That's the true meaning of Christmas, Charlie Brown.

--Linus

Scott Kurtz writes PvP online. For my money, it's the best webcomic today. For those of you who've never read it, I thoroughly recommend it.

HOWEVER

The December 22 strip was just a bit too much for me. Scott, if you ever read this, you could do better.

On the positive side, the strip's punchline supports the Catholic doctrine of the Perpetual Virginity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. So it's got that going for it.

Happ-pee New Year!

I think I broke his frikkin' neck!

--Samson

D-Mac over at philadelphiawilldo.com muses on the Eagles' chances without TO. I don't, because I know the season is over. The Red Sox won /two/ World Series titles before the Eagles won a Super Bowl. Hell, the /Cubs/ will pull off a World Series crown before the Eagles will win the Super Bowl. It's over. Over.

But you have to realize, it wasn't about winning the Super Bowl. It was all about dropping forty-nine points on Dallas, /in Dallas/ on Monday Night. That was strong.

For twenty-three years I've been dying to tell you what I thought of you! And now... well, being a Christian woman, I can't say it!

-- Aunt Em

So I'm about to head outside a few days ago, and who should I see but The Lollipop Guild on my front porch. Come on, you know, the freakin' Lollipop Guild! And that's how I heard the news.

"Hillary?" I asked.

"Susan Sontag." They replied, at 135 rpm.

To be honest, I'm just glad she can't write any more books or articles. Shouldn't she have spontaneously exploded after the Wall fell? Let's revisit some of her quotes from back in the day:

"The Cubans know a lot about spontaneity, gaiety, sensuality and freaking out. "

Yeah. Making your freaking 1951 Chevrolet pick-up, and your freaking tailfinned 1959 Buick into a freaking boat fits my description of spontaneously freaking out. Right on the nose with that one.

Oh, and of course she loved North Vietnam:

They genuinely care about the welfare of the hundreds of captured American pilots and give them bigger rations than the Vietnamese population gets, "because they're bigger than we are," as a Vietnamese army officer told me, "and they're used to more meat than we are."

Yeah, they were all big men, like football players, right Susie Q?

Why is it that whenever Susan Sontag got misty eyed over a society, dudes started gluing toothpicks together and started paddling?

Apparently, Miss Sontag succumbed to "the white race".

However, no matter how much I despised this woman's beliefs and writings, I hope there is mercy for her in the hereafter. We're all sinners, after all.

Eternal Rest grant unto her, O Lord, and may the Perpetual Light shine upon her.

The problem with the Irish is that they'll sing at the drop of a hat, but ask them to talk and they won't

--Soames

Thought for the day. Does John Derbyshire support the "Orange Revolution" in the Ukraine because it's pro-democracy, or because they wear orange?

Out Here, Fire Means Life

--Jeff Probst

The City of Santa Fe is allowing luminarios to be lit on Christmas Eve. Said luminarios can be a maximum of three feet by three feet, and the flame can extend no higher than three feet. So what we're talking about here is a cubic yard of fire! While most modern day luminarios are little lightbulbs in brown paper bags, the original version were bonfires.

I love it! They spend a year lecturing us about this whole drout business. For 11 months we've been told that striking a match anywhere in Santa Fe would most likely result in a fireball so vast it would be seen from Mars. But like clockwork, once Christmas came rolling around and there was a Spanish tradition on the horizon.."Hell, go light as many bonfires as you want. Just keep a bucket of water handy."

Don't get me wrong, in the battle between luminarios and The Match Patrol I come down firmly on the luminarios side. I'm just noting that if this were about say...cooking lutefisk, I doubt they'd make an exception to the air pollution policies. And trust me, cooking lutefisk /is/ air pollution.

All the same though, it seems that too many business use luminarios for decorations for my taste. I wish they could throw in some of the more usual Christmas lights. Maybe even a Santa Claus or (dream) a creche or two.

Why do I want to see more than just luminarios?

Because I celebrate diversity, baby. I celebrate diversity.

I thrill when I drill a bicuspid / It's swell though they tell me I'm maladjusted.

-- Dr. Orrin Scrivello, DDS

So I'm driving early Christmas Eve morning because I grabbed the wrong box while Christmas shopping. While I'm driving around I'm listening to the local talk radio station which is now doing the 24 hours of Christmas Carols thing. That's when it happened. The commercial breaks consisted entirely of faithful advertisers getting the chance to wish everyone season's greetings. Half of the commercials wished people a happy Hanukkah to go with a Merry Christmas. Uhh, didn't Hanukkah end a while before Christmas Eve? I know, I know, you've got to put the two together at all times. That's just how it is nowadays.

And then, it happened. "Dr. Tom", an Albuquerque dentist, said something along the lines of "As we celebrate the birth of Christ Jesus, may His love.." I really don't remember the rest, as I almost went off the road at the point. When I regained my senses, I noticed he ended the commercial with "God Bless America".

Christ Jesus!

WHOA! Talk about going nuclear. Not Jesus, not even Jesus Christ. Christ Jesus! The only thing more powerful would have been: Jesus, the Christ. Doctor Tom, you made my holiday season, I mean, Christmas!