Tidings
Snow scene, Hokkaido. Photographed by Tak. Via Tim.
As is the custom here, posting will be intermittent over the holidays and readers are advised to follow me on Twitter, which will alert you to anything new as 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 subscribed or made donations to keep this rickety barge above water. It’s much appreciated. Should you be gripped by an urge to express your appreciation via currency, feel free to use the buttons in the sidebar, top right. Just think of my little face lighting up.
Curious newcomers and those with nothing better to do are welcome to rummage through the reheated series in search of entertainment. You may, and probably will, find things you’d missed. And this, needless to say, is an open thread.
To you and yours, a very good one.
Select the language you wish to use.
Santa Claus, I have questions.
And to you and yours, barkeep.
Have one on me. *ping*
Bless you, sir. May your visit to the supermarket not coincide with International Lack of Spatial Awareness Day.
“Just think of my little face lighting up.“
Here’s something to contribute towards that festive glow… 😉
Bless you, madam. May your regrets be small and few.
May your visit to the supermarket not coincide with International Lack of Spatial Awareness Day.
At Christmas it’s always International Lack of Spatial Awareness Day. 🙂
Merry Christmas, barkeep and regulars.
Hereabouts, you do see a lot of people who have seemingly never been in charge of a shopping trolley before.
Achievement unlocked.
It’s a compact.
I have a question. If, while poking through the archives, you start reading one of your own posts, which you’d forgotten about, and then find yourself sniggering at one of your own jokes, which you’d also forgotten about, is that a bad thing?
I’m rather counting on it being a moral grey area.
The music is lovely. Merry Christmas to everyone.
It’s used in season two of The Crown, quite effectively.
Achievement unlocked.
Meh, he has bars to keep the bike from falling off. This is how it is done in the big leagues.
Meanwhile, as it is the season, a Christmas carol.
In the spirit of ephemera, a lad has seasonal thoughts.
“Select the language you wish to use”.
FYI the rhyming slang for cash is “bangers” as in bangers and mash.
You’d be hard pressed to find a cockney in todays East End. The languages generally used are from significantly further east.
P.s. I have just sent your Christmas“bangers”.
Merry Christmas!
And as you go about your holiday bustlings, spare a thought for us here in south Florida as we await the Iguanapocalypse. I understand Publix is sold out of hard hats. Though it’s expected we will hit highs of 81/82 here later today. The scene outside our hotel room yesterday:
Also, Ping! Merry Pingmas!
Bless you, sir. Whenever the need arises, may you always be at liberty to fart.
Bless you, sir. May you never be stuck behind a driver who’s both aggravatingly slow and alarmingly unpredictable.
Rock Paper Scissors simulator.
Christmas cave.
“All ages, family friendly drag show”
Rock Paper Scissors simulator.
Play yourself 1.
Play yourself 2.
Mele Kalikimaha.
…is that a bad thing?
Think of it as practice for your dotage. My mother gets to meet her children for the first time every day.
is that a bad thing?
You can wash away the moral greyness by dispensing a round of free drinks.
[ Hopes nobody has noticed that I laugh when re-reading David’s old posts. ]
…is that a bad thing?
Consider it practice for your dotage.
I greatly enjoy looking at old photos like that. I think it was here that many years ago you linked to a page about some old photos found at a rummage sale or such of a family that owned a liquor store and had traveled in Europe.
I have many old photos from the early 1900’s and into the 1940’s or so where I know I’m somehow related to some of the people but don’t know who exactly they are. There’s one of a costume party my mother attended when she was single where the men dressed as women, nurses and such, and the women dressed as men, mostly soldiers and cops. Quite amusing how much fun they were having. You know, because it was fun…it wasn’t really weird…yet.
Heh. I just got that. Maybe I’ll get it again later.
@WTP: ‘..spare a thought for us here in south Florida as we await the Iguanapocalypse.’
Oooh, iguana tail is delicious!
Heh. I just got that. Maybe I’ll get it again later.
