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one fish two fish red fish beer fish

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OK, something that really annoys me:

The recent spate of people who take all types of pride in saying "Merry Christmas" and making a huge fuss about some kind of pressure they feel to act all PC and say "Happy Holidays." Now, if they just said, "Merry Christmas," I would have absolutely no problem with it, but when these people have to make this whole huge speech about the injustice and reverse discrimination going on these days, I really have to let this little murmur of anger grow in me. It just feels so dumb and petty of the "dominant society" to get all worked up about it.

Even though, on some level, I guess I can kind of understand with local, state and federal government basically just stripping away any Christian sentiment, celebrating a little of other religions, or is it cultures, and not trying to make any attempt to celebrating and educating equally of all religions and cultures to our children. Now. . .that's just dumb. "Let's encourage ignorance rather than teach kids about culture and the stuff out there." That's really made the world a better place in the past. . ..

Some interesting links on this topic, one of them very much slanted toward the Christian unhappiness side of things:

thomasmore.org
religoustolerance.org
--Mr. Lex
I understand what Mr. Lex is saying about the stripping of holiday values and so on, and while I'm not angry in the least with Christians complaining about the loss of the meaning of Christmas, I'm certainly bored to tears with it.

On the other hand, I get the sense sometimes that stores and other public spaces think that calling their bread-and-butter holiday by its name, Christmas, saying "Merry Christmas" to customers and vendors, and so on is somehow exclusionary. This, I resent.

Somehow, "After-Christmas Sale" is a valid store function, but "Merry Christmas Shoppers" is anathema to a store that doesn't want to offend the jews who need to shop their anyway for their usual winter needs (or goyim friends). In fact, I say we should embrace the secular side of Christmas, just people from every religion can partake of the fun, family, loot, and, as now, the huge discounts after the holiday passes.
--LAN3
2004.12.24
So one thing I learned is that Russians like having dried fish with their beer, but then I find out that's not unique to Russia. A lot of cultures enjoy that combination, but I hadn't heard of it before. So on a whim I bought some "salmon fillet jerky" from Trader Joe's, and then yesterday the only beverage I had in the house was some Sam Adams Lite. And the two were very good together. In fact, in a very striking way, it evoked some sense memories of the Jersey Shore, the salty marshy smell, and something more I couldn't quite put my finger on. But in a pleasant way. I wonder if that would happen with most beers, or if other people made the same association.

Christmas Card of the Moment
A Christmas Card for you...handcrafted by me thanks to the fine folk at zefrank. (A lot of cool stuff on that site, I keep meaning to go through it and blog the place properly.)