Posts from — November 2016

Happy NODWISH Greetings

As a service to my readers I have compiled a list of useful terms for our modern global village.

It is time to wish family and friends: [select one]

Happy NODWISH
Merry Solstice
Happy Holiday
Happy Hanukkah
Happy Kwanzaa
Happy Hogwatch
Merry Christmas
С Рождеством Христовым
Sung Tan Chuk Ha
Vrolijk Kerstfeest
Nadolig Llawen
Fröhliche Weihnachten
Joyeux Noël
Buon Natale
Feliz Navidad
God Jul
Rauhallista Joulua
Happy Christmas
Happy Holidays

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The Gävlebocken didn’t make it to midnight of its Fiftieth Anniversary before it was a kebab. All of the town’s plans that were built around the goat went up in smoke.

… and how can Santa Claus visit every house, go down chimneys, leave toys, all over the world in one night?

One of the answers is found on European Christmas trees.

Read about Finland’s version of the Julbock, Joulupukki.

Note: Don’t try this at home unless you have the kidneys of a reindeer. It also explains why gnomes are so cheerful. [This is one of my most searched for posts, almost as big as the Shi’ia oil map, or the Alaska-Russia border. It is a bit disconcerting to see the number of people around the world whose interests are as weird as mine, but they are all hits on the counter.]

It’s the first Sunday of Advent and Why Now? is pleased to present the Fiftieth Anniversary version of the Gävlebocken, The biggest Christmas Goat in the world [now with a blog].

From Steve Bates of Yellow Doggerel Something in the comments from 2006:

Why build a giant goat of straw,
Which most of us would scarcely note?
Some, though, defy the very law,
To vandalize the Gävle Goat.

In some years, they used wayward cars;
In others, flaming arrows smote.
This year’s survives, although with scars…
A fact that gets some people’s goat.

A webcam and some watchful eyes,
A flame-retardant second coat,
Should save it… unless Dubya spies
The thing, and claims it’s his pet goat!

– SB the YSS

Today is the First Sunday of Advent which means you should have made your Christmas Pudding so it would have time to age, and the Gävlebocken is standing tall in Castle Square.

Not the truth.

I come to bury Caesar Fidel, not to praise him;
The evil that men do lives after them,
The good is oft interred with their bones,
So let it be with Caesar Fidel …

Drumpf said that Fidel was a ‘brutal dictator’. He was not a nice person in a lot of ways, but he certainly was no where near as brutal as Fulgencio Batista, the fascist dictator he overthrew.

Batista was “anti-communist”, so he got US government support. His brutality, the corruption involving large landowners, US corporations, and the Mafia were ignored. When Castro finally threw Batista out and started giving land to the poor and nationalization, Cuba’s 1% went across the Strait to Florida and immediately started their propaganda & political machine that resulted in a worthless 50-year embargo.

Fidel’s real crime was being a communist, not being a dictator. He was definitely the lesser of two evils.

Position: 8.7N 96.0W [ 3PM CST 2100 UTC].
Movement: West [260°] near 16 mph [26 kph].
Maximum sustained winds: 35 mph [ 55 kph].
Wind Gusts: 50 mph [ 80 kph].
Minimum central pressure: 1008 mb ↑.

Currently about 485 miles [ 780 km] South of Port Angel, Mexico.

At 3PM CST Otto has dissipated into a remnant low. This is the final advisory.

Here’s the link for NOAA’s latest satellite images.

[For the latest information click on the storm symbol, or go to the CATEGORIES drop-down box below the CALENDAR and select “Hurricanes” for all of the posts related to storms on this site.]

Yes, it’s the time of year when the Sun dies and must be re-born through an elaborate ceremony that involves some form or type of sacrifice, such as finding gifts for people you can’t stand and smiling brightly as you receive yet another gift based on an urban legend that you actually like truly stomach-wrenching color combinations.

Of course there was a time when the Solstice sacrifices were more visceral and the evergreen was covered in things that pleased only ravens and such, but we have put all that behind us by opting for the possibility of electrocuting one another and causing chaos on the power grid.

What a brilliant idea: moving a large supply of pre-kindling soaked with highly flammable resins into your house, loading it down with petrochemical-based ornaments, lacing it with heat-producing electrical devices, and surrounding the base with cardboard boxes and tissue paper. You just can’t have a traditional celebration without a proto-bonfire in your living room.

I do think that followers of Mithras might want to curtail their typical birthday service in light of Mad-Cow Disease, but global warming will certainly make the services in the oak wood in traditional druidic robes more comfortable.

When you put up your stocking on the mantel and put out the turnips for Gouger, Rooter, Tusker, and Snouter as well as the pork pie and sherry for the Hogfather, you can rest assured the Sun will come up, because it just slipped around back to return the lager it rented.

