![\"\"](\"http:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/festivus-pole.jpg\" "\\"festivus")
The outside lights are up, strung along the eaves on the front of our house.\u00a0 Polly and I put them up two weeks ago.\u00a0 But the tree?\u00a0 That’s a different story.<\/p>\nThe outside lights are up, strung along the eaves on the front of our house.\u00a0 Polly and I put them up two weeks ago.\u00a0 But the tree?\u00a0 That’s a different story.<\/p>\n
Our old Martha Stewart Omniliving Holiday Tree\u00ae has become a Ghost of Christmas Past: threadbare (yes, artificial trees shed too), one entire section of lights out … and that was last year; no telling what it looks like now, because it’s still in the box.<\/p>\n
I took it down from the rafters over the garage ten days ago, but none of us felt like taking it out of the box and putting it together.\u00a0 Donna said maybe we should get a smaller tree, possibly a real one.\u00a0 I’m all for small, but suggested we get a new artificial tree instead.\u00a0 Then Donna said okay, but one without lights.\u00a0 And then I confessed I really didn’t give a shit and would just as soon skip putting up a tree altogether.\u00a0 To my astonishment, last night Donna said okay.<\/p>\n
Adrift on a sea of seasonal ennui<\/em>, we are.\u00a0 Happy Festivus, everyone.<\/p>\n ——————–<\/p>\n Some good but under-reported news you might never have learned of otherwise: remember the backpack bomb discovered moments before last January’s Martin Luther King Day parade in Spokane, Washington?\u00a0 Did you know they caught the white supremacist domestic terrorist who planted it and put him on trial?\u00a0 Yesterday he was convicted and sentenced to 32 years in prison<\/a>.\u00a0 No rendition to a black site, no confession extracted under torture, no Guantanamo, no military tribunal … just plain old police work and a regular court trial.\u00a0 That’s a outcome I can live with … and an America I can be proud of.<\/p>\n ——————–<\/p>\n A few days ago the US Navy released a photo of a same-sex couple kissing after a deployment.\u00a0 It’s a lovely photo, and since just about everyone with a blog has posted it, I will too:<\/p>\n I don’t know if the TV news networks have shown this photo … I would guess not … but as a gentle intro to the post-DADT era, this is about as good as it gets.\u00a0 The reader comment section at one political blog contains a lively and ongoing debate<\/a> over whether the Navy would have released the photo if the happy couple had been male.\u00a0 I had that thought too, unworthy though it may be.\u00a0 Social resistance to female homosexuality isn’t as fierce as that against male homosexuality.\u00a0 So … baby steps, people, baby steps.\u00a0 And Happy Festivus to Marissa and Citlalic.<\/p>\n ——————–<\/p>\n So far this holiday season I’ve wished my friends a happy Hanukkah, Winter Solstice, Festivus, and of course a merry Christmas.\u00a0 I haven’t gotten around to Kwanzaa or Boxing Day, but they aren’t here yet.\u00a0 On Facebook I’ve been changing my profile photo daily, using images of Santa Claus from old advertising and newspaper photos.\u00a0 Our Christmas shopping is done and the gifts are wrapped.\u00a0 We’re getting ready for our annual Christmas Eve party, and friends are coming over to sample Crouton’s Dad’s famous Christmas Eve clam chowder<\/a>.\u00a0 Somehow, though, something’s missing.\u00a0 What could it be?\u00a0 I don’t know … but I think it’s shaped like a tree.<\/p>\n Update (later, same day): <\/em><\/strong><\/span> The hole in my soul has been plugged.\u00a0 I dropped the Martha Stewart tree off at Goodwill, and since Ace Hardware was right next door, walked in and bought a four-foot-tall porch tree.\u00a0 And the photo of the Navy sailors kissing?\u00a0 A friend says he saw it on the NBC Nightly News last night.\u00a0 I’m surprised … but it’s a good<\/em> surprised!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The outside lights are up, strung along the eaves on the front of our house.\u00a0 Polly and I put them up two weeks ago.\u00a0 But the tree?\u00a0 That’s a different story. Our old Martha Stewart Omniliving Holiday Tree\u00ae has become a Ghost of Christmas Past: threadbare (yes, artificial trees shed too), one entire section of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,10,2,22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8552","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-consumerism","category-current-events","category-personal","category-terrorism"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8552","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8552"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8552\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8565,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8552\/revisions\/8565"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"http:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/DADT_1.jpg\" "\\"Click")
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