The Weekly Poll
Results
The 'Oh, Come All Ye Shoppers...' Edition
In case you haven't noticed (haha), the 'Holiday Season' onslaught has begun. (Actually, it did the day after Halloween, but no matter). The economic hopes and dreams of countless retailers, wholesalers, grocers, catalog companies, Internet discounters, hotels, motels, airlines, bus lines, restaurants, bars, credit card loan-sharks and the Salvation Army are depending on YOU for their very survival... Or, so they say... In addition, as always, elbowing their way in like a bunch of 'Red-haired Step-Children" demanding attention are those, too, who push the whole 'Peace on Earth, Good Will Towards Men... Reason for the Season' agenda despite the overwhelming evidence that those sentiments might actually happen for only, like, two seconds... If'n we're lucky... So.. Looking at 'The Big Picture'...
What is your overall attitude regarding the upcoming festivities?
A.) Joy to the World! It's The Most Wonderful Time of the Year!
B.) Is it over yet?
C.) Sigh... It is, what it is... I'll make it through... somehow... I think...
A.) Joy to the World! It's The Most Wonderful Time of the Year!
Dan 'the Stan' D's Part 1 of 3...
Well, talk to the currently bankrupt cast of America's retailers
B.) Is it over yet?
Joe S. (from Manistee-by-the-Lake) decided...
On November 3, Carla and I came to the conclusion that we were sick of Christmas already.
litebug stated...
Definitely B, is it over yet?
Dan 'the Stan' D's Part 2 of 3...
Anybody see some fat lady singing?
C.) Sigh... It is, what it is... I'll make it through... somehow... I think...
Richard McD.
succinctly chose C. without comment
DC Madman laments...
I start dreading it the day after Halloween when the Christmas crap comes out. I realize it's a necessary cornerstone of capitalism but does it have to be so Jesus-y and divisive. My main dislike for the holiday are the unrealistic expectations held (at least in my family tribe). A demanding disabled mother-in-law (she was a member of Hitler's Youth) generally makes the Holidays a Holy hell. She refuses to attend Thanksgiving because she wasn't the center of attention last year. While everyone else stresses about the holidays, appearances, proper gift giving etiquette, decorations, and how to gain Hitler's sister's approval I just step back and watch. I prefer my holidays drama free.
(Hang in there, Dude...)
Chief John from Issaquah pondered over the issue...
I struggled over either B or C. Finally went with C, I'll make it through...somehow...I think. I have no children of my own but have a whole gaggle of nephews and nieces which I have been generous to in the past, but with my employer cutting my paycheck by 5% to save money, the possibility of layoffs, and my military pension not getting a cost of living increase for the second year (even though groceries, gas, and very thing else I need to live on is increasing) I'm not feeling so generous this year. I'll probably have some relatives that will think I have become an old tight wad. Oh well, I'll make it through it.
(Of course you will, Chief!... Chiefs can make it through anything. That's why their Chiefs!)
Joe B sez...
I have to go with "C" the grandkids love it so I like seeing their happy faces. Personally it's just a big hustle from the 2 per cent for us to spend money on their Chinese junk. I'm totally disillusioned with Barack, the change is just more of the same, no matter what they say the little guy thinks he paid for health Ins. changes.
Adam in NoHo sent...
I always enjoy the whole Winter Festival time of year. The more I learn about the Pagan underpinnings of Xmas (and Easter), the more I enjoy it. Still, it seems like I'm working too hard to enjoy it properly, but this
year that may not be so true- Thanks George Bush!.
And finally (drum roll, please)... Dan 'the Stan' D's Part 3 of 3... (cymbal crash!)
A(ny) Government just LOVES a captured population that is slavishly in debt to its banking buddies. You don't think that there's debtor's prison in America? While most Americans caught up in the mortgage fraud crisis really don't -- because of the shamelessly fraudulent, criminal conduct of all the involved bankers -- owe ANYTHING to those banks for the property that they now faithfully possess full, free and clear, the President WILL cave (either now, or in 2012 with a fresher, tea-bagging postulant) by endorsing the prevalent government's new-wave predisposition to ex-post facto in its newer redefinitions of the "Can't-do-no-wrong" super personhood of Congress's Fed-infused, corporate godhead. Virtually ALL those mortgages will legislatively be wholly revived and executively re-virginized, thereby saving the slave-masters from their own greedy, criminal excesses.
Got your shackles back on yet?
