Please accept with no obligation, implied or implicit, my best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low stress, non addictive, gender neutral celebration of the winter solstice holiday, practiced within the most enjoyable traditions of the religious persuasion of your choice, or secular practices of your choice, with respect for the religious/secular persuasion and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all.
I also wish you a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year 2009, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society have helped make Canada great. Not to imply that Canada is necessarily greater than any other country nor the only Canada in the Western Hemisphere. Also, this wish is made without regard to the race, creed, color, age, physical ability, religious faith or sexual preference of the recipient of said wish.
By accepting these greetings, you are accepting the aforementioned terms as stated. This greeting is not subject to clarification or withdrawal. It is freely transferable with no alteration to the original greeting. It implies no promise by the wisher to actually implement any of the wishes for herself/himself/others, and is void where prohibited by law and is revocable at the sole discretion of the wisher. This wish is warranted to perform as expected within the usual application of good tidings for a period of one year or until the issuance of a subsequent holiday greeting, whichever comes first, and warranty is limited to replacement of this wish or issuance of a new wish at the sole discretion of the wisher.
Sincerely the wisher…
Cath, who sadly can not claim credit for this wonderful greeting she just received from a friend. And who is also leaving for the UK tonight, and will therefore not be blogging until 2009.
Have a good one, everyone!
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Uhm, Happy Christmas? Have fun over here, and all the best for 2009.
Oh well, Merry Newtonmas.
Don’t they have web access yet in the UK?
Thanks both!
Bob, there is indeed web access in the UK, but I fear that the technology vacuum hovering over my parents’ house in North Yorkshire has only intensified while I’ve been away.
(Either that or I don’t want my parents to read my blogs unless absolutely necessary).
warranty is limited to replacement of this wish or issuance of a new wish at the sole discretion of the wisher.
I would like a replacement wish, as I lost track of it about half way through.
Thanks for that Cath – I feel all warm and fuzzy now. Have a good one! 🙂
I accept. Same to you, Cath!
From the THES
A MESSAGE FROM THE MULTIFAITH CHAPLAIN, POPPLETON UNIVERSITY
Good morning. You know very soon we will be reaching that special time of year when people who subscribe to certain religious beliefs rather than to others will be celebrating what they regard as a very significant event. May I therefore thake this opportunity to wish all such believers a very happy special time of the year? Happy Special Time of the Year to You All.
Bugger that.
Many years ago when the world was young I ran the distant ancestor of what is now [email protected]. The team consisted of me (agnostic Jew) and my colleague (a Muslim). One Christmas Eve we wondered what kind of formal salutation Jews and Muslims might use when greeting one another at this time of year. After much pondering of an ecumenical nature we came up with
Seasonal Festive Yuletide Greetings
And now, a little-known aspect of Christmas Tree lore. Tradition has it that the Christmas Tree is a continental tradition introduced into the UK by Prince Albert. I should like to offer an alternative interpretation. The Christmas Tree is in fact a syncretistic expression of an ancient Jewish tradition commemorating the encounter of Moses with God in His avatar of a burning bush. This commemoration, involving the decoration of small trees an shrubs with colorful lights and stars and/or angels at the top, became conflated (with the evolution of Rabbinic Judaism after the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 AD) with Hannukah, the Festival of Lights, and so the Hannukah Bush was born. I shouldn’t be surprised if it says something about all this in the Talmud. Possibly. Or not. With the Talmud, who can tell?
Oy vey.
Whatever you choose it will be better than the anodyne PC “Happy Holidays” that is current throughout the USA.
I was going to wish everyone a very bah! Humbug, but Richard beat me to it. But let’s not mess about here:
Happy winter solstice that the Christian church hijacked so as to placate as many pagans as possible while trying to convince them to come along to their party instead!
Surely we can all agree it’s the winter solstice, in the Northern hemisphere at least? Nothing religious about that. Have a good longest (or shortest) night, everybody.
the anodyne PC “Happy Holidays” that is current throughout the USA.
