Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Giving up is unforgivable.

Dumb motherfuckers cannot understand a consequence that most 4 year olds have fully sorted out.

I did not have this on my fuck 2025 bingo card.

Authoritarian republicans are opposed to freedom for the rest of us.

The republican caucus is covering themselves with something, and it is not glory.

He wakes up lying, and he lies all day.

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

Come on, man.

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

I really should read my own blog.

One of our two political parties is a cult whose leader admires Vladimir Putin.

Republicans choose power over democracy, every day.

The words do not have to be perfect.

I am pretty sure these ‘journalists’ were not always such a bootlicking sycophants.

When they say they are pro-life, they do not mean yours.

If you cannot answer whether trump lost the 2020 election, you are unfit for office.

When do we start airlifting the women and children out of Texas?

Republicans firmly believe having an abortion is a very personal, very private decision between a woman and J.D. Vance.

Bad people in a position to do bad things will do bad things because they are bad people. End of story.

Republicans: slavery is when you own me. freedom is when I own you.

Do not shrug your shoulders and accept the normalization of untruths.

Oh FFS you might as well trust a 6-year-old with a flamethrower.

The republican ‘Pastor’ of the House is an odious authoritarian little creep.

Yeah, with this crowd one never knows.

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199Comments

  2. 2.

    The Sheriff Is A Ni-

    How about the Jane Hamshers of the left letting out their inner wingnut?

    “No, seriously, allying with Grover Norquist over health care reform is just like allying with RedState over Net Neutrality! Really!”

  4. 4.

    Guster

    Where’s the best place to play scrabble online?

    Oh, and if we can’t talk about HCR, can we still talk about Jane Hamsher? Not saying I agree with her about everything, but I find her adorable on an epic scale, with a generous dollop of sexy on the side.

  11. 11.

    MikeJ

    Since we’re talking about just anything: TCM is showing Truffaut’s Jules et Jim, and I still just can’t watch it. Jeanne Moreau is adorable, yes, but watching the two best friends torn apart by love of the same woman is like watching those comedies that aren’t supposed to be funny, but instead make you uncomfortably empathetic.

    If you’ve never seen this film, you’re missing out. It is wonderful in every respect. Just not a good one for repeat viewing if you have a surfeit of empathy for those in a bizarre love triangle. But there’s no sense in telling me the wisdom of the fool won’t set you free, but that’s the way that it goes
    and it’s what nobody knows, well every day my confusion grows.

  12. 12.

    DrDave

    @Comrade Jake: I’ll offer the opinion that the first step to reforming filibuster as a procedure would be to actually MAKE THEM filibuster. The procedural filibuster–that is the threat of a filibuster as a means of obstructing the legislative process–is bullshit. If a Senator or a party wants to filibuster legislation, make them get up and do it. Talk for hours on end, read the phonebook, whatever. But what is permitted now is just the worst kind of nonsense.

  14. 14.

    SteveinSC

    MSNBC just glossed over the C-Street prayer to Jesus to kill a Senator to stop the cloture vote given by god’s holy warrior, Tom Coleman. No pearl clutching here, no fainting couch or drawing spell on this, but weeks of pooh-poohing Grayson or tsk-tsk’s at Obama’s lipstick on a pig. “Fair” the adds say. Doesn’t it seem Noron O’Donnell has gone to Tourette’s Rehab School. No spontaneous ha, ha, ha, ha, ha’s now.

  15. 15.

    ronin122

    My only contribution today regarding HCR is this: since Sanders voted for the bill, does that mean that at the Great Orange Satan there are no more liked senators?

    I swear I almost stopped going there and just get my information from here. Same stories minus the histrionics and “slap in the face! I should have voted for you-know-who, under the bus we go!” every other sentence.

  16. 16.

    wvng

    I really want Hamsher (who I generally like) to answer one question. Is it better to pass this bill or have no chance for another generation? I see zero possibility of getting better than this, and this will help everyone in ways most don’t yet perceive.

    I’m with BooMan on this.

  19. 19.

    wvng

    I really want Hamsher (who I generally like) to answer one question. Is it better to pass this bill or have no chance for another generation? I see zero possibility of getting better than this, and this will help everyone in ways most don’t yet perceive.

    I’m with BooMan on this.

  20. 20.

    Stroszek

    @MikeJ:

    A friend of mine and I have had a long ongoing debate over Moreau’s character. My friend considers her a classic Manic Pixie Dream Girl, a representation of Truffaut’s sexual and psychological ideal that stands out like a liberated superwoman over we pathetic, repressed mortals. I consider her to be a brilliantly conceived villain intended to illustrate how narcissists manipulate and suck the life out of their victims by reinterpreting their inability to reciprocate genuine affection and trust as a sort of moral code. I think the film’s ending underlines that Truffaut thinks that Catherine’s “free spiritedness” is not some ideal of sexual liberation but a twisted romanticization of a narcissist’s insatiable (and dangerous) need for constant, unquestioning validation.

    Your thoughts?

  21. 21.

    donovong

    @ronin122: I’m with you. The differences between RedState and GOS have become harder to distiguish of late. Just opposite ends of the crazy stick.

  22. 22.

    Col. Klink

    We should start a Green Balloons ‘Guess who will be on meet the press?’ pool every week. Winner gets a free sub at subway or a free pic of Tunch.

    We should also petition to change the name of Meet the Press to “More Bad News for Obama” for the next seven years.

  24. 24.

    PaulW

    So we can talk about anything?

    Anyone else sit through Avatar thinking “Wasn’t there that episode on the Smurfs where an evil witch turned herself into a Smurf so she could raid the village? This movie is just like that, but with more mecha.”

    (ducks)

    Okay, okay, let’s talk about jobs jobs jobs jobs unemployed we need jobs jobs jobs…

  25. 25.

    Comrade Darkness

    Dang, I’m missing Daily Show and Colbert already this vacay. I wish their websites remembered every episode I’ve watched so I can click a button, “show me one from the archive I missed”.

  27. 27.

    RedKitten

    Thank heavens! It’s been all-HCR, all the time. I can sympathize with you guys, but after awhile, I can only listen to so much analysis of sausage-making.

    Besides, it was doubly frustrating for me, because we have a great healthcare system, which covers everybody, and to see your representatives kicking each other in the shins and cowering before the big, bad, spectre of sockalism…well, it was more than a little frustrating. Sort of like back in the 1600’s, when in Britain, they believed tomatoes were poisonous — we’re like the Italians, sitting there munching on tomatoes, and thinking, “What the fuck is WRONG with you people?”

  28. 28.

    bemused

    Yesterday, I watched a Finnish film “The Man Without A Past”. Nominated for an Academy Award, 2003 Best Foreign Language Film, it’s described as a comic drama or deadpan comedy.
    ymmv if it makes you laugh or not but coming from a long line of Finns, I can relate to the deadpan humor.

