Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Can we lighten up on the doomsday scenarios?

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

Republicans do not pay their debts.

Donald Trump, welcome to your everything, everywhere, all at once.

“Let’s not pretend [Trump] wants to engage in high-minded discourse.”

Their boy Ron is an empty plastic cup that will never know pudding.

We need to vote them all out and restore sane Democratic government.

Anyone who bans teaching American history has no right to shape America’s future.

Ron DeSantis, the grand wizard, oops, governor of FL.

with the Kraken taking a plea, the Cheese stands alone.

If you are still in the gop, you are either an extremist yourself, or in bed with those who are.

Meanwhile over at truth Social, the former president is busy confessing to crimes.

There’s always a light at the end of the frog.

Republicans in disarray!

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

I’m pretty sure there’s only one Jack Smith.

We are aware of all internet traditions.

Battle won, war still ongoing.

There are a lot more evil idiots than evil geniuses.

Days Since JD Vance Insulted Women Across America: Zero

Wow, I can’t imagine what it was like to comment in morse code.

Fuck the extremist election deniers. What’s money for if not for keeping them out of office?

‘Museums aren’t America’s attic for its racist shit.’

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

You are here: Home / Music / Thursday Morning Open Thread: Blessed Solstice

Thursday Morning Open Thread: Blessed Solstice

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From here on, the days get colder, but also longer.


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Reader Interactions

165Comments

  4. 4.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Anne Laurie, thank you. What a perfect selection of words, images, and music.

    Blessed solstice to you and all jackals.

  6. 6.

    Trivia Man

    Thank you for the lovely solstice musings. We did Bleak Midwinter in choir a few years back, the entire program centered around songs of darkness. It was excellent, Unitarian music directors can really go outside the box of typical music.

  7. 7.

    Scout211

    It’s always nice to have a “something good” thread  in the early morning.

    It’s nice to look forward to more sun and longer days.

    Happy Winter Solstice from sunny cloudy California.  😊

  10. 10.

    Salty Sam .

    “The Bleak Midwinter” indeed.  This is the day that I  feel the turning of the Great Wheel the strongest and most urgently- on this day a quarter century ago, my beloved wife Suzanne passed into the next world.  Solstice has always been a time of sorrow for this pagan.

    But the Margaret Atwood quote still rings true: “the year’s threshold and unlocking, where the past lets go and becomes the future;”

    Another turn of the Wheel begins.  Joy to you all.

  11. 11.

    frosty

    @OzarkHillbilly: ​Happy Solstice to you from this pagan! From mid-November on, I’m waiting for this day. I don’t like the cold weather that’s on its way but I hate the darkness a lot more.

    My tradition is to have a fire in the fireplace tonight in lieu of a yule log. Maybe we can do it while we set up the Christmas tree and clear the dining room table for wrapping presents.​​

  12. 12.

    What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?

    I used to relate to In the Bleak Midwinter, also the winter imagery in Good King Wenceslas. I grew up in West Michigan in the 1970s and there was always snow on the ground well before Christmas.

    The snows gradually started coming later and later, though. Round about 2008 they’d reliably start just a week or two before Christmas and white Christmases were still pretty regular. In the past decade, though, they’ve become pretty rare. We didn’t go home the first pandemic Christmas but my parents say that was white. That was the first white one in three years though. Then we had another green one. Then last year was white thanks to a Christmas Eve blizzard. But that snow was gone by New Year’s Eve. This year the highs are above freezing all week with pretty much no chance of snow. Kind of wonder how much longer people are going to relate to all the snow blanketed winter imagery we associate with Christmas if there’s hardly ever snow at Christmas even in the northern tier of the lower 48.

  13. 13.

    dmsilev

    Random thought: How do the flat-Earth loons explain things like solstices? Or eclipses, for that matter? I’m guessing it’s some variant of “look, a Sasquatch!” and then run fast in the opposite direction.

  14. 14.

    Betty Cracker

    Thank you so much for including Florida’s semi-annual Solstice Iguana Drop! Most winter commentators ignore America’s Wang, but we have our traditions too.

  15. 15.

    Suzanne

    Sooooo…. today, Spawn the Younger turns 13. Feeling old!

    Today will all be birthday celebration stuff.

  16. 16.

    SW

    It only continues to get colder east of the divide.  In the west it starts to warm almost immediately.

  18. 18.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?: ​ I spend every Xmas going to see various Missouri sights, usually with a bent towards geological rarities but not always. Last year I went down to the historic Dillard’s Mill on the Huzzah Creek. It was well below zero and we had about 6″ of snow on the ground. I spent a wonderful day hiking around there and never saw another soul. This year my wife has the day off and will join me. Supposed to be 57 degrees and raining.