Me too. I posted it twice already.
spare a thought for us here in south Florida as we await the Iguanapocalypse.
WTP, aren’t those things an invasive species? Wouldn’t *now* be a great time for local authorities to declare a bounty and get people out to gather up the critters as they can’t run away or fight?
Christmas cave.
Proving again how much kids adore playing with boxes. I remember getting a printed, cardboard playhouse one Christmas when I was 5 and I spent hours inside.
And there was nothing quite like the thrill of a neighbor getting a new refrigerator and letting us kids have the box! It was a fort! A rocketship! and when we had almost destroyed it playing, it’s last incarnation was a “ride”, where we took the battered tube up a hill, climbed in and rolled to the bottom.
Good times.
More like this, please.
John Cleese becomes what he once mocked.
Migrant says “Merry Christmas” to all of us.
By “most people” they mean “most people at that organization”.
Can Cambridge and Oxford be saved?
Imagine that! The Japanese even have vending machines that sell phone calls! What will they think of next?
Can Cambridge and Oxford be saved?
Should the staff be made to parade naked through the streets of every town in Britain while the crowds chant, ‘Shame!’ and throw lumps of excrement at them?
What will they think of next?
Mr. President, we must not allow a vending-machine gap!
Some seasonal classics.
Nuttin’ for Christmas
Good King Eccleslas
Merry Christmas, Doctor
Things That Didn’t Happen On Christmas, Part MCXXVII.
Yes, but at this point I doubt even a serious attempt to eradicate them would be successful. I don’t know what actual damage they do in the populated areas they inhabit except to give the (mostly female) tourists a bit of a scare…and my nephew…but I’d rather not get into that.
On our drive in from the interstate we passed a very new model professional looking pickup truck with a fancy “Iguana Removal Service” logo on the side. Wife and I were speculating that they probably breed and release the ones they capture. Good business.
I wish I was in Tiajuana
Eating barbequed iguana
This doesn’t surprise me. And as much as I liked him 20, 30, 40 years ago if you told me back then that this is where he would be in the future I would not have been very surprised. I always suspected that damn near every entertainer, music, comedy, drama, etc. was leftist scum underneath. I just felt social pressure to not acknowledge it openly. Granted there were times when I thought I was wrong, but it seems I was right…or something…
Actually, as I’ve been thinking about this a good bit lately, most conservatives…”conservatives” IMNSHO, deep down underneath, are leftist scum who simply had their bread buttered on the other side. Scratch most conservatives in the military or space biz or defense contractor business and you will find a shitton of people who buy into Keynesian BS dressed up as free market capitalism. And I say this as a more classical liberal who has grown to despise libertarians.
I hope Rowan Atkinson doesn’t let me down.
Things That Didn’t Happen On Christmas,
If they are wandering around their house naked and DO NOT USE towels or other coverings on the couch, dining chairs, etc … I wouldn’t come into their home even if they agreed to be fully clothed when I visited.
Ewww.
May your visit to the supermarket not coincide with International Lack of Spatial Awareness Day.
Just sent husband to supermarket for last-minute bits. Pray for him.
Merry Christmas, everyone. Also ping!
If he passes the trial of finding a parking space while remaining composed, and can then outmanoeuvre Those To Whom Shopping Trollies Should Never Be Entrusted, I suppose there’s a slim chance of survival.
Bless you, madam. May you never mistakenly buy a bag of chili and champagne flavoured crisps. Trust me, they’re disgusting.
If he passes the trial of finding a parking space while remaining composed, and can then outmanoeuvre Those To Whom Shopping Trollies Should Never Be Entrusted, I suppose there’s a slim chance of survival.
Related.
This doesn’t surprise me.
John Cleese and two other Pythons went to Cambridge University.
Remember the Cambridge Five who spied for the Soviet Union?
Scratch most conservatives in the military or space biz or defense contractor business and you will find a shitton of people who buy into Keynesian BS dressed up as free market capitalism.
