KACC, like most radio stations, has started in on the Christmas music. Which is fine - as with everything they do, it's a good mix of classics, lesser known works, and local artists. One song that's gotten some play is a swingy version of "Jingle Bells" by what sounds to me like a local group (I don't recognize the voice, and hadn't heard this particular tune anywhere else before now). Something about it bugged me the first time I heard it, and yesterday as I drove back to work from lunch, I realized what it was: During the main verse, the singer croons "Bells and bobtails ring..."

Okay. How many of you out there know what a "bobtail" is? Show of hands, please. You, there, in the back. Yes, that's right: A bobtail, at least in this context, is a horse - see, for example, the line from Camptown Races: "Bet my money on the bobtailed nag/Somebody bet on the bay."

Makes sense, right? You're in a one-horse open sleigh, so there's a horse in this song. That horse is a bobtail. It has bells on, hence the correct line "Bells ON bobtails ring". Bobtails don't ring, but bobtails who have bells on do. It's all so simple.

OK, I feel better now. Please go about your business, nothing more to see here.

UPDATE: There is one more thing to see here - the comments, in which I get out-pedanted.