Democracy Now - debtor's prison
US Poverty Change.org - debtor's prison
Wikipedia - debtor's prison
Disinfo.com - debtor's prison
D.) Combo answers (Added ex post facto)
The Vidiot contributed...
While I love the holiday music up to and including the Rockette's tap-dancing "Jingle Bells"
HOWEVER...
I do not like feeling pressured to spend a lot of money to see the family, along with the resulting guilt trip that ensues when I either don't show up, or I show up without any gifts in hand for the kiddies, other than liquor of course because nothing makes family seem less irritating than liquor... Except maybe a few Xanax... Or better yet, Xanax AND liquor!
I also do not like the crass consumerism that has taken over something that is, at the very least, a lovely time meant to celebrate birth and rebirth, love and appreciation. The images of those people (and I use that term lightly) who crush, trample and stampede their not inconsiderable heft through the doors of discount stores in an effort to buy just that thing that the ads have told them they need to fill that empty void...er, I mean make that particular someone happy really disgust me.
Then there's always the inevitable hectoring by the various pundits and pontificators about the meaning of this or that, who's co-opting what, and so forth and so on. Ugh.
SO, I guess my answer is somewhere between B & C: Celebrate it how you want to celebrate it, those who disagree with you be damned, and do something memorable for yourself and the person(s) you hold dearest in your life; Reaffirm your love, your life and your friendship.
mj thoughtfully replied...
I must, in all truthfulness, combine two answers...
I'm mostly inclined to C, but with a touch of A. I really enjoyed the holiday as a child, in no small part because everyone tried to be nice (even if for venal reasons). As an artsy type little kid, I also enjoyed the decorations.
We didn't play a lot of Christmas music around the house when I was growing up. In fact, the only album that sticks in my memory was by Nat King Cole. I still love it, but mostly because of the way he sang. I cannot abide cutesy songs (I'm looking at you, ghost of Burl Ives) or Muzak versions of carols. Okay, for no reason I can fathom, I do like Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer.
I still love How the Grinch Stole Christmas, the cartoon version with the voices of Boris Karloff and Tony the Tiger, not the Jim Carey abomination. (I got really pissed one year when the only scheduled showing of HtGSC was preempted by the Billy Graham Crusade locally.)
Each year, spouse and I have a Christmas party for, mostly, co-workers. One of them once asked him, "Why a Christmas party? You're (Spousal unit) Jewish and mj doesn't seem to be a believer." He answered "She is a believer. She believes in Christmas ornaments." I have a collection of hand crafted ornaments and some antique reproductions. And I like to decorate the tree
And then there's the food.
Yes, it is what it is, and I try to enjoy what I can about it, since it isn't going away.
Indeed, mj, indeed... Yer last sentence sums it up fer me quite nicely. Enjoy the positive, ignore the negative as best one can... This, too, shall pass...
And Vic in AK responded (a bit late):
Spending the season with the Love of My Life (our first together) in the tranquil environs of the bucolically (but inaccurately) named Moose Pass, Alaska,we hand paint our home-made paper mache ornaments for our soon to be cut tree (Hmmm.where we gonna find one of THEM????)and sell on EEEE-Bay treasures culled from the waste transfer station dumpsters to buy each-other gifts (like"Gift of the Magi" but stinky) our sour dough starters bubbling away ...ready for tomorrows Pannycakes (to be served with her just jarred High-Bush Cranberry syrup or my earlier canned Rose-Hip jam) and to make the breads and rolls on Turkey Day ...I can think of no Happier time of Year or any Place I would rather spend it and with NO-ONE more special than my Thia-Ley....dang, forgot the question.
Thanks to all responders! As ever was, Yer the Best!... Oh, and have a great Turkey Day! (whether ya want to, or not, Haha..)
BadToTheBoneBob
~~~~~~~~~~~
And now, in keeping with the Holiday Season theme, I submit fer yer approval...
New Question
The 'Scope or Grope' Edition
"Resistance is Futile"
If you don't want to pass through an airport scanner that allows security agents to see an image of your naked body or to undergo the alternative, a thorough manual search, you may have to find another way to travel this holiday season. The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is warning that any would-be commercial airline passenger who enters an airport checkpoint and then refuses to undergo the method of inspection designated by TSA will not be allowed to fly and also will not be permitted to simply leave the airport. That person will have to remain on the premises to be questioned by the TSA and possibly by local law enforcement. Anyone refusing faces fines up to $11,000 and possible arrest... $11,000 fine, arrest possible for some who refuse airport scans and pat downs - South Florida Sun-Sentinel.com
If you were (or are) planning to travel this Holiday Season, what's it gonna be?
