Happy Easter

That's the Easter bunny of my youth. How about yours?

Last year I wrote about the history of Easter. Mostly how it came to get that name since there is no such word in the Bible. Long story short, the holiday got blended with the Pagan celebration of the goddess Ostara a/k/a Eastre. She was, still is I would guess, a fertility goddess so the whole rebirth / resurrection theme fit well with the pagans of the day. And, while odd at its face, the whole eggs, bunnies and resurrection theme has had it's uses. As I also noted the tradition of handing out eggs replaced human sacrifice. So that was some good news for folks. And, since the traditions were already mangled, Eastern Europeans now celebrate … [Read more...]

Happy Qi Xi!

Today is Valentine's day. It is a day where people are expected to do certain things even if they are wildly outside their skill set. For example, last year at this time I was asked to give relationship advice. That was not as helpful as you might imagine. Even less helpful is the fact that I keep bringing up the fact that Valentine's day is the only holiday to have a disease named after it. I already noted, yesterday, some of the many oddities in the history of the holiday. Like all modern Christian holidays it has picked up a fair amount of unintended baggage over the years. Which is fine. It gives the tinfoil hat people something to talk … [Read more...]

In Honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Day

I originally wrote this on January 17, 2011. Since yesterday was Dr. King's birthday a few readers had asked if it still existed since it covered more than the usual ground. Thanks to the glorious archive built by the Wizard of Ed, it does and I can share it again today. ************************* Today is the day set aside to celebrate the birth of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. A day when people can reflect on the fact that, no, we’re not there yet. Even so, I’ve always been more of a Malcolm X kind of guy. When I first stumbled across his autobiography when I was 17, I was stunned. While everyone was aware of the good works of Dr. … [Read more...]

Jesus Was a Pisces

It is, once again, that magical time of the year when we celebrate the birth of many people's Lord and Savior on the wrong day. And it's a date that's not just a little wrong, it's off by miles. If you have actually read the Bible and have the ability to Google information about weather in North Africa / Middle East you will note that the shepherds, their sheep and so on would have been safely away in their homes in December since it's winter there too. Granted it's milder than here, but it's still winter. If you have access to a globe, stick your finger on Chicago and then drag it east. You'll discover that Bethlehem isn't that far south of … [Read more...]

Does the Pope Hate Christmas?

Hot Mac Girls Hot Sexy Christmas Babes-6251

"If you read it on the Internet it must be true." - Aristotle. Look, I understand that many people are stupid. It is one of the reasons I have so much material to choose from each day when I write this blog. How much stuff do I get? I'll put it this way, a young lady who took to Facebook to demand that gay people stop having gay children didn't even get a link from me. Nor will she now. Granted that's a glorious level of stupid, but not stupid enough to get a mention here. Although I did ponder, briefly, about how useless a modern education truly is. Certainly they have lowered the bar in the basic knowledge of biology. I will admit that I, … [Read more...]

Google’s Racist and Other Fun Holiday Stories

I'm a middle aged white guy who's had a lot on his mind recently so I hope you'll forgive me taking a while to figure some stuff out. This week, in preparation for the BIG Holiday Special on WBIG today at 9:10 AM Central Time, I've been researching the heck out of the history of Christmas. Now, just so you know a little how the World News Center works, I rarely bother checking the images that the daily robots bring back along with the stories they find. They are simply too random to be useful. But once I find a few stories with a common theme I'll Google that theme to see what I can find. That's worked pretty well thus far. But, this week, … [Read more...]

On The Lighter Side of Christmas

I received a lovely email yesterday from a regular reader. She said some very nice things about me and life in general and then got to the point. The point was that, as informative as this week's articles have been about the holidays, I was "depressing the (expletive deleted) out of (her)." I guess I can see that. The history of Christmas is one of political compromise, violence and drunken debauchery. Not exactly the first thoughts that spring to mind when you think about ways to celebrate the birth of the Son of God. More likely a way to celebrate a frat party in honor of Biff's trust fund. But it is what it is. Denying history doesn't make … [Read more...]

The Christmas Effect

Before we begin I'd like to take a moment to wish all of our Jewish readers a Happy Hanukkah. Their festival of eight crazy nights started last night. In all honesty if you asked the average non-Jew what they know about Hanukkah you'd probably get an answer like "it's that thing that Adam Sandler sings about." If you got any response at all, that is. To be honest it is only in recent years that Hanukkah has taken on any significance whatsoever. Until recently Hanukkah held the same import for Jews as National Doorknob Day does for W.A.S.P.s and The Festival of Three Yaks does in Lower Mongolia. "Hey, wait a minute blogger dufus, the subject … [Read more...]

Better Than A Holiday in The Sun?

Whether you call it Ragnarork, Armageddon or just the plain old Apocalypse, astute readers of this blog know that it's come and gone hundreds of times thus far. And is due to do so again. In fact the end of the world is coming again this October and again in December of 2012 and again ..... well, you get the idea. Obviously, if you're like me - and I'm beginning to think that many of you are, you see this as an excellent reason to hold a party and hoist a toast to the great and mighty Zarquon. Or to Sanforized toupees, whichever you prefer. No matter what you decide, it's an excellent excuse to party. And, for single geeky guys, it may be the … [Read more...]

Happy St. Patrick’s Day

The little, poorly made, nameplate on my desk says World News Center. Since that is so, I feel it is my duty to look beyond the musty confines of my locale and imbue you with knowledge of the greater world around you. I can already hear some of you saying, "Hey Doofus! It's St. Patrick's day. We already get that. Wear green, drink beer! What else do you need to know?" Well, ye of little knowledge, you'd be surprised. St. Patrick's Day in Ireland, for example, bears no resemblance to the Bacchanal celebrated in America. It's a somber, religious, holiday where people pray for enemies to no longer taint their shores and for blessings to be laid … [Read more...]