    If we get enough rain on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, we’ll go to Mina Sauk Falls (the *tallest* in the state at 125′ or so). If not enough rain, we’ll go to Pickle Creek Natural Area. My wife has never been to either so it’ll be something new to her no matter which.

  20. 20.

    Matt McIrvin

    Because of the Earth’s slightly eccentric orbit around the Sun, the day of earliest sunset is not actually the same as the shortest day, but slightly different–where I live, it was in early December. And the day of latest sunrise (not counting the effects of DST*) is later, sometime in January.

    Since it’s usually early sunset that depresses me more than late sunrise, I tell myself this to cheer myself up during the darkest part of the year. We’re already a week and a half past earliest sunset and the improvement will start to speed up a little soon.

    (*Put DST in the mix and, in my area, the latest sunrise is just before the November changeover, because it happens so late.)

  21. 21.

    citizen dave

    For anyone wanting a 10 minute Yule Log with a young Icelandic “jazz” singer, I present the “A Very Laufey  Holiday Yule Log” (presented to me by the great YouTube algorithm).

    And if you want to dig deeply as to whether Laufey is Jazz, a youtuber named Adam Laufey has a video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68zOvCLwcL8) that is very educational on what is jazz and what is not jazz.  [He also says her name, correctly I guess, which rhymes with “Oh Vey”, so Low-Vey]

  22. 22.

    Matt McIrvin

    @dmsilev: They have incoherent “explanations” that amount to a lot of handwaving. Generally they are pretty innumerate people so the idea that you need a quantitative model doesn’t really register.

  23. 23.

    Soprano2

    @Trivia Man: We did a version of “Bleak Midwinter” in choir this year, I can’t find a recording of it. There was a line where you sang “snow on snow” over and over underneath the melody. It was a different arrangement for sure.

  26. 26.

    Butch

    Three hours this morning with no power; apparently the outage was pretty widespread but the cause isn’t known yet.  Luckily we have a wood stove so the house didn’t get cold.

  29. 29.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    Actually our sunsets here are already three minutes later than our earliest sunset (4:45) but today is the start of the three shortest days of the year (9:06 long). While our sunsets are getting later every day we will still be losing morning light until the third of next month.

    C’mon summer!

  31. 31.

    frosty

    @frosty: Today I learned why I drag on from mid-November. There are three definitions of winter: Astronomical, Meterological, and Solar. I’m living solar winter, the quarter of the year with the shortest days, from November 7 to February 5. Based on this, the Solstice is mid-Winter, not the beginning of Winter (Astronomical definition). It makes so much more sense now!

    (I hope this is a gift link)

    https://wapo.st/489LBIC

  33. 33.

    Citizen_X

    On the first day of Solstice, my true love gave to me,

    Six lizards falling from palm trees.

    Needs work.

  34. 34.

    Matt McIrvin

    @frosty: I think what really gets me down is the rate of change–I get really unmotivated and distraught during the period when the night is most noticeably encroaching on the day, which is around October. That’s famously the nicest, most beautiful time of the year in New England, but the light situation just casts a pall over it.

    During the bleak “season of the sticks” in the early months of the year, I do better because I’ve gotten used to the darkness and I can feel that it’s gradually lifting.

  35. 35.

    Sandia Blanca

    @Salty Sam  Sorry to hear of that sad anniversary. I hope you will find joy in knowing that Miss Pearl continues to live her best cat life in our home. She brings us much happiness and entertainment. Our older cats have really had to step up their game!

  37. 37.

    frosty

    @Matt McIrvin: ​The fastest rate of daylight change is the pagan/Druid cross-quarter days. We celebrate them as Halloween, Groundhog Day, and May Day. We don’t have a holiday for August 1, unfortunately.

  39. 39.

    Gin & Tonic

    Wondering who owns The Toronto Sun. It is covering itself in something, the opposite of glory today.

    This is antisemitism, @TheTorontoSun. Exploiting the “hooked nose” stereotype to emphasize Jewishness of a character doing something despicable was a staple of Nazi propaganda and antisemitic propaganda elsewhere. pic.twitter.com/b9h2t24Nvp
    — Konstantin Sonin (@k_sonin) December 21, 2023

  44. 44.

    zhena gogolia

    @Gin & Tonic:
    Hmmm

    Ties to right wing politics
    In October 2018, it was reported that CEO Andrew MacLeod had declared the company “insufficiently conservative.” That resulted in Kevin Libin, who had played an active role in defeating a union drive at the paper earlier that year,[22] taking charge of all political reporting and analysis in Postmedia newspapers to ensure the newspapers became more “reliably conservative.”[23]In June 2019, Kevin Libin, the National Post and Financial Post comments editor and editorials editor and a founding editor of Western Standard, was assigned “executive editor of Postmedia politics”.[4] The role focuses on coverage for federal politics in the Post. In addition, it focuses on coverage of federal and provincial politics within all of the dailies owned by Postmedia.[24]

    In November 2019, Postmedia announced[25] that 66% of its shares were now owned by Chatham Asset Management, an American media conglomerate which owns American Media, Inc., and is known for its close ties to the Republican party.[26]

    (Wikipedia)

  45. 45.