And Canada. The Christmas tree at Toronto city hall was at one point (maybe still?) supposed to be called “Holiday Tree”. What? What other holiday puts a big green fir tree indoors in December? That’s a Christmas tree! I don’t think any other holiday even wants to be associated with that absurd custom. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to water the tree that standing on my coffee table, taking care not to short-circuit the electric lights I put in it. (See? Weird. No-one else wants that.)
Happy winter solstice that the Christian church hijacked so as to placate as many pagans as possible while trying to convince them to come along to their party instead!
This is SO condescending and inappropriate. HALF of the world, the half below the equator, will be celebrating the Summer solstice instead, and they deserve not to be ignored (unless of course, they are simply mimicking the celebration originally established in the North, but we don’t want to suggest THAT, of course)
This is SO condescending and inappropriate
…. but also true, in that it is quite usual for a new religion to accommodate the customs of the old, in order to gain popularity. Caribbean Santeria is an agglomeration of Christianity with older, animistic traditions. In the Roman world, Christmas supplanted Saturnalia, just as it did the Solstice (the festival of sun-return). Hannukah is a Jewish festival whose roots in the solstice are clear: I believe that the political events commemorated in Hannukah – the victory of the Maccabean revolt – happened at a different time of year – but the festival itself was moved, incorporating the apocryphal miracle of the oil (whose origins are Talmudic, and therefore obscure).
The same phenomenon (it’s called syncretism) can be seen with other Christmas customs. Father Christmas is a more friendly version of the northern pagan Green Man, a symbol of fertility, who crops up in all sorts of ancient lore (Gawain’s ‘Green Knight’, geared in green and clothed in winter evergreen vegetation, is one example). But Father Christmas wears red robes, I hear you cry, not green. Well, he wore green robes as recently as 1931, when the Coca-Cola company changed them to red for an advertising campaign … and red they’ve been ever since. Memes are funny things.
Yesyes, but I am getting special attention for some reason. Not sure exactly how I deserve this.
Steffi, you are special. Although I am avoiding commenting on your post for that reason. (Not the “you’re special” reason, but the other reason.)
Hmm. Should I stop blogging then? I mean, seriously: if the other reason keeps doing this?..
Oh, it’s painful. I’d skip it all in favor of the sensible and literate question my daughter’s classmate asked his mother, on finding out that Annelies doesn’t have Christmas: “What is the name of her God?”
Steffi, we’ve established the credentials of Kurt L Hanson previously. Not worth bothering about.
Richard, I’m just peeved because his constant reappearance puts people off my blog, as Eva’s comment also indicates. It’s putting me off my blog.
Cute cartoon.
Just delete the comment, Steffi. Go to http://network.nature.com/people//blog/comments where will be ‘stuffysour’ and hit delete as appropriate.
Back to Henry’s Santa colour theme. Red and white Santa’s pre-date the Coca Cola campaign and Santa’s (red ones) were used in soft drink commercials before the coke campaign. The belief that coke started the colour scheme is an Urban Myth; they probably helped speed up a changing image in popular culture.
Red and white Santa’s what, Brian?
I thought Coca Cola got the colour scheme (and name?) from Saint Nicholas (Sinterklaas in Dutch – sounds like “Santa Claus” if you mumble a bit.) and he has definitely been wearing red and white (and some gold) for a long time, but totally different clothes than Santa Claus. (When I was little, I referred to the pope as the “guy who looks like Sinterklaas”)
And before anyone tries to make any jokes about that weird Dutch holiday – David Sedaris has already made them , and they were probably funnier. I tried to explain the tradition to some friends in a restaurant recently, and the waitress ended up giggling when she picked up snippets of it.
@Richard – whoop’s will eat shoot’s and leaves’ as penance.
@Eva – apparently Father Christmas aka Santa was Green in the 18th and 19th centuries and turned red in the early 20th. SC is almost certainly an American convergence of various european traditions to an amorphous jolly entity.
It is interesting that although no-one dare speak the name of Christmas in the USA, the name Santa (despite its christian connection and etymology) is perfectly acceptable terminology.
Brian, but was he called Santa Claus when he was still green? I thought the red colour and the chubbiness (where did THAT come from? He’ll ever fit through the chimney NOW!) and the name all appeared at the same time.
AAARGH! I have just received the following e-mail!
