Christmas Greetings – 2015

The Car Guy is in the kitchen making S’More Pinwheels; the snow is gently falling; NORAD is already tracking Santa’s progress; we have no place we have to be until tomorrow morning – Life is Good.

I don’t mean to sound like a Grinch, but if we are going to be ‘entertained’ by Christmas Carols for almost a month, don’t you think they could play this one now and again?

I want a hippopotamus for Christmas
Only a hippopotamus will do
No crocodiles or rhinoceroseses
I only like hippopotamuseses
And hippopotamuses like me too!
– Written by John Rox, sung by Gayla Peevey in 1953 –

To the member of our family who got my name in the Christmas draw – you didn’t ask me for a Christmas Wish List. Did you finally get me a hippo?

To my small group of faithful readers – and to the thousands of followers of this blog who might stumble onto this post by mistake – Have a very Merry Christmas!

Pets – The World According to Cats – EDS Cat Herders (Video)

Anybody can herd cattle, but holding together ten thousand half-wild shorthairs – well, that’s another thing altogether.
– EDS Commercial –

Cats are intended to teach us that not everything in nature has a purpose.
– Garrison Keillor –

Cats are rather delicate creatures and they are subject to a good many ailments, but I never heard of one who suffered from insomnia.
– Joseph Wood Krutch –

I’ve read that cats treat people the same way they would treat other cats. Cat owners, do you think that is true?

Christmas Tangle 2015 – Winter Snowman

Christmas gift suggestions:
To your enemy, forgiveness.
To an opponent, tolerance.
To a friend, your heart.
To a customer, service.
To all, charity.
To every child, a good example.
To yourself, respect.
– Oren Arnold –

May the Christmas season
fill your home with joy,
your heart with love,
and your life with laughter.

From Margy and The Car Guy

All my favourite holiday Quotations: Christmas Quotations

Previous Christmas Tangle Posts: 2014

Climate Change Fear – Invoking Santa

If there was a fear mongering ‘Hall of Shame’, then the Climate Change Alarmists would hold most of the top ten positions.

Fear mongering is the deliberate use of fear based tactics including exaggeration and continuous repetition to alter the perception of the public in order to achieve a desired outcome.
– Wikipedia –

Right at the top of the list would be the most despicable example of fear mongering that I’ve seen recently – a ‘Catastrophic Climate Change’ Christmas Story that targets little children. Author Ian Irvine has released a book called ‘The Last Christmas‘ – what would it be like for Santa Claus, the elves and the reindeer if the North Pole was melting? The author says his book is “…targeted for five to ten-year-olds, helps break down information on climate change that can sometimes be too difficult for children in primary school to understand.”

 

Climate Change fear – I know what effect that has had on many intelligent, rational adults who are extremely fearful that we are on the fast track to a catastrophic future. They feel helpless and anxious. But, is the fear of Climate Change really something they want to teach to their little children?

… why are adults so keen to focus on children? Why concentrate on the weakest, least influential members of society and ask them to act? …Climate change makes most adults working on it feel powerless. We compare the actions we are capable of with the scale of the problem and feel weak. We look at the extent of our influence and feel helpless. We struggle to combat our contrary desires to consume and feel shame. We feel like children. Children – who are actually socially and politically powerless – are an ideal receptacle for the projection of these uncomfortable and unacceptable feelings.
By focusing on the weakest members of society and influencing them, the not-very-powerful adults make themselves feel better at the expense of the absolutely-not-powerful children.
– Rosemary Randall, Environmentalist and Psychotherapist –

In 2011, “Help Santa find a new home” was the Christmas-time plea of the biologist and environmentalist David Suzuki. Supporters of the cause were invited to save Santa from climate change by buying whimsically named contributions to support his foundation. Reaction to this fear mongering was mixed, with supporters saying it was all just humourous fun. There were many who weren’t amused and some news outlets questioned the ethics of manipulating childhood images to sell a corporate message.

How about we agree to leave Santa (and Frosty and all storybook characters) to the kids so the grown-ups can deal with real world issues, like adults?
– Stephen Ewart, Calgary Herald, November 29, 2011 –

What would you say to a tearful 6 year old child who was worried that Santa’s home at the North Pole was going to sink into the ocean?

Pets – The World According to Dogs – Purina Puppyhood (Video)

Have you read ‘The Art of Racing in the Rain‘ by Garth Stein? Garth’s website explains the story: “Enzo knows he is different from other dogs: a philosopher with a nearly human soul (and an obsession with opposable thumbs), he has educated himself by watching television extensively, and by listening very closely to the words of his master, Denny Swift, an up-and-coming race car driver.”

I am confident Enzo would want you to watch and read the following!

Here’s why I will be a good person. Because I listen. I cannot talk, so I listen very well. I never deflect the course of the conversation with a comment of my own… For instance, if we met at a party and I wanted to tell you a story about the time I needed to get a soccer ball in my neighbor’s yard but his dog chased me and I had to jump into a swimming pool to escape, and I began telling the story, you, hearing the words “soccer” and “neighbor” in the same sentence, might interrupt and mention that your childhood neighbor was Pele, the famous soccer player, and I might be courteous and say, Didn’t he play for the Cosmos of New York? Did you grow up in New York? And you might reply that, no, you grew up in Brazil on the streets of Tres Coracoes with Pele, and I might say, I thought you were from Tennessee, and you might say not originally, and then go on to outline your genealogy at length. So my initial conversational gambit – that I had a funny story about being chased by my neighbor’s dog – would be totally lost, and only because you had to tell me all about Pele. Learn to listen! I beg of you. Pretend you are a dog like me and listen to other people rather than steal their stories.
― Enzo the Dog in ‘The Art of Racing in the Rain’ by Garth Stein –

What dog wisdom would you like to add?