[blogfocus saturday] simple, homespun prose for the festive season

As the title suggests, in this more mellow 'tween Christmas and New Year period, these are some of the softer contributions from our bloggers, sometimes understandably so but sometimes quite a surprise indeed.

1 To get the ball rolling, let’s fly to Canada to have some tea with our margaritas:

I just love this tea pot from hubby. He said he trolled the antiques mall and there it was! It`s my favorite of all my teapots. Says Chelsea Gibson England on the bottom. Not sure if that`s a company or a person. It`s definitely been well loved and will be again. I like it so much that I keep it right on the table along with my traditional Christmas rose. Isobel especially admires that! This makes a nice pot of tea too :). He also gave me a new flat screen monitor. Wow....what a difference it makes. Now everything is in true colour rather than sometimes too dark to see. I think I did good this year!

2 Jack Kemp reflects on the religious or PC compulsion to wear this bit of clothing or to not wear this other one:

It seems there are two major schools of thought about unusual people with odd hats. One is that we should all learn about other cultures and be tolerant of them. The other is that we now in America have the Guaranteed Right not to be made uncomfortable by anything that doesn't suit our fancy, be it a person with an unusual hat or a with only one leg or who is obese or doesn't wear designer jeans - or is obese AND wears designer jeans.

3 Talking lifestyle [the making more leisurely of], this man is disillusioned and bored by it all:

A recent stunt [reported here at the BBC] was an effort to drum up publicity. The big idea: make Mondays part of the weekend. What a crazy, mad cap idea. I would love to meet the comic genius that came up with that one. Surely there were a million better ideas. In fact, why did they choose an idea that has already been adopted by most socialist governments in the EU?

Eleven more homespun pieces here plus the famous mystery blogger …

[fireworks] pretty displays or kaboom kaboom

Around the world, fireworks displays will be set off to mark the New Year but in Britain, of course, Guy Fawkes is the biggie. This, in my opinion, is a better festival because until recently, one could buy personal kaboom thingies and I used to love setting them off – great strings of the things.

To be honest, I never set them off in letter boxes:

Employees of postal service Íslandspóstur are busy locking all outdoor mailboxes in Reykjavík and nearby towns to prevent people stuffing live fireworks into them on New Year’s Eve to get an extra explosion, damaging the mailboxes in the process. Morgunbladid reports. This New Year’s Eve the mailboxes in the capital area will be locked so that only one letter at a time can be put into them. Bigger letters have to be taken to the postal office. The mailboxes will not be unlocked until mid-January.

... and never stuck them up ... well ... read this. And yet we had mammoth fun. However, not everyone is so rapt in the tradition:

I would personally favour a system them allows the sale of fireworks only to people with a certificate issued by the local authority stating they are running a legitimate professionally organised display. This would cut out 95% of illegal sales almost immediately.

But there are some supporters of the old ways. John Wilkes said...

I'm not sure about this. There are plenty of people who are miles from a licensed, professional display and would probably prefer to have a family display at home. One of my best childhood memories is my dad doing a fireworks display for us in the back garden - it was great fun.

Another recent worry is that the British fireworks industry has been steadily losing out to Chinese incursion and to some, that’s a pity. Personally, it seems to me like market economics.

[saddam] may the viciousness stop

Romans

17: Recompense to no man evil for evil. Provide things honest in the sight of all men. 18: If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men. 19: Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord. 20: Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head. 21: Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.

I don't know what to think. I need to sit down for a moment or two.

