I’ve always wondered why these people have never started a campaign to change the names we use for days of the week [...] I suppose it helps that these folks generally are pretty ignorant, and that they are only upset by new ideas, not old ideas, even when the new ideas are consistent with, and the old ideas are inconsistent with what they claim as their core beliefs.

Different traditions have different concerns. Quakers traditionally said "first day, second day" for the reasons you mention. I think some puritains did too. Jehovah's Witnesses care about the non-christian origins of Christian holidays and don't celebrate them but they'll say "Monday." Baptists and Methodists wouldn't drink. Some Seventh Day Adventists keep a modified form of kosher but I don't think they care about the drinking (and they shot off from the Baptists). Its hundreds of years of self-identification (tradition IS a huge factor) and "picking your battles" coming into play not necssarily blaring ignorance.

I can't imagine him oiling himself with Magog fat.

Maybe he used that for his candles.

Pokes her nose into Tyr's room to just, you know, see what he's up to. Sheesh, what's that stench? What are you burning in here? Man, no wonder you ain't getting any here in spite of being hotter than a Ferrari in Dollar Store parking lot.

I only have a few minutes on the computer before I'm yelled at, so thank you all, for sharing your tales of this holiday weekend, I've enjoyed the reading of them thoroughly. I hope all who are having sucktastic weekends are finally back home safe and sound. Possibly drinking scotch.

I'm back at home but sick; a cold I've been fighting off all weekend while organizing Christmas food and festivities came to roost almost immediately when I stepped foot in my house. I'm on Nyquil now, though and dopey silly.

I had such a Lush-y Xmas. I got the Snow Showers gift box from Tom's dad, and the Bring Me Sunshine package from my grandmother (though Tom was her personal shopper for that) Also the Veronica Mars and Angel soundtracks. I'd gotten an All-Clad saucier from my aunt (we draw names for gifts) which I ordered and got a few weeks ago, so that was an early Xmas gift, as was the iPod.

We made a chicken dinner with roast potatoes, salad, and bacon-wrapped sausages on Christmas Eve, and a beef tenderloin roast dinner with mashed potatoes and roasted green beans (and a chimichurri sauce as well as a horseradish cream sauce for the beef) on Christmas Day. Was able to hang out with my family (a small portion- which always works out for the best) and it was good.

I had to actively stop myself from getting upset with my dad, because he's goingin for bariatric surgery (gastric bypass) a week from tomorrow, and I won't see him before then, and I was damned if I was going to part ways with him on a bad note. Unfortunately, my dad is a weird and very fucked up individual, which he is good at hiding behind his fat guy jollity and learned helplessness. And his heart is good, even if he is very selfish/self-centered in a weird childlike way.

I hope the changes that result from this surgery will also allow him to strip all the excuses he has away - physically that will be the case, if all goes well - and be able to take a good look at himself.

Anyway. We all pitched in and got him a TiVo and he was quite delighted, and Tom and I even hooked it up and set it up for him.

OK, I have to go, because my sick ass should be in bed, not upstairs typing in the cold computer room. (usually it's warm, but since we haven't had the heat on for a few days, it's taking a while for the heat to rise up here).

Yikes! The babbling!

Feel better, Nora.

I’ve always wondered why these people have never started a campaign to change the names we use for days of the week. I mean, aren’t they the slightest bit offended that every day of the week has the name of a pagan god?

They are holding that in reserve. You've got to understand this is not about something the people who instigated it our genuinely offended about, though no doubt their various followers are. I mean the phrase "Happy Holidays" goes back at least to the beginning of the 20th century. What it comes down to is that war in Iraq is going badly; though productivity and GDP are up, the real median wage and household income is down. Everybody who still has employer paid health care is seeing it cut. Pensions are mostly in trouble (except for that evil old social security which is not in trouble because the Republicans did not manage to steal it.) No point in taking that straight on. Si it is all "Look over there; a war on Christmas.". The loony right can always find something new to get offended at. And the rest of right is never going to work too hard at discouraging it, because the fundamentals of the right wind agenda are not popular; extreme conservatism is always sold in this country behind a barrage of phoney social issues, and lies about opponents. It is sold on the basis of fear and hate. So the right needs people like Limbaugh and O'Reilly to keep the suckers scared and angry.