Another perspective: They are conservative when it comes to national defense, but they favor a strong central government which dictates to the people. Why? Not only can a strong government employ more people like them, it also puts more power in their hands and they see themselves as uniquely qualified and entitled to rule over the dumb peons.
If they are wandering around their house naked and DO NOT USE towels or other coverings on the couch, dining chairs, etc … I wouldn’t come into their home even if they agreed to be fully clothed when I visited.
Ewww.
One of my “favorite” nudist stories: Science fiction writer Theodore Sturgeon was a nudist. He liked to answer the doorbell naked. One house guest witnessed him making handmade paella while occasionally scratching his balls.
A nudism-inclined person I knew casually had no respect for privacy and would walk into bathrooms to speak to people while they were sitting on the toilet. (Wasn’t there a Hollywood “comedy” about a nudist commune in which that happened?)
Just sent husband to supermarket for last-minute bits. Pray for him.
Did my last shopping two days ago. The parking lot was full, and the stock of some standard items like milk was shockingly depleted (although that must have been partly due to continuing supply chain problems.)
(although that must have been partly due to continuing supply chain problems.)
When I have to ask retail people about out-of-stock items, I always make a point to be extra courteous and express sympathy for their supply chain problems–too many customers take out their frustrations on retail staff who are not responsible for these shortages and whose livelihoods are put at risk by them.
To you and yours, a very good one.
Thank you and likewise, David. A Merry Christmas to you, your other half, and all my fellow commenters.
Yeah, yesterday at the supermarket I couldn’t get a pull-through parking space, and they were out of the large-size rawhide bones I was going to pick up for my dog for Christmas.
Various types of store-brand cookies have been out of stock intermittently for at least a year now.
Wi Spa incident perp has thoughts.
I’m glad we cleared that up. RTWT.
Something to add to your emergency contacts.
I have to say, we don’t get many iguanas hereabouts. Badgers, yes, and foxes. But not iguanas.
The purple hair is no surprise.
Yeah. I’m thinking if you have iguanas where you are, you have much, much bigger problems than iguanas. I am anxiously anticipating the big iguana drop. They were not a thing 40, or even 30 years ago when I was down here more often. This is the first time in a long time that our visit coincided with extended temps below 50F.
I’m hoping the one that was in the photo above…and his girlfriend…will be around but they will likely be seeking warmth back in one of the palm trees not out on a wire like above. The smaller ones, ones about the size of a rat, are far more common in general but I haven’t seen them near the hotel. I suspect the larger, spiny ones like above chase them out. The larger ones are becoming much more common beachside and AIUI the smaller, rat-sized ones are more common on the mainland side with fewer of the large, spiny kind there.
I’m more uneasy about those giant cockroaches than the iguanas.
One of the advantages of winter is that it kills off most of the bugs.
Possibly related.
The purple hair is no surprise.
Indeed, nor the crazy eyes, nor “hwite” being pronounced as if trying to cough up a hairball totally not at all racist because BIPOCs (I thought Asians were hwite adjacent) can’t be racist.
Badgers, yes,
Badgers. We don’t need no stinkin’ badgers.
Forgive me, but it was just lying there asking for it. I’ll wait in the alley for my coat or are you using the new pizza oven as a jacket crematorium?
[ From outside, crackling, a red glow. ]
One of the advantages of iguanas is that they eat cockroaches.
[ From outside, crackling, a red glow. ]
[ Wanders in from outside ] There’s nothing like a warm fire to raise the spirits…but what’s that smell?
Cultural enrichment from “migrants”.
More of that enrichment.
…but what’s that smell?
My wife’s been burning the Goop Vagina Candle lately and the scent must’ve got into my clothes.
World extreme poverty trends, 1993-2013.
My wife’s been burning the Goop Vagina Candle lately and the scent must’ve got into my clothes.
[ Eyes widen in horror. ] Oh no! What can we do to lessen the trauma?
