Let me give the season's first report
Bill Turlock
that _last_ week's Sunday paper CVS drug store ad was touting
gifts.
Bill "these reports just keep coming earlier and earlier every
year!" Turlock
John Mc.
And so it begins. Why don't we just declare the entire year Christmas
and be done with it?
John Mc.
--
"Usenet is like a herd of performing elephants with diarrhea - massive,
difficult to redirect, awe-inspiring, entertaining, and a source of mind
- boggling amounts of excrement when you least expect it." - Gene
Spafford,1992
Tim Wright
6:24 AM 11-3-2009, first Christmas song at the Starbucks I visit every
morning.
--
Tim W
Onomatopoeia
A word that sounds like the sound it sounds like.
landotter
wrote:
I'm celebrating President's day for Yule.
Lars Eighner
John Mc. broadcast on alt.fan.cecil-adams:
> Bill Turlock wrote:
>>
>> that _last_ week's Sunday paper CVS drug store ad was touting
>> gifts.
>>
>>
>> Bill "these reports just keep coming earlier and earlier every
>> year!" Turlock
> And so it begins. Why don't we just declare the entire year Christmas
> and be done with it?
And if you mail off your nasty old broken gold now, you can get a check by
Thanksgiving.
"Broken gold" --- we laugh and laugh about this one.
--
Lars Eighner <http://larseighner.com/> September 5913, 1993
292 days since Rick Warren prayed over Bush's third term.
Obama: No hope, no change, more of the same. Yes, he can, but no, he won't.
Ted The Cat
> Bill Turlock wrote:
>
> > that _last_ week's Sunday paper CVS drug store ad was touting
> > gifts.
>
> > Bill "these reports just keep coming earlier and earlier every
> > year!" Turlock
>
> 6:24 AM 11-3-2009, first Christmas song at the Starbucks I visit every
> morning.
Two radio stations in Tulsa went to all Christmas music all the time
beginning on Halloween.
Reunite Gondwanaland (Mary Shafer)
"@sonnnic.invalid> wrote:
> that _last_ week's Sunday paper CVS drug store ad was touting
> gifts.
I saw a Christmas ad last week, on All Saints' Day, 1 November.
Apparently Christmas now starts the day after Hallowe'en, not the day
after Thanksgiving.
Mary "Armistice/Veterans'/Remembrance Day being ignored."
--
Mary Shafer Retired aerospace research engineer
We didn't just do weird stuff at Dryden, we wrote reports about it.
reunite....@gmail.com or mil...@qnet.com
Visit my blog at http://thedigitalknitter.blogspot.com/
Reunite Gondwanaland (Mary Shafer)
<tlwri...@verizon.net> wrote:
> 6:24 AM 11-3-2009, first Christmas song at the Starbucks I visit every
> morning.
Christmas cups on Sunday afternoon, 1 November, at my regular
Starbucks. The cups are decorated with Christmas ornaments, one of
which says something about hoping for a snow day. It's been in the
80s here, and snow is pretty unlikely.
Mary "The summer weather pattern hasn't broken yet."
Paul L. Madarasz
<use...@larseighner.com> wrote, perhaps among other things:
>In our last episode, <hd77fd$emu$1...@news.iquest.net>, the lovely and talented
>John Mc. broadcast on alt.fan.cecil-adams:
>
>> Bill Turlock wrote:
>>>
>>> that _last_ week's Sunday paper CVS drug store ad was touting
>>> gifts.
>>>
>>>
>>> Bill "these reports just keep coming earlier and earlier every
>>> year!" Turlock
>
>
>> And so it begins. Why don't we just declare the entire year Christmas
>> and be done with it?
>
>And if you mail off your nasty old broken gold now, you can get a check by
>Thanksgiving.
>
>
>"Broken gold" --- we laugh and laugh about this one.
Don't laugh. I'm constantly tripping over piles of broken gold all
over the floor.
--
Sorry I can't stop and talk now,
I'm in kind of a hurry anyhow,
but I'll send you a tape from California.
Les Albert
<madp...@yahoo.com> wrote:
>On Sun, 8 Nov 2009 20:58:59 +0000 (UTC), Lars Eighner
><use...@larseighner.com> wrote, perhaps among other things:
>
>>In our last episode, <hd77fd$emu$1...@news.iquest.net>, the lovely and talented
>>John Mc. broadcast on alt.fan.cecil-adams:
>>
>>> Bill Turlock wrote:
>>>>
>>>> that _last_ week's Sunday paper CVS drug store ad was touting
>>>> gifts.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Bill "these reports just keep coming earlier and earlier every
>>>> year!" Turlock
>>
>>
>>> And so it begins. Why don't we just declare the entire year Christmas
>>> and be done with it?
>>
>>And if you mail off your nasty old broken gold now, you can get a check by
>>Thanksgiving.
