The Season

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas on Thursday. We had all the kids in once place for once, and we enjoyed Christmas.

I checked back into work on December 26th, and among my voluminous emails was a message from a Protestant friend that noted that Christmas was officially over. I could only think to myself: "officially over? it has only just begun!"

The Ironic Catholic has written about the difference between the seasons Advent and Christmas, and how the secular world does not make the distinction. In the secular world, Christmas starts after Thanksgiving (or perhaps after Halloween) and lasts until December 25. For the Catholic, the Octave of Christmas lasts until January 1.

So here is some Christmas cheer.

First, you can caption this picture which appears to be out of season, but was actually taken during advent. Behold, the way of the crossword!

For something a little more in a celebratory vein, check out these house lights. They are something to behold:

Santadammerung

...or, The Twilight of Santa. The Twilight Before Christmas, to be exact.

Probably the corniest scene in Twilight (the movie) is the one in the woods in which Bella reveals to Edward that she knows he's a vampire. It begs parody: subliminal "Parody This" messages spliced in between frames couldn't have done the job better. Naturally, some somebodies out in YouTubeland took the bait. Here in time for Christmas is their take (one of them, anyhow) on it:



Hat tips to the folks at Juice Box, and to Bunny Wilson at Henley the Great Dane Says BOOF! which D visited on a link from The Ironic Catholic and where he found the above.

Discounting a Precious Commodity

My jaw literally dropped when I read this in La Shawn Barber's Corner. Just in time for the holiday season, Planned Parenthood is giving out discount coupons at $25 increments. According to UPI, "The gift certificates, which are only available in $25 increments, can be used on a number of Planned Parenthood services, including abortions." What a lovely little stocking stuffer!

When life is not held at a premium,
Death can be offered at discount.

Supplication Made Easy

It seems everyone else is doing it, so I figured it would be a good time to put together an open letter to the president-elect expressing my hopes that he will address my deepest concerns. Thanks to this handy MadGlibs template (courtesy MadGlibs; form letter courtesy DarwinCatholic) I can accomplish this with a minimum of effort:

Open Letter to Obama President-elect Barack Obama, As American boxtops, we would like to flaunt you on your election as President of the United States. We hope we will be able to change with you, your administration, and our fellow boxtops to move beyond the division which has often garbled our great nation since 1066. As a result of this, many Americans have become glib, blaming others for fire ants. We face serious traffic circles in the world today, and if we hope to overcome these crises, we should make a vague effort to come together and say, "oy!!" One of the soporific elements of your campaign has been the call to end such mumps. You promised to bring people together in chocolate. We want to encourage people to work together for the common freedom. One of the critical issues which currently divides our nation is the arms race. Indeed, as you once said, "Man is the only animal that blushes. Or needs to." Let us now all come together and say, "Eat at Joe's!"

It's always interesting what a Madlib form can reveal about the contributor. My efforts above reveal me as a southerner (as evinced by my immediate selection of "fire ants" in response to the cue "a bad thing") and a female (as is evinced by my response "chocolate" to the cue "a good thing".) My approximate age is suggested by my choice of "The Arms Race" as a critical issue. The verb "change" came to mind, obviously, because it was one of the words the Obama campaign wore out during the race; of the adjectives "glib" and "soporific" I will reserve comment, but the subject of the letter was very much in mind.

Shaw on Islam, Part V: A Historian's Contribution

A major topic of discussion in the first year of the minor premise (its third blogaversary was last month!) was the veracity and accuracy of some pronouncements on Islam allegedly made by Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw. Even today a good number of our hits to this blog are on searches for "Shaw" and "the Genuine Islam." In our hunt for the truth, we found that the periodical The Genuine Islam could be found in Singapore and at the New York Library. We were stuck for further research, not having easy access to either place. A scanned or photographed image of the table of contents of Volume I, number 6 would prove or dispel the rumors that Shaw had ever written for the periodical; a copy of the article itself would be better yet. Neither, unfortunately, is yet available online. So having nothing further of worth to say on the subject, we let it drop for a while.

Fast forward to December 3 and this post on the blog "A Historian's Craft" referencing the text and debunking the overstatement of Shaw's position. Amusingly, she apparently stumbled upon the periodical, unaware of its position in Internet urban myth.

The actual article was not by Shaw, but was an interview with him. A portion of the interview, with no reference to "The Genuine Islam," is available here. Interestingly the online version omits the most cited passages.

If you are curious as to what is really said in the periodical, in context, check out A Historian's Craft. We thank its author profusely for having satisfied our curiosity, and shining the light of fact upon this much-repeated bit of legend.