That is Priceless by Steve Melcher for December 24, 2024

/// A group portrait of Mom, girl and boy.

You’d expect happy vibes, if not joy.

But they stare into space

with dead eyes in each face.

What could all their good feelings destroy?

“Ah kids, maybe one of your fathers will bring you something this year.”

Miss Shields, in a moment of quiet reflection, questioned her C+ grade of Ralphie’s theme, and pondered the uses of a Red Rider lever action BB gun in her current situation.

The kids just found out that Dad didn’t make parole, even though it Christmas week.

Mommy can Timmy take turns breast feeding my dolly?

Funny how rich kids are always on the “nice” list. Must be nice.

“Don’t worry, children. I’m sure your father will be back from the store soon.”

“You’ve been saying that for the last four months, Mum.”

Waiting for television to be invented.

Of course, I could just call in the legacy rule. I was a pretty good kid back in my day.

Dad’s at a “gentleman’s” club on Christmas Eve.

“Are we wealthy, MaMa ?” “Yes, my dears “/

Mother answered, while choking back tears../

But the rent’s in arrears/

For their future she fears/

And they haven’t been wealthy for years..

They used to be wealthy before/

The Austrians started a war/

That they shouldn’t have ought/

And should not have been fought/

And now they ain’t wealthy no more.

“cheer up kids, we can just sit and talk until the internet is working again”

Is it me or do those kids have hairy legs?

The Habsburgs are history now:/

This woman who once was the Frau/

Of an Austrian Graf/

Has barely enough/

To provide her children with chow..

Little Timmy: “I want a doll like that!”

Huh…she gets a dolly and I get a speech………..

And THAT’S how it works. Then they grow up and think they can buy Greenland.

“Why can’t I play with her doll?” he thought.

Mrs. Hirsch with Her Children: 

Paste (including the quote marks) 

"Category:Dolls in art" Wikimedia 

(syntax supported by the Google, Bing, Yahoo, DuckDuckGo, and Brave search engines) in the browser address bar (or search for it using one of those search engines) and choose the first Category: found, and once there find the text string Hirsch, and click its link for info and links that point to more info (perhaps best viewed using the Mozilla Firefox browser, Google Chrome currently fails, which can automatically translate most webpages if necessary) about this painting. 

Again, a larger strip image is shown by (Ctrl- or right-) clicking the image in Mr. Melcher’s MASTERPIECE #3433 (December 24, 2024) blog entry, accessible by the Check out the blog! box after the last comment, and using the dropdown menu (even larger if you crop what’s after .jpg from the URL). I’ve added a comment there pointing to the info about this artist I used to point to here. So far, first work by him used here.

Happy Holidays, Steve!

GIRL: NYAH NYAH! Santa left me a doll and didn’t leave you anything!

BOY: Santa is a fat POS!

MOM: I hope Santa used a condom…I was SOOOOOO DRUNK last night!

KIDS: WHAT?!?!

The noodle incident may get forgiven, but never forgotten.