Seasons Greetings* My Dear ObWingers!

by Eric Martin

May all of your holidays be filled with mirth, mischief and merriment.  And may my two month old muster the stamina to make it through our rather crowded Christmas Eve dinner without me needing to rush him out of the dining room in a fatherly panic.

Allow me, also, to take this moment at years' end to thank you all for participating on this blog, even those that choose to do so in silence.  To the commenters and posters that have taught me something, and the list is too long to fully recite, yours would be the kingdom of heaven were I to hold the keys.  And to all that I've offended, sincere apologies, as that is never my intention if occasionally my deed - and, unfortunately, I'm sure my temperature will rise and get the better of me again, so allow me to append a preemptive apology as well.  I can be a cad and I'm not exactly proud of it.

Whatever the form of your participation, I greatly appreciate the conversation and humbly request your continued presence despite the somewhat clumsy makeover following the departure of hilzoy - whose absence remains as daunting and impossible to rectify as ever.  In the meantime, to accompany our open thread, a little dinner conversation from Eric Rauchway on the Bull Moose himself:

Seventy years ago this winter, in one corner of the American West, explosions shattered the peace. But they were not, as elsewhere in the world, symptoms of war. Rather the five dozen men spending winter in a large wooden shack at a Dakota mountain were finishing the giant likeness of Theodore Roosevelt, which would stand alongside those of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Abraham Lincoln on Mount Rushmore.

In his speech marking the beginning of work on the monument, President Calvin Coolidge mentioned Washington the creator, Jefferson the extender, and Lincoln the preserver of the nation’s life. As for Roosevelt, “To political freedom he strove to add economic freedom.” Yes, Calvin “business of America is business” Coolidge said that; and Gutzon Borglum, the monument’s sculptor, explained that Coolidge really meant it:

President Coolidge once asked me, in discussing these men, what was my estimate of Roosevelt. “Well,” I answered, “I happen to know that Mr. Roosevelt said the cutting of the Panama Canal was the greatest and most important service he rendered to the nation.” Mr. Coolidge jumped to his feet and, with his index finger pointing upward, he said, “Have you forgotten that he was the only President who dared to tell big business, “Thus far you can go, and no farther, for the safety of our country”?

I was stunned. Not at the reminder, but that it came from Coolidge and in that phrase: “the only President.” Then he added, “Those words must be cut on that mountain.”¹

They weren’t—they abandoned the plan to carve a brief history of the nation into the mountain—but still: Roosevelt’s progressivism inspired even Calvin Coolidge. The other men on the mountain are gods of War and Revolution and enterprises of great moment. Roosevelt is there because of what he did for Americans in their ordinary lives.

The rest is well worth the read, especially before a crackling fire...

[*Yeah, I said "Seasons Greetings."  And what of it?]

Comments

[jonnybutter]

That is strange coming out of Coolidge's mouth!

Have a great holiday Eric, and all.

[Eric Martin]

It seemed almost fitting, in a Scrooge redemption kind of way.

You too Mssr. Burre

[Ugh]

What, no baby picture? Boo. :-)

And thank you too Eric.

Happy Holidays

[Marty]

Happy Holidays to all!

I have been waiting for this thread, it seems appropriate to also thank all of you for allowing me to participate this year. It adds a great deal of vigor, focus and energy to an area of my life I found less exercised over the last ten years or so.

I have enjoyed, and suffered, through many threads. All have allowed me to exercise both, hopefully, of the most important two aspects of a person, my mind and my heart.

And thank you Eric for holding this together, it is a herculean task.

[OCSteve]

Best wishes to all for a good holiday and a great New Year. (And a great coming decade depending on whether you believe the aughts are over this year or next…)

[Point]

MC TA, ATA AGN! :D

[publius]

Happy Holidays to you as well. And thanks for keeping this forum and community together.

Though I am disappointed we didn't get a baby picture on this thread. :)

[publius]

Err... Season's Greetings I meant to say. :)

[JanieM]

This is a lovely post, Eric.

And: What Marty said. (Now there's a first! ;)

All the best to all here, this coming year and every other.

[Heh?]

"MC TA, ATA AGN!"

Huh?

[wonkie]

Yes, best wishes to everyone and I hope your clebrations will be happy and full of love. Thank you to Eric and Lindasy and Robert for giving us something to debate.

I just got the sweetest present from my sister: a string of Tibetan prayer flags each with a little message from her written on the back of each flag. I am so grateful to have a loving family!

[Nombrilisme Vide]

"MC TA, ATA AGN!"

Huh?

Take the assumption that the speaker is making a seasonal greeting. Think of one which has the initials "MC". Proceed from there.