    Redshift

    I grew up reading about winter in New England and living in Northern Virginia, plus there was at least one winter when I was small enough that we had snow higher than my head. As a result, I always feel like it should be snowy at Christmas and it almost never is.

    Good preparation for climate change, I guess. 😕

  46. 46.

    JoyceH

    I’m in Richmond at specialist vet. This fellow thinks that yes, the growth is probably cancer but he thinks we can get away with just removing the toe. They’re taking blood samples and tissue samples etc and I’ll take Jazzy home in a bit and we’ll decide what to do when the results are back. So likely toe removal soon after Christmas.

  47. 47.

    Redshift

    The Shortest Day
    by Susan Cooper

    And so the Shortest Day came and the year died
    And everywhere down the centuries of the snow-white world
    Came people singing, dancing,
    To drive the dark away.
    They lighted candles in the winter trees;
    They hung their homes with evergreen;
    They burned beseeching fires all night long
    To keep the year alive.
    And when the new year’s sunshine blazed awake
    They shouted, reveling.
    Through all the frosty ages you can hear them
    Echoing behind us—listen!
    All the long echoes, sing the same delight,
    This Shortest Day,
    As promise wakens in the sleeping land:
    They carol, feast, give thanks,
    And dearly love their friends,
    And hope for peace.
    And now so do we, here, now,
    This year and every year.

    Welcome, Yule!

  51. 51.

    Spanky

    @frosty:

    We don’t have a holiday for August 1, unfortunately.

    Used to be Lammastide, the blessing of the first loaves from the harvest. August 1. That’s one I’d like to see revived.

  52. 52.

    p.a.

    https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-67766964

     

        A website founded by a former US Marine who now lives in Russia has fuelled a rumour that Volodymyr Zelensky purchased two luxury yachts with American aid money.
        Despite the false claim, the disinformation plot was successful. It took off online and was echoed by members of the US Congress making crucial decisions about military spending.

    ETA: guess, Congresscritters of which party?  Guess initials beginning with “M”?

     

     

    Worked outside for 10+ years.  I like winter’s cold (I have the clothes for it).  Not a huge fan of shoveling snow, especially here in RI (think 3:2 snow:slush), but since I bought snowshoes 5+ years ago, not much snow- of course🤨

    Not-fun cold: when it feels like your eyeballs are solidifying into marbles.

  56. 56.

    MazeDancer

    Since Solstice happens at 10:27 EST, tonight, thinking of it as “wake up and it’s Winter”.

    Wish Solstice was as widely observed as the other holidays this time of year. But that would require admitting Solstice is the Reason for the Season.

    But to all of you I wish you glad tidings for the Season of Most Inner Growth. May smiles be yours tonight, tomorrow, and all Season long.

  58. 58.

    catclub

    @Redshift: As a result, I always feel like it should be snowy at Christmas and it almost never is.

    In “The Lion,The Witch and The Wardrobe” it was always winter but never Christmas. Now we are getting never winter but still some Christmas.

  61. 61.

    Another Scott

    @NotMax: Weird, but good.

    When I was a youngster in the ’60s, my mom and dad took me to his work Christmas party for employee families at Lockheed in Marietta, GA.  It was a huge event.  They had 6 Santas up on thrones, spread out on a stage for all the kids in 6 different lines to visit.  I asked “Why are there so many Santas?  There’s only one Santa??!11”  My mom said, “those are his helpers”.  “If they’re helpers, why are they dressed like him??!!”

    It was all so confusing.

    :-/

    Some things have to be done discretely if they’re mass produced.  ;-)

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  62. 62.

    UncleEbeneezer

    Well we made it to Taos after a very long day yesterday.  It’s cold and gloomy but pretty and we finally feel like we are on vacation.  About to go have some breakfast and begin our green (and red) chili marathon which will last several days :)

  64. 64.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Redshift: Yeah, I moved from NoVa to Massachusetts and while it’s snowier here than it was there, the climate is shifting such that Massachusetts winters are more like NoVa winters used to be.

    We often get our big snow very, very late, though. Not in December, but in, like, March or sometimes even April. I’ve never been a huge fan of identifying the solstice as the beginning of winter as opposed to the traditional Midwinter, which makes more logical sense to me (what frosty called “solar winter”), but it does reflect how the weather works on the East Coast of North America, where the temperature changes tend to be delayed.

