10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, HAPPY NEW YEAR

I'll be partying with my 5 year old grandson tonight! We will be watching the ball drop in Times Square via the webcams they have, and since we'll be watching it live, it will be a 9:00 p.m. PST, and not midnight. We've got hats, poppers and horns, and we'll be making a lot of noise!

I don't expect 2008 to bring us any closer to peace and happiness on earth, but there's nothing like getting drunk and hoping for it!

Happy New Year, everyone.

Update: H/T to AMERICABlog, for the link to the world new year countdown clock. Now, if you couple that with the webcams of the upcoming major cities, like Paris, Madrid, London, and NYC, you can actually watch the world ring in the new year, live.

Fair Deal 4 Writers Contest

On November 4th the Writers Guild of America went out on strike. Since then our board members have been trying to negotiate with the AMPTP for a fair deal and since the strike affects everyone, we wanted to include you guys in our fight.

UnitedHollywood is asking you to shoot a video showing us how you would get the AMPTP to make a fair deal. Videos can be up to four minutes long and any genre from comedy, drama, mockumaentary or even commercial-like and must contain the phrase “fighting for the future.” The only other stipulation is the last line of the video must be “We’re all on the same page.”

The winner of the contest will receive an authentic WGA strike poster with over 150 signatures, autographed by writers, actors, actresses and directors who signed it while on the picket line.

To enter the contest just upload your video to YouTube then drop us a line at videos@FairDeal4Writers.com. The contest ends January 20th, the winner will be announced on the 28th.

I grew up with family that were members of SAG, AFTRA, and the Musicians Union. I was taught early on not to cross a picket line. I am in support of the WGA and the strike.

With Legs Like That ...

Beverly Allen, a longtime professional dancer who joined the Fabulous Palm Springs Follies late in life and at 87 was the oldest showgirl regularly performing in a chorus, according to the 2005 Guinness World Records, has died. She was 90.

Man, as a dancer, I'd kill for legs like that at age 85 (picture was taken in 2002), damn it!

Horde Versus Alliance

Apparently, "hordes" of Ron Paul supporters will take to World of Warcraft on New Year's day, advocating for their candidate.

"Depending on the route they take," reads a post at the blog, "this could be an extremely short march (Ironforge to train tunnel to Stormwind) or an extremely long and humorous one as dozens of Ron Paul supporters sporting newbie Gnome and Dwarf characters die in droves trying to cross the Burning Steppes."

I'm new to WoW, and after two months, I'm just a lowly level five shaman troll! And, no, I've not become addicted to the game. In fact, unless my "buddy" is online to help me out with a similar character, I'm dead meat. When I was last killed, it took both of us at least half an hour to find my body! And, for sure, the Ron Pauls will most likely not be organized enough to actually all belong to one group!

My five year old grandson wants to try the game, but I keep telling him: "I'm only a level five troll!" He replies: "Grandma, I can level up fast!"

H/T to The Raw Story.

What Does New Delhi Have That Broward County Doesn't?

The Miami Herald is outsourcing some of its advertising production work to India, the newspaper's editor said Thursday.

Starting in January, copyediting and design in a weekly section of Broward County community news and other special advertising sections will be outsourced to Mindworks, based in New Delhi.

The project is still in the testing phase, so it was not clear if or how employment in South Florida will be affected, Executive Editor Anders Gyllenhaal said.

Mindworks will also monitor reader comments posted to online stories, he said.

Earlier this month, The Sacramento Bee, also owned by the McClatchy Co., announced it would outsource some of its advertising production work to India.

In May, news Web site, pasadenanow.com, was widely criticized after editors hired two reporters in India to cover the Los Angeles suburb.

Boggles the mind, doesn't it? H/T to kos.

A Christmas Education

For all those who celebrate this day as the alleged birth of Jesus Christ, may your celebration be in the true spirit this symbolism represents.

For those more secular, have a rip roaring, gift unwrapping, booze guzzling, hearty food feasting day!


The history of Christmas dates back over 4000 years. Many of our Christmas traditions were celebrated centuries before Jesus Christ was born. The 12 days of Christmas, the bright fires, the yule log, the giving of gifts, carnivals (parades) with floats, carolers who sing while going from house to house, the holiday feasts, and the church processions can all be traced back to early Mesopotamia (yeah, you got that right, what is now present day Iraq).

Washington Irving, a leading figure in the New York literary world, created a tale of a pipe-smoking Saint Nicholas who road a magic horse through the air visiting all houses in New York with gifts for the good children and switches for the bad ones. The poem The Night Before Christmas (reputedly by Clement Moore) replaced the horse with a sleigh drawn by flying reindeer. Thomas Nast -- head cartoonist for Harper's Weekly magazine (the man who invented both the Democratic donkey and the Republican elephant) -- depicted Santa Claus as a jolly, bearded fat man who lived at the North Pole and wore a furry suit & elfish sleeping cap. Finally, from 1931 to 1964, Haddon Sundblom created a new Santa each Christmas for Coca-Cola advertisements that appeared world-wide on the back covers of Post and National Geographic magazines. This is the Santa we know and love today with a red suit trimmed with white fur, leather boots and belt, long white beard and a pack of toys slung onto his back.

Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer was invented in 1939 by a staff copywriter for Montgomery Ward. The story was patterned after The Ugly Duckling, turning a genetically defective glowing nose into a foggy-night navigation asset.

Mrs. Claus was introduced to us way back in 1899 when Katherine Lee Bates, who wrote the words to America The Beautiful, wrote of her in Goody Santa Claus, A Sleigh Ride. This was apparently the first appearance of Mrs. Santa Claus.

A beautifully decorated evergreen tree, with colored lights ablaze inspires in many warm memories of Christmases long past. The Christmas tree has become one of the most beloved and well know holiday symbols. The tradition of a holiday tree has been around since ancient times and has played an important part in winter celebrations for many centuries. Many pagan festivals used trees when honoring their gods and spirits. The use of a Christmas tree indoors appears to have begun in Germany. German Christians would bring trees into their homes to decorate. In some areas evergreen trees were scarce so the families would build a Christmas pyramid, simple wooden structures which they decorated with branches and candles.

The tradition of the Christmas tree eventually spread through out Europe. The English Royalty help popularize the tree in England by decorating the first Christmas tree at Windsor Castle in 1841. Prince Albert, husband of Queen Victoria, decorated the first English Christmas Tree with candles, candies, fruits, and gingerbread. When the German immigrants went to American they also brought along their Christmas trees. In the 1830's most Americans still considered the Christmas tree an oddity. One of the first public displays of a Christmas tree was set up by German Settlers in Pennsylvania. At the time many still considered the tree to be a symbol of pagans and it wasn't until the late 1800's that Americans began accepting the Christmas tree.

Early Christmas trees were often decorated with apples, nuts, cookies, colored popcorn and candles. The invention of electricity in the early 20th century and use of electrical Christmas lights helped spread the use of the Christmas tree. It is now common in most communities throughout the US to feature public displays of Christmas trees. Every year the President of the United States lights the National Christmas Tree in Washington and in New York skaters spin beneath the lighted tree of Rockefeller Center. Through Europe and the rest of the world the Christmas tree has also become readily accepted and adored.

Joyeux Noel, Froehliche Weihnachten, Mele Kalikimaka ame Hauoli Makahiki Hou! Buone Feste Natalizie, Sung Tan Chuk Ha, Feliz Navidad

MERRY CHIRSTMAS IN MANY LANGUAGES

VISIT SANTA'S SECRET VILLAGE

Santa Claus Is Coming To Town, Perry Como Style

When I was growing up, you knew it was Christmas time when Perry Como did his yearly show. This one, in 1974, is special, because of the songs by The Carpenters.

Tracking Santa

Remembering Dino

Dino Paul Crocetti

Since Dean Martin died on Christmas day, I think of him first, play his music, and then get into my holiday spirit.

Is This A Universe, Or What?

A jet of highly charged radiation from a supermassive black hole at the center of a distant galaxy is blasting another galaxy nearby -- an act of galactic violence that astronomers said yesterday they have never seen before.

Very trippy. So much to know and see in our real universe (not the one the wingnuts live in).

And, in a related note, Voyager 2 shows picture of our universe, which appears to be warped or dented in some fashion!

NASA's Voyager 2 spacecraft has found that our solar system is not round but is "dented" by the local interstellar magnetic field of deep space, space experts said on Monday.

Beam me up, Scotty!

"... who will liberate Iraq from the United States?"

One can only wonder, now that the United States has "liberated" Iraq from Saddam Hussein, just who will liberate Iraq from the United States?

I found this closing sentence funny, and sad. It's like who's really going to take out the bully?

The whole article is worth the read. It concerns the approval by the UN Security Counsel of extending/continuing the mandate concerning the U.S.A.'s presence in Iraq, which according to the actual government in Iraq, was not supposed to be extended without approval from the actual government in Iraq. Apparently Maliki and Bush pushed it through and the really inept UN Security Counsel rubber stamped the Bush policy, before both Congress here in the U.S.A. and in Iraq had a chance to review it, discuss it, and pass legislation about it. And in Iraq, they had already put into law a condition that specificially required Maliki to get parliamentary approval before renewing the mandate this year.

The move violated both the Iraqi constitution and a law passed earlier this year by the Iraqi parliament -- the only body directly elected by all those purple-finger-waving Iraqis in 2005 -- and it defied the will of around 80 percent of the Iraqi population.

Sounds a lot like how our current government operates, with complete disregard for the laws and the will of the people that these laws are made of and for.

It Was 27 Years Ago Today ...

I don't really know what to say. Every year, all I feel is extreme sadness over his senseless murder. I miss you, John.