>>
>>
>>"Broken gold" --- we laugh and laugh about this one.
>
>Don't laugh. I'm constantly tripping over piles of broken gold all
>over the floor.
You dropped your teeth again?
Les
Boron Elgar
Shafer)" <reunite....@gmail.com> wrote:
>On Sun, 08 Nov 2009 11:11:35 -0800, Bill Turlock <"Bill Turlock
>"@sonnnic.invalid> wrote:
>
>> that _last_ week's Sunday paper CVS drug store ad was touting
>> gifts.
>
>I saw a Christmas ad last week, on All Saints' Day, 1 November.
>Apparently Christmas now starts the day after Hallowe'en, not the day
>after Thanksgiving.
>
>Mary "Armistice/Veterans'/Remembrance Day being ignored."
Someone in our neighborhood has already over-decorated the outside of
the house with lights and mechanicals and blow up snow globes.
Boron
Bill Turlock
You should have reported it then. You'd have won!
Charles Wm. Dimmick
> Bill Turlock wrote:
>>
>> that _last_ week's Sunday paper CVS drug store ad was touting
>> gifts.
>>
>> Bill "these reports just keep coming earlier and earlier every
>> year!" Turlock
>
> And so it begins. Why don't we just declare the entire year Christmas
> and be done with it?
I won't be happy until they eliminate all mention of Christmas except in
churches. Selling Christmas schlock should be illegal. We need more
separation of Church and State.
Charles
Mark Steese
news:bemef5ducldnvnsu0...@4ax.com:
> On Sun, 08 Nov 2009 11:11:35 -0800, Bill Turlock <"Bill Turlock
> "@sonnnic.invalid> wrote:
>
>> that _last_ week's Sunday paper CVS drug store ad was touting
>> gifts.
>
> I saw a Christmas ad last week, on All Saints' Day, 1 November.
> Apparently Christmas now starts the day after Hallowe'en, not the day
> after Thanksgiving.
>
> Mary "Armistice/Veterans'/Remembrance Day being ignored."
Personally, I like the absence of store displays of Veterans' Day cards and
candy and plastic tchotchkes just fine. Veterans' Trees? Remembrance
parties? Come to the mall and get your picture taken with Sergeant Vet?
String electric blinking poppies around your windows? I'm just not seeing
how that would be an improvement over ignoring it.
--
Mark Steese
=======================================================================
PS: Your second question, you thought I forgot? I didn't. I never found the
banana slug. - William Least Heat-Moon
Joseph Nebus
Comic Strip Master Command was ready for you:
http://www.gocomics.com/bozo/2009/11/09/
--
Joseph Nebus
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Richard R. Hershberger
What about the selling of Christmas schlock in churches?
But seriously, it used to be a source of annual amusement to me that
the Rush O'Reilly "War on Christmas" consisted in large part of
complaints that Christmas was not being as commercialized as some
would like.
Richard R. Hershberger
landotter
Right--from now on, it's The Birth of Our Savior, brought to you by
Mutual of Omaha. Don't shorten it, heathen.
hpjeannie
> "Reunite Gondwanaland (Mary Shafer)" <reunite.gondw...@gmail.com> wrote innews:bemef5ducldnvnsu0...@4ax.com:
>
> > I saw a Christmas ad last week, on All Saints' Day, 1 November.
> > Apparently Christmas now starts the day after Hallowe'en, not the day
> > after Thanksgiving.
>
> > Mary "Armistice/Veterans'/Remembrance Day being ignored."
>
> Personally, I like the absence of store displays of Veterans' Day cards and
> candy and plastic tchotchkes just fine. Veterans' Trees? Remembrance
> parties? Come to the mall and get your picture taken with Sergeant Vet?
> String electric blinking poppies around your windows? I'm just not seeing
> how that would be an improvement over ignoring it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYlrrAWCTRg
Jeannie
Charles Wm. Dimmick
> On Nov 8, 9:49 pm, "Charles Wm. Dimmick" <cdimm...@snet.net> wrote:
>> John Mc. wrote:
>>> Bill Turlock wrote:
>>>> that _last_ week's Sunday paper CVS drug store ad was touting
>>>> gifts.
>>>> Bill "these reports just keep coming earlier and earlier every
>>>> year!" Turlock
>>> And so it begins. Why don't we just declare the entire year Christmas
>>> and be done with it?
>> I won't be happy until they eliminate all mention of Christmas except in
>> churches. Selling Christmas schlock should be illegal. We need more
>> separation of Church and State.
>
> What about the selling of Christmas schlock in churches?
Depends on the schlock, to some extent. The only stuff
we sell is from small villages in East Africa, where the
profits directly help their communities, and it isn't
particularly Christmassey.