  65. 65.

    narya

    Happy solstice from another BJ pagan! I made sure to get out for my morning walk in time to catch the sunrise (I do that for the summer solstice as well). It was overcast, so no actual sun, but it feels vaguely important to do it. It’s also my Special Friend’s birthday, so we’ll do something or other–and it was Frank Zappa’s birthday as well. I’ve been feeling particularly unmotivated lately, and then I remind myself that the darkness at this time of year always sucks the motivation out of me.

  66. 66.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Suzanne:

    You know, Spawn the Elder turned 20 last week. I had a whole whopping five technically teenager-free days!

    FTFY. Happy birthday to Spawn the Younger!

  67. 67.

    Kristine

    I hope to see northern lights in person somewhere, someday. What an amazing sight.

    A Blessed Solstice to all. It’s a cloudy, unseasonably warm day here is NE Illinois, with 50F and rain expected for Christmas, 40s and hi 30s through year’s end. Blame climate change + El Niño. Wondering what this may mean for January/February. Continued warmth? Snowmakers making up for lost time? 🤷‍♀️

  69. 69.

    lowtechcyclist

    @frosty:

     There are three definitions of winter: Astronomical, Meterological, and Solar.

    I wasn’t aware of the name, but I knew that there was an alternate definition of the seasons where summer was June, July, and August, and the other seasons defined analogously.  That’s always made more sense to me than the equinox/solstice-driven definitions.  I’d be more likely to want to go out for a bike ride on March 15th than December 15th.

  70. 70.

    Bupalos

    The calendar year should start with solstice. It bothers me that it doesn’t and I feel like trying to start a political movement/religion around it.

  72. 72.

    UncleEbeneezer

    Speaking of antlers…I recently went down a rabbit bunny-hole and learned that those bunny-ear fingers we use to photobomb pictures have a strange and interesting history:

    “The cuckold’s horns is a sign, usually indicated by two fingers placed over the head, of a man whose wife has been unfaithful. In many countries – not least the UK, see photo – the actual symbolism has been forgotten and only the offence remains. This blogger went to a secondary school where it was felt to be hilarious to ruin a photograph by sneaking fingers over a fellow’s head, but none of the eleven and twelve years involved had the slightest idea what a cuckold was; in fact, they had no idea what a girl was, but that’s another and a far more depressing story.

    How old is the symbol and more importantly what have horns got to do with fooled spouses? As to age it would be nice to report that it stretches back into antiquity, but there are no convincing Greek or Roman references. While there is enough Greek and Roman material surviving for us to put together a fairly impressive list of classical hand signs: for example, a Roman scratching his ear at a man, implies the man is gay.

    However, the cuckold’s horns are definitely there in the Middle Ages. That great medievalist Peter Dronke noted a reference in the late 1100s in the work of Bernart de Ventadour. The earliest image of the cuckolded husband apparently dates, meanwhile, to a fourteenth-century French manuscript (of Gratian’s Decretals), where a husband is shown with antlers on: frustratingly I’ve not been able to examine the image, I’ve just read about it. The earliest surviving finger horn is, instead, perhaps in the two images above: the first Flemish, the second French. The second, a copy, is a work by Francois Bunel (not Brunel as found in several references!): thanks to Neil H for the correction and the dating. C. 1580 for the first and 1580-1587 for the second. The renaissance was obssessed with cuckolds, far more so than the middle ages: not sure why.”

    The cuckold was also a regular comedic character in literature making appearances in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales and even Shakespeare (Othello might be the most famous cuckold in literary history). Of course, it is all rooted in Misogyny, Patriarchy and the notion that women are the property of men and that if a woman strays or even desires other men, then her man must be some sort of failure of Masculinity.

    As you’ve probably noticed, the term “cuck” started becoming used by the Alt-Right in 2015, as a catch-all insult to demean men. It’s basically a substitute for misogynist and homophobic slurs that they can no longer get away with saying. It’s childish and ridiculous, because that’s exactly what they are.

  73. 73.

    Bupalos

    @Kristine: I think the el nino deal for those of us in the top right quadrant of the u.s. is significantly warmer december and january and slightly colder february and march.

    Which kinda sucks.

  75. 75.

    Salty Sam

    @Sandia Blanca: Miss Pearl continues to live her best cat life in our home.

    That is indeed a happy thought, thanks!  I knew she would thrive as soon as I met y’all.  Season’s best to you and N.

  76. 76.

    caringandsensitive

    In 1964 I was a sprightly 18 year old. My girlfriend’s birthday was today. She told me that when she was little it always pissed her off that her birthday was the shortest day of the year but as she got older she realized it was the longest night (heh heh). I think of that practically every year on this day

  77. 77.

