By David Futrelle
Hope you’re all enjoying today, whether you celebrate Christmas or you’re just having a Tuesday. Here’s an open thread, for celebrating the day (whatever it means or doesn’t mean to you), venting about Christmas weirdness involving relatives, making jokes about Trump, whatever you want.
If you want more Christmasy content, check out my last two posts: Hot for Santa: The Unbearable Horniness of Vintage Christmas Ads and Have an Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms Christmas with these really creepy vintage ads.
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The real problem with that tree is that the Schultz family might not have had much choice about it, in a way.
I remember an interview many years ago with the wife of the late Dr. Seuss, about why she was licensing out things like the Cat’s top hat as wearable items when she knew her husband wouldn’t have approved of it. She said that it was made clear to her that if she didn’t do it, someone else not connected to the Seuss’ would’ve done it without permission. At least this way she retained some control over what got made as official merchandise instead of some copyright pirate.
This is not an unfounded fear. Bill Watterson refused to do any merchandising for Calvin and Hobbes outside of the newspaper reprint collections despite there being a market for it, so the pirates stepped in and created the merchandise instead. So now the only things available for fans are those P****** Calvin decals, or the praying Calvin and Suzie ones for those of a Christian bent. And none of it under Watterson’s control, or approval, and he sure as heck isn’t getting any of the money from the decals.
So yeah, it may have been possible that Schultz’s heirs faced a similar dilemma between respecting his (presumed) preferences in the matter, and watching a pirate name that tree instead.
Or the heirs just wanted the easy money. Either is possible. 😛
@Kat
Thanks for the sympathies. Fortunately my mother got to me and said the insurance will be safe, for now.
I worked this Christmas. Last year I did too, and I was washing up after 180 Xmas meals, but this year I volunteered to be on the team that is first contact with the guests and organises all the activities for the week.
They go home tomorrow and I am exhausted. The Christmas course usually receives guests that are particularly “needy”, and a few have a mild-to-moderate level of dementia or learning disability. Some have come with company, others were dropped off here by their own families. There’s one man here who I think needs to be flagged on the system as “cannot come here next year without a carer, as we do not have the trained staff or facilities to meet his needs.” We just about managed him this year.
Then there is the lady who took a wrong turning and got her car stuck on the way here, and needed to be towed out while being uncooperative at the same time, and has been bitterly toxic ever since. “This place is terrible I’m never coming back” blah blah over and over and trying to convince other guests to agree with her. Luckily she left early.
There’s the gentleman who refused to eat anything except cheese and crackers, and yet would complain that all he was given to eat was cheese and crackers (I think he willingly ate Christmas dinner though).
Complaints aside, it was a fun few days and very satisfying to see the guests have a great time. The ones who didn’t bitch and whine, and most didn’t, gave plenty of positive feedback and thank yous, pretty much every day. ☺️ Not to mention that the food was outstanding. I wasn’t in the kitchen so can’t claim credit for anything, not even the dining room layout, but damn I’m proud of the team.
We had a traditional Christmas dinner at a local Chinese restaurant with two other families my husband is close to. It went well. Everyone had enough to eat of what they wanted to eat and there was no arguing about anything.
I feel very fortunate.
Really sorry to hear of several Mammoth misfortunes, disruptions, and – in Moggie’s case – lack of faith in humanity. The latter is a totally understandable feeling, which I share. My depression always kicks in extra cruel and hard this time of year, and my god, the current news adds another layer of hopelessness for all of us.
@Oogly, that’s awful news on multiple counts, with dreadful timing. I wish there was something we could do.
@Weatherwax, I’m very glad you’re okay and that your dogs were taken care of. Your namesake is my hero, so look after yourself 🙂
Everyone, one thing I’m grateful for: this time a year ago, David was very unwell, and the blog was kinda limping along. Remember how long the 2017 Xmas post went for, in the comments? Thanks so much to peeps who kept things going here, and I’m seriously happy that Dear Leader is back to his usual energetic pace <3
Had a pretty good low-key Kweznuz with the fam. In lieu of the usual Christmas films, we instead watched that Lightning In A Bottle documentary that Scorsese made that featured the last of the great Blues artists performing at Radio City back in ’03. I hadn’t heard of most of the performers, but all of them were great (except Chuck D, who I have no idea why he was there).
Also Bill Cosby of all people shows up for no reason to totally ruin Ruth Brown’s song with his presence.
But apart from those incongruities, it was a fascinating doc that blends the performances with backstage bits where these old veterans of the Blues scene get together for what was essentially one last hurrah (as Ruth Brown points out, funerals are the only other time they see each other).
I also learned that Bonnie Raitt is a kickass guitarist.
This was my first holiday season as an “orphan” (hat tip to John Fugelsang) since my father passed in September. I flew to Michigan to spend time with friends who are family to me, and came back on XMas Eve so I could attend a XMas Eve party that a friend has invited me to numerous times but which I had been unable to attend in the past.
XMas day was spent hanging out on the couch with the cats while recuperating from flying with my standard post flight migraine.
All in all, it was better than I expected it would be. I am thankful for all of my friends and extended family who have reached out and supported me through it.
Perhaps we should celebrate Crimmus instead. Holly Jolly is probably better than Santa Claus.
This December has been rather stressful for me. During university, I moved back in with my parents on a permanent basis, and have stayed that way for six years. I finally got a job starting in October, and this helped give me the impetus to start searching for a new home (not to mention my ever-increasing dissatisfaction with my family, neighbourhood, and life in general). It seems like I have enough funds for a low-end studio apartment or a room in a shared space on the cheaper side, but it’s so hard to know if a listing is for real or if an apartment is going to be clean and reasonably maintained. It seems like everything within my budget either has stories of infestations or is a potential scam. Even worse is that independent landlords don’t seem to like first-time renters very much.
I know there are several Torontonians here and at least one of you has some knowledge on historical buildings, so do any of you happen to know what’s going on with the Samuel Beatty House? It seems like it was converted into an apartment building of sorts at some point, and there is a listing for it, but the listed rate is extremely low and there doesn’t seem to be any other information on it. I think if I just have to share kitchens, bathrooms, etc. to avoid broken roach-infested apartments, then maybe sharing with three dozen instead of three tenants would be a safer bet.
I just don’t want to live like this anymore.