  29. 29.

    Comrade Darkness

    @Stroszek: Okay, so I just read the wiki def for manic pixie dream girl, and wouldn’t the female love interest in Accidental Tourist count? Or does she have too much character development to strictly qualify.

  31. 31.

    Stroszek

    @Comrade Darkness:

    I haven’t seen it, but the general rule is that a Manic Pixie Dream Girl has no discernible interests or motivations of her own besides teaching the protagonist how to be free spirited. If, like Catherine from Jules et Jim, she has any prominent and overriding degree of self-interest, she may be a manic pixie but not a dream girl.

  32. 32.

    Persia

    @PaulW: Well, Smurfette was originally a mole created by Gargamel. But then Papa Smurf turned her good and her hair turned blonde (a move that pissed my dark-haired self off apparently up to this day).

    So guys, does the Furminator work on short-haired cats?

  38. 38.

    donovong

    So, what happened to the “Photos from Joocers” and the “View from your Couch” series’es? Those weren’t HCR related, were they? Is Sully suing for copyright violation or something?

  39. 39.

    Comrade Mary

    @arguingwithsignposts: You know that’s my new wallpaper, don’t you?

    And I hear you about solo Christmases. When my husband decided to dump me in the most cliché-ridden way possible (I’ve just typed and deleted a bunch of details, but in brief: twenty-something co-worker, lies, sneaking around, laying guilt trips on me when I asked about his odd behaviour and inability to shut up about her, and the inevitable denouement), Christmas looked horrible. Every other holiday looked horrible. The rest of my life looked horrible. Because while being betrayed and dumped sucks, it especially sucks after 20 years of a life you thought would continue as it was.

    I’m not going to pretend that you aren’t going to be alone, in some sense, for some time, including this Christmas. You probably have already gotten advice about connecting with friends and family, volunteering at a food bank, and all sorts of stuff, and while this helps, you will still have times that you look at yourself and your life and feel so bereft, like such a loser.

    But it does get better, I swear. It really does.

    Now go cuddle that damn kitten. She’s probably gotten up to some mischief while you were reading this screed.

  40. 40.

    MikeJ

    @Stroszek: You’re both right. Truffaut might not have recognized the phrase “manic pixie dream girl”, but he was able to project what we perceive as the underlying innocence in Catherine. Peel away the layers and she’s not sexually daring but a sweet little girl who loves too much. Peel away another layer and she’s the bad seed.

    As a critic, Truffaut brought not only a deep understanding of film but of audiences. He knows what they’re expecting, he knows which blanks they’ll fill in. And then he turns around and shows that their sophistication in getting ahead of the writer has mislead them.

    And then we can write 100 much longer than usual blog comments on the men and how fucked up they are.

  42. 42.

    DZ

    How about personal HCR that has nothing to do with the current debate? In 5 months, at age 62, I will get married for the second time in my life. At that time, I will become a French citizen and will be eligible for French national health care. Because of that, I will retire and enjoy my new wife.

  46. 46.

    Jay C

    @Col. Klink:

    We should start a Green Balloons ‘Guess who will be on meet the press?’ pool every week

    Why? The winning answer will be “President McCain” most of the time, where’s the fun in that…..?

  47. 47.

    gex

    @donovong: To be fair, the things that GOS is calling for are sane policies that help people. Their unwillingness to compromise may be similar, but really? GOS is just like the wingnut/teabaggers?

    We want a public option that better covers people and controls costs! – Hippies

    We want to return to the way of the Founding Fathers – whatever that means – provided there are lots of guns and zero taxes! – Teabaggers

    Yup. Just the same. No difference at all.

  48. 48.

    HRA

    @arguingwithsignposts:

    Ummm – you are not solo any more. FYI I went through the solo bit in 1980 and although it sucked in some respects, the other side of the coin is not always heaven on earth either.

    Besides all the above we are here for you.

  49. 49.

    MikeJ

    @gex: If you don’t do things exactly our way we’re going to yell and scream and roll around on the floor until you pay attention to me!!!!! – Kos and the teabaggers.

  51. 51.

    EconWatcher

    Anyone looking for a great read? Try “Bridge on the Drina” by Ivo Andric, a Bosnian writer I recently “discovered.” (OK, he won the Nobel Prize about 50 years ago; just my ignorance that I hadn’t heard of him until recently.)

    The novel, a mere 300 pages, covers almost 400 years of history in a town near the border between Bosnia and Serbia, with the only constant character in the story a majestic bridge built by the Ottomans (then later controlled by Austria-Hungary).

    Andric covers so much ground, with such compression and panache–it’s really a marvel: The cultural effects of conquest; the limits of fear as a means of political control; ethnic rivalry; relations between men and women; the position of Jews as a minority in a small Slav town; the effects of architecture on everyday life. All of this is conveyed through a series of short and unforgettable stories.

    It’s been many years since I’ve stumbled across a novel this good. I’ll be on to other Andric novels next year.

  52. 52.

    Col. Klink

    @ Jay C 44

    It takes more skill than that…

    For example, Kos will be allowed on MTP from time to time, but only when he solidly disagrees with Obama on a substantive issue. Then Gregory can point out that even the Left disagrees with Obama’s horrible policies.

    I’d look for Jane Hamsher to be on next week for example as a ‘typical’ representative of the Left.

  53. 53.

    Tattoosydney

    Sitting in an airport lounge in Bangkok, waiting for a midnight flight to Amsterdam.

    Thailand is incredibly lovely – the people especially – but the extreme poverty, even in Bangkok itself, was extremely confronting, even in the incredibly short exposure we had to it while being whisked by taxi from our hotel to yet another temple or restaurant.

    Bangkok drivers are truly terrifying – the car horn is used liberally, but usually means “get the hell out of my way” and is used a milisecond before changing lanes. Traffic lanes, speed limits, even driving on a particular side of the road seem entirely optional.

    Our hotel room was on the 54th floor – with a balcony. Had to sign a waiver (in case we fell off) and a promise not to throw anything off.

    Spent most of the last three days scoffing fresh jackfruit bought at a roadside stall and reading. Very relaxed.

    Amsterdam here I come.

  54. 54.

    JenJen

    Joe Scarborough practically had smoke coming out of his ears this morning. I could learn to enjoy seeing him this angry about the Dems all the time.

  55. 55.

    jibeaux

    @gex:

    Yep, the similarity is not in the substance, but in the commitment to ideological purity, ignoring that politics is all about the art of the possible. The ideology of voting Nader in 2000 and voting Hoffman in NY-23 is the same, and the result is the same.

  56. 56.

    Tattoosydney

    @RedKitten:

    “we’re like the Italians, sitting there munching on tomatoes, and thinking, “What the fuck is WRONG with you people?”

