Move Your Money

This is a brilliant idea, so I’m passing it along: A movement underway trying to convince Americans to hold accountable the mega-banks that got us into this economic mess, and yet are supposedly “too big to fail” (which conveniently lets them off the hook for playing roulette with the world economy), by moving our money from accounts in those banks, to small, locally-owned banks that had no part in the meltdown (or the ridiculous bailout payments).

Watch the video:

…and then visit MoveYourMoney.info to find high-rated locally-owned banks near you.

WHITE MFing XMAS

Um, yeah.

Lawrence got “between 4 and 10 inches” — nobody’s quite sure, because 40 mph winds blew everything around, leading to areas like on our lawn where you can see patches of grass sticking up through the snow, sitting next to 4-foot-high snow drifts.

It’s still snowing, and blowing. Expecting another 2 inches tonight, maybe another inch tomorrow before we’re done.

Everybody here is snug and safe — we’re going to eat our WHO FEAST within an hour or so — waiting for side dishes to finish — Turkey(s) (not Roast Beast) are done. (We have 2 12-pounders, since the store was out of larger birds, and we have 5 hungry people here, a couple of which are teenagers.) Probably watch Doctor Who – The End of Time, Pt. 1 later this evening (Yes, I already have it — this is me we’re talking about).

Laura’s family postponed Christmas gathering due to the roads — although I’m not sure we’re going to be able to dig out and go tomorrow, either (no plowing yet around us — although Ian did a stalwart job of semi-clearing the driveway).

Anyway — Loot summary over the next couple of days . I’ve got feasting to do. (Both turkey this evening, and footy tomorrow, during the Boxing Day matches!)

Gawrblezzus, evrywun.

The Traditional Christmas Post

I’ve been doing this since I started blogging, and this year is no exception.

A quote which sums up my feelings regarding the holiday, even as a non-Christian:

“There are many things from which I might have derived good, by which I have not profited, I dare say,” returned the nephew: “Christmas among the rest. But I am sure I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come round — apart from the veneration due to its sacred name and origin, if anything belonging to it can be apart from that — as a good time: a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time: the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow-passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys. And therefore, uncle, though it has never put a scrap of gold or silver in my pocket, I believe that it has done me good, and will do me good; and I say, God bless it!”
— Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol

In short, it’s a holiday that often makes people treat one another just a bit BETTER. Even if only for a short time. There’s surely something wonderous in that.

Merry Christmas, all.