Charles
Reunite Gondwanaland (Mary Shafer)
> "Reunite Gondwanaland (Mary Shafer)" <reunite....@gmail.com> wrote in
> news:bemef5ducldnvnsu0...@4ax.com:
>
> > Mary "Armistice/Veterans'/Remembrance Day being ignored."
>
> Personally, I like the absence of store displays of Veterans' Day cards and
> candy and plastic tchotchkes just fine. Veterans' Trees? Remembrance
> parties? Come to the mall and get your picture taken with Sergeant Vet?
> String electric blinking poppies around your windows? I'm just not seeing
> how that would be an improvement over ignoring it.
I'd like to see some acknowledgement of it beyond just having the day
off. I happen to think highly of our country's military, both active
duty and retired, and I'd like to see more attention paid to the price
they and their families pay to keep the rest of us free.
Mary "Just moving every two or three years is a huge price, if you ask
me."
Boron Elgar
Shafer)" <reunite....@gmail.com> wrote:
>On 9 Nov 2009 05:06:59 GMT, Mark Steese <mark_...@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>> "Reunite Gondwanaland (Mary Shafer)" <reunite....@gmail.com> wrote in
>> news:bemef5ducldnvnsu0...@4ax.com:
>>
>> > Mary "Armistice/Veterans'/Remembrance Day being ignored."
>>
>> Personally, I like the absence of store displays of Veterans' Day cards and
>> candy and plastic tchotchkes just fine. Veterans' Trees? Remembrance
>> parties? Come to the mall and get your picture taken with Sergeant Vet?
>> String electric blinking poppies around your windows? I'm just not seeing
>> how that would be an improvement over ignoring it.
>
>I'd like to see some acknowledgement of it beyond just having the day
>off. I happen to think highly of our country's military, both active
>duty and retired, and I'd like to see more attention paid to the price
>they and their families pay to keep the rest of us free.
>
>Mary "Just moving every two or three years is a huge price, if you ask
>me."
Obama said he'd do something about it. I have not heard anything,
though.
So many of the lower ranks are underpaid, overworked, ill-housed and
in very difficult family situations with all the tumult. And the
families left behind often suffer from the emotional and financial
difficulties, too. And none of that even takes into account the true
dangers they encounter along the way.
It isn't a matter of honoring them with 1 , 2 or 12 holidays. They
need to paid well, housed well, their families not neglected, and
medical care improved.
Boron
Reunite Gondwanaland (Mary Shafer)
Shafer)" <reunite....@gmail.com> wrote:
> On 9 Nov 2009 05:06:59 GMT, Mark Steese <mark_...@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> > "Reunite Gondwanaland (Mary Shafer)" <reunite....@gmail.com> wrote in
> > news:bemef5ducldnvnsu0...@4ax.com:
> >
> > > Mary "Armistice/Veterans'/Remembrance Day being ignored."
> >
> > Personally, I like the absence of store displays of Veterans' Day cards and
> > candy and plastic tchotchkes just fine. Veterans' Trees? Remembrance
> > parties? Come to the mall and get your picture taken with Sergeant Vet?
> > String electric blinking poppies around your windows? I'm just not seeing
> > how that would be an improvement over ignoring it.
>
> I'd like to see some acknowledgement of it beyond just having the day
> off. I happen to think highly of our country's military, both active
> duty and retired, and I'd like to see more attention paid to the price
> they and their families pay to keep the rest of us free.
Just saw some nice player tributes to the military on Monday Night
Football and Appleby's is letting active duty military and vets eat
free on Armistice Day.
Mary "About the level of recognition I had in mind."
huey.c...@gmail.com
> Mark Steese <mark_...@yahoo.com> wrote:
> > Personally, I like the absence of store displays of Veterans' Day
> > cards and candy and plastic tchotchkes just fine. Veterans' Trees?
> > Remembrance parties? Come to the mall and get your picture taken
> > with Sergeant Vet? String electric blinking poppies around your
> > windows? I'm just not seeing how that would be an improvement over
> > ignoring it.
> I'd like to see some acknowledgement of it beyond just having the day
> off. I happen to think highly of our country's military, both active
> duty and retired, and I'd like to see more attention paid to the price
> they and their families pay to keep the rest of us free.
> Mary "Just moving every two or three years is a huge price, if you ask
> me."
Personally, I think a day off is fine. Brief mentions on TV and in
occasional speechifying strike me as like yellow ribbon car magnets or
plastic american flags on cars. Wanna do something for a soldier? Call
your congressman and demand more funding for VA hospitals and
programs, because the little yellow magnet doesn't really do jack shit
for the soldier.
--
Huey
Kim
So you live in my Mom's neighborhood? She took down the coffins and witches
and jack-o-lanterns and the gravestone village in her yard and started in on
the Christmas stuff the week *before* Halloween. Her excuse was that it
takes her 2 months to get everything in place for Christmas.
And this year she's *very* excited because she has those like 35,000 of
those flashing light things all programmed to music.
