", our favorite catchy, well-intentioned, somewhat misguided, but pretty effective song to raise money for Africa.  Written in 1984 by Bob Geldolf and Midge Ure and performed by an all-star lineup of British and Irish artists (many of whom have long been forgotten), the song sold 3.5 million copies and raised millions of dollars for famine-stricken Ethiopia.

Its lyrics, appealing for African relief, feature such gems as:

• "The only water flowing is the bitter sting of tears"  (Sung, of course, by Sting himself)
• "Where nothing ever grows, no rain or river flows"
• "The Christmas bells that ring there are the clanging chimes of doom"
• "Do they know it's Christmas time at all?" (Spoiler Alert: They do.)

But hey, it's a good tune and raised a lot of money for people who really needed it.  So enjoy the song and happy holidays from the MethodLogical team: