Hell of a year, huh? It wasn’t strangely hard on me because my life is already mostly online. But even for me, it’s been hard. It’s one thing to choose to be alone. It’s another to be forced. Nothing makes me want to go outside like knowing that I can’t!
I don’t have a lot to say otherwise. Here are just a few things worth mentioning.
James Fillmore
I’m sure that this will embarrass him, but I want to highlight James Fillmore. He continues to write here. And I’ve gotten a number of compliments for his writing. So let me be clear: look at the author! I know, it’s in small print. But some of the best stuff here is by him.
His last article was particularly good, The Strange and Awful Origins of the Resolute Desk. That was really good! It reminded me of the days when I had the time to write cool articles like that! Remember the slogan here, “Everything interesting for everyone interesting!”
Sure, you can find most of that information on Wikipedia. But first, it will be poorly written in a way that will bore you to death. And second, you won’t know to look on Wikipedia for the HMS Resolute.
I spend most of my life editing other people writing. And I always know that something is good when I get interested in the text while editing. I assure you: it is extremely rare and I work with a lot of professional writers!
So thanks James! I really appreciate it. And I suspect a lot of other people do too!
Santi Claus
Early today, I was thinking of Santa Claus, as you do on Christmas Eve. And then I thought, “Oh yeah! Chico Marx and the Santi Claus.”
So I found this bit of Marx Brothers insanity from A Night at the Opera. These two are great together. And this is a great print:
And here is Chico in what I consider his best piano bit in Go West.
Christmas Evil
My favorite Christmas film is It’s a Wonderful Life. Just kidding! I actually hate that film. I love Frank Capra but at his worse, he’s saccharine. And that’s the case here.
My actual favorite Christmas film is Christmas Evil. If you want to know why, go over to Psychotronic Review. I explain this as well as why you should buy the film. But if you don’t want to, there is a free copy!
But now that I think about it, do I really explain why I love the film? The truth is that such things can’t be explained. It is unquestionably a great film. It’s a slasher film that is also an art film. But why do I love it? Because I love it!
Baroness von Sketch Show
The best comedy group I’ve found in the last several years is the Baroness von Sketch Show. They are Canadian and they do some of the best stuff I’ve seen.
Strangely, most people I know aren’t that into them. I’m not sure why. Here’s Santa’s Christmas:
Stewart Lee Doesn’t Ruin Christmas
I was going to return to this old comedy bit by Stewart Lee to go along with my tradition of “Frank ruins holidays” posts. But when I watched it, I realized that he doesn’t actually ruin Christianity. Instead, he acts very pretentious and over-thinks a simple song. It’s very funny.
This is still a large part of his act today. A good example of this is his “pirate’s letter” routine where he complains that the audience isn’t laughing fast enough. And he goes on to explain the joke. People say explaining a joke ruins it, but when it’s done by a pretentious Englishman, it’s brilliant!
I had wanted to add a video of Harry Hill to show you what he was talking about but I couldn’t find a good one. The truth is that I think he’s brilliant but I don’t find him very funny. As for Michael McIntyre, I don’t even see why people think he’s funny. He’s so artificial. But I can tell that he could be funny if he weren’t doing the crap that his fans clearly love.
Merry Christmas
My mother’s side of the family is made up of a bunch of Christian Conservatives. And it’s only since she died that I learned that my mother was very religious in her way. I wish I had known because I would have loved to have talked to her about it.
The truth is that I think religion can be a beautiful thing. So I find it distressing when people use religion for nothing more than to reinforce their bigoted social and political beliefs. As an atheist mystic, I want more.
But regardless of your feelings about Christianity, you’ve got to admit that Christmas isn’t much of a holiday. From a theological standpoint, what does the birth of Jesus mean? There are stories but it has nothing to do with the religion itself. Yet I never hear Christians complaining about the Easter Bunny.
Listen up Christians: Easter is your big holiday. The fact that Christians make a big deal (or any deal) about Christmas show that they don’t take their own mythology seriously. But honestly, I really don’t know what American Christians get from their religion.
But whatever it is would starve any seeker of truth or God.
Merry Christmas!
My Mom was deeply Catholic until the day she died. Into Church doctrine and Papal teachings, the whole deal.
But she always put basic decency over religious dogmatism. Here’s an example.
In the 1980s, one of her coworkers got AIDS. Everyone at her work loved this guy, he was great at the job (9-1-1 dispatching, not an easy job), and good at defusing workplace flareups (which, stressful job, those things happen).
But once this guy had to leave because he was too sick, the other workers didn’t want to mention “that disease” or that colleague. (9-1-1 dispatchers back there & then were pretty cop-adjacent, politically.)
Oh, did that tick Mom off. She ended up being the only person who held his hand when he was dying in the hospital. His family had shit all over him for being gay. His co-workers were terrified of the Scary Disease (what if he sneezed on the keyboard?) The Church, of course, was its own level of awful.
Mom always went “human decency” first and then doctrines, opinions of peers, a distant far concern. Yet stayed hugely Catholic! For the parts that inspired her. On the rest, she’d say, “the Pope is infallible, but he’s wrong.”
Almost all people have a “take what you like” approach to religion. It’s just sad that what most people like is the stuff that allows them to exclude and hate others. One-on-one, almost all humans are pretty decent with each other. The larger the group is, the less true that is. Bless your mother for taking what was good from the religion!
It’s the one-on-one that’s the key. I’ve known humongous bigots of every stripe, when it comes to openly saying at the people they’ve been bigots towards, they generally back down. Straight-up skinheads and Nazis, when it comes to insulting somebody in person, they’ll cool it. Because at that point you might get punched in the face! That’s not ideal!
Very true! Also, I just don’t think we are wired to hate people we are in close contact with.