1.) Scope
2.) Grope
3.) Car, train, bus...
4.) I'm stayin' home, Dagnabbit!
Send your response to
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
David Bruce: Wise Up! Thanksgiving/Food (The Athens News)
In 1939, May Wale Brown left Austria to come to New York City to be with her two brothers. She arrived on Thanksgiving Day, and of course the big Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade was being held. Her brothers, who loved to tease her, told her that they had arranged the parade in order to welcome her to America.
Paul Krugman: There Will Be Blood (New York Times)
One of our parties has made it clear that it has no interest in making America governable, unless it's doing the governing.
Annie Lowrey: Tap That Asset (Slate)
The Kardashians try to cash in on the bad economy's hottest new trend: the prepaid debit card.
Farhad Manjoo: Every Day's a Tax Holiday (Slate)
How Amazon.com undersells Best Buy, the Apple store, and almost everybody else.
David Sirota: To Deter Crime, Get Tough on Wall Street (Creators Sydicate)
Often, the most provocative ideas arise after swigs of whiskey. This is especially true when a Rolling Stone reporter is around - and, as I recently learned, it's all but guaranteed when that Rolling Stoner is Matt Taibbi, aka the heir to the magazine's gonzo throne.
NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF: When Donations Go Astray (The New York Times)
Christians, Jews and Muslims are often very generous. But this holiday season, make sure you know where your money is really going.
Interviewed by Jean Stein: William Faulkner (The Paris Review; from 1956)
"The good artist believes that nobody is good enough to give him advice. He has supreme vanity. No matter how much he admires the old writer, he wants to beat him."
A.N. Wilson: Leo Tolstoy, Russia's Thunderous Prophet (Slate)
The great writer's life and work, 100 years on.
Titus Andronicus: 'Well, we do try to get the kids excited' (The Guardian)
Literate lyrics and a rabble-rousing reputation as a live act is a rare combination - but the historic anthems of New Jersey's Titus Andronicus knock Hermione Hoby sideways.
Greg Kot: 'The Coug' is dead to John Mellencamp, as are record companies and the Internet (Chicago Tribune)
To record his latest album, "No Better Than This" (Rounder), John Mellencamp hatched a plan with producer T Bone Burnett. They would set up a mono tape recorder and a single microphone and knock out a bunch of new songs with a small band.
Gina McIntyre: "Danny Elfman knows the score: Tim Burton 'opened every door for me'" (Los Angeles Times)
Fans of Tim Burton's films have come to treasure the scores by composer Danny Elfman as an essential part of the viewing experience.
Danny Trejo: the face that launched a thousand bit parts (The Guardian)
From junkie thief to innumerable character roles, the man with the most striking mug in Hollywood is finally getting, with Machete, his chance to star. John Patterson meets Danny Trejo.
David Bruce has 39 Kindle books on Amazon.com with 250 anecdotes in each book. Each book is $1, so for $39 you can buy 9,750 anecdotes. Search for "Funniest People," "Coolest People, "Most Interesting People," "Kindest People," "Religious Anecdotes," and "Maximum Cool."
wrote:
answered:
From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
Reader Suggestions
Michelle in AZ
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Still sunny, but about 10° cooler than seasonal.
Reunited With Son
Aung San Suu Kyi
Myanmar's pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi was reunited Tuesday with a son she last saw a decade ago, in an emotional moment at the Yangon airport 10 days after she was released from detention.
Kim Aris, 33, was finally granted a visa by the military regime after waiting for several weeks in neighboring Thailand. Just before walking into the airport terminal, the 65-year old Suu Kyi, who was released Nov. 13 after more than seven years under house arrest, told reporters, "I am very happy."
Tears welled up in Suu Kyi's eyes when she first saw her son. A smiling Suu Kyi slipped her arm around his waist as the two posed briefly for photographers and then they walked out of the airport holding hands.
Clearly showing support for his mother's cause, Aris bared his right arm before airport security and the public to reveal a tatoo of the flag and symbol of Suu Kyi's party, the National League for Democracy. Suu Kyi looked at it closely and smiled. The flag and symbol feature a fighting peacock and a star.
Aung San Suu Kyi
Says Comcast/NBC May Have Broken Law
Senator Al Franken
Senator Al Franken, a critic of Comcast Corp's proposed deal for control of NBC Universal, asked the Justice Department on Monday to investigate whether the giant cable company had engaged in "illegal collaboration" concerning its intended target.
