An all-Christmas spam post. Thrilling, I know. At least it'll be over soon.

In general, I like Christmas. It takes some careful negotiating through a minefield of grandmother-flattening reindeer, a truly frightening interpretation of capitalism, and "adorable" moppets sticking candy canes to things, but there are more than enough pleasures to the season that I can deal with the rest. That said, the pushy evangelicals who've been appearing on the news recently, complaining about how endangered and oppressed Christmas is, are ticking me off. It's not my holiday, and I like it that way. Stop trying to shove your religion down my throat. It is, at the very least, incredibly rude. And I betcha God likes people with manners. I know I do.

Okay! How's about some meme-ing? A little spam never hurt anyone. Well, except some pigs, I suppose.


Five Favorite Christmas Specials:

1. The Bells of Fraggle Rock- "The Rock is slowing down!" has been a catchphrase between Little Sister and I for years. Same with "weeba weeba!" Snappy songs and an appearance by Cantus, my favorite Fraggle. So where's that DVD, universe?

2. Emmett Otter's Jug Band Christmas- Another great Muppet soundtrack, and the sets look exactly like where I live. Only peopled with animal puppets, of course.

3. A Charlie Brown Christmas- It would be a favorite for the music alone, even if the rest of it weren't so bittersweet.

4. A Muppet Christmas Carol- "Even the vegetables don't like him!" Michael Caine's Scrooge is really too nice, but the rest of it is fabulous. And Old Joe the spider fence is one of my favorite Muppet extras ever.

5. The Nightmare Before Christmas- I usually watch this one for Halloween, but it counts. There's nothing else like it, that's for sure.

Honorable mentions- Little Women (I know, but I usually watch it at Christmas, and that's close enough); Babar and Father Christmas; A Garfield Christmas Special, Christmas in Connecticut (the Barbara Stanwyck one, not the remake... thing); Remember the Night (La Stanwyck again); The Christmas Raccoons; Blackadder's Christmas Carol; Scrooged; A Christmas Story; Robbie the Reindeer and the Secret of the Lost Tribe (UK voices only- Hooves of Fire is fun too, but this one has mini-Vikings, all named Magnus)... I know I'm forgetting something. Oh well.


Dara Moskowitz has last-minute gift ideas for the food lover on your list, assuming you live in the Twin Cities area. Which I don't. Oh well (lucky carleton97 *g*). But even so, Dara's always entertaining to read. On ribbon candy: "And the blue and white ones are anise-flavored. Anise! That just kills me; it hearkens back to a day when candies had flavors like clove, anise, and violet, not Bubbleberry Apple Slime." Or on Kinder Eggs: "They're banned by the FDA because of fears that children under three could choke on the pieces, but I say anyone who would give one of these toys to a child under three is practicing child abuse to begin with. Some of these toys can take 20 minutes for an award-winning grown-up restaurant critic to put together." Heh, no kidding. I still have dents on my thumbs from putting together my wee Treebeard. One must suffer for a complete collection, after all.


Lastly, some lyric spam, of a sort. A fifteenth-century carol that answers the age-old question, "If the baby Jesus had been born in France, would he have gotten cheese instead of frankincense?" But of course! ( No doubt Mary and Joseph would have shared a hearty red with the shepherds, as well. )

I really like the way this icon looks on a white background. The lack of a border makes poor Desmond look so wee and lost as he falls to his doom. Aw.

And LJ is eating my comment responses again. Hmph. Tomorrow, then. I'm kind of surprised it even posted this, actually. Just getting online has been an adventure today. But we never did lose power! Yay! And I totally don't mean that in an I'm-defying-the-weather-gods-so-come-strike-me-down-for-my-hubris way!

A wee fannish post

Even though I know a lot of people are in holiday mode at the moment and not thinking of fandom things (Christmas Eve is now all day long? You guys crack me up), I figured I might as well post this, seeing as how this is a fannish journal and all. I'm at a low fannish ebb myself- I still haven't even watched the EE. Not one extra, not one Theoden scene. Inconceivable, and yet, there it lies. Of course, once I watch it, that's it, no more new LotR. So that's probably a factor. Ah well, maybe I'll use it to hail the new year.


Anyway, my new darling, House! Two tiny things about House today. First, from Sid Smith and Maureen Ryan of the Chicago Tribune's "Year's Best TV" list:

4. Best new character: The title role on "House," portrayed by Hugh Laurie, a physician who's cranky, unsympathetic, dogged in the scientific pursuit of his craft, ailing himself and flush with acidic putdowns ("Humanity is overrated").


And second, one of my favorite comics bloggers, Scott at Polite Dissent, has been commenting on each episode of House as seen through lens of his own years practicing medicine, and unlike some of the doctor-reviewers I've seen squawking that "House is a medical monster!", Scott mostly likes the show. I've been finding his commentary both interesting and useful, since my own medical knowledge is much like my computer knowledge, ie. the status of your health and/or computer is determined by an ongoing battle between good and bad elves. So I figured, why not unlock the post in which I've been stashing his reviews? And so I did. And all was good. The end. Heh.