To the Nature Network Bloggers:
Holiday Greetings
From the Nature Network team
It’s Christmas and New Year. If you must be areligious please offer Seasons Greetings
@Eva – There are a number of articles on the web on Santa’s origins. I think Santa Claus is an Americanism. Father Christmas may have been green (and I don’t know where the chimney and reindeer fit in).
Once Cath is back in the world of internet, she’s going to be so excited about all the comments and find out we were all just rambling on amongst ourselves. (Hi Cath! Sorry for the mess! We were going to clean up before you got back, but then we forgot.)
Quite, Eva. The next time someone puts up a post saying “I’m off, see you later” we should start a game of Mornington Crescent on their post.
Bob: Cockfosters.
And for the uninitiated
@Bob and Mike. I take it as this is a Christmas game of MC we will be playing “Christmas Common” rules with the yellow chequer left unturned?
In which case: Brixton
I’m Jeish, so CHRISTMAS CHRISTMAS CHRISTMAS CHRISTMAS CHRISTMAS and Bah Humb ug to anyone who says anything else.
Coldharbour Lane.
There’s a piece on the Coke/Santa controversy at http://www.snopes.com/holidays/christmas/santa/cocacola.asp
There was, traditionally a clear difference in dress between Santa Claus and Father Christmas. Santa Claus wears a shortish tunic with a belt and separate hat. Father Christmas wears a floor length robe with a hood. FC’s robe used to be green (as he was, indeed derived from the Green Man, not St Nicholas like Santa Claus). Father Christmas gradually switched to red through the Victorian period when Christmas was being restored fully for the first time since Tudorbethan times, after those boring puritans had declared it entirely too jolly.
Oh and that most Christmassy of Mornington Crescent ploys, Angel.
Coca Cola has long since abandoned Santa Claus, and instead adopted that icon of global warming consequences: the polar bear.
I will take the Christmas Dinner Exception, which puts me at …
West Ham
Oh dear. Well, All Saints then.
I wasn’t playing MC, I just wanted to hurl double entendres at Bob. But while we’re at it, I’ll offer a musical Maida Vale.
And in another stroke of Christmas marketing genius, the Finns have laid claim to the home of Father Christmas, even though their Yuletide messenger is in fact a stud goat. And some Cola trivia – “The US-based Coca-Cola Santa Claus was designed by the son of Finnish emigrant, Haddon Sundblom.” (Wikipedia)
Caga Tio! Google images failed me in a goat search.
Turkey Street?
Presently, I expect to arrive at Bow Road ….
I’m not driving into work until the fog outside (to make the distinction from that which inhabits my skull sometimes) clears a bit. People were driving stupidly enough yesterday evening, when it was merely misting. >:-(
Pudding Lane
Cos of the Christmas tree, Trafalgar Square.
(See this)
Clearly the Tree must have come from: Theydon Bois
C’mon, guys. I don’t even know how to play the game, but Shepherd’s Bush appears to be particularly indicated right about now.
I effing hate the PC habit of dumbing down indigenous customs for fear of offending minorities. I suspect that it wouldn’t occur to members of most minorities to be offended, given that they are quite secure in their own faiths and traditions, thank you very much; probably join in the festive frolics as much as anyone else; and would, if anyone bothered to ask them, slightly puzzled that some people should presume to make moral judgments on their behalf, without consultation. It strike me that such PC excrescences as ‘Happy Holiday’ and (ach) ‘Winterval’) say more about the quet for domnation, combined with the spiritual uncertainty ( or ‘vacuum’) of the people who think up such things in the first place.
Wenceslas Square
Whoa, the bit about the reindeer-processed hallucinogenic ‘shrooms, in Mike’s link above, is pretty interesting.
I think the Tree must be a …
Poplar
I’m invoking rule 4.3bviiic(2) that says I can have the map in front of me while playing because I’ve only ever been in London twice. I can play the less popular Toronto version of the game (“Castle Frank”) but that’s easier because there are fewer stops. And, oddly, none of them are called Canada Water
the Finns have laid claim to the home of Father Christmas
This question has been puzzling me for a long time. Now does Santa Claus live in Rovaniemi, Finland or Northpole, Alaska?
