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Overnight Open Thread [12/21/2021]

The main reason Santa is so jolly is because he knows where all the bad girls live.

-- George Carlin

I heard the bells on Christmas Day
Their old, familiar carols play,
And wild and sweet
The words repeat
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

-- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Let the children have their night of fun and laughter, let the gifts of Father Christmas delight their play. Let us grown-ups share to the full in their unstinted pleasures.

-- Winston Churchill

It is my heart-warm and world-embracing Christmas hope and aspiration that all of us -- the high, the low, the rich, the poor, the admired, the despised, the loved, the hated, the civilized, the savage -- may -- eventually be gathered together in heaven of everlasting rest and peace and bliss -- except the inventor of the telephone.

-- Mark Twain

[Supposedly Twain was offered stock in Alexander Graham Bell's fledgling company, but he declined. He was a famously awful businessman!]

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I enjoy the Christmas season very much, for some, but obviously not all of the reasons that most of you do! The air is brisk (at least around here), the Christmas lights that festoon many homes are always fun to see...even the ridiculously garish ones...festive and special food and drink are front-and-center in the shops, and the tone, even in this cranky and sometimes gruff and nasty part of the country, is softer and happier. Wishing people a "Merry Christmas" is often heartfelt (just don't say "happy holidays" around me!), and at the very least a more pleasant salutation than the barely audible grunts that pass for politeness for most of the year.

And perhaps most of all, the religiosity is not lost on me. It is an important and happy time for Christians, and any focus on devotion to religion, even though it is not mine, is a positive thing for our country and culture. Yes, the commercialization of Christmas is horrid, but there is more...much more...to Christmas than presents and overindulging on eggnog. Like this, or this! But mostly there is a kindness in the air, and it is an opportunity to thank those around us who may richly deserve our thanks but rarely get it.

So thank you all for being such loyal and dedicated readers of this blog, and thank you for creating for yourselves an amazing community that, although it is mostly via the internet, has some grand and kind real-world effects.

Merry Christmas!

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I prefer the cars from the 1960s and even into the early 1970s, but there is something about the colors of many 1950s cars that really pops. I imagine it was a response to the austerity of the WWII years, or maybe it was paint technology improving, or something else. Regardless...they are fun!

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Sefton and I talked about this a bit in our latest podcast, but I haven't been able to get it out of my mind. We fought a war in which 600,000 Americans died, in part to end slavery. We endured societal convulsions and a fair amount of violence as we ended the last vestiges of slavery. Our Supreme Court resoundingly rejected Plessey v. Ferguson's legal precedent in favor of absolute equality.

We did it. It was a good thing. And we were in the main an egalitarian society...one that was mostly colorblind. I liked that America.

But this is pure evil. This is a conscious rejection of much of what American Exceptionalism stands for, and this attitude should be soundly rejected by all good men in our great country.

And that is it for the serious stuff!

Besides, I'm drinking a very nice bourbon...

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Commenter "Hoplite Housewife" mentioned this in the comments last month and was kind enough to dig it up and send me the link. It meanders around, but it is quite interesting and very respectful of the memory of the many men who fought and died...

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"A Letter From Santa Claus"

My Dear Susie Clemens,

I have received and read all the letters which you and your little sister have written me...I can read your and your baby sister's jagged and fantastic marks without any trouble at all. But I had trouble with those letters which you dictated through your mother and the nurses, for I am a foreigner and cannot read English writing well. You will find that I made no mistakes about the things which you and the baby ordered in your own letters—I went down your chimney at midnight when you were asleep and delivered them all myself--and kissed both of you, too...But...there were...one or two small orders which I could not fill because we ran out of stock...

There was a word or two in your mama's letter which...I took to be "a trunk full of doll's clothes." Is that it? I will call at your kitchen door about nine o'clock this morning to inquire. But I must not see anybody and I must not speak to anybody but you. When the kitchen doorbell rings, George must be blindfolded and sent to the door. You must tell George he must walk on tiptoe and not speak—otherwise he will die someday. Then you must go up to the nursery and stand on a chair or the nurse's bed and put your ear to the speaking tube that leads down to the kitchen and when I whistle through it you must speak in the tube and say, "Welcome, Santa Claus!" Then I will ask whether it was a trunk you ordered or not. If you say it was, I shall ask you what color you want the trunk to be...and then you must tell me every single thing in detail which you want the trunk to contain. Then when I say "Good-by and a merry Christmas to my little Susy Clemens," you must say "Good-by, good old Santa Claus, I thank you very much." Then you must go down into the library and make George close all the doors that open into the main hall, and everybody must keep still for a little while.

I will go to the moon and get those things and in a few minutes I will come down the chimney that belongs to the fireplace that is in the hall—if it is a trunk you want--because I couldn't get such a thing as a trunk down the nursery chimney, you know...If I should leave any snow in the hall, you must tell George to sweep it into the fireplace, for I haven't time to do such things. George must not use a broom, but a rag—else he will die someday...If my boot should leave a stain on the marble, George must not holystone it away. Leave it there always in memory of my visit; and whenever you look at it or show it to anybody you must let it remind you to be a good little girl. Whenever you are naughty and someone points to that mark which your good old Santa Claus's boot made on the marble, what will you say, little sweetheart?

Good-by for a few minutes, till I come down to the world and ring the kitchen doorbell.

Your loving Santa Claus
Whom people sometimes call
"The Man in the Moon"

-- Samuel Langhorne Clemens
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It's a race between the most irritating music I have heard in a very long time and the amazing robotics!

Which won for you?

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This is strangely compelling to watch, and I am not sure why. Of course it might bore the crap out of most of you and hotair.com will get a huge bump in clicks tonight, but I hope not!

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Oh hell, why not one more glimpse into Dildo's soundtrack! Morons of a certain age will remember this one.

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