    This.

  57. 57.

    arguingwithsignposts

    @Tattoosydney:

    Our hotel room was on the 54th floor – with a balcony. Had to sign a waiver (in case we fell off) and a promise not to throw anything off.

    I always hate being in a hotel with a high balcony. Even if I go out on the balcony, I am glued to the wall.

  58. 58.

    bemused

    @RedKitten:
    I’ve read that 1/3 of americans are on some kind of anti-depressant. It’s bad enough living with the real problems in this country but then there is the bs & disinformation from cable news & our legislators. Sometimes, I think it’s a miracle that anything functions as it should anymore.

  59. 59.

    Mike E

    @Zandar:
    My back, GM part #24345567, went on the fritz so I purchased Irish part #guinessstout and now I don’t care.

    And the Steelers path to the playoffs needs 60 votes + 1 Repub

  60. 60.

    Annie

    @arguingwithsignposts:

    What to say. I think most of us have had at least one single Christmas. I cook a really great meal Christmas eve — enjoy the cooking, enjoy the wine both during cooking and during dinner, watch TV movies, and curl up with a good, trashy novel. Christmas day stay in my jammies all day, and love that feeling — continue cooking, continue with the wine, TV and novels. Decorate the house — that also helps.

    Get Miss Smudge a good rope to chase. Kitties do love chasing rope or string. Get her a little Kitty Christmas treat/Christmas present.

    Also, I am sure that we will all be bitching and moaning together Christmas day like always, which in the grand scheme of things is not so bad….

  62. 62.

    Col. Klink

    When I saw how pissed Joe Scarborough looked on MTP and Ed Gillespie’s ugly mug railing against the bill, I knew it must be worth passing on some level. It was a masterful scene of High Concern Trolling mixed with furious anger. Simply put, if the GOP is that pissed off the bill simply cannot be that bad.

  63. 63.

    burnspbesq

    Do we have enough tents, porta-potties, and MREs on hand to deal with a flood of refugees from FDL? Methinks Miz Jane is alienating a big chunk of her base.

  66. 66.

    jibeaux

    I love the tomato analogy, too. And not to pick a fight with Krista or Canada because it does seem to be a vast improvement over what we have, but it does seem to me that there aren’t any policy goals furthered by requiring everyone to be in the health care line, and apparently Canada is the only country that actually does it this way, not allowing private insurance or self-pay. It seems to me that if you’re #1500 in line for rotator cuff surgery, it’s going to be ten months before you can get it, and it’s interfering with your ability to work and you’re willing to pay cash to get the surgery, that you should be able to take yourself out of the line, get the surgery, Canada and your province saves some money, and everyone else behind you moves up a slot. Anyway, I may have misinterpreted that whole process. It would be really interesting to me to take some health care policy wonks, give them a budget based on what would be a reasonable and sustainable amount to spend on health care, and otherwise put no restraints on what they could design as a system. They could probably come up with some pretty good stuff that would not especially resemble anything any country currently has.

  69. 69.

    Steeplejack

    @MikeJ:
    I am sort of half watching Jules and Jim right now. I forgot it was on and got up too late to see it from the start, but that doesn’t really matter, because I have probably seen it eight or ten times since about 1970. It is one of my all-time favorite movies.

    It is very tragic and very beautiful, and I find that knowing how things turn out deepens all of that on subsequent viewings. Great acting all the way around, and the wide-screen black-and-white photography is gorgeous. Truffaut uses it to capture the period perfectly.

    For those who haven’t seen the movie (released in 1962), it is a love story set (mostly) in France before and after World War I. (The war is sort of skipped over in brief allusion.) Jules is French, Jim is German, they become fast friends, and they both fall in love with Catherine in the bohemian demimonde of Paris. Catherine is what used to be called a “free spirit,” or what I suppose the yoots now would call “crazy/beautiful.” After the war the film opens up into some beautiful pastoral sequences in the country. Jules and Jim are still friends, but both have been changed by their experiences in the war. And Catherine has changed too; her character is darker.

    There is nothing conventional about the plot–it’s not even a conventional love triangle–and Truffaut uses all the small, non-epic techniques of the New Wave–hand-held camera, “casual,” real-life acting, essentially silent sequences with voiceover, location backgrounds or rudimentary sets–to make a large, epic movie. It’s really astounding.

    @Stroszek:
    As for Catherine as superwoman vs. narcissist, I hate those kinds of simplifications. All of the characters are struggling to come to grips with epochal changes in society and how to find new ways of living. Catherine’s crisis is more intense because she is a woman. She is a large, bold character, but she is also crazy–certainly she is by the end of the movie.

    Caught this on the voiceover narration a few minutes ago: “Happiness isn’t easy to record and wears out without anyone noticing.”

  70. 70.

    Citizen_X

    NO, we’re not done talking about HCR. Don’t take away our binky!

    I just wanted to re-mention this:
    @SteveinSC: Whatta Family beyotch that Coburn is, huh? Pray for death, OK, but hold Lieberman to the time limit and McGrampy is going to throw a fit.

    You know who else insisted on time limits, don’t you? Yeah, that’s right.

  71. 71.

    Tattoosydney

    @arguingwithsignposts:

    It was a pretty solid balcony (or at least seemed so) and being out there was cool – Bangkok is huge, and stretched to the horizon in every direction. All the same, we probably spent a total of ten minutes on the balcony in four days – too high, too scary, too too far to fall.

    I hope your Christmas is ok. Christmas alone sucks, but there will be Juicers there for you, and an incredibly adorable cat.

  72. 72.

    R-Jud

    If you have seen suffered through the film “Love Actually”, you will be aware that there is a tradition of the “Christmas #1 Single” over here in Britain. For the last four years it’s been whatever piece of disposable tinsel Simon Cowell is flogging. This year it is “Killing in the Name Of” a 17-year old song by Rage Against the Machine.

    I love the intertubes.

    ETA: Rage Against the Machine are donating all the royalties from the campaign to Shelter. Awesome.

  74. 74.

    rachel

    A friend of mine has lent me all 5 seasons of Babylon 5 plus the movies and miniseries that go with it. Good stuff!

    Next up: Farscape!

    “Why so difficult!?”

  75. 75.

    comrade scott's agenda of rage

    @Col. Klink:

    I’d look for Jane Hamsher to be on next week for example as a ‘typical’ representative of the Left.

    That’s what it’s all about: air time. Creating a pundit persona that gets you on the cable teevee a lot, creates book and writing opportunities.

    It’s all about following in the footsteps of Ana Marie Cox only without the butt fucking references and fake drunk big-boobed chick persona.

  76. 76.

    Comrade Mary

    @jibeaux: There are some exceptions, such as Québec’s private clinics, but one big reason why we don’t have parallel public and private offerings is that many Canadians are very emotional about our system. Two tier medicine, rightly or wrongly, is thought to be a threat to our Medicare and the concept of equal access this system was founded upon.

    I think we’re also a little spooked by the godawful mess of the American status quo. You guys have a hell of a lot of medical innovation, good doctors and good care, but there is so much inequality it’s like a horror show in our backyard.

    I think there’s a little more movement towards parallel systems here, and if the States gets better, I think we can relax a little more.

  77. 77.

    GReynoldsCT00

    @arguingwithsignposts:

    you aren’t the only one having a ‘single’ Christmas… I almost didn’t put up my tree but finally did. we can meet up here on Christmas day and hang out and share kitteh stories. single yes, alone, no

  78. 78.

    Third Eye Open

    @R-Jud: There is/are god(s) in Heaven(s). Leave it to the Limeys to get it so, so right.

    Now if I could only find three other people to come to door-to-door carolling using TOOL and RATM for fodder.

  81. 81.

    burnspbesq

    @R-Jud:

    If you have seensuffered through the film “Love Actually”,

    Now, now. I liked Love Actually, although I found it utterly incredible that a man married to Emma Thompson would consider straying.

  82. 82.

    DZ

    @EconWatcher:

    I heartily endorse your recommendation of Andric’s novel. It’s rare that I find something that good that I had never heard about before – I got it from a friend who was also surprised to discover it.

  83. 83.

    gex

    @jibeaux: Well I do apologize. I’m not defending their tactics, simply saying that at least they advocate for good things, sane things, things that actually look and sound like policies rather than dogwhistle phrases. But I understand that the first thing one must do before advocating for any liberal policy whatsoever that one must first punch hippies.

    So whatever. The extreme left wing is just like the extreme right wing. Uncle. I give. You’ve all convinced me. Sheesh.

  85. 85.

    John PM

    I watched Body of Lies last night while wrapping Christmas presents. I thought it was pretty bad. I have no idea what the point was. The CIA is bad? Ok, thanks for that little update 30 years after 3 Days of the Condor. I honestly do not know why that movie was made. I am glad I did not pay money to see it at the movie theater.

    On the other hand, I just watched Tropic Thunder for the third time, and I still laugh my -ss off.

  87. 87.

    R-Jud

    @burnspbesq: Yes, and if you were married to Alan Rickman, you’d certainly do whatever it took to make it worth his while.

    The scene where Colin Firth speaks Portuguese (“I just thought that I would… check.”) is adorable. But still: really, Richard Curtis? really?

  89. 89.

    The Grand Panjandrum

    If you are an Elmore Leonard fan read his latest, Road Dogs. Leonard brings back three characters from previous work most notably Jack Foley, the sweet talking bank robber from Out Of Sight. It’s entertaining and a quick read with his usual tight dialog.

  91. 91.

    Leelee for Obama

    @arguingwithsignposts: I love that little grrl! She just make me smile, AWS. I am not exactly in the spirit, either, but I am trying to get sort of there. Today, I’m gonna sew some Christmas Stockings for my Girls. Hoping to spend only a few hours, and then make something for the DD. I just don’t know what to make, cause I can’t sew a steady income for her, KWIM? Just have to wing it.

    Hope Smudge is helping you enjoy things a bit, she sure looks like a buddy to envy.

  92. 92.

    jibeaux

    @Comrade Mary:

    I definitely understand the concerns about two tiers, and it is in a sense extremely fair. It just seems that, applying a pure wonkiness to it, there’s a win-win outcome to be had there. I wish we had the luxury, though, of discussing tweaks to our system that might make it better, instead of throwing the whole thing in the lake and starting over…

  93. 93.

    Phyllis

    William Holden’s characters in Stalag 17 and Bridge Over the River Kwai; compare and contrast.

    Or if you prefer, the character, motivation, and friendships of the hit men duos in Pulp Fiction and In Bruges.

    Or we could just discuss 1) how brilliant In Bruges is and 2) how brilliant Roger Ebert’s review of In Bruges is.

  94. 94.

    EconWatcher

    @DZ:

    DZ, I know “Bridge on the Drina” is supposed to be Andric’s best novel. I just bought another of his–“Bosnian Chronicles”–but haven’t started it yet. Have you tried any of his other works?

  96. 96.

    Morbo

    @rachel:

    Die Eier von Satan?

    Well, they would make for a tasty holiday treat. On the other hand, Sober would really get people in the spirit.

  97. 97.

    jibeaux

    @gex:

    Who said anything about punching hippies? As someone else said, making people want to punch you doesn’t make you a hippie… putting it even more simply, the common thread is the redoubling of effort at the expense of aim. Left-leaning pragmatists are naturally more frustrated by left-leaning ideologues because if we were more organized and disciplined, and willing to accept compromises in order to get half instead of standing on principle and getting nothing, we could, well, get half. I’m sure it’s the same with the remaining shreds of right-leaning pragmatists, all ten of them.

  98. 98.

    rachel

    @Third Eye Open: Oh, Swamp Song! A good choice.

    @Morbo: Yes, but I’d leave out the hashish, of course. Make a good, stout eggnog to go with them instead!

    Edited to add: Sober is for after New Year’s.

  99. 99.

    MikeJ

    although I found it utterly incredible that a man married to Emma Thompson would consider straying.

    I think most of the time straying has nothing to do with the person who is being cheated upon, and very often nothing to do with the third party either.

  100. 100.

    Steeplejack

    @The Grand Panjandrum:

    Out of Sight is excellent–like almost all of Leonard’s books–and it was made into a really tight, really good movie by Steven Soderbergh. George Clooney and–gasp!–Jennifer Lopez. And, yes, she’s good in it. And then you’ve got Ving Rhames, Don Cheadle, Steve Zahn and Albert Brooks for backup, and even cameos by Catherine Keener, Dennis Farina and Luis Guzmán. Highly recommended, as is Get Shorty, taken from another Leonard novel.

  102. 102.

    Mike E

    Aside from the Irish back therapy, I’m brining a chicken and spending xmas w/my crazy ex and our 14yo girl. They have a tree, beagle, 2 cats and a lizard.

  105. 105.

    martha

    I’m sick of the political BS in the 21st century, so I’m thoroughly enjoying reading about the political warfare in the 16th–I’m reading Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel. It’s a great historical novel about Thomas Cromwell and his rise to be Henry VIII’s Rahm-equivalent, for a decade anyway (he lost his head eventually because Henry got mad at him…that King was fickle!). Cromwell got Henry his divorce from Catherine so he could marry the lovely and short-lived Anne Boleyn. I love Tudor/Elizabethan England intrigue/spymaster stuff. I’m weird.

  106. 106.

    Tattoosydney

    My movie recommendation so far for the holidays is “500 days of Summer”. A not-Rom Com with no happy ending that is very funny and tender and sweet, with a warm hearted belief that (however much it hurts) a failed romance means that the right person hasn’t come along yet.

    Plus Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel are teh hawt.

  108. 108.

    Seanly

    @PaulW:

    I liked Avatar. Ross Douchehat can go fuck hisself as I’m also a big fan of Native American mythology (as opposed to the European American mythology Christianity).

    My shorter version of Avatar – Dances with Wolves in space with a hint of Aliens and this time the cavalry gets their asses kicked. Oh, and amazing special effects. I can see why it costs $300 million when the ends of backpack straps are flapping in the wind for a CGI character.

    In other news, seeing people talk about renting movies reminds me I need to add Hangover to my Netflix queue…

  109. 109.

    Stroszek

    @jibeaux:

    Is there anyone under the age of 50 who actually self-identifies as a hippie? I don’t know what pragmatists are punching these days, but I don’t think it’s hippies to any great extent.

  111. 111.

    Folderol and Ephemera

    @Seanly:

    Dances with Wolves in space

    As far as I’m concerned, this is an excellent reason to avoid this movie like dysentery.

    Save us, white man! Your conscience is our only hope!

  112. 112.

    MikeJ

    Since there are furrin film fans here, now that Jules et Jim is over, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow will lighten the mood.

    A few weeks ago they showed a different Sophia Loren movie, Peccato che sia una canaglia ( Too Bad She’s Bad) (which ties in nicely with the magic pixie/psycho discussion from earlier, but with a lighter take).

    All the way through Loren, Mastroianni, everybody in the whole film is singing or humming “Civilization” which fans of Fallout 3 will recognize from play on Galaxy News Radio. In Italian of course. It appears diegetically several times, but I’ve never found the recording used.

  113. 113.

    amk

    If HCR is “off the table”, can we talk about “doctor” coburn’s death wish of a prayer ? AMA should yank this pathetic POS’s shingle.

  114. 114.

    MJ

    Ooh, ooh, I know, what we can talk about that’s not HCR related. Let’s discuss the latest gobbledygook about climate change that our favorite mean girl, Sarah Palin & Tall, has posted on “teh twitters”?
    Direct quotes from http://www.rawstory.com are set forth below.

    Copenhgen=arrogance of man2think we can change nature’s ways.MUST b good stewards of God’s earth,but arrogant&naive2say man overpwers nature”.

    Thirteen minutes later, she treated the Internet to another dose. “Earth saw clmate chnge4 ions;will cont 2 c chnges.R duty2responsbly devlop resorces4humankind/not pollute&destroy;but cant alter naturl chng” the one-time governor confusingly opined.</

    Please note, painful irony courtesy of John “Grimace” McCain, but the atrocious spelling & illiterate abbreviations by our favorite mean girl, Sarah. Also too, please note the Palinator’s apparent inability to tell the difference between the words eon and ion.

  115. 115.

    Fern

    @jibeaux:

    The problem with taking yourself out of the line that way is not so much money as access to health professionals. There are not enough of them, and that is what drives the waiting lists.

  117. 117.

    Anya

    @donovong: I am absolutely dismayed at what is happening to GOS but I would not compare it to RedState. I am yet to see overt racist rants at GOS. Yes, there are a lot of histrionics and the tons of incoherent Obama bashing posts but it’s still not Redstate quality.
    _
    In a more exciting news, I read this article in the Guardian (yes the elitists UK Guardian) — it’s about a black American soldier who died in the Spanish civil war. The Spaniards are trying to identify him.
    _

    “As a volunteer in the International Brigades that fought in Spain’s civil war, the unidentified black soldier in the photograph was one of the first Americans to die fighting fascism.
    _
    Now Spanish authorities want to put a name to him so they can present his picture to President Barack Obama when he visits Spain next year.
    _
    The black and white picture of the African American volunteer forms part of an extraordinary collection of civil war photographs that was bought recently by the Spanish state.”

  118. 118.

    MikeJ

    @MJ: I was appalled yesterday when the Beeb was reporting on that Brittany Murphy’s death. They quoted Ashton Kucher’s tweet, complete with “2” for “too”. Urgh. I’m all for kind words about a friend who is gone, but can’t we take the extra time to type the extra two characters?

  119. 119.

    Hob

    @arguingwithsignposts: I’ll raise an extra glass to you. Having a single Christmas here for the first time in 5 years – after doing first single Thanksgiving etc. – & then will need to find some big distraction in 2 weeks because it’ll be (would’ve been) our goddamn anniversary.

  120. 120.

    jibeaux

    @Stroszek:

    In normal life, no. In the blogosphere calling oneself a hippie or a DFH (see the lexicon) can be a point of pride in being a liberal — embracing the negative connotations, embracing being shunned by villagers, being comfortable with the self-deprecation. Sort of like how you might say, “I know I’m just a pinko commie, but it sure does seem like we might want to curb our CO2 output oneathese days.” Hope everyone appreciates how I didn’t use HCR there.

    I’m trying to think of something off topic to say. a-ha: It is fairly simple process to make your fizzy bath bombs to give away in cute packages as inexpensive gifts for your neighbors, third-tier friends, etc. But you should not be emboldened by your success and consider this to be a good activity to try out with preschoolers in their classroom. No, no, you should definitely not. That’s all I’ve got for now.

  122. 122.

    WereBear

    @Stroszek: Now, admittedly, it’s been a while since I saw Jules & Jim, (though I did get ticked that Catharine wasn’t in the title—sheesh,) but I always thought it was three characters who tragically could not adapt and change; as a metaphor for how WWI ripped apart whole social structures that had endured for centuries.

    They’re good people who all love each other, but they keep trying to make the unworkable, workable… and things get worse because of that.

    In other news… SMUDGE! Oh, what a darling little pixie. You are not alone at Christmas. You have a kitty!

    How better to embody the spirit of the holiday than rescuing a needy soul. No ghosts will haunt you this holiday.

    And happy holidays to everyone; we celebrate the Solstice, tonight. Then, 23rd, we do mental Festivus (no aluminum pole, but plenty of quoting) and I count Christmas Eve as a separate holiday, then there’s Christmas itself.

    Everyone enjoy! Even if it’s an effort.

  123. 123.

    Max

    @arguingwithsignposts: I’ve spent the last 4 christmases single and I don’t find it depressing at all.

    I go for hike with my dog, watch movies, cook myself dinner and relax after a busy holiday working season.

    Same plan for this year. I enjoy it.

    I hope you are able to find something to bring you of out of your depression.

  124. 124.

    jibeaux

    @Fern:

    That’s good to know. I wonder if we are poaching your health professionals? I know we poached at least two, they was a husband-wife physician couple who left Canada featured in my local paper, they had left over frustration by the delays in treatment. I bet you can figure out whether or not they found a whole new set of frustrations here!