Loony bitch.
--
Kim
www.thedarwinexception.wordpress.com
* I stand against stuff. I am also unhappy with things..*
*
One respondent: It’s Sandy Claus!
*
TY
Opus the Penguin
> So many of the lower ranks are underpaid, overworked, ill-housed and
> in very difficult family situations with all the tumult. And the
> families left behind often suffer from the emotional and financial
> difficulties, too. And none of that even takes into account the true
> dangers they encounter along the way.
>
> It isn't a matter of honoring them with 1 , 2 or 12 holidays. They
> need to paid well, housed well, their families not neglected, and
> medical care improved.
>
And if we could not send them out to die in a pointless war, that would
be a plus as well.
--
Opus the Penguin
The best darn penguin in all of Usenet
huey.c...@gmail.com
Yes, this.
--
Huey
*
<reunite.gondw...@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Mon, 09 Nov 2009 18:41:34 -0800, "Reunite Gondwanaland (Mary
>
>
>
> > On 9 Nov 2009 05:06:59 GMT, Mark Steese <mark_ste...@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> > > "Reunite Gondwanaland (Mary Shafer)" <reunite.gondw...@gmail.com> wrote in
> > >news:bemef5ducldnvnsu0...@4ax.com:
>
> > > > Mary "Armistice/Veterans'/Remembrance Day being ignored."
>
> > > Personally, I like the absence of store displays of Veterans' Day cards and
> > > candy and plastic tchotchkes just fine. Veterans' Trees? Remembrance
> > > parties? Come to the mall and get your picture taken with Sergeant Vet?
> > > String electric blinking poppies around your windows? I'm just not seeing
> > > how that would be an improvement over ignoring it.
>
> > I'd like to see some acknowledgement of it beyond just having the day
> > off. I happen to think highly of our country's military, both active
> > duty and retired, and I'd like to see more attention paid to the price
> > they and their families pay to keep the rest of us free.
>
> Just saw some nice player tributes to the military on Monday Night
> Football and Appleby's is letting active duty military and vets eat
> free on Armistice Day.
>
> Mary "About the level of recognition I had in mind."
>
TY!
John Mc.
I'm with you, brother. I began seeing Christmas crapoola a week and a
half before Halloween this year.
John Mc.
--
"Usenet is like a herd of performing elephants with diarrhea - massive,
difficult to redirect, awe-inspiring, entertaining, and a source of mind
- boggling amounts of excrement when you least expect it." - Gene
Spafford,1992
Boron Elgar
It gets crazy.
I do not understand the instincts (of lack thereof) that pushes
otherwise semi-rational people over the brink into LaLa Land at the
holidays.
The super freaks, whose decorations draw lines of visitors, and whose
numbers are usually quite small, I really take as a tolerable
aberration, but the miniature wannabe's that seem to spring up like
fungus in the rainy season, are the ones that drive me nuts.
I told TH that I thought our neighborhood's First Responder to the
Call of the Wild Icicle Lights, truly deserved a prize and that we
should walk the dog over and leave them one.
Boron
Boron Elgar
That'd be the Little Jack Horner prize.
Boron
Charles Wm. Dimmick
> Charles Wm. Dimmick wrote:
>> John Mc. wrote:
>>> Bill Turlock wrote:
>>>>
>>>> that _last_ week's Sunday paper CVS drug store ad was touting
>>>> gifts.
>>>>
>>>> Bill "these reports just keep coming earlier and earlier every
>>>> year!" Turlock
>>>
>>> And so it begins. Why don't we just declare the entire year Christmas
>>> and be done with it?
>>
>> I won't be happy until they eliminate all mention of Christmas except
>> in churches. Selling Christmas schlock should be illegal. We need more
>> separation of Church and State.
>>
>> Charles
>
> I'm with you, brother. I began seeing Christmas crapoola a week and a
> half before Halloween this year.
And while I'm on my rant, singing of Christmas Carols any time BEFORE
Dec. 24th. offends my religious sensibilities. Same with Christmas
decorations. We hang a wreath on the first Sunday in December, but it
has nothing but a big PURPLE ribbon, signifying the beginning of Advent.
Christmas Eve we change it to bright red.
Charles
Dover Beach
news:hdbm9u$m4q$1...@news.eternal-september.org:
> John Mc. wrote:
>> Charles Wm. Dimmick wrote:
>>>
>>> I won't be happy until they eliminate all mention of Christmas
>>> except in churches. Selling Christmas schlock should be illegal. We
>>> need more separation of Church and State.
When some of the Christmas music is Madonna singing "Santa Baby", I
think we may conclude that church and state are de facto separated.
>
> And while I'm on my rant, singing of Christmas Carols any time BEFORE
> Dec. 24th. offends my religious sensibilities. Same with Christmas
> decorations. We hang a wreath on the first Sunday in December, but it
> has nothing but a big PURPLE ribbon, signifying the beginning of
> Advent. Christmas Eve we change it to bright red.