More on topic, seasons greetings, all!

[jonnybutter]

Speaking of MC TA ATA AGN....

did anyone see the video of Sen. Burris' re-written 'Night Before Christmas', delivered on the Floor? TPM had it up.

You know, sometimes I think I'm the biggest dork in the world - especially when my wife hears me clattering away on the computer, and her tractor-beam/gimlet eye holds me in its sway for a moment, saying without words: 'Fighting on the internet again, are we Jon?'. But then I see one of our politicians - doesn't matter which party - and know that there is a quintessence of dorkitude (gender non-specific of course) which even I can't approach. It can be so...perfect.

[Tony P.]

jonnybutter,

Not to worry. I am at least as big a dork as you are. As evidence, I offer the fact that I saw two of the past week's three biggest C-Span moments live. I refer of course to:
1) Sheldon Whitehouse's barn-burner of a floor speech on GOP obstructionism;
2) Burris's cringe-worthy poetry reading; and
3) The caller from Waycross GA who worried about "theological friendly fire".

That last, delicious, phrase was coined by our old friend ThatLeftTurn in a comment over at Balloon Juice, not the caller to C-Span. That guy was either a consumate hoaxer or a scary sample of the good people we grow in our small towns.

Burris's performance was cringe-worthy not so much for the dorkitude of the concept as for the sloppiness of the execution. Good doggerel depends on rhyme and meter. Tom Lehrer shows how it's done, even when you have to rhyme "utensil" in a Christmas carol.

Incidentally, I have to say that despite being cynical enough to love Lehrer's send-up, I am soppy enough to enjoy a good old-fashioned Christmas carol. My favorite, hands down, is "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day" as performed by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Those Mormons can sing!

Anyway, Merry Christmas everybody!

--TP

[joel hanes]

> My favorite, hands down, is "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day"

One of my favorites too, although "Fum Fum Fum" and "Patapan" and "Coventry Carol" and "O Night Divine" and "Carol of the Bells" and "I Wonder As I Wander" and "Oh Come Oh Come Emmanuel" and ... well.
I have lots of favorites.

Written, I believe, by Dennis Day, a regular on the Jack Benny Show. It's hard to find recordings of any artist performing this song, which is a great pity.

I heard the bells on Christmas Day
Their old familiar carols play
And wild and sweet
The words repeat:

Peace on Earth ! Good will to men !

and I wish the same to all of you.

PS : Has anyone heard anything from Gary ?
Amygdala hadn't been updated for quite a while last I looked.

[Hartmut]

I have been spoilt by the HPLHS as far as christmas carols are concerned (and I have added my own share of rewrites). I have to really concentrate or I will praise the Great Old Ones instead. Scary Solstice everyone! ;-)

[russell]

Safe and happy holidays to everyone here.

Hope everyone is surrounded by folks they love, and that everyone's deepest holiday wish, whatever it is, comes true.

It's a pleasure to hang out with you all.

Here's my wish for move love, joy, and peace in the new year. May it be so.

[efgoldman]

Xmas Info
I Heard the Bells... in its most familiar form is a tune by Johnny Marks (who also wrote Rudolph...)
The poem is by Longfellow, who is best - or worst - remembered by folks of a certain generation (mine!) as the author of the hideous epic poems Hiawatha and Evangaline. (I had to read both in 8th grade - 1959. I may never get over it.)

Merriest and happiest to all on Obwi.

[jonnybutter]

Tony P:

Your comment warmed my dork heart, as your comments do throughout the year. You always manage to be extremely penetrating *and* good humored. Not an easy balance to maintain these days...

Felizidades!

[hairshirthedonist]

Christmas always brings up old memories for me - reminiscing about the old space farm and that crazy doodling machine we had, how we would all laugh as it ambled off the precipice, nuts and bolts melting and subsuming the alpacas, obelisks all askew. Those were simpler times, all zippers and potatoes.

In the voice of a glowing and drugged Mr. Burns, "I bring you...love."

[Barrett Wolf]

Private Dork reporting in to wish a happy and healthy to all the ObWingers. Mostly silent in the face of people who know more and express better than I.

Thanks for the ammunition with which to decimate (well, at least heximate) the less well-informed dealers in political frippery and nattering negativism (thanks, Bill).

[hairshirthedonist]

Mostly silent in the face of people who know more and express better than I.

Don't let that stop you, Barrett. I don't. (hmmmm...maybe I should.)

[KCinDC]

When I hear "the business of America is business" I think "Business! Mankind was my business!" (at least at this time of year).

Merry Christmas, ObWi!