German customs are similar to the Dutch when it comes to Saint Nicholas. For Christmas, however, there’s a special treat: Father Christmas (der Weihnachtsmann) used to have a companion, ‘Knecht Ruprecht’. Wikipedia also has an interesting entry on him… (although in that entry, Saint Nicholas and Father Christmas are synonymous again – I’m confused).
Actually, now that I think about it: isn’t there the black Peter or something with Sinterklaas, Eva? (why are there so many differences in these traditions – aren’t they supposed to have the same origin? I’m sure there’s a lesson in there)
Doh, didn’t follow Eva’s links. Just ignore me..
Right back at ya, Cath.
I’m off to a Festive Holiday Party(TM) now.
Sorry, but it has to be Blackfriars now.
Steffi – the Danes think that Santa lives in Greenland. He even has a house there.
Bob – see, that’s just what I mean. It’s maddening. Unless he lives in Greenland, and Rovaniemi and Alaska are just branches. But wait, the Rovaniemi website says:
Santa Claus is not afraid of chilly weather – under his thick, red coat he is snug and very warm, as he commutes from Korvatunturi in Eastern Finnish Lapland to Rovaniemi every day.
The plot tickens. Anyway, shows that Santa must be a much tougher nut than the Gee when it comes to commuting.
But Santa has reindeer that can alter Planck’s Constant at will. The best that National Express can provide is a depressive three-legged gerbil.
Quite, Henry. Any chance of persuading the Powers That Be to get some festive cheer, and make that
paperstory freely available?Cath really is going to be excited about seeing all this when she’s back. Is that the smell of Burnt Oak?
It was really a rather splendid story, I thought.
When I was 11 I wrote a Sinterklaas/Christmas play that we performed at school. Because Holland has Sinterklaas celebrations on December 5th, and many people do celebrate Xmas as well (not with gifts per se, but with a tree and family dinner), it tends to get kind of mixed up in stores. You’ll see Sinterklaas candy next to Xmas decorations. My play’s plot was that Santa Claus accidentally came to Holland too early one year, and ran into Sinterklaas before he left. Chaos ensued. Anyway, I’m mentioning this because one key aspect of the play was that Santa’s lines were half-English, half-Dutch (and the Dutch was only in there so the lower grades would understand), because he’s from America.
(I played Santa myself. As the playwright, I got first dibs on a role, and I didn’t trust anyone else to get the Dutlish just the way I intended it.)
You can’t use Burnt Oak in a Christmas format as it results in a reflection en passant, normally this leads to a forced mate in two but you were lucky as the pennant deflected the trajectory to to Elm Park
pah, everyone knows Santa lives in Sweden 😉
And if you do not like the “Merry Christmas” or “God Jul!” I can always bring you the “Yuletide greetings” since at elast i come from the place of origin….. and if nothing else I wish you all a relaxing and non stressful holiday with lots of food and family and nice times!
Elm Park, Brian? Hmmm. That complicates things. I was going to go to Golders Green, but this is now clearly invalid (as it’s a weekday in an even month – per the new regulations) so I’m going to have to go with Swiss Cottage instead =/
But only if there is a “p” in the month, so I’ll raise you two and move to Holland Park
Typical… while the cat(h)’s away the mice will play…
Oi, you weren’t supposed to be here, Cath.
(Put that away, quick!)
What? We weren’t doing anything.
There’s nobody here but this Elephant and Castle.
Bother! The Stratford Solstice Stratagem backfired, and sent me out to ….
Redbridge
>:-(
Trouble is Kristi, that has sent us back to Cockfosters and we are going to all have to start from the begining again
Not quite at the beginning, Brian. Looping can now be done for the next 3 rounds.
Brixton.
However we can use the drain to link us onto the Circle Line an lo and behold we are at Bank
Oh. Then I have to skip my turn. Go ahead.
Fantastic.
Mornington Crescent
(See Hardcastle 1972; the section about reverse loop footbridges)
I knew it! I saw “Richard Grant posted comment on Seasons greetings of your choice” on my snapshot page, and I thought to myself “I bet he said Mornington Crescent”… You’re so predictable. (And I can’t challenge, of course, since I just skipped a turn (1988 addition, after “Green vs. Campbell”). Meh.)