>
Christmas decorations are pretty and shiny. I like pretty and shiny.
Secular Christmas is so unrelated to religious Christmas at this point
that I just can't get worked up about it.
--
Dover
Mary
> "Charles Wm. Dimmick" <cdimm...@snet.net> wrote innews:hdbm9u$m4q$1...@news.eternal-september.org:
Well, and with all respect to Charles, unless it's the government
singing the Christmas carols prior to Christmas Eve, you're just going
to have to live with the offense to your religious sensibilities.
There are too many people who LIKE Christmas carols prior to Christmas
Eve, and they've got the right to sing them, just as you've got the
right to not sing them.
I spent the last few years opting out of Christmas altogether, myself,
because it feels too much like Someone Else's Holiday - because I
don't believe in the religion that's the basis for it. But like
Dover, I like pretty and shiny. I like the lights and the wreaths and
the trees, and even a modest gift exchange.
What bothers me is stuff like those buttons people wear saying "Jesus
is the reason for the season", as though we wouldn't have a winter
solstice without Jesus. Or a gift exchange, for that matter. Much of
what we do as the secular part of Christmas is based on pre-Christian
holidays anyway - the Christian bits are pasted on. Let's celebrate
Saturnalia!
Or Festivus. I don't even care if it's made up.
But this is why I like Thanksgiving better, really. Religious people
don't try to exclude me from that.
And Charles, this wasn't addressed to you. I know you've done nothing
of the sort, but you haven't met some of my co-workers.
Mary
Mary
> Opus the Penguin <opusthepenguin+use...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > Boron Elgar (boron_el...@hotmail.com) wrote:
> > > So many of the lower ranks are underpaid, overworked, ill-housed and
> > > in very difficult family situations with all the tumult. And the
> > > families left behind often suffer from the emotional and financial
> > > difficulties, too. And none of that even takes into account the
> > > true dangers they encounter along the way.
> > > It isn't a matter of honoring them with 1 , 2 or 12 holidays. They
> > > need to paid well, housed well, their families not neglected, and
> > > medical care improved.
> > And if we could not send them out to die in a pointless war, that
> > would be a plus as well.
>
> Yes, this.
Yeah, that's a biggie.
Mary
Mary
> Personally, I think a day off is fine. Brief mentions on TV and in
> occasional speechifying strike me as like yellow ribbon car magnets or
> plastic american flags on cars. Wanna do something for a soldier? Call
> your congressman and demand more funding for VA hospitals and
> programs, because the little yellow magnet doesn't really do jack shit
> for the soldier.
Actually, I've come to truly despise that kind of "patriotism by
bumpersticker" because it does NOTHING for the soldiers, NOTHING for
the nation, nothing for anyone, really. It's pointless chest-
beating: look at me, I'm more patriotic than thou! I support the
troops! Me!
Bleh.
Mary
Kim
>
> But this is why I like Thanksgiving better, really. Religious people
> don't try to exclude me from that.
>
> And Charles, this wasn't addressed to you. I know you've done nothing
> of the sort, but you haven't met some of my co-workers.
You know what I hate? The people who act offended when I say "Oh, we don't
really celebrate." When I tell them (:gasp!:) "No, we don't bother with a
messy shedding tree and presents I don't want or need, and all that
crap...." I get these looks and these shocked expressions like I just said
I kicked a puppy. And they immediately start asking me "BUT WHY???" Then
they offer to give me their old artificial trees, they offer to bring over a
small tree and ornaments they have tucked away somewhere and tell me the
best place to buy real trees. Then I get the 15 minute "Let me tell you why
you are wrong to not have a tree - and here's how you can make them
non-messy" speech.
I have a new plan, though. This year if anyone asks me "Do you have a tree
yet?" I'm going to smile and say "No, I'm a Jehovah Witness, can I call on
you for Bible Study?"
That'll shut them up.
Peter Ward
>
> "Charles Wm. Dimmick" <cdim...@snet.net> wrote in
> news:hdbm9u$m4q$1...@news.eternal-september.org:
>
> > John Mc. wrote:
> >> Charles Wm. Dimmick wrote:
>
> >>>
> >>> I won't be happy until they eliminate all mention of Christmas
> >>> except in churches. Selling Christmas schlock should be illegal. We
> >>> need more separation of Church and State.
>
> When some of the Christmas music is Madonna singing "Santa Baby", I
> think we may conclude that church and state are de facto separated.
Why would anyone play that version anyway?
--
Peter, from outside the asylum
I'm an alien
email: usenet at peterward dot adsl24 dot co dot uk
http://blowinsmoke.wordpress.com/
When I read about the evils of drinking, I gave up reading.