    We have our own weird system which incentivizes specialization, etc., which I’m sure everyone’s pretty familiar with. One of my questions though is how on earth does our economy support so many danged chiropractors? Every strip mall in America has a chiro and probably a rival chiro. I don’t have anything against them other than their insistence on being called “Dr.”, but it sure seems like their presence is disproportionate to the need.

  125. 125.

    Fern

    @GReynoldsCT00: I’m finding Christmas alone to be more pleasant than the tension-filled Christmases I remember from being married.

    I usually buy a couple of new books on Christmas eve, Stock up on wine and some good food, and actually sort of enjoy myself.

    It’s all about expectations and what happens when reality doesn’t match expectations. No day can stand up to the expectations we place on Christmas, even under the best of circumstances.

    The first few years, I felt like a loser (since the entire rest of the world was having a wonderful time), but I’ve pretty much gotten over that.

    Though I am sort of ticked that both my brothers are out of town this Christmas and I’m left to deal with my demented mother. (Really demented, as in dementia.)

  127. 127.

    Citizen_X

    @Anya: I doubt this is the same guy, but the first African-American officer to lead a mixed-race unit in combat served in the Abraham Lincoln brigade, and was killed in combat fairly early in the war. (Unfortunately, I don’t have his name handy.)

    I’m on a severe Spanish Civil War reading kick right now. Just finished Beevor, starting to (re-) read Homage to Catalonia.

  128. 128.

    Xenos

    @DZ: Congratulations!

    I am going through a similar process myself, in that within six months I am likely to be out of the United Serfs of America and will be either a landed immigrant in Canada or living in Luxembourg. Two completely different health care systems (single payer vs. mostly private), but in both cases the systems are designed around providing services and not squeezing profits.

    25 years of worrying about getting sick and losing coverage for myself, and 14 years of worrying about my kids getting victimized by such a dysfunctional system, are just going ‘poof’ into the ether. Just not an issue. Freedom to ahead and live your life and stop waiting for corporate America to drop the boom…

  129. 129.

    FlipYrWhig

    @comrade scott’s agenda of rage:

    That’s what it’s all about: air time. Creating a pundit persona that gets you on the cable teevee a lot, creates book and writing opportunities.

    Especially when you get to be both a media personality and “anti-corporate.” Neat trick, that. I’ve been off the FDL train for months, and what crystallized it for me was the moment when Hamsher “challenged” some politician to do something on the Rachel Maddow Show, smiled smugly about it, then posted something on Kos about how, yes, she really did “challenge” him. That’s way beyond even Sirota levels of smarmy self-promotion.

    @jibeaux:

    As someone else said, making people want to punch you doesn’t make you a hippie

    Ooh, that’s my meme! Use it use it use it!

  130. 130.

    Steeplejack

    @The Grand Panjandrum:

    If you liked Get Shorty, you will definitely like Out of Sight. It’s not a comedy, although it has funny moments, but it’s definitely all Leonard.

    I have never been able to bring myself to watch Be Cool, fearing that it wouldn’t measure up to Get Shorty Have you seen that?

  131. 131.

    FlipYrWhig

    @Comrade Darkness:

    Okay, so I just read the wiki def for manic pixie dream girl, and wouldn’t the female love interest in Accidental Tourist count?

    For me, that’s absolutely one of the defining manic-pixie characters, but every time I bring up the movie, no one else has seen it. Victory!

  134. 134.

    Steeplejack

    @MikeJ:

    True dat. I particularly liked him as Mouse in Devil in a Blue Dress.

    I read somewhere that he is working on a movie about Miles Davis. That could be very cool.

  135. 135.

    Fern

    @jibeaux: We have lost a lot of health providers to the US. A lot. We have a serious shortage of nurses, for example, and poaching is part of the problem.

    But a much of the problem is demographic – a lot of nurses and other professionals have reached or are about to reach retirement age. And a lot of them are burning out from overwork and are leaving the field early.

  137. 137.

    Steeplejack

    @Stroszek:

    I don’t think there are even that many people over age 50 who self-identify as a hippie. Okay, if you legally changed your name to something like Wavy Gravy then you sort of have to, but other than that . . .

  138. 138.

    gogol's wife

    James Wolcott has a couple of funny posts about the new Meryl Streep movie “It’s Complicated.”
    http://www.vanityfair.com/online/wolcott/
    You have to read the penultimate one first.

    I’ve been through single Christmases and married Christmases, and I agree with those who say that it’s all about the kittehs. If you have a good one you can get through anything.

  139. 139.

    jibeaux

    So, who’s got a recommendation for a movie to watch over the holidays, need not be a holiday movie, that would have cross-generational appeal? Not a prudish family, but as with any normal people, there’s no desire to watch sex scenes with mom and dad and grandma. Bonus for appeal to kids as well. So far I have come up with “Christmas Story” and “Elf”, and as you might imagine we have traversed those paths more than once.

  141. 141.

    GReynoldsCT00

    @Fern:

    I used to not mind Christmas alone, made the best of it. I’ve never been married. Maybe the fact that I’m getting older and hoped for something more is the underlying problem.

    You are absolutely right about the expectations — nothing can live up to the magical Christmases of childhood or the hype of how society says it SHOULD be.

  142. 142.

    gwangung

    I used to not mind Christmas alone, made the best of it. I’ve never been married. Maybe the fact that I’m getting older and hoped for something more is the underlying problem.

    Hell, yeah.

  147. 147.

    R-Jud

    @Xenos:

    25 years of worrying about getting sick and losing coverage for myself, and 14 years of worrying about my kids getting victimized by such a dysfunctional system, are just going ‘poof’ into the ether.

    I can remember going to the ER one night shortly after I’d graduated college (so I was broke, though employed, and had bare-bones insurance at best), being told I had to be admitted as an inpatient, and having panic attacks while calculating what my costs were going to be.

    Now that I’m an expat in the UK, no such stress. You just go to the doctor. It’s really wonderful.

  149. 149.

    jibeaux

    @The Grand Panjandrum:

    Oh, that is a great movie. I forget about some of those good old ones sometimes. John Candy was such a talent and Steve Martin is just great. I think it even tends to get air time over the holidays, if I remember right. I’m writing these down.

  150. 150.

    Deborah

    @SteveinSC:

    WHY can no one in the media point out that God clearly hates Senator Coburn and supports the health care reform bill?

    Media: Some wingnut feels so strongly about the president’s speech/a bill passing that he is instructing his followers to pray for divine intervention!
    God: Screw that. No rain. No killing Byrd. The answer to your request is NO.
    Media: [silence]

  154. 154.