What can I say? You are in the presence of the master.
Sorry Richard – The reverse-loop footbridge provision is only available when the Cusp of Lupicale is in trine. In which case all routes from Bank are constrained by the default, which in this epoch is probably some variety of the Obogo-Musgrave Shunt (in the town hall if wet, restrictions may apply). In this situation one might invoke Hardcastle (1972) but that authority was subsequently challenged by Dither and Farrago (1972a) after which Hardcastle was forced to concede, at least inasmuch as the Provision of Reverse Footbridghes Criterion was concerned (see Dither, Farrago and Hardcastle, 1973c).
In which case, from Bank, one might suggest
Tinsel Lane
If you look closely at the above argument I think you can see this is a valid move. One might object given that Tinsel Lane is in Nuneaton – however, nobody objected when I placed Wenceslas Square.
You’re forgetting, Henry, that Dither was later found to have falsified his research and that the conclusions of the original amendment stand. I believe Farrago was deeply upset by this and subsequently became a hermit, which meant that the retraction was never formally published. So, perhaps to the letter of the Laws you are correct: however, everyone I’ve played with (stop sniggering) has gone with the spirit of the PRFC, as Farrago would have wanted.
Legalism versus grace, then?
Perhaps, but given that Hardcastle has always stood by the conclusions of his research with Dither and Farrago in 1973, maintaining the refutation of his own work by Dither despite evidence of fraud, one must concede that legalism and grace bias one against playing ‘MC’ at this stage in the game. Hardcastle always said, right up to his unfortunate passing in the Nullarbor Plain Exploding Wombat Incident, that the falsifications in Dither’s work concerned modifications to the Reichart-Shagnasty modification to his own Railway Sidings Globular Transform, and had nothing to do with footbridges anyway. So, your call, but it’s between you and your conscience.
Henry,
If you feel that strongly about it, far be it from me to stand in your way.
Thank you, you’re a gent.
Tinsel Lane
Oh, if we resume, I will take advantage of the Salisbury amendment (1993) and move to Paddington which should open up all kinds of interesting options. I was saving this move, but I think it’s better to do it now, perhaps.
Highgate
Christmas Common (via Amersham of course)
Very cunning, Brian – very cunning. But it will not save you.
Greenham Common?
Oh, sod it. Mornington Crescent.
Damn. I guess I got nuked.
He didn’t format it. Does it still count?
That depends on how seriously you take Leinster & McGurty. Must people don’t bother – Henry has just shown himself to be uncouth, rather than wrong.
Keep it up guys, 9 more comments = excellent New Year’s present for me!
Oh, are you trying to reach some magic number? Do gratuitous, completely irrelevant comments like this one count?
Absolutely… hoping for my first 100!
Henry has apparently forgotten about the Yuletide Anomaly of 1923, a devastating incident which resulted in the Northern Line Amendment (1924), effectively blocking access to Mornington Crescent from Boxing Day through the first day of the New Year. I acquired the pamphlet documenting this amendment, and others designed protect Tube passengers during former pagan celebration periods, at a bookstore near Leicester Square.
Old Street
Well spotted Kristi.
Tooting Bec
Oooh, there’s a fantastic 90m open air pool, the Tooting Bec Lido, near that stop. My flatmate and I used to swim there all the time in the summer. I
That’s my sister’s closest tube station, and therefore one of the few I can name from memory!
In that case, I’d better do this before Henry sneaks in his move at 00.01GMT:
South Kensington
Well then:
St. James’s Park
Welcome back, Cath!
The other St. James Park is one of my all time favourite places to be in the world.
And, thanks!
And, 100! Woooooooooo!
And another one! Happy New Year!
MORNINGTON CRESCENT!!!!!
Happy now?
Yes. And happy new year! When you get here…
Happy New Year everyone! Still only 2.30 pm here though…
I am terribly late to this party and have completely missed the game of Mornington Crescent as well, which is a shame, because I had the Central Line Shunt all lined up, just in case.
Anyway, Happy New Year and, oh, er, Merry Christmas (just to ruffle a few more feathers).
You’re making this into a habit, Richard