- Henny Youngman
Veronique
> And while I'm on my rant, singing of Christmas Carols any time BEFORE
> Dec. 24th. offends my religious sensibilities.
Uh oh.
V., singing sotto voce.
--
Veronique Chez Sheep
Veronique
> "Charles Wm. Dimmick" <cdimm...@snet.net> wrote innews:hdbm9u$m4q$1...@news.eternal-september.org:
> > And while I'm on my rant, singing of Christmas Carols any time BEFORE
> > Dec. 24th. offends my religious sensibilities. Same with Christmas
> > decorations. We hang a wreath on the first Sunday in December, but it
> > has nothing but a big PURPLE ribbon, signifying the beginning of
> > Advent. Christmas Eve we change it to bright red.
>
> Christmas decorations are pretty and shiny. I like pretty and shiny.
> Secular Christmas is so unrelated to religious Christmas at this point
> that I just can't get worked up about it.
Since I'll have a handy friend around, I'm thinking of putting the
lights up right after Thanksgiving. And maybe hauling out the
ornaments and decorating the sheep at the same time.
V.
--
Veronique Chez Sheep
Bill Turlock
C'mon, Jeff W., do a riff on "Oh Sotto Voce"...
N Jill Marsh
<darwinexcepti...@verizon.net> wrote:
>You know what I hate? The people who act offended when I say "Oh, we don't
>really celebrate." When I tell them (:gasp!:) "No, we don't bother with a
>messy shedding tree and presents I don't want or need, and all that
>crap...." I get these looks and these shocked expressions like I just said
>I kicked a puppy.
Been there. I've found that saying "observe" works really well,
particularly if it's said with a serious and meaningful expression. As
in "I don't observe Christmas". Pulling the Jehovah act might get you
busted, but just that little bit of information generally shuts people
right the hell up. They don't know if they are going to open a can of
worms if they ask for details (as in getting proselytized by a JW) or
maybe they'll look narrow minded and intolerant, because you're a Jew
or some such thing.
This works extremely well with strangers or only slight acquaintances,
particularly if they've just got after you for not wishing them a
"Merry Christmas" because no one's allowed to now because of all the
persecution from the forces of evil and political correctness except
by God they are going to go out and make sure everyone knows the
reason for the season...
nj"worked too many Christmases..."m
--
Welcome, stranger, to the humble neighbourhoods.
Paul L. Madarasz
<boron...@hotmail.com> wrote, perhaps among other things:
A maiasaura skeleton?
--
Sorry I can't stop and talk now,
I'm in kind of a hurry anyhow,
but I'll send you a tape from California.
Boron Elgar
<madp...@yahoo.com> wrote:
>On Tue, 10 Nov 2009 06:39:54 -0500, Boron Elgar
><boron...@hotmail.com> wrote, perhaps among other things:
>
>>On Tue, 10 Nov 2009 06:28:54 GMT, Opus the Penguin
>><opusthepen...@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>>Boron Elgar (boron...@hotmail.com) wrote:
>>>
>>>> So many of the lower ranks are underpaid, overworked, ill-housed and
>>>> in very difficult family situations with all the tumult. And the
>>>> families left behind often suffer from the emotional and financial
>>>> difficulties, too. And none of that even takes into account the true
>>>> dangers they encounter along the way.
>>>>
>>>> It isn't a matter of honoring them with 1 , 2 or 12 holidays. They
>>>> need to paid well, housed well, their families not neglected, and
>>>> medical care improved.
>>>>
>>>
>>>And if we could not send them out to die in a pointless war, that would
>>>be a plus as well.
>>
>>That'd be the Little Jack Horner prize.
>>
>>Boron
>
>A maiasaura skeleton?
Bwa-ha. Yeah, duckbill and everything.
Boron
Mark Steese
> On 9 Nov 2009 05:06:59 GMT, Mark Steese <mark_...@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>> "Reunite Gondwanaland (Mary Shafer)" <reunite....@gmail.com>
>> wrote in news:bemef5ducldnvnsu0...@4ax.com:
>>
>> > Mary "Armistice/Veterans'/Remembrance Day being ignored."
>>
>> Personally, I like the absence of store displays of Veterans' Day
>> cards and candy and plastic tchotchkes just fine. Veterans' Trees?
>> Remembrance parties? Come to the mall and get your picture taken with
>> Sergeant Vet? String electric blinking poppies around your windows?
>> I'm just not seeing how that would be an improvement over ignoring
>> it.
>
> I'd like to see some acknowledgement of it beyond just having the day
> off.
And I'd be thrilled if "Presidents' Day" encouraged people to think
about American history instead of car sales. But I'm not holding my
breath.
> I happen to think highly of our country's military, both active
> duty and retired, and I'd like to see more attention paid to the price
> they and their families pay to keep the rest of us free.