Merry Christmas, David.
I’ll bet this works out well.
Wait till purple hair girl finds out that asians are white, except they get thrown under the bus in college admissions by HER people. If she wants a non-white country, there are lots to choose from. You can live in Japan all your life as a white person and never be accepted. Oh and spare me the “microaggressions”–probably includes holding doors open for people and having a job.
I was in New Orleans in summer years ago. Was walking in a residential neighborhood with live oak and spanish moss and palm trees and 200 yr old houses. Lovely. As I walked, the small leaves were blowing in front of me on the sidewalk. Then I realized there was no wind. It was hundreds of roaches. Yikes.
Speaking of holding doors open for people, chivalry is not dead…yet.
I have a group of friends from Iran. One was telling about being in China: “in this meeting of 200 people I was the only white”–ie he views himself as white. At every dinner party after dinner, someone offers a toast: “To America, the greatest country on Earth” and they all toast. Most lefties assume that all non-Europeans will identify as POC but it simply isn’t true.
More of that enrichment
I know I generally prescribe helicopters for this kind of situation, but in this particular case I feel an A-10 might be more appropriate. What with the streets being long and straight and all.
Long lay the world, in sin and error, pining
‘Til He appeared and the soul felt its worth.
Those lyrics get me each time I hear them. Merry Christmas!
Ping!
Bless you, madam. May you enjoy a little bubble of unexpected happiness, seemingly unrelated to anything actually happening.
Oh, and Merry Christmas.
Working a little overtime never killed anyone.
Oh, wait . . .
At every dinner party after dinner, someone offers a toast: “To America, the greatest country on Earth” and they all toast.
The ideal immigrant is someone who admires the culture and wants to assimilate, not someone looking only for economic opportunities who despises the culture and will not assimilate. Family lore: meeting a man who experienced WWII as a young child and, when American troops arrived in 1945, was astonished and moved at the contrast and decided that he wanted to live in a country that produced soldiers who did not loot and pillage and rape and murder but instead smiled and gave gifts.
I know I generally prescribe helicopters for this kind of situation, but in this particular case I feel an A-10 might be more appropriate.
If the police were authorized to use firearms to quell the riots, maybe the surviving “migrants” would decide the good times are over and voluntarily return to the cesspools they came from.
Polly Toynbee’s annual Christmas “fuck you”.
“The meat emoji is triggering … I’ve been emailing Apple every single day!”
“religious baggage”: without the religion there would be no christmas. There is so little religion left in Christmas that people like polly are ungrateful for their victory, and are beating a dead horse. Oh, wait, can I say that?
The only religion she wants is Marxism.
Then: Kids say the darndest things.
Now: Public defenders say the darndest things.
Meanwhile in New York… (via the same source as the public defender item.)
Meanwhile in England…
Happy Boxing Day to any of you in the Antipodes.
When I was a very little boy, I wondered what boxing had to do with Christmas. Surely the English box up gifts the day before, not the day after, and boxing gloves cannot be involved either.
All is proceeding as the left planned.
“I loathe ‘sensitive’ people who are ‘easily hurt’ by the way, don’t you? They are a social pest. Vanity is usually the real trouble.” —C. S. Lewis, letter Aug. 3, 1956
“Sensitive” is usually a ploy to justify bullying.
You just had to be the first, didn’t you?
On the iguanapocalypse front it’s been a bit disappointing, though I’ve been mostly stuck inside with a sick doggo. It was actually warm enough at 4 AM here for me, barefoot, to take him outside fora few minutes. I used to go swimming in this weather. I have seen from friends in Cape Canaveral that it did lightly snow up there. Snow actually stuck on sidewalks. Well, more like bounced as it looked like the dryer granular stuff you see in low humidity places. I don’t think I’ve ever seen iguanas up that way though. Sigh. I missed the boat parade again this year too. Double sigh.
However, Merry Christmas again! This time on Christmas.
stanford forbidden word list: hilarious takedown
here