Tidings (12)

Kaleidoscopic cities filmed by Michael Shainblum.

As is the custom here, posting will be intermittent over the holidays and readers are advised to subscribe to the blog feed, which will alert you to anything new as and when it materialises. Thanks for another 1.5 million or so visits this year and thousands of comments, many of which prompted discussions that are much more interesting than the actual posts. Which is pretty much the idea. And particular thanks to all those who’ve made PayPal donations to keep this rickety barge above water. It’s much appreciated. Curious newcomers and those with nothing better to do are welcome to rummage through the reheated series in search of entertainment.

To you and yours, a very good one. 

Comments

[Pogonip]

Likewise!

Hey, I want a refund for Christmas.

[JuliaM]

Merry ChristmasEveEve, David! And a very happy Christmas & New Year ahead for you and yours.

[Rafi]

Kaleidoscopic cities

That was a bit intense for 8am. :-)

Merry Christmas to all who ride this rickety barge.

[Rafi]

Ps. I've left you something under the tree.

[carbon based lifeform]

Merry Christmas, David. And to all the heathens.

[David]

I’ve left you something under the tree.

Bless you, sir. May your chopping board always be hygienic and never sullied with undetected garlic, resulting in a dessert that’s best forgotten yet often brought up by others.

[David]

Here’s a thing. Several of them, in fact.

Via Tim Newman.

[David]

Elite credentials.

[John D]

Kaleidoscopic cities

That's great. I think I saw Singapore.

Merry Christmas.

[David]

I think I saw Singapore.

The cities being kaleidoscoped are Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, New York, Dubai, Doha, Shanghai and, yes, Singapore.

[Damian]

So, if I understand correctly, a PayPal donation guarantees that the reader no longer sees those posts about modern woke art that appear every so often? That's the kind of tiered membership I can get behind.

[Farnsworth M Muldoom]

Elite credentials.

Pretty remarkable, seeing as how he was rejected by all the Florida state schools.

However, from the reliably red Huffingpaint Pest Getting an A-letter grade isn't above average for undergraduate students at Harvard University; it's the norm.

The bottom line is that in four years the ignorant little git will leave with a fancy piece of paper from a high priced diploma mill, just as ignorant, but with a massively inflated ego because Harvard.

[David]

So, if I understand correctly,

And a place in Heaven.

[sk60]

Merry Christmas y'all.

[David]

Hardcore.

[Captain Nemo]

To you and yours, a very good one.

Thank you and likewise, David. Merry Christmas to you, your other half Chris, and your respective families. Now, time to pour myself a martini using Noel Coward's famous recipe. Cheers everyone!

[Darleen]

The bottom line is that in four years the ignorant little git will leave with a fancy piece of paper from a high priced diploma mill, just as ignorant, but with a massively inflated ego because Harvard.

David Hogg was just accepted to Harvard -- SAT score of 1250. Bet he'll pull straight-As at Harvard, too.

[David]

David Hogg was just accepted to Harvard -- SAT score of 1250.

It occurs to me that there ought to be a word for the opposite of charisma.

[pst314]

It occurs to me that there ought to be a word for the opposite of charisma.

Charisn'tma.

[Steve E]

Hardcore.

Photoshop. It has to be photoshop. That kind of perfection is just not possible.

[ Has fit. Throws wrapping material to the floor. Adds more rum to the eggnog. ]

[David]

Charisn’tma.

Charismaren’t, surely?

[Captain Nemo]

It occurs to me that there ought to be a word for the opposite of charisma

Amsirahc?

[pst314]

Charismaren’t, surely?

Sorry, no. Terry Pratchett is Never Wrong.™

[Farnsworth M Muldoon]

It occurs to me that there ought to be a word for the opposite of charisma.

There are several, just not generally used in polite company.

[Hal]

It occurs to me that there ought to be a word for the opposite of charisma.

As far as a phrase, one easily notices hipsters demonstrating a certain Je ne sais pas.

[Liz]

Have a wonderful Christmas David and everyone here.

Left a little something in your tip jar. :-)

[David]

Left a little something in your tip jar. :-)

Bless you, madam. May your rolls of leftover Christmas wrapping paper, stuffed right at the back of a closet and buried under numerous other neglected items, remain uncrumpled and perfectly usable twelve months later.

[Pogonip]

Buy one of those Christmas-wrap organizers. Doesn’t take up much space & keeps them uncrumpled.

[Steve E]

Tip jar has been hit!

Thank you for putting up with me in your fine establishment. This seat by the loo is really not so bad since you've put in the balsam fir scented strips for the holidays.

Cheers

[David]

Tip jar has been hit!

Bless you, sir. May you never know the horror of squeezy-bottle mayonnaise, which is totally the wrong consistency.