    Kristine

    @Bupalos:

    I think the el nino deal for those of us in the top right quadrant of the u.s. is significantly warmer december and january and slightly colder february and march.

    Which kinda sucks.

    Especially when shrubs and trees bud early then get hit with hard freezes. The bulbs usually manage okay. Forsythia and crabapples, not so much.

  80. 80.

    Bupalos

    @UncleEbeneezer: I’d say it’s all rooted in patriarchy and clan before misogyny. Though these things are obviously interrelated, I think the arrow points stronger in that direction. It has more to do with the idea that the family genetic line gets unknowingly diverted. We have a hard time today understanding the total existential nature of that threat in societies so completely psychologically saturated in lineage.

    I think it’s an entirely different psychological landscape today and the term only keeps vestiges of the old social meaning for hardcore racist nutbags. Which is why it reemerges on the right and for them really almost always with a racial component.

  83. 83.

    Miss Bianca

    @Salty Sam .: I am sorry to hear about your loss on this day.

    The Winter Solstice is always bittersweet for me too – this was my wedding day. Marriage with the ex didn’t last, friendship did, but however grateful I may be for that, for a variety of reasons I tend to associate this day with loss and regret for some things past.

    However, HERE COMES THE SUN, so there is some Solstice cheer after all!

  84. 84.

    Soprano2

    @3Sice: We have a graduate assistant at choir who is from South Africa. I keep meaning to ask him if there are differences in how they celebrate since for them Christmas is at the height of the summer.

  87. 87.

    Soprano2

    @MazeDancer: I think the Christmas carol “O Christmas Tree” is kind of hilarious, since it attempts to turn a symbol of the pagan solstice into a Christian symbol. I highly doubt there were any Christmas trees when Jesus was born.

  88. 88.

    Miss Bianca

    @frosty: Samhain (or Halloween) marks the beginning of winter in Celtic tradition. So I’ve long thought of Winter Solstice as mid-winter (somehow I typed “mind-winter” first. Hmm.)

  89. 89.

    opiejeanne

    @Spanky: My DIL thinks we’re all pagans for celebrating Christmas, because she’s a Jehovah’s Witness. She and the kids are coming for the party, she won’t refuse the presents as long as they aren’t under the tree or wrapped in obvious Christmas paper.

    Bah, humbug!

    Ok, not really. We are celebrating on the 26th because we have family converging on us from Southern California as well as Thailand, my sister is being inconvenient, and we will be a jolly party of … I’ve lost count now. Two babies under the age of 2, a 4 year old, 2 teenagers (JWs), and a bunch of adults (12 or 13), some of us moving well past vintage toward becoming antiques. The tree will be up, the lights will be lit, there will be a Roast Beast, music, Christmas crackers, babies enough for everyone to play with, and lots of silliness.

    The JWs can observe as if they are anthropologists, but we hope that the kids at least will go native.

    On that note, tonight is a good night to watch The Hogfather. Merry Everything to everybody.

  92. 92.

    Miss Bianca

    @Another Scott: I’ll never forget the holiday party at my dad’s college when he had to be Santa. I was about four at the time, and terrified of Santa Claus (and clowns, and, well…you name it). So when time came to sit on Santa’s lap, I thoroughly let down the side by screaming and having a meltdown. Distinctly remember my dad whispering something in my ear to the effect of, “It’s ME, you little shit” (some alcohol may have been involved).

    Well, that shut me the hell up. *And* gave me much to think about. And people wondered when I was six years and asked if I believed in Santa Claus, I said, “No, but I pretended to, because the grown-ups seem to put so much stock in it.” (or words to that effect – *no* alcohol involved.)

    @UncleEbeneezer: I miss New Mexico at Christmas. Part of what always has me thinking about my sister at this time of year. :(

    Hope you enjoy, and if you get a chance to go to the dances at Taos Pueblo, do!

  96. 96.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Redshift: From my teenage years I remember one New Years Day in Baltimore with snowdrifts​ up to the top of our backyard chainlink fence – and another when we washed the cars in the afternoon (sunny, high in lower 70s). Might have been in successive years…

    I remember one evening in the 1980s when enough of the falling snow outside had swirled into the glassed-in entryway of a shopping mall it felt like walking through a giant snowglobe. I picked up my Rx & drove home, and 6 blocks south the streets weren’t even wet.

    Living here at the triple-point of three major climatic systems has been excellent prep for climate change: You don;t like the weather? Wait five minutes, it’ll change.

  97. 97.

    Bupalos

    @Another Scott: annedotally, last year was the 1st one out of 25 years when there was not a single solitary hour where the ice on the pond was over 2″ here in the western reserve (NE Ohio.)

  100. 100.

