MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

Credit: Odd-Fish.net

Afrikaans - een plesierige kerfees
Arabic - I'D MIILAD SAID OUA SANA SAIDA
Argentine - Felices Pasquas Y felices ano Nuevo
Armenian - Shenoraavor Nor Dari yev Pari Gaghand
Azeri - Tezze Iliniz Yahsi Olsun
Basque - Zorionak eta Urte Berri On!
Bohemian - Vesele Vanoce
Brazilian - Boas Festas e Feliz Ano Novo
Breton - Nedeleg laouen na bloavezh mat
Bulgarian - Tchestita Koleda; Tchestito Rojdestvo Hristovo
Chinese - (Mandarin) Kung His Hsin Nien bing Chu Shen Tan (Catonese) Gun Tso Sun Tan'Gung Haw Sun
Cornish - Nadelik looan na looan blethen noweth
Cree - Mitho Makosi Kesikansi
Croatian - Sretan Bozic
Czech - Prejeme Vam Vesele Vanoce a stastny Novy Rok
Danish - Glædelig Jul
Dutch - Vrolijk Kerstfeest en een Gelukkig Nieuwjaar!
English - Merry Christmas
Esperanto - Gajan Kristnaskon
Estonian - Ruumsaid juulup|hi
Farsi - Cristmas-e-shoma mobarak bashad
Finnish - Hyvaa joulua
French - Joyeux Noel
Frisian - Noflike Krystdagen en in protte Lok en Seine yn it Nije Jier!
German - Froehliche Weihnachten
Greek - Kala Christouyenna!
Hawaiian - Mele Kalikimaka
Hebrew - Mo'adim Lesimkha. Chena tova
Hindi - Shub Naya Baras
Hungarian - Kellemes Karacsonyi unnepeket
Icelandic - Gledileg Jol
Indonesian - Selamat Hari Natal
Iraqi - Idah Saidan Wa Sanah Jadidah
Irish - Nollaig Shona Dhuit
Italian - Buone Feste Natalizie
Japanese - Shinnen omedeto. Kurisumasu Omedeto
Korean - Sung Tan Chuk Ha
Latvian - Prieci'gus Ziemsve'tkus un Laimi'gu Jauno Gadu!
Lithuanian - Linksmu Kaledu
Manx - Nollick ghennal as blein vie noa
Maori - Meri Kirihimete
Marathi - Shub Naya Varsh
Navajo - Merry Keshmish
Norwegian - God Jul
Pennsylvania German - En frehlicher Grischtdaag un en hallich Nei Yaahr!
Polish - Wesolych Swiat Bozego Narodzenia
Portuguese - Boas Festas
Rapa-Nui - Mata-Ki-Te-Rangi. Te-Pito-O-Te-Henua
Rumanian - Sarbatori vesele
Russian - Pozdrevlyayu s prazdnikom Rozhdestva is Novim Godom
Serbian - Hristos se rodi
Slovakian - Sretan Bozic or Vesele vianoce
Sami - Buorrit Juovllat
Samoan - La Maunia Le Kilisimasi Ma Le Tausaga Fou
Scots Gaelic - Nollaig chridheil huibh
Serb-Croatian - Sretam Bozic. Vesela Nova Godina
Singhalese - Subha nath thalak Vewa. Subha Aluth Awrudhak Vewa
Slovak - Vesele Vianoce. A stastlivy Novy Rok
Slovene - Vesele Bozicne. Screcno Novo Leto
Spanish - Feliz Navidad
Swedish - God Jul and (Och) Ett Gott Nytt År
Tagalog - Maligayamg Pasko. Masaganang Bagong Taon
Tamil - Nathar Puthu Varuda Valthukkal
Thai - Sawadee Pee Mai
Turkish - Noeliniz Ve Yeni Yiliniz Kutlu Olsun
Ukrainian - Srozhdestvom Kristovym
Urdu - Naya Saal Mubarak Ho
Vietnamese - Chung Mung Giang Sinh
Welsh - Nadolig Llawen
Yugoslavian - Cestitamo Bozic
Papua New Guinea - Bikpela hamamas blong dispela Krismas na Nupela yia i go long yu

Did I leave anyone out? (I think I like Navaho the best)

Hatemonger leftists

Well The Swash Zone has made the cut. We're finally the target of the Psychotic Right, who think that sentimental reminiscences about Christmas in Austria and cynicism about the way our nations affairs have been carried out makes us "hatemonger leftists."