[Pogonip]

Today’s funny idiocy:

I’ve been playing Cat Collection (you get it under its Japanese name, Neko Atsume). This is elegantly simple. You start out with a yard and 300 fish, the currency of the game, which you use to buy food and toys to attract cats to the yard. The cats leave tips of fish. The object of the game is to fill an album with pictures of all 66 (I think) cats. So in looking for hints I found this:

https://recombu.com/mobile/article/neko-atsume-how-to-get-rare-cats-guide

“We’re not sure how we feel about all of the game’s obviously female rare cats playing a passive role.”

Well. Put aside that Alex Todd is being paid to write although she (? it’s hard to tell from the small picture) cannot construct a sentence. (Does she mean all the game’s rare cats are obviously female, or that all the rare cats that appear female play a “passive role”?). She’s talking about CARTOON CATS in a game invented by a guy whiling away a slow day at work. Is there nothing, no matter how minor, that feminists can’t pounce upon (sorry)? It used to be annoying but now it’s farcical.

Alex may also be the only person on earth who doesn’t know that tortoiseshell and calico cats are almost always female; see messybeast.com for a lucid explanation of why that is.

Has anyone ever encountered a tortie or calico tomcat? I haven’t and don’t know anyone who has.

[Pogonip]

I went to her site and looked; messybeast has updated her tortie/calico tomcat article, and nowadays they seem to be everywhere. So if you haven’t seen one, don’t give up!

Feminized males seem to be becoming more common in several species, including humans. I’ve often wondered if one possible cause is all those female hormones in modern water. It’s politically incorrect to study the effects of same, so we may never know.

[Pogonip]

Merry Christmas from Everyday Feminism!

https://everydayfeminism.com/2015/06/examples-christian-privilege/

I wonder what part of the U.S. the writer lives in? Here in flyover country, I can’t remember the last time I encountered a business that was closed for Easter.

[Spiny Norman]

I wonder what part of the U.S. the writer lives in?

Canada, which is probably why she thinks stores and businesses in Jesusland are closed on Easter.

The woman claims to be a teacher, yet writes like a adolescent student.

[Spiny Norman]

Edit: She's Canadian, but currently a teacher of "human sexuality" at Brooklyn College in New York, which is even less likely to ever see "flyover country" people - and almost as insular as the SF Bay Area.

[Farnsworth M Muldoon]

As over on the far side it is already, ,good old Irish Christmas Eve tune to start the day - a Muldoon family favorite !

[Pogonip]

Merry Christmas, Muldoon, and may the saints add preservatives to ye!

[Daniel Ream]

Canada, which is probably why she thinks stores and businesses in Jesusland are closed on Easter.

Aye, we're an odd bunch.

[[+]]

Hope everyone has a great Christmas and New Year.

*hits tip jar*

Buy yourself a bottle of the good stuff, David. :-D

[David]

Buy yourself a bottle of the good stuff, David.

Bless you. May the changing of the duvet cover be an effortless ballet, not an Augean chore.

[David]

And this is your brain on identity politics.

Just say no, kids.

[Connor]

"I'm told that "minority" is now an incorrect term (like "illegal alien") on campus. We're supposed to say "marginalized groups." Fine: nothing will marginalize a struggling student more than telling them they are exempt from academic canons of excellence and achievement. But this is the Orwellian world of higher education today, where the real racists parade under the banner of anti-racism."

https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2018/12/academic-absurdity-of-the-week-writing-is-racist.php

[David]

nothing will marginalize a struggling student more than telling them they are exempt from academic canons of excellence and achievement.

That, as they say.

Mr Inoue, by the way, has been mentioned here before. He’s the educator who took “over a year” to write a 500-word press release.

[Jonathan]

LoL:

[David]

Scenes.

Via Damian.

[Jonathan]

Take a short road trip on Mars.

[R. Sherman]

I figured 'tis the season to finally pay to have that unfortunate red wine stain on the sofa cleaned.

Merry Christmas.

[R. Sherman]

Godfrey Elfwick's muse.

[David]

I figured ‘tis the season to finally pay to have that unfortunate red wine stain on the sofa cleaned.

Bless you, sir. May an even number of socks always emerge from the dryer.

[R. Sherman]

May an even number of socks always emerge from the dryer.

Not to look a gift blessing in the mouth, but, um, it's not working.

[David]

No refunds. Credit note only.

[David]

I did get these blessings at a substantial discount.

[David]

This is one of the many arguments in favour of free and unfettered expression. We get to learn who civilisation’s enemies are. The nasty leftists whom Suzanne Moore refers to do not “mean well,” and now, thanks to social media especially, both she and the rest of us can all see this.

Brian Micklethwaite, here.

[R. Sherman]

Merry Christmas to the Commentariat and a blessed 2019!

