John Cech

You’re hearing a portion from “My Gysgi, Di Maban” sung by the Welsh choral group, Plethyn, from Celtic Lullaby, a new CD from Elipses Arts.

That’s the young Andy Rooney hoping for a kiss from the young Ann Rutherford in the 1938 film, Love Finds Andy Hardy.

The two-man rock group, They Might Be Giants, has made clever, vocabulary- and imagination- expanding grooves a signature of both their music for adults and for children. Their valentine to high-energy optimism that you’ve just heard is called “Happy Doesn’t Have to Have an Ending.”

That’s a segment of Beethoven’s “8th Symphony,” from a CD called Daydreams and Lullabies, a Celebration of Poetry, Song and Classical Music.

You’re hearing the crucial lines from a French film, “Mama, Regarde!” — or, “Mommy, Look!” — directed by Paul Bougenat.

The gift they have brought to the King and Queen of Venice, who have not been able to have children, is a magical plant. If the King and Queen plant it, the Fairies say, it will blossom into a child.

It’s a wonderful coincidence that one of the early practitioners of the comic strip, Richard Felton Outcault, should have been born on the same day, today, in 1863, on which The Simpsons animated television show would premiere, over a century later, in 1990.