My post about how Christmas has become too much about angry denunciations of those who prefer to put their own interpretation on it and demands for government mandated observance, merited the attention of American Power, the site hosted by a Community College instructor from California and which is, according to him, all about power, victory and mindless support for whatever the military chooses to do.

Donald Douglass says that getting angry about enemies of freedom invalidates my distaste for the irrational anger of the religious right. Of course if that were true, the raison d'etre of the American Revolution would evaporate, but that's right wing dementia.

We have arrived.

FESTIVAL OF LIGHTS

Every year from November through New Year's Day, Tanglewood Park in Clemmons, NC presents a drive through light display complete with music (you tune in the radio), roasting marshmallows, hay rides or a carriage ride. It meanders through the park for about four miles with enough color, size and animation to warm the heart of the crustiest old Scrooge.

We usually go between Christmas and New Year's when things have slowed down and we can relax and enjoy. And every year, we seem to have someone around who has never seen the lights - this year we are taking the grandkids and probably my mother (but only if I can tape her mouth shut!)

For more information go to Tanglewood Festival of Lights.

Entry to the park.

They have the holidays covered.

Nonstop Displays!

To All A Good Night!

A Solitary Eve Remembered

In my memory, the streets, the sidewalks, the trees & bushes, the bridges & pathways were blanketed in powdery snow. I remember no ice, though it was cold. Very cold. The sky was never blue but rather an icy gray. It had been snowing for days. Austria could not have looked more like a picturesque winter wonderland if it had tried.

The small city – Saltzburg – in which I found myself that Christmas Eve was both foreign & familiar. People hustling about doing last minute Christmas shopping, yet without the glare of consumerism. Saltzburg, in the gently falling snow & cold felt too old-European for such garishness. Yes – so idyllic in my memory.

That evening – Christmas Eve – I was bound & determined to go to church. I simply always had. Not because of any particular Christian longing but out of a culturally bread sense of spirituality on this eve. But this was Saltzburg so going to church meant taking my Protestant self to Catholic mass. In a massive, echoing cathedral that was as inviting with its Christmas greenery & candles as it was strange with its Latin accompanied Catholic rituals. I stood in the back in a mass of people, most of whom were quiet, only occasionally respectfully whispering. They too might as well have been speaking Latin for all I understood. I stood gazing in wonder at the looming cathedral ceiling over my head – Catholic art work on display – saints watching, gazing back at me – the Protestant intruder in their midst? They were welcoming & comforting – oddly enough. An unseen choir sang from the rafters, its eloquence magnificently filling up every inch of space in the cavernous cathedral. A priest spoke somewhere way down in front. Through the crowd – I never saw him. Just heard his rhythmic Latin chanting.

It was not the simple, spiritual Christmas Eve of my youth. No. But it was moving in its own unique way. I recognized some of the music played & sung - a genuine connection from Catholicism to Protestantism, from Austrians to the American in their midst.

I stayed an hour. Then I left. The mass was still going on. Leaving the crowd behind indoors & walked outdoors into the quiet winter wonderland of snowy Saltzburg. Alone I walked, taking my time, listening to my feet crunch in the snow, as I crossed a bridge headed back to the hostel where I was spending the night. My solitary walk home that Christmas Eve I remember well. One of the best Christmas Eve’s I have ever spent.

No prospect for recovery

The New York Times humor section asks you to come up with a caption for this picture. I don't find anything funny about it, other than the fact that Americans have so long sneered at the idea of small, fuel sipping American cars while complaining that Detroit isn't technically adept enough to produce them. The little Nash Metropolitan was one of many failures in the era of "bigger is better" and that's an era with no signs of ending. In fact nobody makes cars big enough for us, or clumsy, or unstable enough, so we drive trucks and vans and pretend, like Governor Schwarzenegger said on 60 minutes last night, that magic technology will allow us to keep driving them and keep making them bigger.