[Uncle Kvetch]

Sorry, but I call BS on that story in the OP. There has never been a nonfictional human being named Gutzon Borglum, and there never will be. Eric stole that name from some obscure third-rate Harry Potter ripoff, I'm sure of it.

But seriously, folks: Happiest of Holidays to one and all.

[stickler]

Uncle Kvetch has clearly never driven so much as five miles on any Interstate highway within the borders of South Dakota. The "Gutzon Borglum Story" is on every single billboard lining both sides of the freeway from the eastern border of that state to the west. (Those billboards which aren't advertising Wall Drug, anyhow.)

If Gutzon Borglum were not a real man, then some P.T. Barnum type must have invented him.

[Bernard Yomtov]

Best to all, and a wish for peace on Earth, goodwill to all - a worthy hope whatever one's faith or lack thereof.

[joel hanes]

efgoldman :

Thanks for the correction.

I guess I had "I Heard The Bells" confused with the sappy "Christmas is for the Family", which actually was written by Dennis Day. My only excuse is that I first heard both of them on the Jack Benny Christmas Album.

[dr ngo]

I was just going to say "Seasons Greetings" from dr ngo (and anarch, in town for the holidays), but under the circumstances of the previous post that seems somewhat underwhelming. Sorry.

[fwiw, there's a brief bleat from Gary Farber on Facebook today, so GF is still at least functional and able to reach a keyboard (which pretty much defines functionality for him). I don't know about Amygdala, however.]

[elm]

"MC TA, ATA AGN! :D"

I had initially assumed this was Klingon or R'lyehnese.

Also, Happy Holidays with peace, health, and goodwill to everyone.

Sleep used Wall of Text! It's super effective!

[Jacob Davies]

Merry Christmas! Who can disagree with the wish for peace on Earth and goodwill toward men?

I enjoyed the linked article. 100 years from now, people will be looking back at the (well-documented) beliefs, wishes, and strivings of our time, and I doubt that they will judge all of them kindly. But I believe that they will live in a society that is more just, fair, and free than the one we live in, and I hope that they will see that in our imperfect, fractious way, we were trying to make that better world, and forgive us the mistakes and failures we made along the way.

Speaking of Thomas Jefferson, today seems an appropriate day to link to his book, The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth, AKA the Jefferson Bible, an extraction from the Gospels of a story of a man a little different to the one we are used to hearing about. No virgin birth; no miracles; no resurrection. Shorn of that, it is a story about someone who lived in a society he saw as basically just and righteous, but imperfect in practice; someone who saw that judgment of others, revenge, and unmitigated self-interest were corrosive tendencies, and tried his best to explain a better way of being.

It's still just a story. None of it may have happened at all, or not the way it is told. And even if it did, I could hardly endorse it in full. But as an atheist in a Christian society, I think it is a worthwhile exercise to look at the moral & cultural influence of the story of Jesus of Nazareth. And I find Jefferson's version a good place to start, as an attempt to shed 2,000 years of doctrine and look at the story as if it were one you had never encountered before.

Finally, if a substitute baby will suffice, here is Eli:

[elm]

Hartmut: Thanks a lot. Now I've got Fishmen stuck in my head again.

[Point]

What's R'lyehnese?

Also -- I know this is an open thread, but is there a policy on post length?

[Michael Cain]

Odd that a hundred years ago even a conservative recognized that Congress was the last defense of the common man against the power wielded by giant corporations. When did so many people forget it?

For some reason, "God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen" has always been my favorite. But I've always been a sucker for things in a minor key.

[elm]

By R'lyehnese, I intended to refer to the made-up language found in the stories of H.P. Lovecraft (and August Derleth).

The best-known fictional-language phrase from those stories is ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn, where R'lyeh is the name of a fictional place (a city). As I don't know of any name for the language, I figured that R'lyehnese was as good a name for it as any. (The song "It's beginning to look a lot like fish men" linked in my 4:40 post also refers to the Cthulhu mythos and the HPLHS mentioned by Hartmut is the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society.)

[Point]

Ah -- many thanks.

[ral]

Re. ph'nglui... see also SHRILLBLOG. It's hard to explain. Perhaps this post is a good place to start.

Paul Krugman is known as the Eldest of the Shrill.

Merry Christmas, happy holidays, etc.

[kid bitzer]

seasons greetings to the entire obwi collective.

thanks for new posters and good posts from both new and old.