    Soprano2

    I’m pretty excited; I get to be Santa to one of our local animal rescues. We’re finally distributing the money from my mother’s trust that she left to charities, and while some of them make me feel dirty (Judicial Watch? Really, Mom, what the hell were you thinking?) she also left a substantial contribution to a local charity called C.A.R.E., which stands for Cast Away Rescue Effort. They rescue animals from the local pound and other places like that – they aren’t like the Humane Society because they don’t take animals directly from owners. They have a place where you can see the adoptable animals, and they also have a farm in a town outside Springfield where they keep older unadoptable animals and animals like horses.  Since the spring they’ve been raising money to replace a specialized adoption trailer a couple of people stole from them, and I kept wishing I could just give them the money! I’m going to their board meeting tomorrow night (really, on the Friday night before Christmas) to give them the check. It’s high six figures – the attorney said it will mean big things for them. I wish it were more, I wish she had left all of it to them instead of to “charities” that specialize in suing people, but it wasn’t my money so I couldn’t change it. I’m probably going to cry, it’ll feel so good to help them!

  101. 101.

    Ohio Mom

    @Bupalos: The new year does start with the solstice, our ancestors just waited a few extra days to make sure the sun was really on its way back. The whole time between the solstice and new years we distract ourselves with Christmas because what else do you do in a time of anxiety, distract yourself.

  102. 102.

    HumboldtBlue

    @Bupalos:

    It’s just as unseasonably warm in the upper left quadrant of the States. It’s been above 60 for two weeks, completely out of norm.

  104. 104.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Soprano2: @Miss Bianca: I find it best not to examine the traditions too closely.  As Roy Jenkins once responded to a question about how his coal miner, socialist grandfather would have reacted to his leaving the Labour Party to found the SDP, “I will not disturb the bones of the saints.”

  109. 109.

    Sister Golden Bear

    For all the man-bros who think about the Roman Empire every day:

    Today at the taberna I said “lo Saturnalia!” to the cashier. She said “Merry Christmas, ma’am” back to me. I smiled and said “You don’t have to be afraid anymore. Emperor Julian has given us Saturnalia back.” She started crying tears of joy and said “lo Saturnalia” and then everyone in the taberna clapped.

  110. 110.

    opiejeanne

    @HumboldtBlue: It’s unseasonably warm here just outside Seattle, upper 40s-low 50s. The overnight lows are an issue: without a blanket of snow for insulation we will lose plants that we like.

    I was hoping for snow for the guests on Christmas, because it’s magical when that happens.

  112. 112.

    Fair Economist

    When I live in Chicago I got depressed every winter but now in Southern California I enjoy the dark and the cool as a contrast to our usual bright sunny weather.

  114. 114.

    Redshift

    @Another Scott:

    I moved to NoVA in the late ’80s. We’d routinely get cold snaps where the river would freeze over – it wasn’t that common, but wasn’t that unusual.

    I went skating on the C&O Canal a few times as a teenager. The Park Service would measure the ice thickness to tell people when it was safe. It was glorious, you could go for miles, passing people playing hockey or teaching their kids to skate.

  121. 121.

    Alison Rose

    This is awful, and I am also sure that gun nuts here will say LOOK SEE THIS DOES HAPPEN IN OTHER PLACES, CHECKMATE LIBS!!!!

    Ten people were killed and nine were seriously wounded in a shooting on Thursday at Charles University in central Prague, Czech emergency services said. The shooter, who was not immediately identified by officials, also died.

    The governor of the Prague region, Bohuslav Svoboda, said the shooter, so far unidentified, fell from the roof of the university’s faculty of arts building after opening fire on Jan Palach Square, an area of manicured lawns adjacent to the Vltava River that cuts through the Czech capital.

    The police said the shooter had been “eliminated,” suggesting he had died, but did not specify how. They also said that the Faculty of Arts building, located in Prague’s Old Town, had been evacuated. The square next to it has been sealed off. Videos posted on social media showed people running away.

    Shootings are rare in the Central European country and alarm over Thursday’s incident prompted the prime minister, Petr Fiala, to cut short a trip to the city of Olomouc in the east of the Czech Republic and rush back to Prague.

    In a message to residents posted on the social media platform Xlate Thursday the police urged people to leave the area and “not to leave home. The police intervention is still ongoing.”

    The square where the shooting occurred is named after Jan Palach, a 20-year-old student who set himself on fire in 1969 to protest the invasion of what was then Czechoslovakia by troops from the Soviet Union and its allies in the Warsaw Pact. He died three days later, becoming a revered martyr to the anti-communist cause.

    At the time of his death he was studying history at Charles University, founded in 1348 and one of the world’s oldest universities.

    I’m hoping they will be able to provide some details soon about who the shooter was and possible motives, although I’m worried that if it turns out to be an immigrant it’ll fan the xenophobic flames.

  122. 122.

