1 Dec 96 
 
So the Thanksgiving holiday is over.  I saw Stuart leave when he dropped  
Brad & me off at the station, and I saw Brad leave an hour ago on the good  
ole Carey Transportation bus.  I got a big fat nothing done this weekend,  
and it felt really good. 
 
Except that this means there is more of something for me to do now.   
 
However, since it still kind of is holiday time, I'm going to ignore it  
all for tonight.  All this nothing has gotten me worn out. 
 
I watched Clueless twice, bought me some new clothes (I could be a  
=farmer= in those clothes), ate ate ate ate ate, and slept way past my  
usual 7 am (+/- 1 hr).  I saw a few things which disturbed me this holiday  
weekend, other than the obvious one of tv, etc. jumping on the Christmas  
wagon at 12:01 am Thanksgiving morning. 
 
* Dog house, dog house, dog house, dog house, hamburger, hamburger,  
hamburger, dog house, dog house.  Did some ad guy for McD's realize what  
kind of message this was sending?  I do not eat dogs named Spot! 
 
* Susan B. Anthony dollars.  This is one conspiracy I believe in: I just  
don't believe someone was so stupid not to realize it feels/looks just  
like a quarter.  The designer wanted it to fail, I know it.  The back of  
the coin has a really cool design. 
 
* That Burl Ives Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer is a multi-faceted  
disturbance. 
 
	* On the island of misfit toys, we never find out what is wrong  
with the doll.  It looks fine!  What's wrong with the doll?! 
 
	* Segues.  Evidently, the people making this little animated  
number felt they were above such things.  You think MTV caused short  
attention spans in kids?  People, it's this cartoon that did it.  The  
songs are only 3 sentences long, if that much.  I had just been watching  
the "Chim-chim-cheroo" sequence on Mary Poppins, and it lasted =forever=.   
Let's not even talk about "Jolly Holiday".  At least the agony was brief,  
I suppose. 
 
	* Skinny Santa.  Santa is skinny through the entire cartoon until  
about 1 minute before he leaves, at which point Mrs. Claus feeds him  
something.  Next thing you know, instead of skinny and worrisome,  
he's back to his fat, jolly old self.  Plumps when you cook 'em!   
Something is very odd about this.   
 
	* Rudolph's nose.  I don't care that it glows, but it sure does  
have an annoying high-pitched buzz that comes with.  This isn't  
disturbing, just irritating.  If I was a reindeer, I wouldn't let him join  
in any of the reindeer games. 
 
	* Santa doesn't go down the chimney.  An elf just pushes the toys  
out of the sleigh, giving them an umbrella.  Why don't we see the umbrella  
with our presents, huh?  If the toys let them go, they should at least be  
on the ground somewhere.  Is there some sort of follow-up sleigh picking  
up the used umbrellas?  I could use an umbrella, dammit. 
 
The whole thing was a piece of crap that no child should watch.  It  
undermines the general myths about Santa and the whole Christmas schedule.   
Our lies can't hold up if they're not consistent; children especially pick  
up on that.   
 
I promise I won't turn into Andy Rooney.  Thanks for your time.