’tis the reason for the season

Wacky families? All of us? Weirder than this (Right h/t Brent Diggs) — plucked out of the blogosphere in random fashion? back in May Brent posted a Short Conversation with God. Here’s a snippet...

God: (sigh) Yeah. Good help is hard to find.

Me: Help?…Oh right, christians. I know what you mean. They can be kind of weird; kind of freaky. Scary even.

God: They had a rough childhood, you know. Always getting beat on and fed to the lions and such. But they never stopped feeding the hungry or taking care of the poor in those early years, they made me really proud.

Me: What happened?

God: You know how kids are. They get to a certain age and they start thinking they don’t need you anymore. That they’ve got it all figured out. Of course, I’m supposed to keep providing the blessings: the sun, the rain, cheap labor in the third world. Other than that they just want me to not bother them while they sit in their rooms and talk to their friends about me.

Me: So basically, you’ve got teenagers?

God: Yeah.

Me: Sorry.

God: I know. I forgive you.

Me? I’m just enjoying the kids playing with the rats upstairs, to Janis Joplin, now Steph is home... We’re not wacky...

Santa Claus: Self-starter?

On St Nicholas Day, I have to ask, “is the recession producing a leaner, fitter Santa?” “Are the Reindeer redundant?” Fabulous stained glass of 1492 at All Saints, Hillesden portrays St Nicholas as a considerable action figure. But has he indeed traded up to a ROM 4 minute Cross-Trainer, $14,615, which claims to keep him fully exercised in only four minutes a day?

The physics of this feat compare favourably to getting round all the world’s children in one evening’s orgiastic nightclimbing.
Anyway, the gear is eerily similar. Is it related? Curious minds want to know...






.....(a) Transport of delight........................................ (b) Training Device

Santa says...

Give it a rest this year. At least this is what he was saying, in this very British Lord Kitchener incarnation I saw yesterday morning, sprayed onto a wall (tut tut) near a cash machine in Turl Street Oxford. This could be a good year to beware & think twice about what we're really doing. We'd all be happier if we went modest, and did less of the “Gadarene Swine down the shops” thing. The Canadian Mennonites are appealing to us all to rethink this one a bit. Adbusters tries to help people curb their spending habits and, surprise surprise, has real difficulty getting ads like this published:
This is worth pondering as we try to reclaim Christmas from the wreckage of the “holiday season.”