    Splitting Image

    @UncleEbeneezer:

    Othello might be the most famous cuckold in literary history

    Joseph has entered the chat.

    He did raise Mary’s kid though, after the real father skipped out on her.

  126. 126.

    Redshift

    @MazeDancer: 

    Wish Solstice was as widely observed as the other holidays this time of year. But that would require admitting Solstice is the Reason for the Season.

    I wish Saturnalia was more widely observed. Our society could use a holiday that involves masters and servants (or bosses and workers) switching roles for a time.

    @Sister Golden Bear: and I bet the bros aren’t nostalgic for that part of Roman culture…

  130. 130.

    DFH

    Hello, animal fans. I have a dilemma.

    My male cat has begun to spray in one place in one room, on the wall. We have three cats, all the same age, six years. All barncat babies. Male was found here in a barrel on the farm, and the two females are littermates who despise each other. All have been indoors 100% of their little lives. In my experience, there is no solution to the male spraying except he’s gotta go. He already gets the lion’s share of attention, so upping the attention quotient is an option we tried right away after the first witnessed spray. He’s done it five times now.

    They say it’s because he’s unhappy about something. I have combed my memory for recent big changes and can’t think of any.

    This cat, I believed, is the reincarnation of a cat I lost long ago, 30+ years ago, which I never got over. And this boy has been charming and wonderful but he’s destined for a big change unless I can figure out something to do. And my GF says if he goes, she can’t take that, so the others would go too. I feel like a hostage on both fronts.

    Any ideas are most welcome. Thank you in advance.

  131. 131.

    Alison Rose

    @DFH: When you say “they say it’s because he’s unhappy”, who is “they”? If it was a vet, I’d recommend a second opinion. Cats will often start going outside the litter when they’re having a medical issue, which may not be obvious otherwise. The cat should definitely get a full work-up from a new vet to make sure there’s nothing wrong health-wise.

    Also…I’m not trying to rag on your girlfriend, but wtf? If you rehome one you have to rehome all of them? That’s…a very bizarre way to look at this situation, not to mention unnecessarily cruel.

  132. 132.

    zhena gogolia

    @DFH: Have you talked to the vet about something like Valium? This worked for one of our cats (it was only temporary). He was upset by a move.

    ETA: Seconding Alison Rose, that first you need to rule out a physical cause.

  133. 133.

    trollhattan

    Eyeballs, more like fryballs, amirite?

    Finding when cycling, especially in the afternoon, my eyes have an increasingly hard time transitioning from shadows to the straight-on winter sun, and back. It’s not dire while on a bike path but in traffic, hooboy. Sucks.

    I welcome the coming lengthening days, then that blessed spring-forward March day.

  139. 139.

    Betty Cracker

    @karen marie: They are invasive. From what I’ve read, the best thing to do with cold-stunned iguanas is leave them alone. They’ll be okay when they warm up.

  141. 141.

    VFX Lurker

    @opiejeanne:

    On that note, tonight is a good night to watch The Hogfather. Merry Everything to everybody. 

    Agreed! I watched Sky One’s The Colour of Magic last night, and I will watch The Hogfather tonight. Hoping to watch Going Postal and The Amazing Maurice later this month, too.

    Happy Hogswatch!

  144. 144.

    Chris

    Random question:

    Has anyone here ever used air-dr.com (a service that claims to put you in touch with doctors in other countries when you’re traveling)?  I’m currently traveling and finding myself in need of a doctor, can’t find anything online that suggests the site is a scam, but I was somewhat weirded out by the fact that all the doctors’ names are incomplete (one name and initial), that I can’t find them anywhere else online (though that’s explainable by the fact that the alphabet isn’t even the same here), and that the website won’t tell me where the appointment is at until I actually book it (the anodyne name of the place being “clinic C,” which isn’t enough to find an actual institution on).

    Alternatively, if anyone’s ever happened to be in need of a doctor in Athens, Greece recently and has someone they can recommend, I’d be thrilled with that too.  But that seemed like a much longer shot.

  145. 145.

    Gvg

    @DFH: always start with a vet visit to a really good vet who does tests. You may be looking at a urinary infection. I am trying to deal with one also. Be warned, the special food, even the non prescription urinary food is pretty expensive and I may be doing it for her lifetime as cents may be prone to it!

    Feliway to get the interact stress down on general principles. Make sure you have enough litter boxes with litter he likes. Watch to see where he goes and what he likes and dislike.

    clean the boxes often. Make sure they aren’t set up so cats can ambush each other easily.

    you are going to have to do something about the spot he peed. Possibly strip the wall down the studs rebuild it.I would put vinyl on the floor and up the walls there to make a place that I easily cleaned until you are really sure the problem is cured.

  147. 147.

