a christ child and a menorah walk into a bar

I could start a new blog based solely on my disdain for the holidays, but something about the 80 degree weather, a stack of presents to open in the morning, the quickly multiplying evidence that people are receiving my holiday cards despite the postal crush, and John Hodgman telling a Christmas tale on the radio have got me feeling spirited. The glogi I will be making later can only help.

In honor of Jesus's b-day, I'm thankful to Neatorama for sharing the work of Larry Van Pelt of Niceville, FL who woke up one night bursting with the conviction that he should draw the Son of God in his natural habitat: watching over us all in our quotidian pursuits.

In honor of my Hanukkah-celebrating brethren, I share the amusing "A Beginner's Guide" from Jonathan Safran Foer. (Click to embiggen.)

Dreidel: The dreidel is a spinning toy, painstakingly fashioned out of a plastic polymer by Jewish craftsmen in Vietnam. Used for tabletop gambling games during Hanukkah, the dreidel often ends up on the floor and sometimes in the dog's small intestine. There is a Hebrew letter on each of the dreidel's four sides. These letters abbreviate the statement: Spin it again. You have no idea what it means. You spin it again. You try to make sense of it. Spin it again? You spin it again.

My gift to everyone this Christmas is Jonathan Coulton's unbelievably awesome cover of Sir Mix-a-Lot's "Baby Got Back." (boing boing is my Santa.)

Los Feliz Navidad!
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