I give you two options

You can read this cheery, more Christmasy story about the best hoodie every made (and made in the US!).  Bonus: the manufacturer may revolutionize the apparel industry with the help of the internet…

… or, depending on your mood …

you can read this one.  It is about false convictions and specifically murder convictions of husbands.  In at least one case the husband’s innocence shines through pretty clearly.  Less cheery.  Significantly less so.  Just in case you think false conviction rarely happens: Bonus read here.  A doozy of a tough case to figure out from California.

Holy Shirts and Teas

Because I'm too busy to post the post I should post (on 2011 resolutions) that everyone else has already posted, and too void of ideas to post anything else, I'll post these links, which are neat:

The (apparent) bible on how to make a proper cup of tea from Slate.com. Sad to know that my first steeping has apparently been wrong all this time. I'm torn about the article though: I understand it needs to have a wide, broad audience, and thus delving into the nuances of black and green is probably unwarranted. But at the same time, simply stating that tea should be brewed with boiling water without comment about those nuances makes me question the author. Not more than the fact that tea bags are actually discussed as a proper form of tea, but some.

Since lots of people probably got shirts this Christmas: An article on why men should untuck their shirts and leave them that way. Yes, Craig, I'm looking at you.

And then there were three...

The big day is almost here!

As a result, I'm posting some random stuff and thoughts in this holiday-week post. Partly because I wanted to post, partly because I wanted to avoid work. Who has the energy or focus for actual work - there are 1.5 days of work left before I have more than a week off!

A great Slate.com story on Swedish Christmas tradition: Watching a Donald Duck special from the 1950s on Christmas Eve. Every single year the entire nation shuts down to watch it. Crazy Swedes.

And here is a cute little ... we'll call it a blog... in which the author imagines the fictional marriage situation that led to the pictures in a home-decorating catalog. While it sounds kinda boring, its actually quite clever.

Sometimes, you complain about something, and it goes right out and surprises you.

(I consider myself an almost entirely rationale person. At least I try to be. I don't keep many totems, or believe in much of the mystical, or do any routines. I don't have a lucky shirt, nor do I do certain things to help the Eagles win or whatever. But for several reasons I won't get in to, I consider the number 3, if not lucky or magical, at least special in the universe.)

Merry Christmas

Hope every one has a very Merry Christmas Eve/Christmas.

Hope you stay healthy and happy on two of my favorite days of the year.

Merry Christmas.

A UnChristmas Story Part II: Scrooge, The Destroyer of Christmas

Awesome post by Peter Foster at the Washington Post. Its regarding the new animated movie "A Christmas Carol," but the point stands and it lets me build on something I was thinking about while watching the 1984 version of A Christmas Carol starring George C. Scott.

Indeed, does nobody notice the irony that capitalism has unleashed the consumerist cornucopia and charitable sentiments that were A Christmas Carol’s
ideal?

Poverty is portrayed as rampant, or at least very present, in A Christmas Carol. And certainly poverty is bad. But saving and being pennywise is portrayed as bad as bad as well. In fact, lavish spending and consumerism is exactly what Scrooge is encouraged to do. Its the "ideal" that Scrooges nephew represents. Its exactly that type of spending - the debt that Scrooge complains about - that drove us into our current economic struggles.

And hey, one wonders how much Scrooges' nephew might have been able to help the poor had he not had to pay a servant to open the door for him. Was opening doors much harder back in the day? I know Scrooge's office had a door that required both he and Bob to duck to enter. Maybe most were also so poorly hung that you needed special servant powers to open them?

Anyway, now, people complain that Christmas is all about spending and buying gifts. There is a whole song about how that isn't the true meaning of Christmas. And while Scrooges' redemption isn't entirley based on his new found spending and commercialism, its at least a part of it.

Further:

"Would the world have been better without Scrooge? Did he force people to do business with him? Was Bob Cratchit not free to find better employment elsewhere? And if no such employment was available, was that Scrooge’s fault?"

In reality, without having amassed that wealth, Scrooge could never have purchased the prized turkey for the Cratchits. In fact, its unlikely he could have afforded to pay Bob Cratchit if he lived life prior to that night as he did after it.

I'm not saying Scrooge was perfect. Surely, he was a surly individual. Unfriendly and miserable. And his redemption from these qualities is a great accomplishment. But its hardly the political indictment it has become.

An UnChristmas Story Part I: Scrooge: The original environmentalist?

Ebeneezer Scrooge:

"Coal burns. Coal is momentary and coal is costly. There will be no more coal burned in this office today, is that quite clear, Mr. Cratchit?"

It could be ripped out of a news story from today. Or from the President's most recent speech. I'm certainly not the first to note it, but Scrooge shared environmentalists' hatred of coal's use, saying

"These are garments, Mr. Cratchit. Garments were invented by the human race as a protection against the cold. Once purchased, they may be used indefinitely for the purpose for which they are intended."

Scrooge: The original environmentalist? Environmentalists would probably sympathize with old Ebeneezer, that's for sure. Wearing warmer clothing in the winter and using less heat, and using a lot less air conditioning, would be right down both their alleys. Politics makes for strange bedfellows.

So was Scrooge the first environmentalist? I'm not saying he was; I'm just saying.