I was waiting at a light to turn on to old Dixie Highway yesterday, top down and shades on, when a venerable Porsche 356, followed by a TR-4, followed by an XK120 rolled past in convoy making a joyful noise; tops down in the fragrant, 75 degree Florida sunshine. I had hoped to catch up with them and share the country road and the joy of life for a moment, but of course by the time the light changed, there was an SUV and then another and a van and a huge jacked up pick-up lumbering along, their timid occupants sealed in bank vault vehicles, breathing canned air and peering through their tinted windows darkly.

But of course Americans are always victims, so it's the manufacturers' fault that we hate and fear small cars and Americans hate being American so it's Detroit's fault that it isn't located in Japan. Funny though, that Toyota, who also makes the same kind of misbegotten vehicles Americans crave is suffering too and so is Honda and so, it seems, is everyone else. Toyota announced after Monday's close that it expected to lose more than a billion and a half dollars in 2009 and Japan's exports are already down 26%. Spokesmen for Honda say they see no prospect for recovery. But when it does come, if it does come, won't we go back to our same old trucks with renewed lust?

So how do we convince the mothers of America that they don't need 4 ton trucks to go to the beauty parlor and that safety has a much to do with putting down the Evian and the cell phone and learning how to pick a line through a corner as it does with Gross Vehicle Weight? Does it even matter if we will have to resort to buying cars we can actually afford because we can't get credit or are out of a job? Whatever happens, the open road and the spirit of adventure and freedom are gone and those "On The Road" Dean Moriarty moments won't ever happen again if Mom and her Hummer can help it.

Sorry - But I Am An Angry Feminist Today

Not to be a divisive downer at holiday time, but Katha Pollitt offers some troubling food for thought on the issue of Rick Warren & the inauguration.

To be blunt - As a feminist - I am sick & tired of men such as this being held up as "OK" - & what better way to say that someone is "OK" than to give them such an international stage. And don't, Mr. Obama, talk to me about the need to make nice with his sort. Don't talk to me about the need for us all to overcome our differences. NO! It's time for the Rick Warrens of the world to learn how to make nice with us! HIS SORT needs to learn to overcome OUR differences. I am sick & tired of having to do their work for them because all that means is that THEY WIN! Much of this election was about the fact that the Warrens & Dobsons of the world were becoming more shrill! Why the hell are we appeasing them?

No - I will not be nice or quiet about this. I have been being asked by my society to let male sexists off the hook ever since I was a girl. I've been told for decades to be patient - that change takes time. Well - I am sick of it! I am tired of waiting for some kick-back - like full respect & equality in my society - for my peaceful efforts. For women, Warren is a disrespectful choice (& for other "groups" as well.)

I am such a tired, worn out feminist today . . .

And So This Is Christmas…

Tonight I once again performed the age old tradition of erecting my Christmas tree. It doesn’t have a particular color scheme or theme; unless you would call ornaments collected through the years a theme.

The Christmas tree has its origins in pagan ritual performed by ancient Germanic tribes. In fact there was, initially, much opposition to Christmas trees until they gained popularity in the late 19th century, becoming readily accepted by the 20th century.

No matter, for those of us who celebrate Christmas, decorating the tree is usually a much anticipated winter event. I can remember waiting anxiously with my brother and sister for our father to arrive home Christmas Eve with our tree (this in keeping with the European tradition; our parents being from the Old Country).

And then we began to unwrap the old glass ornaments from their tissue paper nests, taking care to hang them in just the right place. Each ornament a memory of a Christmas past.

Later, I began my own family and my own ornament collection; some bought, some gifts, some hand made by little hands; each a precious memory. In years past, all the children would help me decorate the tree. And how carefully even the youngest would handle the fragile ornaments, perhaps instinctively understanding the important part they were playing in our family tradition.

I’m late getting my tree up this year. Usually, I have it up right after Thanksgiving and I annoyingly hum carols from that moment until Dec 25. But this year, my heart is heavy with the violence around me and the losses so many have suffered. It seemed obscene to enjoy the holiday preparations. But my husband pushed me to do it; he knows how much I've always enjoyed this season.

So, I turned on some Christmas music and decorated my tree, carefully unwrapping ornaments and hanging them in just the right place while ghosts of Christmases Past whispered in my ear; “If you don’t settle down, Santa Claus is NOT going to come!” “Ok. Mom, we’ll stop!” “Oh, wow! Just what I wanted!” “Wake up! Come on downstairs; Santa Claus came!”

