Bay of Fundie

I couldn’t find a Shakespeare toad, so this will have to do. In case you haven’t heard, Bing McGhandi, a.k.a. Bob Blaskiewicz, has officially launched his new blog. It’s called Skeptical Humanities. Go check it out. Stick it in your RSS reader. Give it a few weeks to see if you like it. The About [...]

One link leads to another, and the next thing you know you’ve landed someplace strange. Tonight I ended up at My First Dictionary. They only had crappy picture dictionaries when I was a kid. If this one had existed, I probably would have learned to read even earlier than I did. And I would have [...]

Via clips on YouTube, I have discovered an extremely funny British sitcom. It’s called Outnumbered, and it’s about a couple and their three kids. That description makes it sound like every other sitcom (especially every other bad sitcom) on the air. What sets this one apart is that it’s funny. The best member of the [...]

I went down to the local mall a couple of days ago to see how the Santa racket works these days. It’s like a production-line portrait studio now, with big signs showing all of your options. You can get any size print, you can get it printed on keychains or Christmas ornaments, and you can [...]

From Scott’s Mind Santa has consolidated, like any good monopolist. This allows him to cut costs and drive his competitors out of business. These days, there is one Santa Claus in the entire mall, and he sits somewhere in the middle, not affiliated with any store in particular. It was not always thus. Back in [...]

It has always struck me as odd that everybody keeps asking kids the same question this time of year: “Do you believe in Santa?” Why? Nobody asks them “Do you believe in Barack Obama?” or “Do you believe in J.K. Rowling?” or “Do you believe in the +8 oxidation state of ruthenium tetroxide?” The fact [...]

Actually, this is almost what it looked like. Yesterday, I mentioned that somebody at work was so fearful of offending any coworkers that she was afraid to put up a few Christmas decorations in her cubicle. That reminded me of the days when I used to be offended by Christmas. I haven’t celebrated Christmas since [...]