    Steeplejack

    @The Grand Panjandrum:

    You definitely need to see Out of Sight. All of Leonard’s crackling dialogue–his strong suit–is preserved, and the story is tight, tight, tight. Bonus: there is even a crossover cameo by a character from Tarantino’s Jackie Brown, which was made the year before.

    This is reminding me how much I like reading Elmore Leonard. I have read almost all of his stuff, except for the early Westerns and some of his more recent books. For me his peak was the mid-’80s–Split Images, Cat Chaser, Stick, LaBrava. That was quite a run.

  155. 155.

    Anya

    @Citizen_X: Beevor’s “The Spanish Civil War” is in my reading list – though the list is getting longer. I should stop reading blogs and start reading history books. Damn you, BJ! Every time I try to get out, you pull me back in!

  156. 156.

    Comrade Sock Puppet of the Great Satan

    “I think most of the time straying has nothing to do with the person who is being cheated upon, and very often nothing to do with the third party either.”

    True. Branaugh cheating on Emma Thompson is incomprehensible to me, given that in his shoes I’d have spent all hours not working and sleeping putting her on a pedestal and worshipping her.

    But let us give thanks that men exist who treat glorious, gorgeous women appallingly. If Jeri Ryan’s husband hadn’t wrecked their marriage by wanting to drag her to sex clubs, we might not have had Senator Obama. So in this alternate history, instead of complaining about us Dirty Hippies getting slapped around on the public option for HCR, we’d be talking about President McCain’s plans for invading Venezuela.

    So let’s hear it for selfish male jerks married to women who deserve better.

  157. 157.

    Steeplejack

    @Thoroughly Pizzled:

    I recommended Spirited Away to a woman and caught hell about it later because her kids were scared by the scene where the parents turn into pigs. So this might not be a good choice for little kids. Kiki’s Delivery Service or My Neighbor Totoro would be an acceptable substitute. In fact, if everyone was required to watch Totoro once a year we would live in a much nicer world, IMHO.

  158. 158.

    DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal)

    @TaosJohn:

    You sure are enjoying that newfound freedom TJ! You ought to head on over to FreedomWorks new branch office at FireDogLake. I am sure they would welcome you with open arms and you would probably get a lot more signatures on that petition from them than you would ever get here.

    Good luck!

  159. 159.

    Irrelevant,YetPoignant

    @TaosJohn:

    Lisa: Whatever you do, Mom, we’ll be proud of you.

    Marge: Well thank you, honey.

    Lisa: As long as it’s constitutional.

    Marge: Mmm.

  160. 160.

    sandflea loves jeffreyw

    Brittany Murphy died.

    Not that I knew much about her or anything, but she was only 32

  161. 161.

    DZ

    AJibeaux:

    This may be off what you are interested in, but try Dimanches de Ville d’Avray – Sundays and Cybele in English – set at Christmas. A truly wonderful film but heavy and with subtitles.

  167. 167.

    DZ

    @Xenos:

    Congrats yourself. Good decision. As for me, I would choose Luxembourg. It’s right in the heart of Western Europe. Everything is just a few hours by train. Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Berlin, Geneva, Madrid. Good for you, good for your kids

  168. 168.

    jibeaux

    @TaosJohn:

    If you wanted to be productive, you could identify specific provisions in the House bill that you consider superior to the Senate version, and call your Senators and Reps to propose that those provisions win out in the final merger. I think the liberal complaints generated a few good outcomes for the Senate bill, and that’s a good thing. But at this point if you’re not focused on what will be in the final bill, you’re spitting in the wind.

  169. 169.

    Violet

    Finally got a Christmas tree and it’s got lights on it now, but no decorations. We’re not feeling very motivated. Decorations probably tonight.

    Then it’s all in on cookie-making. It’s fun, but a huge chore.

  171. 171.

    someguy

    Hey, look, somebody in a position of semi-responsibility is finally calling out the Republicans for what they are – a bunch of birther, aryan nations militia types. Contrary to what we thought, the emperor does have clothes – brown shirts and white sheets, mostly – but it’s still clothes. Cue Republican whining over hurt feelings about this in 3…2…1…

    Whoops, guess I’m late to the party.

  172. 172.

    Chat Noir

    @jibeaux: Don’t know if these fit your criteria but they are a couple of classics, in my humble opinion anyhow.

    Watched “Absence of Malice” on Friday for the first time in years. Paul Newman and Sally Field are excellent, as is Bob Balaban. Good newspaper story (plus, I love watching films from the 70s and 80s just to see the hair and clothing styles!).

    My personal fav is “It Happened One Night.” Old, Depression era movie that was the first film to sweep the Oscars in all the major categories (it wouldn’t happen again until “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” in the mid-70s). I saw it for the first time in a class I had in college in 1987 (TC280 — “The History of the Motion Picture”) and I’ve watched it many times since. Clark Gable’s character was always an ideal guy for me (tough newspaper man who actually had a soft heart). For a movie made in 1933-34, I love the suggestive tone to certain scenes (this was pre-code Hollywood).

  173. 173.

    Persia

    @jibeaux: Total agreement. Some really good stuff might come out of reconciliation, and worst case scenario, a lot of people who right now can’t get insurance will have it.

  174. 174.

    Comrade Sock Puppet of the Great Satan

    “I recommended Spirited Away to a woman and caught hell about it later because her kids were scared by the scene where the parents turn into pigs. So this might not be a good choice for little kids. ”

    Better not give that woman a copy of the original Grimm’s Fairy Tales, i.e. the versions before they got Disneyfied and the bleaker elements removed. It’s not like you recommended Urotsukidōji.

    Any decent fairy story has to have the parents incapacitated/incompetent so the child-hero has to find their own resources and helpers.

    Studio Ghibli is da Bomb. Spirited Away, Howl’s Moving Castle, Whisper of the Heart, Return of the Cat, Castle in the Sky, as well as the others mentioned above. With those and Pixar, I’ve never felt the need to have a [non-Pixar] Disney or Dreamworks DVD in the house.
    Iron Giant is another good Japanese animation version of a kid story by Sylvia Plath’s husband.

  176. 176.

    Sentient Puddle

    @AngusTheGodOfMeat: Thanks for linking that. David Waldman has been pretty damn good at clarifying procedural stuff in congress, and more than once over the last week, I’ve wanted to yell at some people, telling them to go read Congress Matters every once in a while.

  177. 177.

    Hob

    @Steeplejack: Miyazaki’s movies are all great and everyone should see them. That said, I’m not sure it makes sense to recommend Totoro as a less scary alternative if you’re worried about seeing parents in danger; the kid’s mother is badly sick and in the hospital for the whole movie!

  178. 178.

    CaseyL

    I’ve had more single Christmases than not, by like 90%. I don’t mind. My memories of family holidays growing up are all of my parents and grandparents having screaming fights all evening, which gave me an almost Pavlovian cringe-reaction to even the idea of “Family Holiday Get Together.”