[Pogonip]

Merry Christmas!

And may God bless us, every obe!

[Pogonip]

And every oNe, too!

[WTP]

Every Kenobi. Sorry, OCD again.

[Farnsworth M Muldoon]

For the Everyday Mentalcase fans and assorted SJWs out there, a cherry Christmas Winter Holiday tune.

[Pogonip]

Help me, Every Kenobi. You’re my only hope.

[Farnsworth M Muldoon]

...and now the best Christmas music you'll ever hear.

[pst314]

"Every Kenobi."

Hey, What about us obe's?

[pst314]

"the best Christmas music you'll ever hear"

Nice, thanks. Joe Pass was an excellent musician.

[Farnsworth M Muldoon]

Joe Pass was an excellent musician.

Indeed he was, there is also Kenny Burrell Christmas album with a tasty version of Little Drummer Boy, and for something completely different, John Fahey's The New Possibility, because I have been hacked by Russians, I am partial to his rendition of Russian Christmas Overture.

[WTP]

Damn them Russians and their italicization conspiracy. I blame Donald Trump.

[Hal]

And this is your brain on identity politics.

Sorry, that page doesn’t exist!
You can search Twitter using the search box below or return to the homepage.

Apparently that identity ceased to exist.

[Pogonip]

And I heard him exclaim, as he drove out of sight,
“Credit Notes Only! And to all a good night!”

Merry Christmas, Host, Half, and all friends and relatives thereof!

[R. Sherman]

I feel compelled to post a story which seems to have more relevance with each passing year. I beg forgiveness from our host, inasmuch as this was posted some years back on my blog which is now off-line. I rely on these pages to vent and pay David Danegeld every so often for the privilege. Occasionally, I slosh decent Bordeaux on the carpet. Our host tolerates this. Why, I do not know. [Insert Smiley Emoticon Here.]

Anyway, a Christmas story:

My father was born in April, 1917 in Rush Tower, Missouri to a world without electricity or telephones or antibiotics. He grew up during the Depression and participated in the Second World War. I am his oldest child, born in the 1960s, when he was in his late 40s .

As one might imagine, during my adolescence in the mid to late 1970's, I was treated to numerous stories about life in the first half of the Twentieth Century, most along the lines of "walking five miles to and from school in the driving snow, uphill both ways."

In the wisdom of my youth, I would smile and nod politely while trying to ignore whatever he was saying.

Of course, now in my dotage, I wish I remembered more of the stories and more of the details of those that did make an impression.

Here is one.

After my father joined the Navy as an officer during World War II, he was sent for a training course at Fort Dix, New Jersey and was to be there during Christmas. As a bachelor officer, he was required to stay on post while those with wives and families were allowed leave.

Nonetheless, it was not to be a completely solitary holiday. Recall, it was a different time and in the area there were families who offered to provide a holiday meal to servicemen who had no where else to go.

Dad was the recipient of such an offer.

And so, at the appointed time, he made his way via train and subway to an address in Brooklyn, New York. It was a multifamily flat, and Dad had been informed that the family had two small girls. He had stopped at a store and purchased some small dolls for the girls and a poinsettia for the lady of the house.

He arrived at the appointed time and discovered the following fact:

His hosts were Jewish.

Yet, as he walked into their home, he saw a small Christmas tree and smelled a turkey cooking. He told me, he'd only had turkey perhaps four or five times in his life prior to that, and those were of the "killed it m'self" variety.

The girls were there and they giggled a lot because, "I spoke with a funny accent. When their parents were out of the room, they asked me to say sentences, so that they could laugh. They liked the dolls, though."

His hosts, whose name I've forgotten if I ever knew it, asked him about his life and his home, a place which to them must have sounded like Outer Mongolia. They had come to America from Europe prior to the war and now worried about not receiving word from relatives they'd left behind.

Dad told me, that at the time, he just chalked up the lack of communication to the war. He had no idea.

The other thing Dad mentioned was that they served him wine. Understand Dad was from the absolutely temperate wing of the Baptist denomination, for whom drinking alcoholic beverages was a sin. Yet he said he wasn't going to turn down the hospitality of these people who had obviously taken the trouble to create a holiday for a serviceman they'd never met before.

There were more details, but alas, I didn't take the trouble to listen closely. I am the worse for it.
Of course, it's quite possible that my dad, being the Ozark hillbilly, bible-readin', Christianist that he was, was full of crap when he behaved the way he did in 1944, and his hosts were indeed profoundly stupid in attempting submit themselves to an obviously so western, imperialistic imperative which required them to abandon their racial and religious heritage to kowtow to said bible-thumper.

Or not.

You make the call.

Again, Merry Christmas to all.