And it dawned on me that I should enjoy every precious moment I have on this earth and use my money, my time and my talents to be a positive force in the universe; not wallow in despair - that would truly be an obscene waste of life!

Christmas Eve, my children will all be here for dinner and my grandchildren will marvel that Santa Claus came to Meemaw’s house early! And another set of memories will be created and cataloged in the family consciousness. And I WILL enjoy every minute of it.

Holiday of Hate

Michelle Malkin is talking about Christmas cheer. Yes, it's like Kim Jong Il talking about threats to civil liberties, only worse, because we don't have Fox News bleating his demented ravings or calling them "conservative comment."

Yes, it's the atheists, as though they were a group: it's the atheists, the non-believers who are getting in the way of her cheerful enjoyment of Christmas and the atheists who should be treated like "Internet trolls." That, I presume, means to ignore them. Of course, in Fox speak, that means to continue their mythical battle between retail Christianity and the nefarious forces of religious freedom.

Gretchen Carlson, who apparently has a good shot at surpassing Malkin for sheer vituperative viciousness disagrees, saying that religious freedom will be the death of Christianity.

"If you don't stand up and fight for it, it might just disappear! I'm talking about Christianity!"

No, you're not, you're talking about forced unanimity and mandatory expressions of official faith. Christianity thrived actual persecution for enough time to make me doubt that it's future is injeopardy , at least from other religions, and it has thrived through persecutions of it's own, but it's having a tougher time in some places that leave everyone alone to celebrate if and when and how they like and restrain them from forcing their practices and rituals on others.

Back before Christianity was coopted by those who play to the stupid and ignorant and hateful; back before Fox News and the Aryan Nation, it was an inclusive holiday. As a non-Christian and an atheist and someone who knows all too much about Christian history, about early Christian, Greco-Persian, Roman and Norse practices that form the basis of Christmas: as someone who knows how the holiday (and yes, it's a goddamn holiday) owes more to Coca-Cola, Hallmark and Charles Dickens than to some Jewish baby born to a teenage mother in April of an indeterminate year about 2000 years ago, I've always celebrated it anyway. After all Christmas as we know it is an American holiday and one that used to bring about a spirit of tolerance, brotherhood and generosity to a unique degree. It was a holiday that brought out the liberal in most of us.

Now that it's become a bloody piece of meat in the claws of harpies like Malkin and Carlson, now that we've become as stupid and superstitious and as ready to rend our neighbors as any of our subhuman cousins at the behest of Fox and its stable of demons, I'm no longer interested. Its just another hot poker in the dungeons of the Fox inquisition.

Of course if their were any real Christians in this country they might propose at least to ignore this attempt to make it a holiday of hate, but perhaps that, like liberty and the pursuit of happiness just another lost hope of the secular humanists who first dreamed of it.

COMING TO A POST OFFICE NEAR YOU

These are the good old boys who refused to bailout the American auto industry. They deserve a prominent place in every U.S. Post Office from coast to coast. Their anti-union, anti-labor views are so perverse, they don’t mind taking down the entire U.S. economy. They would rather support foreign car assemblers in their home states than save our iconic industries ... and an estimated 3.5 million jobs. Criminals! Traitors!  Here is Octo's list of public enemies:






















SENATOR KIA
Saxby Chambliss (R) Georgia






















SENATOR HONDA
Richard Shelby (R) Alabama






















SENATOR TOYOTA
Mitch McConnell (R) Kentucky























SENATOR BMW
Jim DeMint (R) South Carolina























SENATOR NISSAN
Bob Corker (R) Tennessee
Although camouflage is a natural endowment, it is easier for an octopus to take out one's aggressions in Photoshop, morph these enemies of the people with liquify tools, and show their true faces. Now, if only there were a Voodoo button ...

DOWN IN OLD MEXICO!

Disturbing news coming out of Mexico about U.S. security consultant Felix Batista being kidnapped which has become, once again, a rising problem in Mexico. According to this article:

“Coahuila state law enforcement officials who were not authorized to be quoted by name said Batista had been giving talks to local police officials and businessmen on how to prevent or avoid kidnappings.”

I really hope this situation has a good outcome and that Batista is returned safely, but can you imagine all these people who he’s been advising? All those prevention tips? Toss them in the trash, barricade all the doors and lock and load because it’s going to be a long night in old Mexico!