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The Weird The Wacky & The Wonderfool
Shoshin
No one in particularNowhere Special Veteran
Pastafarian News Flash
"The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster" can now legally perform weddings 
http://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/weddings/75208795/a-guide-to-the-church-of-the-flying-spaghetti-monster
What weird wacky and wonderfool news is happening in your neck of the woods ?
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I'll find out the latest on the Spaghetti Church, tomorrow night.
It's the Festival fundraising dinner for Memphis Freethought Alliance.
lololololol
Alice and I will be there toasting and I love having a Christmas party that's not either overtly religious or slick like....hahaha. You know they got the license permission, right?
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2015/11/16/church-flying-spaghetti-monster-massachusetts-religion/75862946/
To be honest with you, I try and avoid the type of media outlets that would publish this kind of stuff.
Ok, here's something that hasn't reached the papers.
Yet.
My mother is hosting Christmas lunch this year.
But she doesn't want to use her oven, because it's a pain to clean.
90% of the food, is a roasting ingredient.
Any ideas, anyone......?
sigh....
Hmmmmmm.....do you know anyone with a Weber?
Stuff news is hard to avoid @Bunks
KFC takeaway ???
I am surprised that in the USA, which has such a litigious reputation, fans are allowed to sit so close to the players. If it were in Australia they'd have some kind of padded wall up or something!
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-12-18/jason-day-wife-stretcher-lebron-james-collision/7041672
>
Quite common in Japan actually.
I've heard that when it comes to memories the Pastafarian has a head like a sieve (...or should that be colander), but to give them their dues, on the [w]hole they are quite an hol[e]y bunch
....
The turkey crown isn't so much of a problem - she has announced she's bought a roasting bag for that. But she's moaning about having to roast parsnips, carrots and potatoes.
Can we do potatoes in a roasting bag...?
I've been having distinctly uncharitable thoughts about putting the old bird in a bag, herself....
@Bunks it's England and "WINTER".... not 'throw another prawn turkey on the barbie' Oz ....Really what were you thinking...have you no compassion for the Northern hemispherean
Don't laugh, I'm going to try exactly that this year if it's not too cold. Bird on the smoker saves room in the oven for all the stuff I want to roast, like potatoes, carrots and turnips (sound familiar?
). We're made of tough stuff up here, some people barbecue all winter long.
...and only wearing speedos I bet
No, but my mother-in-law wears high heels to shovel snow. She's crazy...
No not crazy...'Elegant'
Toe plows
http://www.iflscience.com/brain/knowing-more-swear-words-linked-wider-vocabulary-study-finds
WTF Oopsss
How about Bill O"Reality"s Defense maneuvers against the WAR ON CHRISTMAS?
http://www.foxnews.com/transcript/2013/12/03/bill-oreilly-war-christmas-centralizes/
The insecurities of people like Mr. O'Reilly take on a life of their own, making their little worlds even smaller --seems to me. As he points out the faults (and identities) of what he calls the "primary culprits seeking to diminish Christmas," he is unable to see the forest for the trees. The "Christmas spirit people," he contends, are actually being hurt by the secular-minded. Nonsense! Talk about weird and wacky...
If the "Christmas spirit people" (as he calls the good guys) truly have spirit, that spirit must have some genuine core, seed, key, or secret (Call it what you will.). The spirit of Christmas is the spirit of giving and receiving joy --plain and simple. It needs no mantle or worldly worship. Don Quixote's windmills, in contrast to O'Reilly's Imaginings, are noble entities indeed.
Christmastide is a wonderful occasion for generosity to strangers and to those whose misfortunes or noble qualities leave us open or in awe. The spirit of Christmas is about Love, Joy, Giving, and Humbly Receiving.
I realize the above link is now two years old, but it is still pertinent, to wit some comments in this contemporary thread:
http://newbuddhist.com/discussion/23496/this-is-a-stressful-time-of-year-for-some#latest
BTW, I was born before 1960 and I recall as a child a simple tune sung on the radio as a greeting several times in an hour: Happy Holidays, Happy Holidays... Happy Holidays to You."
WHAT Gives?
Well seeing that it's a Xmasy theme
Can lying about Santa's existence claus oopss cause problems for some children ?
Lets just say I was a tad upset when I heard the news
"WHAT!!! WHAT DO YOU MEAN NO SANTA !!! ...."WHOSE GONNA GIVE 'ME' PRESENTS AT CHRISTMAS TIME ???"
Claus and effect of perpetuating the St Nick tradition
"While most people agree that it is bad practice to lie to children, most parents will make an exception when it comes to Santa Claus."
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/lifestyle/news/article.cfm?c_id=6&objectid=11564993
^^^ There are no fairies? No Buddhas in the Purelands? No monsters under the bed? No form in the emptiness? [lobster does not faint?]