[Jen]

To our host and all the heathen rabble, a very merry Christmas. Thanks for all the laughs and head scratching. :-)

[Pogonip]

Jen, are you the Jen who used to be on balloon-juice.com. ?

[Pogonip]

Deep Thought that suddenly came upon me: if a Host has an Other Half, and said 1/2 is elsewhere, shopping for flamethrowers or whatever, have we only Half a Host, and, if so (we’re getting to the important part here) are drinks Half Price?

[David]

and, if so (we’re getting to the important part here) are drinks Half Price?

Nice try.

Right, I’m heading out of town. Play nicely. Use coasters. And a merry one to you all.

[Farnsworth M Muldoon]

Fröliche Weinachten, y'all !

[Pogonip]

I recommend the novel Krampus, The Yule Lord, by Brom.

And from Archdruid Report/Ecosophia, we have this:

https://ecosophia.dreamwidth.org/41708.html

[Ted S., Catskill Mtns., NY, USA]

Christmas music

[WTP]

Great story Sherman. Thanks for sharing.

[Darleen]

R. Sherman, thank you for sharing that. Merry Christmas.

[Pogonip]

Likewise.

[Baceseras]

God bless this house and all in it!

I've been enjoying the musical links. Here's another flavor to swirl into the Christmas spumoni:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=z-YRT-Wodgo

Jolly, y'all.

[Farnsworth M Muldoon]

...and his hosts were indeed profoundly stupid in attempting submit themselves to an obviously so western, imperialistic imperative which required them to abandon their racial and religious heritage...

A good story indeed, and in a similar vein, Christmas in Damascus.

[Farnsworth M Muldoon]

My factoti, Connie and Bonnie, have instructed our accountant, J. Beresford Tipton, to drop you a small tithing for Boxing Day. It should be ample to cover a day's supply of Campari, liquid shoe polish, and three day old bread to strain the latter through so as to make a dandy cocktail fitting for the season - За здоровье!

[David]

My factoti, Connie and Bonnie, have instructed our accountant, J. Beresford Tipton, to drop you a small tithing for Boxing Day

Bless you, sir. May your enemies know frustration, like a dog biting steam.

[pst314]

Christmas in Damascus

Is that a sign of religious tolerance, or of Islamo-fascists coopting Christmas for their own purposes?

[David]

Crime-fighting mishap.

Via Damian.

[Farnsworth M Muldoon]

@pst314

Either the Moslem ladies have had the Xtianist holiday forced upon their brown body spaces by islamophobic misogynistc cis-heteropatriarchal western imperialists, or they are just more tolerant and open minded than your average SJW.

Your call, but my money is on the latter, not that that might be damning with faint praise.

[Baceseras]

Are we sure those are Moslem ladies in the photo?

http://www.damascuscc.org/news/

[Farnsworth M Muldoon]

Are we sure those are Moslem ladies in the photo?

Given that just shy of 90% of the population is, and because Assad, for whatever his faults, has tried to make Syria a more secular country, hijabs are not mandatory in Syria, (as Mrs. Assad can attest), you can bet the riverboat that the hijab wearing ladies in the photo are not wearing them to be a fashion statement.

[WTP]

Are we sure those are Moslem ladies in the photo?

http://www.damascuscc.org/news/

Ummm...dude, I think that’s Damascus, Oregon. Though not knowing where that is in relation to Portland...ah...never mind.

[Baceseras]

dude, I think that's Damascus, Oregon 

Oh?..

Never mind.< /emilylatellavoice > 

[Hal]

Are we sure those are Moslem ladies in the photo?

Damascus prepares for Christmas without mortar fire

[Zionist Overlord #73]

Touching story, R. Sherman.

I'm assuming Farnsworth's image is not a recently-discovered photograph of that evening.

[Farnsworth M Muldoon]

I'm assuming Farnsworth's image is not a recently-discovered photograph of that evening.

No that was really Damascus, this one, OTOH...

[David]

Enthusiasm.

Via Damian.

[Spiny Norman]

Enthusiasm.

SQUIRREL!!!

[Farnsworth M Muldoon]

SJWs: We Must Ruin All The Things.

[WTP]

SJWs: We Must Ruin All The Things.

Cool. Now do “Closer” by Nine Inch Nails.

[Pogonip]

Merry Christmas, Tim Newman, this one’s for you!

https://everydayfeminism.com/2018/07/polyamory-difficult-disabled/

[Hal]

Jordan Peterson, commenting on phenomena . . .

[Farnsworth M Muldoon]

From Pogonip's link, a blinding flash of the obvious:

5. For folks with mental health issues, polyamory can be even more complicated.

[David]

Jordan Peterson, commenting on phenomena...

Heh.

[Tim Newman]

Merry Christmas, Tim Newman, this one’s for you!

All over it, mate!