It's beginning to look a lot like . . . Never mind

Asked to sing a song at an elementary school "winter" concert, a San Jose Unified school board member launched into a classic with "inappropriate" language, reports Grace Hase in the San Jose Mercury News. The principal stopped the sing-along.

“This moment does not reflect the values of our school or of San Jose Unified, and we deeply regret that it occurred during an event meant to be joyful," she wrote in an an email to parents.

The singer, trustee Brian Wheatley, apologized to the principal: “In an effort to bring levity and humor, I shared verses that were inappropriate, and I’m truly sorry for any disruption or distress this may have caused students, staff or families,” he wrote.

The song was It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas. The offending verse: "A pair of hop-along boots and a pistol that shoots is the wish of Barney and Ben."

In 1952, which happens to be the year of my birth, Woolworth's offered "rootin'-shootin'" gun-and-holster sets for a "toddling buckaroo" and older siblings aspiring to punch cows, notes James Lileks.