Enjoy! You have nothing to fear, except that sniveling little creep with the camera/phone at the office party or the eggnog that was put out rather early causing you to suspect that the bits on top aren’t nutmeg. [The pictures probably won’t appear on the ‘Net and the brandy will surely take care of the salmonella.]

A Calendar of Coming Events

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Position: 9.7N 90.7W [ 9PM CST 0300 UTC].
Movement: West-Southwest [255°] near 16 mph [26 kph].
Maximum sustained winds: 60 mph [ 95 kph].
Wind Gusts: 80 mph [130 kph].
Tropical Storm Wind Radius: 70 miles [110 km].
Minimum central pressure: 997 mb ↑.

Currently about 295 miles [ 475 km] South-Southwest of San Salvador, El Salvador.

Otto is officially bi-coastal as it entered the Pacific early this morning.

Here’s the link for NOAA’s latest satellite images.

[For the latest information click on the storm symbol, or go to the CATEGORIES drop-down box below the CALENDAR and select “Hurricanes” for all of the posts related to storms on this site.]

If your celebration involved the death of a turkey, thank you. If you have no intention of participating in the Charcoal Grey Thursday Sales, you are a true patriot.

Hulu advertises the WKRP Thanksgiving show as a freebie, but there are CGT ads.

Don’t argue with relatives that voted for Trump. They have endangered species status, and their candidate may get thrown out of New York City for blocking Fifth Avenue during the Christmas season.

Position: 10.9N 85.6W [ 9PM CST 0300 UTC].
Movement: West [265°] near 13 mph [20 kph].
Maximum sustained winds: 70 mph [110 kph].
Wind Gusts: 90 mph [145 kph].
Tropical Storm Wind Radius: 70 miles [110 km].
Minimum central pressure: 990 mb ↑.

Currently about 20 miles [ 30 km] North of Liberia, Costa Rica.

The storm made landfall just to the north of the town of San Juan de Nicaragua at Noon CDT, as a Category 2 hurricane with 110mph winds.

Otto weakened to a tropical storm at 9pm CST.

A Tropical Storm Warning is in effect for the Pacific coast from Puntarenas, Costa Rica to Puerto Sandino, Nicaragua.

Here’s the link for NOAA’s latest satellite images.

[For the latest information click on the storm symbol, or go to the CATEGORIES drop-down box below the CALENDAR and select “Hurricanes” for all of the posts related to storms on this site.]

Drumpf throws a hissy fit because New Yorkers boo his choice for Vice President. The booing is a normal reaction when people ‘jump the line’. Hamilton has been a tough ticket to score for some time and this guy, who is immediately identified as a ‘tourist’ has orchestra seating for himself and his security. The cast made a statement after the curtain call, but the booing was from the audience, not the cast, and it was about privilege, not politics. If it had been a deli line Pence would have been pounded to paste, Secret Service or not.

Rude, on the other hand, is when a recently elected leader tells the leader of another sovereign nation who he wants as ambassador and selects the leader of an opposition political party. Someone needs to point Drumpf to a protocol officer to explain that you don’t conduct diplomacy on Twitter.

Position: 11.2N 82.2W [ 9PM CST 0300 UTC].
Movement: West [275°] near 9 mph [15 kph].
Maximum sustained winds: 85 mph [140 kph].
Wind Gusts: 100 mph [160 kph].
Tropical Storm Wind Radius: 70 miles [110 km].
Hurricane Wind Radius: 10 miles [ 20 km].
Minimum central pressure: 981 mb ↓.

Currently about 120 miles [ 195 km] East-Southeast of Bluefields, Nicaragua.

A Hurricane Warning is in effect for Limon, Costa Rica to Bluefields, Nicaragua.

A Hurricane Watch is in effect for the Costa Rica/Panama border to south of Limon, Costa Rica and Nicaragua from Bluefields to Sandy Bay Sirpi.

A Tropical Storm Warning is in effect for San Andres Island, Nicaragua from Bluefields to Sandy Bay Sirpi, and the Pacific coast from Puntarenas, Costa Rica to Puerto Sandino, Nicaragua.

Here’s the link for NOAA’s latest satellite images.

[For the latest information click on the storm symbol, or go to the CATEGORIES drop-down box below the CALENDAR and select “Hurricanes” for all of the posts related to storms on this site.]

It was afternoon and I was on my way to a chemistry class. I had stopped for a drink of water when the news came over the speakers in the classrooms.

For those who weren’t alive at the time: remember what you felt on September 11, 2001 for a taste of November 22, 1963. It was a massive change for the worldview of my generation and it marked the beginning of a period of disruption and decline in the civility of American society. Arthur had died and Camelot fell.

At his inauguration John Kennedy made the point: “If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich.”

The colors of my world will never be as bright as they were on November 21, 1963. Now we have elected Trump…