Franken said that on September 26 Comcast had named its chief operating officer, Steve Burke, as the prospective chief executive of NBC Universal. Last week, Comcast named several executives who would hold top jobs at NBC Universal after the cable company took control of the broadcaster and movie studio from General Electric Co.
"By announcing the future leadership of NBC Universal well in advance of federal approval, Comcast may be seeking to indirectly exert managerial and operational control of that company," wrote Franken, once a performer on NBC's Saturday Night Live.
"As a result, Comcast's actions may constitute 'gun-jumping' in violation of the letter and spirit of federal antitrust law," Franken wrote in the letter to Christine Varney, head of the Justice Department's antitrust division.
Senator Al Franken
Plane Engine Scare
Leonardo DiCaprio
Hollywood heartthrob Leonardo DiCaprio, star of "Titanic," was among passengers on a Delta Airline jet forced to make an emergency landing in New York after losing one engine, a report said Monday.
DiCaprio, 36, "avoided disaster at 30,000 feet," UsMagazine.com reported.
The plane, bound for Moscow, had to return to John F. Kennedy airport shortly after take-off Sunday when an engine suddenly shut down.
DiCaprio, who was on his way to Russia to attend a meeting on tiger preservation efforts, even "signed autographs for all the crew members when they landed," the celebrity news magazine said.
Leonardo DiCaprio
Gets Movie Reboot
"Buffy the Vampire Slayer"
She started the modern, pop culture craze for all things vampire, and now stake-wielding, butt-kicking Buffy, the vampire slayer, is getting the reboot in a new Hollywood movie, producers said on Monday.
"Buffy the Vampire Slayer," which tells of a teenage girl named Buffy who learns her destiny is to chase and kill the living dead, originated as a 1992, B-movie starring Kristy Swanson as Buffy and became a cult hit on video and DVD.
By the late 1990s, it had morphed into a widely-watched television program of the same name with Sarah Michelle Gellar. The show made stars of Gellar, David Boreanaz, Alyson Hannigan and others, and it preceded the current round of hits with the venerable old genre, including the "Twilight" movies and "True Blood" and "The Vampire Diaries" on TV.
"Details of the film are being kept under wraps, but I can say, while this is not your high school Buffy, she'll be just as witty, tough, and sexy as we all remember her to be," Charles Roven added. He called the new movie a "re-imagining" of the slayer.
"Buffy the Vampire Slayer"
Replacing Lindsay Lohan
Malin Akerman
It didn't take long for Lindsay Lohan's replacement for the Linda Lovelace biopic, "Inferno," to be announced.
"We are casting Malin Akerman for the role of Linda Lovelace," director Matthew Wilder was quoted as telling E! News in a report that ran Sunday. "We are currently in negotiations and working out the legalities of bringing her on board."
A day earlier, Wilder revealed he had parted ways with Lohan, citing "the impossibility" of insuring the troubled actress "and some other issues."
With Akerman ("Watchmen," "27 Dresses") in the part, Wilder believes the stalled project will get back on track with plans to shoot in the first quarter of 2011.
Malin Akerman
Renews Three Reality Shows
Syfy
Syfy has ordered additional episodes of three original reality shows.
The network said Friday it has renewed "Fact or Faked: Paranormal Files" for a second season and "Ghost Hunters International" for a third. It has also ordered 12 more half-hour episodes for the current season of "Hollywood Treasure."
"Fact or Faked" was a breakout show in Syfy's Thursday night block of reality programs this summer. The second season will start production in early 2011. "Hollywood Treasure" launched in October as Syfy's best new reality franchise premiere in six years.
Syfy
TV Networks Win Rrder Against
FilmOn.com
Four major television networks Fox, CBS, ABC and NBC won a temporary restraining order against FilmOn.com Plc, a company that streams the signals of TV stations over the Web without permission of the networks, according to a report in the Los Angeles Times.
Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York issued the order, the paper said.
The TV companies have said FilmOn.com is violating copyright laws by taking the free-to-air signals and streaming them without permission or compensation.
Fox is owned by News Corporation Rupert, CBS by CBS Corp, ABC is a unit of Walt Disney Co and NBC is a unit of General Electric Co.
FilmOn.com
Not Yet In Prison
Wesley Snipes
The attorney for Wesley Snipes says the actor has not yet surrendered to federal authorities to begin serving a three-year prison sentence for a tax conviction.