I wish I could make a bunch of "these people" (or you know, what they really are, that is "you people") statements, and pretend it wasn't bigoted.

“Thank God it’s Friday (Friggs day)? Frigg was a goddess, a witch, and a feisty liberated female who was the equal of any male.

I'm a real whore for the Gods ((mostly Anubis and a few other folks {damn you Loki and your luciousness})) and I always thought Friday came from Frey and Freya, nice happy love/sex/marriage/ect gods. Just like how Wednesday is Woden's day. Of course, I found this in the footnote of a DWJ's book, so I may just be hankering for my God bitches to receive some credit.

Also, I nominate Almare for Queen of the Thread,

I accept! Woah, a whole shiny Thread for me!

and think the next thread title needs to have something to do with Zeus/Loki, Spike be damned.

It could be Spike's Bitches 28.3: Screw Spike, It's All About The Bad Ships((LOKI + ZEUS 4 EVA)). Mind you, as much as I love the thought of two shiny threads all to reign over, I still don't support the ship that makes me disturbed and slightly sick. Will pimp, explain, and use as a drinking incentive, but I will never mix ambrosia and Pan's Special E, and get Hera to drink it.

Quakers traditionally said "first day, second day" for the reasons you mention. I think some puritains did too.

Yes, we do when we're being all traditional. By we, I mean Quakers. Most of the time we go with plain old pagan names like Saturday, because otherwise, our coworkers get all confused. But then again, I'm one of the oddest Quakers amongst my tiny group ((since there aren't meeting houses in SF)), and have been nicknamed the L.L.((Luna Lovegood)) at the annual gatherings that I've managed to attend.

On Tyr and Magog fat:

He's the only man I know with the titanium knackers to get the stuff. I wonder if they use it in make-up?

OK, I have to go, because my sick ass should be in bed, not upstairs typing in the cold computer room. (usually it's warm, but since we haven't had the heat on for a few days, it's taking a while for the heat to rise up here).

What it comes down to is that war in Iraq is going badly; though productivity and GDP are up, the real median wage and household income is down.

Really? Oh dear. How awful it must be going for those poor families out there. We must send some ~ma there way. The Buffista ~ma is powerful stuff.

Yes, we do when we're being all traditional.

Formal religious stuff? Like meeting announcements and wedding invitations and stuff?

I can't remember if my friend's (hee) Quaker wedding had "seventh day" on the invitation or not.

Formal religious stuff? Like meeting announcements and wedding invitations and stuff?

Depends on the Quaker and the group.

Like Wedding Invitations probably just have the pagan name unless it's two Ultra Quaker familys marrying into each other.

Meeting announcements vary with groups. Some go pagan, other's don't. Usually it's the Fighting Quaker's who go all pagan. But, er, If I call them that I have to partially awknowledgethem as Quaker's in some form which could get me a stern lecture from one of the older folks. But.... What the hell! I'm a Thread Queen! Tpday, all FIghting Quakers are an actual subdivision of Quakers.

I wish I could make a bunch of "these people" (or you know, what they really are, that is "you people") statements, and pretend it wasn't bigoted.

I acknowledge that this is always a danger, but my post was pretty specific in identifying “these people” as the Neocons recently raising a fuss about the “attack on Christmas.” Given their arguments, it seemed a reasonable inference that they are ignorant of American history, of the history of Christmas/Jule/Solstice celebrations, and of the basic teachings of Jesus Christ. But it is true that I was bigoted in my statements because, as TypoBoy points out, there really is no way to tell whether these people really are ignorant or whether they are just grotesque, mendacious, hypocrites trying to manipulate other people. I jumped to the conclusion that they were ignorant, and that was unfair of me.