We shall be decorating our old reusable Christmas tree this coming weekend, when Naomi comes on vacation.
Not much in this weekend's Central Valley Agricultural Report. Sunrise a little after 0700 hrs, temperatures down to four degrees below zero (Centigrade), and they're beginning to prune the grapevines. There are some large fields turning green with some crop I can't yet identify, but they seem to be near dairies, so may be some sort of silage crop.
Nope, haven't decorated a tree in many years. Also cut off Christmas gifts after kids reach 21. They have more money than I do and I don't know what they want anyway. Can't see buying nonsense gifts just to give something. Son #2 wants me to bake breadsticks for him for Christmas. That I can do. I also stopped putting up outdoor lights. It's not too cold when you put them out, but - WOW- is it ever cold out when it's time to take them down!
My feeling is that Christmas consumerism has taken over the whole season. The stores assail you with big deals and people frantically rush around trying to do everything for everybody. Not for me, thanks.
Granted that this opinion piece from the NYT greases the skids to the depths of despond, it certainly provokes thought. Although it is about our failure to understand what caused The Great War nearly a century after it began, we also seem pretty vague on what caused the Great Depression. Sorry for the cut and paste link, and for being not just a wet blanket but a wet and stinking one to boot.
The world of 2014 does not resemble the world of 1914. Although the world of 2024 may. Who knows? That depends on unpredictable future events. The main take-home from the article is that we can't assume something like this has become impossible.
The most immediate reason the Serbian crisis led directly to WW I was that Russia required a full week to mobilize its army. That meant it couldn't wait for anybody else to mobilize before it did. There's nothing precisely comparable now. But there could be something else that would have a similar effect.
The people do. But despite the efforts of the author to draw parallels, the international situation does not. Or not very closely. The US-China, US-Russia, and EU-Russia rivalries are currently nowhere near as intense as the Britain-Germany and Russia-Austro-Hungary rivalries in 1914. But our current rivalries might (or might not) intensify over the coming decade or so.
Thanks, Alan. "the apocryphal story is that Roman Christians decided to celebrate Christmas during Saturnalia as a way of giving it some protective coloring" Protecting whom: those celebrating Saturnalia or those celebrating Christianity?
I completed reading "The Left Hand of Darkness." In the course of forty years of so I forgot enough of it that it was almost like reading it for the first time. An outstanding book; not appropriate for the children's section of the public library, but these days possibly for the young adult section, depending on local mores. I will dabble in some other short stories from the Hainish "cycle."
My dog Winnie is in pretty bad shape. Didn't eat today, pants a lot, and can't really walk. I'm starting to hope pretty hard for "peacefully, in her sleep".
The scene I remembered from the other Hainish story was from "Winter's King" in the anthology "The Wind's Twelve Quarters" (which is slightly modified from the original version published some years earlier):
"Argaven turned from the Ambassador and went over to the rail. Grey water bubbled and slid by the ship's side. The shore of the continent lay now to their left, grey patched with white. It was cold: a day of early winter in the Ice Age. The ship's engine purred softly. Argaven had not heard that purr of an electric engine for a dozen years now, the only kind of engine Karhide's slow and stable Age of Technology had chosen to employ. The sound of it was very pleasant to her."
Ave Howard!
ReplyDeleteWe shall be decorating our old reusable Christmas tree this coming weekend, when Naomi comes on vacation.
Not much in this weekend's Central Valley Agricultural Report. Sunrise a little after 0700 hrs, temperatures down to four degrees below zero (Centigrade), and they're beginning to prune the grapevines. There are some large fields turning green with some crop I can't yet identify, but they seem to be near dairies, so may be some sort of silage crop.
--Alan
Alfalfa comes to mind. Super easy to grown and makes a good crop to rest the field by.
DeleteNope, haven't decorated a tree in many years. Also cut off Christmas gifts after kids reach 21. They have more money than I do and I don't know what they want anyway. Can't see buying nonsense gifts just to give something. Son #2 wants me to bake breadsticks for him for Christmas. That I can do. I also stopped putting up outdoor lights. It's not too cold when you put them out, but - WOW- is it ever cold out when it's time to take them down!
ReplyDeleteMy feeling is that Christmas consumerism has taken over the whole season. The stores assail you with big deals and people frantically rush around trying to do everything for everybody. Not for me, thanks.
Granted that this opinion piece from the NYT greases the skids to the depths of despond, it certainly provokes thought. Although it is about our failure to understand what caused The Great War nearly a century after it began, we also seem pretty vague on what caused the Great Depression. Sorry for the cut and paste link, and for being not just a wet blanket but a wet and stinking one to boot.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/14/opinion/macmillan-the-great-wars-ominous-echoes.html?pagewanted=3&_r=0&hp&rref=opinion&pagewanted=all
--Alan
Make that "a cold and stinking one to boot."
Delete--Alan
The world of 2014 does not resemble the world of 1914. Although the world of 2024 may. Who knows? That depends on unpredictable future events. The main take-home from the article is that we can't assume something like this has become impossible.
DeleteThe most immediate reason the Serbian crisis led directly to WW I was that Russia required a full week to mobilize its army. That meant it couldn't wait for anybody else to mobilize before it did. There's nothing precisely comparable now. But there could be something else that would have a similar effect.
I'm not at all sure that the people of 2014 don't resemble the people of 1914...
Delete--Alan
The people do. But despite the efforts of the author to draw parallels, the international situation does not. Or not very closely. The US-China, US-Russia, and EU-Russia rivalries are currently nowhere near as intense as the Britain-Germany and Russia-Austro-Hungary rivalries in 1914. But our current rivalries might (or might not) intensify over the coming decade or so.
DeleteExtreme cold has passed, to be replaced by snow. About 2", mostly overnight.
ReplyDeleteAnd as usual, we won't have a tree.
Thanks, Alan. "the apocryphal story is that Roman Christians decided to celebrate Christmas during Saturnalia as a way of giving it some protective coloring" Protecting whom: those celebrating Saturnalia or those celebrating Christianity?
ReplyDeleteThe Christians--who were evidently considered quite immoral if we credit The Decline and Fall of The Roman Empire.
Delete--Alan
I completed reading "The Left Hand of Darkness." In the course of forty years of so I forgot enough of it that it was almost like reading it for the first time. An outstanding book; not appropriate for the children's section of the public library, but these days possibly for the young adult section, depending on local mores. I will dabble in some other short stories from the Hainish "cycle."
ReplyDelete--Alan
listener--this link to Yule songs looks promising:
ReplyDeletehttp://piereligion.org/yulesongs.html
pardon the cut and paste.
Alan
My dog Winnie is in pretty bad shape. Didn't eat today, pants a lot, and can't really walk. I'm starting to hope pretty hard for "peacefully, in her sleep".
ReplyDeleteMy sympathies and best wishes.
DeleteMerciful Heaven.
ReplyDelete--Alan
The scene I remembered from the other Hainish story was from "Winter's King" in the anthology "The Wind's Twelve Quarters" (which is slightly modified from the original version published some years earlier):
ReplyDelete"Argaven turned from the Ambassador and went over to the rail. Grey water bubbled and slid by the ship's side. The shore of the continent lay now to their left, grey patched with white. It was cold: a day of early winter in the Ice Age. The ship's engine purred softly. Argaven had not heard that purr of an electric engine for a dozen years now, the only kind of engine Karhide's slow and stable Age of Technology had chosen to employ. The sound of it was very pleasant to her."
--Alan