Tsk, tsk ... soon you will be telling me there is no war ... Imagine that ...
I don't know which is worse to propagandize children with...
An imaginary character that travels around on a flying sleigh pulled by flying reindeer distributing gifts to children who are good.
or
A virgin giving birth to God's Son to be ultimately brutally and ritualistically sacrificed as a scapegoat.
^^^ LOL or that you keep being born until you get it Buddha magic unicorn right? Or that existence is suffering. Pah! ... a few of the Buddhas disciples killed themself over his fairy tales ...
A Case of Mass Suicide
Once while staying at Vesaali the Buddha gave a teaching on the foulness of the body, and on the contemplation of the stages of decomposition of a corpse. These are traditional meditation subjects which help to subdue craving for sensual pleasure. Afterwards he goes into seclusion for two weeks. On returning from his retreat he notices that there are far fewer bhikkhus present than before, musing that formerly the park seemed ablaze with bhikkhus. When he asks Ananda about it. Ananda replies that after the Buddha's teaching the bhikkhus became repelled, humiliated, and disgusted with this body and they had committed suicide. The sutta says that as many as thirty bhikkhus took their lives each day. Ananda, somewhat mildly perhaps, requests that the Buddha give another teaching. The Buddha calls an assembly of all the bhikkhus in the area and teaches them the mindfulness of breathing meditation.
http://www.westernbuddhistreview.com/vol4/suicide_as_a_response_to_suffering.html
... and now back to the really questionable ...
1) All children are considered "good" to some degree by "Santa" (Christmas is a conflation of three distinct Feasts of the Church: Dec 6, St. Nicholas the Wonderworker; Dec 24-25 the Nativity; and Jan 6, The Arrival of the Magi from the East, bearing GIFTS of Frankincense, Myrrh, and Gold. Santa is just a glorified myth and has to fly the skies due to all the crowded roadways of people flocking to market to procure good stuff for their loved ones, &c.
2) Actually, in Illumined Classical Christian circles Christ is seen as the FirstFruits of them that sleep and his story is supposed to be the human story. In other words, he is merely the protype of what we should be. All true love is self-sacrificing. Some people claim that it is the greatest story ever told, but unfortunately storytelling is an art and few there be that can tell that story right nowadays.
@Nirvana I wonder what would have happened if the fundamentalists hadn't gotten into bed with Constantine and more of the early Gnostic teachings hadn't been suppressed. Less suffering all around I'd venture to guess.
It's even worse than that, because Santa is really Satan!
http://www.landoverbaptist.org/news1299/santy.html
All Aussies are feeling the heat, including this poor thirsty Koala....
http://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/cutestuff/75433470/watch-thirsty-koala-drinks-water-from-gutter-in-australian-heatwave
Well, I cooked the turkey on the barbecue yesterday. Turned out very nice. And, I had the oven free for all the other goodies!
Hope you all had a great Christmas Day.
Lying? I've always thought lying was either bearing false witness against someone (either to harm them or protect them), cutting short on the truth to protect yourself, or fabricating something on your own, for whatever reason.
On the other hand, helping to perpetuate a cultural myth that is patently out of touch with the way things really work... Could that not be seen as a LESSON to folks to take the other cultural and religious traditions with a rather large grain of salt? I've always thought so. The people I've known in my own Episcopal Church certainly don't take all this literally. In fact, there are plaques in some churches honoring Churchpeople who, among other things, believed "practically in most of the doctrines" of the Church.
Children will often believe in both God and Santa if they are raised that way. I can't see much difference in the way that believe in those things myself.
'He said, she said' ... usual stuff ...
http://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/china-dalailama/
The last feast we had, someone brought the honey baked ham, someone brought the pre-boned, pressed, roasted turkey (probably from Honey Baked as well). We brought the vegan sushi from a place called Shojin in Los Angeles, CA (USA).
This is a clan of carnivores and omnivours.
The vegan sushi was devoured by all while the ham and turkey were eaten with much less gusto.
We brought a vegan strawberry pie from the same place and it shared honors with the traditional pumpkin pie.
I do enjoy the traditional holiday dinner, but, sometimes, change is good too.
Happy New Year to all!
Oh yes! This year was a mix of Santa, Mommy, Gimpa & Gimma - it worked.
Let my people go!
http://www.theargus.co.uk/news/13349747.Investigation_launched_after_Buddhists_release_non_native_species_of_Canadian_lobster_and_Dungeoness_crab_into_the_sea_off_Brighton/
Hurrah! I shall buy quorn fillets and set them free in the local park!
A friend in need...Another cute thirsty koala story
Who did it @lobster ?
The incredible, edible Lobster on ze menu!