Attorney Daniel Meachum said in an e-mail Monday that he's focused on trying to free Snipes rather than a surrender date. Snipes has been free on bail for two years while appealing his 2008 conviction for willful failure to file income tax returns.
A Florida federal judge last week ordered Snipes to begin serving his prison sentence but did not set a surrender date.
The 48-year-old Snipes starred in the "Blade" trilogy, "White Men Can't Jump" and other films. He has recently been in Atlanta working on a new movie called "Master Daddy."
Wesley Snipes
NYC Jeweler Sues
Courtney Love
A celebrity jeweler says Courtney Love hasn't returned nearly $114,000 worth of borrowed baubles, and the gem dealer is suing to get them back.
The rocker borrowed two white gold and diamond chains, a white gold, floral-design mesh bracelet and a pair of white gold and diamond pave hoop earrings on Sept. 21, Jacob & Co. said in a lawsuit filed Monday. The suit says she has returned only the bracelet, despite demands for the other pieces.
She indicated to the jeweler that she'd lost the items, but their agreement specified that she was responsible for them "regardless of loss or damage," said the company's lawyer, Jeffrey Klarsfeld. Love's spokesman and lawyer didn't immediately respond to messages.
New York-based Jacob & Co. was founded by "Jacob the Jeweler" Arabov, also called Jacob Arabo. He gained cachet in hip-hop circles and became known as the "King of Bling" before going to federal prison in 2008 for lying to investigators looking into a multistate drug ring.
Courtney Love
'Dinner Appearance'
Capri Anderson
A porn star who locked herself in the bathroom last month in the midst of a drunken rampage by actor Charlie Sheen at New York's Plaza Hotel said on Monday she will file civil charges against the actor for assault.
Capri Anderson accused the "Two and a Half Men" star of grabbing her around the neck and throwing things at her.
Anderson told the "Good Morning America" on Monday she was promised $3500 to make a "dinner appearance" at a New York restaurant. She said the 45-year-old actor became increasingly intoxicated at the restaurant, speaking in a "vulgar" way while making several trips to the bathroom.
When they returned to the hotel, she said he snorted a "white powdery substance," before she initially, willingly began to have "a little bit of romance".
Capri Anderson
Files Suit
Charlie Sheen
Charlie Sheen is striking back at a woman who accused him of abuse in a nationally televised interview, by suing her for extortion. The actor is suing Capri Anderson, who was found locked in the bathroom of his Manhattan hotel suite last month. He filed suit hours after Anderson went on ABC's "Good Morning America" and accused him of using racial slurs and grabbing her by the throat.
Sheen's lawsuit claims Anderson threatened to make false allegations about the star unless he paid her $1 million.
The suit says Anderson's allegations are false and calls them a "sensational tale."
Sheen's filing pre-empts a lawsuit Anderson said she would file against Sheen for battery and false imprisonment.
Charlie Sheen
Wednesday Protest
Security
As if air travel over the Thanksgiving holiday isn't tough enough, it could be even worse this year: Airports could see even more disruptions because of a loosely organized Internet boycott of full-body scans.
Even if only a small percentage of passengers participate, experts say it could mean longer lines, bigger delays and hotter tempers.
The protest, National Opt-Out Day, is scheduled for Wednesday to coincide with the busiest travel day of the year. The Obama administration's top transportation security official implored passengers Monday not to participate, saying boycotts would only serve to "tie up people who want to go home and see their loved ones."
"Just one or two recalcitrant passengers at an airport is all it takes to cause huge delays," said Paul Ruden, a spokesman for the American Society of Travel Agents, which has warned its more than 8,000 members about delays resulting from the body-scanner boycott.
Security
Has Hopes
Barbara Bush
Feisty former first lady Barbara Bush said in an interview airing this week that Republican favorite Sarah Palin, who has hinted at having White House ambitions, should instead stay in her remote wilderness state of Alaska.
Speaking to CNN television alongside her husband ex-president George H.W. Bush, the former first lady offered a backhanded compliment to Palin, before delivering her zinger.
"I sat next to her once. Thought she was beautiful. And she's very happy in Alaska -- I hope she'll stay there," said the former first lady, who is known for her quick wit and her tart tongue.
The former first lady's view mirrors that of many in the US Republican establishment, which has watched with dismay as Palin and her fellow insurgents from the Tea Party movement became increasingly powerful players on the US political landscape.
Barbara Bush
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