Of course there was a time when the Solstice sacrifices were more visceral and the evergreen was covered in things that pleased only ravens and such, but we have put all that behind us by opting for the possibility of electrocuting one another and causing chaos on the power grid.

What a brilliant idea: moving a large supply of pre-kindling soaked with highly flammable resins into your house, loading it down with petrochemical-based ornaments, lacing it with heat-producing electrical devices, and surrounding the base with cardboard boxes and tissue paper. You just can’t have a traditional celebration without a proto-bonfire in your living room.

I do think that followers of Mithras might want to curtail their typical birthday service in light of Mad-Cow Disease, but global warming will certainly make the services in the oak wood in traditional druidic robes more comfortable.

When you put up your stocking on the mantel and put out the turnips for Gouger, Rooter, Tusker, and Snouter as well as the pork pie and sherry for the Hogfather, you can rest assured the Sun will come up, because it just slipped around back to return the lager it rented.

Enjoy! You have nothing to fear, except that sniveling little creep with the camera/phone at the office party or the eggnog that was put out rather early causing you to suspect that the bits on top aren’t nutmeg. [The pictures probably won't appear on the 'Net and the brandy will surely take care of the salmonella.]

A Calendar of Coming Events

December 6^th

Feast of Saint Nicholas

December 13^th

Feast of St. Lucia

December 20^th

First day of Hanukkah [begins at sundown which is the night of the 25^th of Kislev on Jewish calenders]

December 21^st

Winter Solstice [11:30PM Central Standard Time]
HogWatch

December 23^rd

Festivus

December 25^th

Christmas
Birth of Mithras

December 26^th

Boxing Day
Feast of Saint Stephan
First day of Kwanzaa

January 6^th

Feast of the Epiphany
Día de los Reyes

January 7^th

Orthodox Christmas

[When the Julian solar calendar replaced the old lunar calendar the Winter Solstice was December 25^th. When Pope Gregory corrected the calendar he only corrected it by 10 days and not the full two weeks it was out of synch with the sun, so the date of the Solstice is now the 21^st. Most Orthodox Churches continue to use the Julian calendar which is why their Christmas is on January 7^th.]

Oh, this is the explanation of NODWISH coined by Mercury X23

The major bit was switching to the Twenty-Ten template so I could have more space to write, and cleaning up the blog roll a bit.

It does get annoying, especially when they don’t tell people what is going on, or what the time frame will be to fix it.

There is no indication of a problem on the off-network status site, but I can’t reach anyone to report a problem.

Sorry about that.

Ho Ho Ho!

Happy NODWISH
С Рождеством Христовым
Sung Tan Chuk Ha
Vrolijk Kerstfeest
Nadolig Llawen
Fröhliche Weihnachten
Joyeux Noël
Buon Natale
Feliz Navidad
God Jul
Rauhallista Joulua
Happy Christmas

Note: title “borrowed from here.

Once again, Why Now? is pleased to present the link to the webcam of Gävlebocken, The biggest Christmas Goat in the world [now with a blog].

From Steve Bates of Yellow Something Something in the comments from 2006:

Why build a giant goat of straw,
Which most of us would scarcely note?
Some, though, defy the very law,
To vandalize the Gävle Goat.

In some years, they used wayward cars;
In others, flaming arrows smote.
This year’s survives, although with scars…
A fact that gets some people’s goat.

A webcam and some watchful eyes,
A flame-retardant second coat,
Should save it… unless Dubya spies
The thing, and claims it’s his pet goat!

- SB the YSS

Of course there was a time when the Solstice sacrifices were more visceral and the evergreen was covered in things that pleased only ravens and such, but we have put all that behind us by opting for the possibility of electrocuting one another and causing chaos on the power grid.

What a brilliant idea: moving a large supply of pre-kindling soaked with highly flammable resins into your house, loading it down with petrochemical-based ornaments, lacing it with heat-producing electrical devices, and surrounding the base with cardboard boxes and tissue paper. You just can’t have a traditional celebration without a proto-bonfire in your living room.

I do think that followers of Mithras might want to curtail their typical birthday service in light of Mad-Cow Disease, but global warming will certainly make the services in the oak wood in traditional druidic robes more comfortable.

When you put up your stocking on the mantel and put out the turnips for Gouger, Rooter, Tusker, and Snouter as well as the pork pie and sherry for the Hogfather, you can rest assured the Sun will come up, because it just slipped around back to return the lager it rented.

Enjoy! You have nothing to fear, except that sniveling little creep with the camera/phone at the office party or the eggnog that was put out rather early causing you to suspect that the bits on top aren’t nutmeg. [The pictures probably won't appear on the 'Net and the brandy will surely take care of the salmonella.]

A Calendar of Coming Events

December 6^th

Feast of Saint Nicholas

December 11^th

First day of Hanukkah [begins at sundown which is the night of the 12^th on Jewish calenders]

December 13^th

Feast of St. Lucia

December 21^st

Winter Solstice [11:47AM Central Standard Time]
HogWatch

December 23^rd

Festivus

December 25^th

Christmas
Birth of Mithras

December 26^th

Boxing Day
Feast of Saint Stephan
First day of Kwanzaa

January 6^th

Feast of the Epiphany
Día de los Reyes

January 7^th

Orthodox Christmas

[When the Julian solar calendar replaced the old lunar calendar the Winter Solstice was December 25^th. When Pope Gregory corrected the calendar he only corrected it by 10 days and not the full two weeks it was out of synch with the sun, so the date of the Solstice is now the 21^st. Most Orthodox Churches continue to use the Julian calendar which is why their Christmas is on January 7^th.]

Oh, this is the explanation of NODWISH coined by Mercury X23

It is 820 miles [1320 km] West-Southwest of the Cape Verde Islands. This was Tropical Depression Three this morning.

Here’s the link for NOAA’s latest satellite images.