It’s that time of the year again. As has become a tradition much maligned anticipated in our neighborhood, moiself is hosting a different Partridge, every week, in my front yard’s pear tree. [1]
Can you identify this week’s guest Partridge?
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Department Of Maybe Next Year….
As in, maybe next year November will return to being one of my favorite months. But for now, good riddance.
November was a trying month, in many ways and for many reasons. Its devastations included the death of a friend, a lovely, the-world-was-a-better-place-with-him-in-it person, followed by the election of a the-world-will-be-a-wretched-place-with-him-and-his-henchmen-in power, despicable excuse for an arrangement of DNA. The latter event contributed to my continuing disenchantment with the apparent values, cognitive abilities and perceptions of a good deal of my fellow Americans.
Still, there are good people still willing to fight the good fights, and there are Santa hats on the flamingoes. What were those wise words of…who was it, Epicurus? Paul McCartney? Obladi; obladah; life goes on, brah.
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Department Of Overheard Foolishness
I thought moiself was done for the year, when it comes to explaining the holiday season to those whose certainty about their religion being the reason for the season is directly proportional to their ignorance of the historical facts behind what came to be known as Christmas. But, nooooooooo, I had to overhear a couple of Happy Holidays-Hating Halfwits carping about the subject at a grocery store. [2]
The HHHH most likely don’t read my blog (poor deprived dears). If they did, they’d know that I run moiself’s annual blog post re the winter/fall holiday season origins on the Friday before Halloween, which was October 25 this year. On the chance you have even a mosquito’s bunion’s amount of interest in being prepared should you encounter a HHHH, you can refresh (or repulse, or another re- reaction) yourself, here ( “The Holiday War I’m (Still) Not Declaring” ). Or, for another rational take on the subject, treat yourself to journalist/religious studies graduate/author David G. McAfee’s entertaining and informative article on the subject – teasers to follow.
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Freethinkers’ Thought Of The Week [3]
“Contrary to what you might believe if you’ve been fed a steady diet of right wing
propaganda over the last few decades, atheists don’t spend the holiday season
eagerly waiting for someone to wish them a “Merry Christmas!” so that they can
pounce on them insult their faith or file a lawsuit.
In other words, there is no “war on Christmas“….
… I and many other atheists enjoy celebrating as much as anyone else does
on December 25. We might visit family, exchange gifts, overeat and do all the
other Christmas things…
In fact, a Pew Research Center study from 2013 showed that more than 80%
of non-Christians in the U.S. also celebrated Christmas….
So…why do atheists and other non-Christians want to celebrate
the birth of Jesus Christ, whom they don’t believe is divine?
The quick answer is that we don’t.
The fact is that the date of December 25 has about as much to do with Jesus as any
other date on the calendar, and that date is most certainly not the actual birthdate
of Jesus of Nazareth. [4]
So, if the source isn’t biblical, how was December 25 first linked to Jesus’ birth?
Prior to the existence of Christmas…Romans already had multiple celebrations
around that same time of the year, as did many others around the world….
First, there was Saturnalia, which included feasting and gift exchange and
preceded a December 25 celebration of Sol Invictus, a Roman sun god.
December 25 also became associated with the god Mithra….
During the fourth century, during emperor Constantine’s reign, it was the
Catholic Church that decided to make Jesus’ birthday a formal holiday and set
that date for December 25, centuries after Jesus was said to have lived….
In modern times, Christmas is often treated as the sole December 25 holiday,
with some Christiansrefusing to acknowledge those that came prior to their holy
celebration – or that some Christian groups mark Christmas on a different date,
such as January 6, 7 or 19.”
( read the rest of the article here:
“Atheists aren’t fighting a ‘war on Christmas’ – many of us even celebrate it.
Christians don’t own the idea of a winter celebration.”
By David G. McAfee, Salon, 12- 2022 )
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Department Of A Blast From The Past
What turned out to be the most convincing reason a YOU-of-all-people-should-write-a-blog-why-aren’t-you-writing-a-blog?!?!?! [5] friend gave me (was it really over a dozen years ago?) for writing a blog was that the blog would serve as a journal of sorts for my life. As in, I would have a record, or at least a random sampling, of what was on my mind during a certain period of time. And now, that’s what I have.
I was feeling curious this week, about what was on my mind a year ago, early December. Here is a sample from my blog of 12-8-23 ( The Oracles I’m Not Consulting ):
Department Am I So Lucky To Have Raised A Science *And* Film Nerd?
Dateline: last Saturday, circa 8:50 am. The following IM message chat ensued between daughter Belle and moiself, after she’d IM’d me the previous evening to let me know she was going to see the new Godzilla movie.
Belle:
Okay Godzilla Minus One was AWESOME….
I know I recommend a lot of movies but I RECOMMEND this one.
Moiself:
I will see it for sure…We’ll see if I can drag MH to it.
Belle:
It’s a pretty low budget film, but the combination of practical and special effects is really well done, and the story is really solid.
I also really like the Godzilla design.
Moiself :
He doesn’t have a peewee head, I hope.
In some past ones his head was out of proportion to his body, IMO.
Belle:
Sorry, his head is tiny haha.
Moiself:
😵💫
Belle:
… the tiny head had never really bothered me. It makes sense for a lizard that lives in land and water. It’s an aerodynamic shape; and, I think the canon is that he feeds off of radiation, so he technically doesn’t need a big mouth to eat anything
Moiself:
This conversation is so going in my next blog post.
You are right, of course. I think I’m reacting to having been imprinted on the original Godzilla, in which he had a much bigger head, more like a T-rex, but your commentary on the design makes sense.
Belle:
Because of course the anatomy of a giant radiation-consuming lizard has to make evolutionary sense!
Moiself:
Doesn’t the radiation trump evolution here?
Belle:
Exactly lol, I’m saying it’s kinda silly to assume the small head is because he doesn’t need to eat things when it’s a totally made-up monster.
But I like the case of evolution gone totally haywire. That’s more fun.
* * *
May you enjoy serious discussions re the size of a movie monster’s head
with someone you love;
May you be the good people still willing to fight the good fights;
May you convert to pacifism anyone foolish enough to declare
that people are declaring a war on any holiday;
…and may the hijinks ensue.
Thanks for stopping by. Au Vendredi!
* * *
[1] Specifically, in the pear tree daughter Belle purchased and (with the help of MH) planted many years ago.
[2] Commiserating over being wished “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas.”
[3] “free-think-er n. A person who forms opinions about religion on the basis of reason, independently of tradition, authority, or established belief. Freethinkers include atheists, agnostics and rationalists. No one can be a freethinker who demands conformity to a bible, creed, or messiah. To the freethinker, revelation and faith are invalid, and orthodoxy is no guarantee of truth.” Definition courtesy of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, ffrf.org
[4] “In fact, according to Luke 2:8, there were “shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night” on the date of Jesus’ birth, which would indicate a day more closely tied to springtime (due to weather conditions), according to the story. Other clues, including the biblical description of the alignment of the stars on the night that Jesus was born, back up that Jesus was likely born sometime in the spring, not winter.”
[5] I was adamant about not writing a blog…thus, the title of the blog I eventually decided to write.