It seems to me that people have been paying a *lot* of attention to that
lately. That's one thing you can be thankful to George W. Bush for --
Americans now are probably more acutely aware than ever before of the
sacrifices soldiers have to make in the service of their country.
--
Mark Steese
=======================================================================
PS: Your second question, you thought I forgot? I didn't. I never found
the banana slug. - William Least Heat-Moon
Charlie Pearce
<cdim...@snet.net> wrote:
>John Mc. wrote:
>> Bill Turlock wrote:
>>>
>>> that _last_ week's Sunday paper CVS drug store ad was touting
>>> gifts.
>>>
>>> Bill "these reports just keep coming earlier and earlier every
>>> year!" Turlock
>>
>> And so it begins. Why don't we just declare the entire year Christmas
>> and be done with it?
>
>I won't be happy until they eliminate all mention of Christmas except in
>churches. Selling Christmas schlock should be illegal. We need more
>separation of Church and State.
Ah, is Christmas still considered a religious festival over there? In
the UK we have two different kinds:
Secular Christmas (some time in November to 25 December). Traditional
elements include the giving of presents, decorations including trees,
tinsel, fairy lights etc., gluttony, drunkenness and office parties
and cards with reindeer and snowmen on them. Most of these seem to
have been derived or stolen from the pagans in some way, with the
symbolism being discarded. Has about as much to do with Christ as
Thursday has to do with Thor, but since nobody's bothered about
renaming the days of the week either the name seems safe.
Ecumenical Christmas (25 December to 5 January). Traditional elements
include special church services, Nativity scenes and plays, carol
singing and cards with manger scenes on them.
Most people seem to celebrate just the former, though some enjoy the
latter, both or neither.
Charlie
--
Email killed by spammers - please ask for the real one.
Charles Wm. Dimmick
>> I won't be happy until they eliminate all mention of Christmas except in
>> churches. Selling Christmas schlock should be illegal. We need more
>> separation of Church and State.
>
> Ah, is Christmas still considered a religious festival over there? In
> the UK we have two different kinds:
>
> Secular Christmas (some time in November to 25 December). Traditional
> elements include the giving of presents, decorations including trees,
> tinsel, fairy lights etc., gluttony, drunkenness and office parties
> and cards with reindeer and snowmen on them. Most of these seem to
> have been derived or stolen from the pagans in some way, with the
> symbolism being discarded. Has about as much to do with Christ as
> Thursday has to do with Thor, but since nobody's bothered about
> renaming the days of the week either the name seems safe.
>
> Ecumenical Christmas (25 December to 5 January). Traditional elements
> include special church services, Nativity scenes and plays, carol
> singing and cards with manger scenes on them.
>
> Most people seem to celebrate just the former, though some enjoy the
> latter, both or neither.
More-or-less the same over here. It's Secular Christmas that I object
to. Religious Christmas [Ecumenical? I'm not sure if that term fits] to
me begins around 4 pm on Dec. 24th, and continues through January 5th.
We have three services Christmas Eve, one on Christmas Day, and daily
morning prayer the rest of the Christmas season. No Christmas carols
earlier than the first Christmas Eve service. The tree in the parish
hall which goes up a week before Advent is NOT a Christmas tree, it is
an "angel tree" from which parishoners pluck paper ornaments with the
first names and vital statistics of poor children for whom they will
then go out and buy gifts which are then given to St. Nicholas for him
to distribute.
Charles
Jen
And not just Americans. I happened to be in the gym yesterday morning at
11am, and the manager turned the TVs from the usual semi-naked young
women writhing around rap stars to coverage of the Remembrance Day
service in London. Everyone in the gym turned the various machines off
and observed the two minutes' (somewhat sweaty) silence. I've never seen
that happen before.
--
Jen
Peter Ward
Two minutes?
--
Peter, from outside the asylum
I'm an alien
email: usenet at peterward dot adsl24 dot co dot uk
http://blowinsmoke.wordpress.com/
Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm
not sure about the former.
- Albert Einstein
Nick Spalding
on Thu, 12 Nov 2009 13:28:58 -0000:
Isn't that the norm on Armistice Day? I think that's what BBC Radio 3
did yesterday.
--
Nick Spalding
Peter Ward
>
> Peter Ward wrote, in <MPG.25661df71...@news.enta.net>
> on Thu, 12 Nov 2009 13:28:58 -0000:
>
> > Jen says...
> > > And not just Americans. I happened to be in the gym yesterday
morning at
> > > 11am, and the manager turned the TVs from the usual semi-naked young
> > > women writhing around rap stars to coverage of the Remembrance Day
> > > service in London. Everyone in the gym turned the various machines off
> > > and observed the two minutes' (somewhat sweaty) silence. I've never seen
> > > that happen before.
> >
> > Two minutes?
>
> Isn't that the norm on Armistice Day? I think that's what BBC Radio 3
> did yesterday.
