Like I'd stand outside of ivy-covered walls of academia to ask for his signature or swoon that he shook my hand and I'd never wash it again.

Hee!

I'm vegging out now and watching TV. Just watched Year Without Santa Claus, and at 8, going to watch It's A Wonderful Life.

beth, is the Newton in your tag the one with the apple falling on its head and the standing on the shoulders of giants and the thee laws of motion?

yup -- in the last librarian movie he does something based on Newton and it works -- hence the yay Newton

Hi NILLY!

Um, hi? Remember me?

Nilly! I swear I was just thinking of you, and how long it had been since I'd seen you around here, as I iced the carrot cake for dessert tomorrow. I hope you are well. I hope you enjoy the growing light over Hanukkah. It's also apt this time of year, because the days are just starting to get longer, at least in this hemisphere.

You can also follow Santa on Twitter:

[link]

Also, I am thanking the heavens for the Bones marathon on Fox. It's such a relief from Xmas specials.

I was raised Catholic, in a very Catholic city, and it wasn't until I joined the FAC (a non-denominational evangelical Protestant church) that I ever heard anyone suggest that Catholics aren't Christians. (Of course, they also pretty much believed that any other people who claimed to be Christians -- but weren't in the FAC -- probably weren't *actually* Christians.

This is very much my experience too. I will note, as an atheist too anti-Catholic prejudice still makes little sense to me. I mean, if Catholics aren't Christian, Protestants are pretty much screwed, since their claim to authenticity heads stright through the Roman Catholic church. Christ told Peter he was founding a church, not writing a book.

And yet it took me 4 years to leave them, despite the fact that when a group claims to be the ONLY "true believers," that's a strong-ass sign of being a cult.

Took me ten years to leave mine. You're not doing so badly.

Oy. Dude must not be comfortable with himself or his traditions, then. One can celebrate/co-opt Christmas in one's own secular/agnostic/pagan way, but there's really no denying that Christmas is at root a Christian holiday, Jesus-y parts and all.

My FAC was happy to deny it. It doesn't have Christian origins. It was a Roman festival celebrating the rebirth of the sun (hence the winter solstice timing) that was co-opted by the early Christian church because it was popular. My FAC kept the feasts in the Pentateuch.

Christianity is like the English language, it co-opts from pretty much everything it's come into contact with.

I'm watching It's A Wonderful Life. There's sure a lot of drinking for a movie that mostly takes place during Prohibition. In the scene where George and Mary get married, which is around 1930, I think, the cop gives them a bottle of champagne. And they're openly discussing how much gin to drink at the high school dance, which is May or June of 1928.

I'm watching It's A Wonderful Life. There's sure a lot of drinking for a movie that mostly takes place during Prohibition. In the scene where George and Mary get married, which is around 1930, I think, the cop gives them a bottle of champagne. And they're openly discussing how much gin to drink at the high school dance, which is May or June of 1928.

Ooh! The NY Times had a fascinating article about IAWL. Basically that being George sucks, and he's still going to jail. [link]

Yeah, I saw that. There was a similar one in Salon a few years ago, too, which basically concluded that Pottersville was a way better town than Bedford Falls. I liked the conclusion in the Times one that, in the long run, Pottersville would have done better economically, since entertainment is pretty much the only industry that's doing well in upstate NY.

Basically that being George sucks, and he's still going to jail.

Being George sucks was always my opinion. But according to the movie he is not going to jail.

Yeah legally George is supposed to go to jail regardless. Except the auditor had said that since it was Christmas he would not put George in jail if he got the money back. In short, because George gets the money back the auditor is not going to report it ever having been missing. Though if higher authorities find out about it, it could be both George AND the auditor are going to jail.