NO Christmas trees before Thanksgiving, you holiday-ruining turkeys!

There really should be a law about playing Christmas songs before Thanksgiving, at least.

The commercialism and forced yuletide cheer is annoying enough without bombarding us with Saccharin-sweet ditties that were stale and headache-inducing when our grandparents were young, for crying out loud.

How many times, people, can you really listen to Alvin the Chipmunks sing about Hula Hoops and the holidays?

Even before Halloween, the big box stores were stocking the shelves with fake trees, ornaments and all the other Christmas detritus.

Let us progress, as the holiday deities intended, to Thanksgiving and then, if you must, start flocking the pine and/or plastic trees and caroling, or braving the manic aisles of the toy stores, etc.

So, it should be no surprise at all that I am a Facebook fan of Playing Christmas music BEFORE Thanksgiving is ANNOYING!
That's where the awesome cartoons come from.

Finally, a place to give vent to my primordial Scrooge.

Some wisdom from the site:

"Everytime a Christmas Tree is lit before Thanksgiving, a baby reindeer is drowned by an angry elf."

A condo complex Christmas: It's over, folks.

OK, unless you are Orthodox Christian, Christmas is over now. 

Stop the sickeningly sweet, let's-avoid-reality-while-we-teeter-on-the-fiscal-cliff "holiday" songs. I swear, if I even see Rudolph still nosing around, I just might put one between his eyes, just above that blasted nose.

Take down the tree and lights. Keeping them up does not extend the holiday. Really. 

Your bosses still expect you to show up, the bills still need to be paid and the calendar moves inexorably toward 2013. 

At least, take down the lights on New Year's Day, people. Yeah, that includes you, Bucko, in the next building over . . . yeah, Mr. I'll-Keep-My-Lights-Up-through-Independence-Day, I'm talking to you. 

Oh, and letting your pit bull crap on your third-floor patio does not qualify as "letting the dog out." And kicking Fido's leavings off the patio is not "picking up after your pet," as the HOA requires.

Guess what you are going to find at your door, inside a flaming Christmas stocking? Hint: a lump, but not of coal.

Bah. Humbug.
:)

'Life of Pi,' no pumpkin pie . . . but still a nice Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving dinner at IHOP this year,just Barb and me. Couldn't make it work with the family this time of year -- life and work and priorities just didn't mesh to do it on "the day."
So, will be doing post-Thanksgiving Japanese food with my son and his sweet wife on Saturday. And, we're "thankful" for that.
But this Thanksgiving Day, we but shared with a happy Pacific Island family, a young Latino couple and their baby, a couple of old folks (well, older than we are). 
The turkey was moist, dressing was tasty, broccoli steamed nicely.
We also saw "The Life of Pi." WOW. My head is still spinning, and both of us had tears in our eyes. Amazing acting, seamless special effects, beautiful film work. A nice departure from the assembly-line Hollywood pablum that stretches perception, and humanity.
And, I'm talking about the regular movie format, not the 3-D. I would imagine that would be something else, just as wonderful for different reasons. 
So, of course, I now must read the novel by Yann Martel from which the movie drew it's inspiration. It's a commitment I made to myself as a young man, beginning with seeing "Little Big Man." 
And yes, as great as that movie was, the book by Thomas Berger was better. Same with John Irving's "World According to Garp," and while the "Lord of the Rings" movies were wonderful (and I look forward to seeing "The Hobbit" soon), I'm sorry, J.R.R. Tolkien's writing, genius and story-telling stand alone as art.