It always used to be one minute when I were a lad. In fact we had one
minute before the footie last Saturday.
--
Peter, from outside the asylum
I'm an alien
email: usenet at peterward dot adsl24 dot co dot uk
http://blowinsmoke.wordpress.com/
I try to let the little stuff slide, but this is baseball we're talking
about here!
- Richard R. Hershberger
Nick Spalding
on Thu, 12 Nov 2009 14:10:22 -0000:
> Nick Spalding says...
> >
> > Peter Ward wrote, in <MPG.25661df71...@news.enta.net>
> > on Thu, 12 Nov 2009 13:28:58 -0000:
> >
> > > Jen says...
>
> > > > And not just Americans. I happened to be in the gym yesterday
> morning at
> > > > 11am, and the manager turned the TVs from the usual semi-naked young
> > > > women writhing around rap stars to coverage of the Remembrance Day
> > > > service in London. Everyone in the gym turned the various machines off
> > > > and observed the two minutes' (somewhat sweaty) silence. I've never seen
> > > > that happen before.
> > >
> > > Two minutes?
> >
> > Isn't that the norm on Armistice Day? I think that's what BBC Radio 3
> > did yesterday.
>
> It always used to be one minute when I were a lad. In fact we had one
> minute before the footie last Saturday.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remembrance_Day> says
"Common British, Canadian, South African, and ANZAC traditions include
two minutes of silence at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the
eleventh month (11:00 am, 11 November), as that marks the time (in the
United Kingdom) when armistice became effective."
However Australia has 1 minute silence
"In Australia Remembrance Day is always observed on 11 November,
although the day is not a public holiday. Services are held at 11am at
war memorials and schools in suburbs and towns across the country, at
which "Last Post" is sounded by a bugler and a one-minute silence is
observed. In recent decades, however, Remembrance Day has been partly
eclipsed by ANZAC Day (25 April) as the national day of war
commemoration."
--
Nick Spalding
Peter Ward
>
> Peter Ward wrote, in <MPG.256627a97...@news.enta.net>
> on Thu, 12 Nov 2009 14:10:22 -0000:
>
> > Nick Spalding says...
> > >
> > > Peter Ward wrote, in <MPG.25661df71...@news.enta.net>
> > > on Thu, 12 Nov 2009 13:28:58 -0000:
> > >
> > > > Jen says...
> >
> > > > > And not just Americans. I happened to be in the gym yesterday
> > morning at
> > > > > 11am, and the manager turned the TVs from the usual semi-naked young
> > > > > women writhing around rap stars to coverage of the Remembrance Day
> > > > > service in London. Everyone in the gym turned the various machines off
> > > > > and observed the two minutes' (somewhat sweaty) silence. I've never seen
> > > > > that happen before.
> > > >
> > > > Two minutes?
> > >
> > > Isn't that the norm on Armistice Day? I think that's what BBC Radio 3
> > > did yesterday.
> >
> > It always used to be one minute when I were a lad. In fact we had one
> > minute before the footie last Saturday.
>
> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remembrance_Day> says
>
> "Common British, Canadian, South African, and ANZAC traditions include
> two minutes of silence at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the
> eleventh month (11:00 am, 11 November), as that marks the time (in the
> United Kingdom) when armistice became effective."
Wiki notwithstanding, it was always one minute's silence to my memory.
Whatever the occasion for showing respect, one minute which is as it
should be.
--
Peter, from outside the asylum
I'm an alien
email: usenet at peterward dot adsl24 dot co dot uk
http://blowinsmoke.wordpress.com/
The only function of economic forecasting is to make astrology look
respectable.
- John Kenneth Galbraith
Jen
As an Australian, I was surprised by the two minutes, but that was
definately what it was. When I was at school it was one minute. But
then, we had short attention spans, and cranky teachers.
--
Jen
John Mc
I have to ask. Just how does one decorate a sheep for Christmas?
John Mc.
--
A mathematician is a blind man in a dark room looking for a black cat
which isn't there.
Ken Williams
Carefully?
Ken "very much so" Williams
landotter
Greg Goss
>
>I have to ask. Just how does one decorate a sheep for Christmas?
Starting from 0:49
http://www.break.com/index/light-up-sheep-art.html
--
apart from one noisy guy up in Canada, no-one wants
a three-cylinder tissue box on bicycle tires.
Jesper Lauridsen
>
> Wiki notwithstanding, it was always one minute's silence to my memory.
> Whatever the occasion for showing respect, one minute which is as it
> should be.
I've noticed that whenever I'm asked to observe one minute at a football
match, the actual silence is 30 seconds.
Opus the Penguin
Yet another difference between US football and your version. In US
footbal a minute lasts upwards of 200 seconds.
--
Opus the Penguin
In Association football, of course, it lasts an hour--or seems to.