    One lovely thing this year was seeing the Seattle Women’s Chorus holiday show. My friend Dylan invited me; his very-long-time GF Robin is a member of the Chorus and sang in the show. Dylan has been a life saver the last couple months, since the state decided to stop my unemployment benefits* – I don’t know how to show him the appreciation he deserves.

    Anyway, this year “the holiday spirit” and I are definitely living in way different time zones.

    [*Long story. Very briefly: I thought I had a job offer to do paralegal work, so I quit the PT job I had, only the offer was rescinded, and now the state says it wasn’t a “bona fide” job offer and I’m no longer eligible and, oh, BTW? I have to pay back a week’s worth of benefits. I’ll appeal, but have little faith that justice will prevail. Meanwhile, no income. At all. So: complete panic time!)

  179. 179.

    Keith G

    @arguingwithsignposts: Christmas alone can actually be refreshing. The society is madly spinning by and one can step off the track, as it were, and let the craziness rush right on past. There are sensations, memories, and spiritual moorings that can be strengthened by such a break at such a time.

    I enjoy the intimacy of self and would rather be alone than with… (well a long list).

    Though this year, I will not totally be alone. The first guy I ever dated (we were both 16) was able to track me down this spring via a political blog I used to write for. So, though we are many miles apart, we still be together on the tube thingies.

    It’s a strange life we lead.

  180. 180.

    R-Jud

    @jibeaux: The ultimate screen adaptation of “A Christmas Carol”, for my money, is Scrooge from 1951, starring Alastair Sim. It’s black and white, and sometimes slower paced, but deliciously spooky, and Sim’s performance is amazing. From a contemporary review:

    In short, what we have in this rendition of Dickens’ sometimes misunderstood “Carol” is an accurate comprehension of the agony of a shabby soul. And this is presented not only in the tortured aspects of Mr. Sim but in the phantasmagoric creation of a somber and chilly atmosphere. These, set against the exhibition of conventional manifests of love and cheer, do right by the moral of Dickens and round a trenchant and inspiring Christmas show.

    Old Hollywood musicals– Singin’ in the Rain, My Fair Lady, etc., are also good fun for lazing around on Christmas.

    The BBC always shows The Great Escape for some reason.

  181. 181.

    zzyzx

    I never even celebrated Xmas until I had a live in gf so it mostly was just a free day off, except for the years I had to perform the role of the token Jew employee and be the one to work that day…

  182. 182.

    elmo

    @Bill H:

    Heh, you beat me to it. Given a choice between my beloved Chargers all but wrapping up the #2 seed with their victory over Cincy yesterday, and the Senate overcoming the filibuster last night, well —

    let’s just say I’m glad I really didn’t have to make that choice.

  183. 183.

    gbear

    Well, there’s always TBogg, but he’s gone off the HCR deep end lately too.

    It was a really sad day when TBogg moved from his independent site where anyone could freely comment. That site was infinitely more fun than his FDL affiliated site. So much energy has been squeezed out of his posts. Very sad. I wish he’d find a way to go independent again.

  185. 185.

    Steeplejack

    @Hob:

    In My Neighbor Totoro the “danger” is largely offscreen; they visit the mother in the hospital once or twice, and she seems more tired than deathly ill.

  186. 186.

    Steeplejack

    @SGEW:

    I zoomed through almost all of Pratchett’s Discworld books this year, and one that really stuck with me is Small Gods. Very good.

  188. 188.

    Nellcote

    @jibeaux:

    So, who’s got a recommendation for a movie to watch over the holidays,

    “A Lion In Winter” w/Katharine Hepburn & Peter O’Toole. My fave x-mas movie. It will make you feel better about your own family.

  189. 189.

    Comrade Mary

    @Steeplejack: Small Gods is brilliant, but so is Hogfather, which is not only seasonal, but is also available as a DVD suitable for family viewing :-)

    (Well, maybe a little scary, but Death is actually one of the good guys.)

  191. 191.

    mandarama

    AWS, as a fellow academic, I must say: any Christmas where grades just got done is a WIN. I hate that last slog oh, so much. Plus, you have Smudge to bring you the cute! Go get her a present, and get yourself some too, and curl up to watch any movie that makes you laugh and remember why life is still awesome.

    So true re: expectations. I feel like Christmas hands me my ass every year on a platter. Garnished with holly sprigs, like in Southern Living.
    The antidote is that my kids have learned all the lyrics in Emmet Otter’s Jug-Band Christmas, which makes me so happy.

  193. 193.

    Comrade Mary

    I just got Reaper Man! I’ve been reading Pratchett in random order (because I am insufficiently butt-clenched to insist on reading any series in publication order when it’s really not necessary), but I have to finish Unseen Academicals first.

  194. 194.

    Comrade Sock Puppet of the Great Satan

    “I thought Hogfather was hilarious.”

    Avoid the film made of it, though.

  195. 195.

    asiangrrlMN

    @arguingwithsignposts: Hon, I have never celebrated a Christmas with someone (in that sense, not really). I have never lived with someone. Hell, most of my relationships have been long-distance. Now, I don’t celebrate holidays, so I am not the best person to ask, but it can be a relief not to have to ‘do’ the holidays. I know our culture imbues holidays with so much meaning, but if you can think of it as just another day….And, Smudge. Cuddle with your little girl. It will help.

    @R-Jud: I found that movie to be wildly uneven. Loved Alan Rickman and Emma Thompson (they are so perfect together), and Laura Linney was heartbreaking in it. The rest of it was eh. But, Alan Rickman!

    @Thoroughly Pizzled: Wildly back up this recommendation. Love love love this movie. LOVE IT.

  196. 196.

    Janet Strange

    @jibeaux: Dancer, Texas Pop. 81.

    My teenage (at the time) daughter loved it. My eighty-year-old mother loved it (so much that she bought the dvd after we watched it), my 20-something great niece loved it and I (50ish when I first saw it) loved it. Never met another movie that appealed to so many different age groups that way.

    If you’re from Texas you will recognize every character in it. If not, it’s still a great flick.

  197. 197.

    Anne Laurie

    @Stroszek:

    I consider her to be a brilliantly conceived villain intended to illustrate how narcissists manipulate and suck the life out of their victims by reinterpreting their inability to reciprocate genuine affection and trust as a sort of moral code.

    How dare you insult a great humanitarian like Slinkywink! ! !… oops.

  199. 199.

    Jenn

    @CaseyL:

    Yikes, that’s awful. I hope it sorts out, in the end, though all the hoop-jumping for the appeal’s gotta be the uber-suck in the meantime. Good luck!

    …

    As for Christmas movie recommendations, I’m fairly fond of The Ref, with Dennis Leary.

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