[Hartmut]

Just two examples from my own collection (Swato's Choral Squids)

Shaggy the Shoggoth
OT: Frosty the Snowman
T/M: Walter "Jack" Rollins and Steve Nelson(1950)

Shaggy the Shoggoth
Was a protoplasmic ball
He had pseudopods
And he smelled of rot/like cod
Was at least six metres tall

Shaggy the Shoggoth
Is no fairy tale, I say
You'll be filled with fear
When he comes near
For he reeks of foul decay

There must have been
Some madness in
Those Elders that made you
For as their slave
You should behave
And not mime Great Cthulhu

Oh, Shaggy the Shoggoth
Was a creature right from Hell
Who arose in style
From the nightmares vile
Of the author HPL

Oh tekke-li-li
Oh tekke-li-li
See ol' Shaggy ooze

Oh tekke-li-li
Oh tekke-li-li
Beware when he breaks loose

Shaggy the Shoggoth
Heard that humans came this day
So he thought "Let's run
And I'll have some fun
Now before they get away."

Up through the tunnel
Crushing penguins in his path
Seeking human flesh
To rip, tear and slash
Shrieking "Mortals feel my wrath!"

He chased them down
The streets of town
Right to their waiting plane
And he only paused
Once he had caused
Them all to go insane

Then Shaggy the Shoggoth
Had to hurry on his way
But he waved a lot
With his pseudopods
"I'll get all of you some day!"

Oh tekke-li-li
Oh tekke-li-li
See ol' Shaggy rant

Oh tekke-li-li
Oh tekke-li-li
He'll get you in the end.

The Thirteen Nights of Solstice
OT: The Twelve Days of Christmas
T/M: traditional

In the first night of solstice Cthulhu sent to me
An idol very ugly

In the second night of solstice Cthulhu sent to me
Two shantak birds and an idol very ugly

In the third night of solstice Cthulhu sent to me
Three moon beasts, two shantak birds and an idol very ugly

In the fourth night of solstice Cthulhu sent to me
Four hungry ghouls, three moon beasts, two shantak birds and an idol very ugly

In the fifth night of solstice Cthulhu sent to me
Five Deep One Babes, four hungry ghouls, three moon beasts, two shantak birds and an idol very ugly

In the sixth night of solstice Cthulhu sent to me
Six shoggoths dancing, five Deep One Babes, four hungry ghouls, three moon beasts, two shantak birds and an idol very ugly

In the seventh night of solstice Cthulhu sent to me
Seven Night-gaunts flying, six shoggoths dancing, five Deep One Babes, four hungry ghouls, three moon beasts, two shantak birds and an idol very ugly

In the eigth night of solstice Cthulhu sent to me
Eight fires burning, seven Night-gaunts flying, six shoggoths dancing, five Deep One Babes, four hungry ghouls, three moon beasts, two shantak birds and an idol very ugly

In the ninth night of solstice Cthulhu sent to me
Nine ill-breds drumming, eight fires burning, seven Night-gaunts flying, six shoggoths dancing, five Deep One Babes, four hungry ghouls, three moon beasts, two shantak birds and an idol very ugly

In the tenth night of solstice Cthulhu sent to me
Ten flutes a-shrieking, nine ill-breds drumming, eight fires burning, seven Night-gaunts flying, six shoggoths dancing, five Deep One Babes, four hungry ghouls, three moon beasts, two shantak birds and an idol very ugly

In the 'leventh night of solstice Cthulhu sent to me
'leven victims dying, ten flutes a-shrieking, nine ill-breds drumming, eight fires burning, seven Night-gaunts flying, six shoggoths dancing, five Deep One Babes, four hungry ghouls, three moon beasts, two shantak birds and an idol very ugly

In the Twelfth night of solstice Cthulhu sent to me
Twelve fell fiends feasting, 'leven victims dying, ten flutes a-shrieking, nine ill-breds drumming, eight fires burning, seven Night-gaunts flying, six shoggoths dancing, five Deep One Babes, four hungry ghouls, three moon beasts, two shantak birds and an idol very ugly

In the thirteenth night of solstice Cthulhu finally
broke free from captivity.
(alt: woke up and devoured poor me)

[Doctor Science]

Merry merry to all ObiWis!

Today's puzzle: Unto Us a Chick Is Born.

I plan to follow the folkways of my (married-into) people: go out to a movie, then Chinese food. The movie will probably be Sherlock Holmes, because it is shorter than Avatar, doesn't take itself as seriously (i.e. AT ALL), looks pretty steampunky, and has great scenery.

[rdldot]

Merry Christmas to all OBWIs!
Good to hear that about Gary - have been worried about him, too.

[Bernard Yomtov]

Gee thanks, Doctor Science. Just what I need, yet another time sink.

[Slartibartfast]

Sleep's extremely lengthy cut 'n' paste has been unpublished.

[disaffected]

Slarti,

And don't we ALL feel better now? Too much bandwidth?