    Another Scott

    @Chris: I don’t know anything about the site you mention.

    “Bruce K in ATH-GR” is in Athens and posts fairly regularly, but I don’t see any contact information for him.  WaterGirl may be able to help you get in touch.

    My J had some ear pain in Budapest at the start of our trip there a few years ago.  The hotel concierge was very helpful in recommending a nearby clinic and getting her seen quickly.  Fixed her right up in an hour or so.

    Can your hotel/place of lodging staff help?

    Good luck!

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  148. 148.

    Alison Rose

    @Gvg:

    you are going to have to do something about the spot he peed. Possibly strip the wall down the studs rebuild it.I would put vinyl on the floor and up the walls there to make a place that I easily cleaned until you are really sure the problem is cured.

    Yeah, this is a good point. No matter how quickly and well you clean it up, cats have a much stronger sense of smell than we do and if he can still detect his own odor there, that can keep drawing him back to the spot. I wonder about also spritzing the area with something he might not like the scent of…

  149. 149.

    Chris

    @Another Scott:

    It’s an airbnb, unfortunately, and I didn’t book it, but I’ll ask the person who did if she can check with the owner when she gets back.  Or more likely tomorrow.  Thanks though!

    Bruce, if you happen to see this, would love your input as well.

  152. 152.

    Jackie

    Poor Rudy.

    Rudy Giuliani filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in New York, per court filings listing debts of as much as $500 million and assets of up to $10 million.

    I wonder why he waited so long? Or did he really think Santa trump would come through HOHOHO!

  155. 155.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @Sister Golden Bear: And for the bros who cloak their bigotry in their adherence to Christianity, meet the Borborites:

    Many Gnostics were highly ascetic, teaching celibacy, fasting and self-denial, as a consequence of their belief that the flesh was evil and a prison for the spirit. These ascetic Gnostics are more “normal”, in a way, but there was a libertine strand of the belief, one which the Borborites definitely represent.

    The Borborites held parties with plentiful food and drink, and spent time pampering their bodies. They were also very keen indeed on sex, which is why the orthodox Christians like Epiphanius were horrified (the next part comes from his writings).

    For the Borborites, menstrual blood and semen were both sacraments, and they were what they used when celebrating Communion. Their wives were held in common, and it rather sounds as though they went in for a lot of orgies. They didn’t want children, however, so the men practised coitus interruptus, withdrawing, and then ejaculating on their hands and those of their partner. The semen on their hands would be ceremonially offered up, and then eaten after being declared to be ‘the body of Christ’. Some of the men preferred not to have sex, and so would masturbate, again ejaculating onto their hands as “Communion”.

    Cum and get it boys, lol!

  156. 156.

    Ohio Mom

    @Chris: I second AnotherScott’s suggestion.

    On the upper right of the Balloon Juice masthead there is one one those parallel horizontal line menu thingies. Click it and scroll down to “contact us,” follow directions to write WaterGirl and ask her to put you in touch with Bruce in Athens — Bruce K in ATH-GR

    If nothing else, you can have a mini meetup.

  158. 158.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @Miss Bianca: We plan to go to the dances on 12/24.  It’s great here with the smell of pinion pines everywhere.  We just had a delicious breakfast at Michaels.  How we missed the green and red chile :)

  160. 160.

    RevRick

    I love this season despite the personal grief of this time of year. It’s been a week and nine years since my brother died, in a little over a week it will be thirteen years since my mom died, and in a little more than a month it will be twenty-two years since my dad died. In the Bleak Midwinter, indeed. Which, by the way, is a Christmas Carol in our hymnal, sung by the congregation in that season, or Ephiphany.
    I find comfort in the wonderful, ridiculous, absurd story which has animated this season. God entered our world in blood and shit? Really!? If that doesn’t make you laugh until tears, I don’t know what does. It is the ultimate rejection of all imperialistic thinking, exchanging creative power for complete vulnerability, and saying that is what is most real about life.
    I love the warm glow of the candles at Christmas Eve service and the warm glow of the lights on the Christmas tree (I try to keep it up until Candlemas).
    But even as the season comforts, it also challenges and corrects me. I’m called to participate in the story and apply it to my own life and this world. Tikkun olam. Repair of the world.
    aAnyway, please forgive my ramblings.

  162. 162.

    HinTN

    @Matt McIrvin: The change around the solstices is really “mushy”. The rate of change at the bottom of the “sinusoid” is really slow and the need for that extra day every once in a while to even up the orbit makes it even mushier. Happy Solstice, jackals. Let the light return.

  165. 165.

    sab

    @Spanky: Bankruptcy lawers want the money up front for chapter 7, and they are first priority creditors for chapterso 11 and13. But the other lawyers are probably screwed if they didn’t have big retainers.

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