[george bush] misunderstood and maligned [2]

If you missed Part 1 of the tribute to George W. Bush, it’s here. Now, here is the second batch of ten, with 30 still to come. The idea is to vote for the three best from these ten, with a view to eventually finding an overall winning excerpt:

11] "There's an old saying in Tennessee - I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee - that says, fool me once, shame on - shame on you. Fool me - you can't get fooled again." - Nashville, Tenn., Sept. 17, 2002

12] "First, let me make it very clear, poor people aren't necessarily killers. Just because you happen to be not rich doesn't mean you're willing to kill." - Washington, D.C., May 19, 2003

13] "As you know, these are open forums, you're able to come and listen to what I have to say." - Washington, D.C., Oct. 28, 2003

14] "The ambassador and the general were briefing me on the - the vast majority of Iraqis want to live in a peaceful, free world. And we will find these people and we will bring them to justice." - Washington, D.C., Oct. 27, 2003

15] "Whether they be Christian, Jew, or Muslim, or Hindu, people have heard the universal call to love a neighbor just like they'd like to be called themselves." - Washington, Oct. 8, 2003

16] "We've had leaks out of the administrative branch, had leaks out of the legislative branch, and out of the executive branch and the legislative branch, and I've spoken out consistently against them, and I want to know who the leakers are." - Chicago, Sept. 30, 2003

17] "We had a good Cabinet meeting, talked about a lot of issues. Secretary of State and Defense brought us up to date about our desires to spread freedom and peace around the world." - Washington, D.C., Aug. 1, 2003 [Perhaps not so much funny as worrying in that last line]

18] "Security is the essential roadblock to achieving the road map to peace." - Washington, D.C., July 25, 2003

19] "My answer is bring them on." - On Iraqi militants attacking U.S. forces, Washington, D.C., July 3, 2003

20] "I'm the master of low expectations." - Aboard Air Force One, June 4, 2003

[metaphor] raiders of the lost reason

Marion: What’s happening, Indi? All these flames and ghosts and things?
Indi: Er … I think G-d is just zapping the Nazis for stealing the Ark.
Marion: Couldn’t He do it, you know, a bit more quietly?
Indi: And let the denialists ascribe it to hallucination?
Marion: I’m happy in my humanistic denial. It’s up to each and every one of us stubbornly not to look at the evidence. That way we stay happy, you see.
Indi: Sort of like the ostrich, eh?
Marion: You know, Indi, I’ve been thinking and I’ve come up with a doozy of an idea. What if G-d is just a metaphor?
Indi: What if He just happens to exist?
Marion: Oh no, I wouldn’t like that.
Indi: Well let’s see the Great Metaphor get us out of this one.
Marion: Indi, man can do anything. He needs Nobody and Nuffink else. Can’t you get us out of this?
Indi: Er … not at this exact moment, Marion.

[george bush] misunderstood and maligned

This blog thinks you’ve all been terrible to poor Mr. Bush so in an effort to restore the balance, below are presented 10 of his most famous lines and I’d ask you to rate your top three from this batch. But don’t think it ends there – oh no.

There are another 148 of them and over the next few weeks I’ll present 90 more, in 9 relatively painless doses. Then we’ll draw the threads together and find GWB’s top utterance ever. Here are the first 10:

1] "Too many good docs are getting out of the business. Too many OB/GYN's aren't able to practice their love with women all across the country." - Sept. 6, 2004, Poplar Bluff, Mo.

2] "Secondly, the tactics of our - as you know, we don't have relationships with Iran. I mean, that's - ever since the late '70s, we have no contacts with them, and we've totally sanctioned them. In other words, there's no sanctions - you can't - we're out of sanctions." - Annandale, Va., Aug. 9, 2004

3] "Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we." - Washington, D.C., Aug. 5, 2004

4] "I believe if you want to be negative you always can, no matter how hard you try." - June 15, 2004

5] "Karyn is with us. A West Texas girl, just like me." - May 27, 2004

6] "I'm honored to shake the hand of a brave Iraqi citizen who had his hand cut off by Saddam Hussein." - May 25, 2004

7] "More Muslims have died at the hands of killers than - I say more Muslims - a lot of Muslims have died - I don't know the exact count - at Istanbul. Look at these different places around the world where there's been tremendous death and destruction because killers kill." - Washington, D.C., Jan. 29, 2004

8] "I love to bring people into the oval office...and say, this is where I office." - Jan. 29, 2004

9] "There may be some tough times here in America. But this country has gone through tough times before, and we're going to do it again." - Waco, Texas, Aug. 13, 2002

10] "The illiteracy level of our children are appalling." - Washington, D.C., Jan. 23, 2004