Florilegium Suburbanum

Christmas specials reviewed

Here's what's been on so far:

• How The Grinch Stole Christmas:  Clearly the best animated special, and probably my second favorite overall.  This one has everything: catchy songs, an plot that hums along, and a bad guy who is actually bad.  Just fantastic.
  
• The Year Without A Santa Claus:  Now, I like the Rankin-Bass look as much as anyone else.  But this show is messed up.  Santa's a whiner (although points for having him be Mickey Rooney, just like in "Santa Claus is Coming to Town") and everyone speaks in annoying rhyming couplets, except when they don't.  The Miser Brothers are over the top fun, although they make no sense, but everything else is below par.  Lots of very poor songs, as well.
  
• A Charlie Brown Christmas:  Okay, legally, you are required to love this one.  And I will say that there are lots and lots of great, iconic bits.  And full points to Charles Schulz for telling the network, "Bite me-I'm putting jazz and Jesus in it, so shove off."  I'm just not sure it's very cohesive.  Not that an animated kids' special needs to be Glengarry Glen Ross or something, but it feels like a bunch of scenes pasted together at times. 
  
• Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer:  Again, Rankin-Bass, so it looks nifty.  And lots of memorable songs, featuring Burl Ives, who was a great folk singer when he wasn't busy cooperating with the HUAC.  The main problem here is that almost everyone is a jerk.  Santa is self-centered and a user (and too thin, besides), the Head Elf is a tyrant, Comet and Donner are total pricks to Rudolph.  The lesson to take away is, "People will hate you if you are different, unless you can be of some use to them, in which case they will suck up to you."  While not entirely inaccurate, that's kind of a lousy philosophy to be pushing.

I do not wish to be Scrooge here...

...but there are at least a half dozen houses in town with Christmas lights already up.  IT'S A WEEK BEFORE THANKSGIVING.

Ahem.

Today in sarcasm

TNR:

Sarah Palin Toady-in-Chief Matthew Continetti continues his (tragically unrequited) romance with the ex-governor in the Wall Street Journal, asking "Can Sarah Palin Make a Comeback?" and responding, shockingly, in the affirmative. He does allow, however, that her favorability ratings could pose a bit of a hurdle:

An October Gallup poll put Ms. Palin's favorable number at 40%, her lowest rating to date. In a November Gallup survey, 63% of all voters said they wouldn't seriously consider supporting her for the presidency.

Hmm. That does seem a problem. But wait, as Continetti notes in the very next sentence:

Yet Ms. Palin isn't as unpopular as John Edwards.

No way! She's more popular than a failed presidential candidate who admitted to cheating on his much-admired, cancer-suffering wife, and is widely believed to have fathered a child with his mistress and covered it up with help from campaign donors? More popular than a man who was always disliked by Republicans and is now, if anything, even more deeply reviled among Democrats?

The presidency is clearly hers to lose.

Mmmm.  That's some good sarcasm.

I Ain't Got Time to Bleed

This is where I'll be (with Ben) on Monday:

From his past as a top caliber Superstar of WWE Hall of Fame merit to his years as Governor of Minnesota, Jesse Ventura exemplifies a real-life American Renaissance Man. “The Body” will now explore his next escapade when he hosts a Thanksgiving special three-hour presentation of Monday Night Raw this week from Hershey, Pa.

I am hoping for at least one segment where Jessie wears his feathered masks and boas. 

Shocking News: Vaccine woman's illness might have been sensationalized

I do not know about the veracity of the blog in question.  But they seem to shine light on the types of things that I think about in these cases.  From the story:

the neurologist who examined her when she presented concluded that there was a strong psychogenic component to whatever it was that was wrong with her

The write-up then goes on to link the on-going publicity of the woman, and the treatments that have "cured" her, with an anti-vaccination group.  

Who knows what happened?  But knowing who is taking sides on an issue is a good first step to figuring things out.  You know, if anyone really wanted to change their minds on the safety of a flu vaccine. 

Overheard at Buzz's house last night during Dancing With the Stars:

Are they going to do the dance from "Thriller"?  I can see how they might want to do their own coreography.  But on a show like this, they can't NOT do the scene, right?  I mean, when they had Partick Swayze week, they did the final dance from "Dirty Dancing" didn't they?"

Give you one guess...

Slumdog Millionaire

Danny Boyle has an unhealthy obsession with human excrement, it seems.  [B]

I have here in my hand a list of 205—a list of names that were made known to the Secretary of State as being members of the Communist Party Muslim terrorists.

GOP thinks Capitol Hill is infested with terrorist spies.  No comment yet from the House Un-American Activities Committee.

An open letter to the people who think it is appropriate to request samples of several different flavors at the Creamery, despite there being a line of 100+ people waiting behind you

You are so lucky there was only plastic silverware around, so I was unable to stab you in the carotid artery.

What I don't get about facebook

From my feed today:

Liked what, exactly?  The fact that a press conference-in which no information will be imparted-is to be held?  What would possibly make you want to click the "like" button in response to this item?

More fun with photos

Just who is the woman on the right?

 

I'll bet you remember her!

Paging Dr. Hermann Rorschach

Son1 brought home this drawing the other day.  See if you can guess what it is:

 

Answer to be revealed in comments anon.

Finally, A Fantasy Sport for Everyone

Sports Guy had a great non-sequitor in his lone column of the week. It was:  Pick the Most Messed Up Celebrity Kid of 2025.  (Go to Paragraph 15, which discussed the Dallas Cowboys).   Some of his introductory comments:

In fact, after I thought of it, I decided that Britney's two kids would have to be the Adrian Peterson/Drew Brees of the draft -- get one of them and it almost doesn't matter whom else you draft. Your team is already loaded.

Not So Fast, FS...

Overheard on Saturday morning in State College, PA:

Yum:  FS, where are you going with that giant sheet of posterboard?

FS: (closes "good" versus "well" section of style manual) Nowhere.  Do we have a sharpie somewhere?

Later. 

Cryptanalysis has revealed nothing

Verbatim text from Yum Friday evening:

Upod us is oinn mu bay xpin trhe cupdoiayd close to the. Bed