I’m a Scrooge, I know, but screw this season. I wish I could fast-forward to January 2, and skip all this enforced gaiety.

It’s what really bugs me, on top of the frantic crowds and insane traffic. The obligation to be pleasant and engaging, when the last thing I want to hear is another perfunctory “Merry Christmas” across halls decked with boughs of (faux) holly.

The modern idea of the “holidays” has been clearly invented for the sole purpose of promoting mindless consumerism and shameless excess and the whole herd has bought into it. We run, willy-nilly, desperately trying to have a good time even though, in our hearts, we feel sick and empty. Read the rest of this entry »

It was a interesting piece of cultural protest, throwing a shoe (actually a pair) at President Bush. It turns out that a hurled shoe is a symbol of grave insult in Iraq, akin to an American middle finger, as Bush himself perceptively pointed out after the incident.

Journalist Muntader al-Zaidi is now considered a hero in the Arab world. In Saudi Arabia, it was reported that a man had offered $10 million to buy just one of what has overnight become the world’s most famous pair of footwear.

The classic YouTube moment took place Sunday night at a news conference by President Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki in Baghdad’s Green Zone, in what was supposed to be a farewell appearance on the part of the outgoing U.S. president. Read the rest of this entry »

There’s a new addition to the household which has drastically cut down on my time before the PC as she has claimed the immediate area around the monitor as her own. I’m allergic to cat fur and now the keyboard and the immediate environs are full of it. Read the rest of this entry »