This has been a bountiful week at Chez Pharyngula, and I have received generous gifts from several readers. A full accounting lies below the fold.
Why, yes. Yes, I do.
Readers from Winnipeg visited the Canadian Fossil Discovery Centre and reported on what they found there…and they sent me a t-shirt! The sentiment is perfect, and I know you're all jealous now. Hmmm. Winnipeg isn't that far from Morris, and I know lots of the faculty here make trips up that way (especially for the folk festival). Now I've got a few more reasons to pay a visit, even if it is the Bible Belt of Canada. Has anyone else noticed the curious phenomenon of how you find the evolution-deniers living smack in the middle of the most fossil-rich areas of the world?
For I am the Light and the Way.
Toren has sent me a unique item: a light switch cover with a lovely motif. He informs me that CafePress has discontinued selling these, though, so NO! You can't have one! MINE, ALL MINE! (actually, he says you can write to him and order them directly). Now I have to figure out where to put it…the bedroom! The light switch is on my wife's side of the bed, so I'll get to roll over and say, "Honey, could you flick the squid?"
Oh, and check out the art. This man is sick, perverse, and macabre. I like it, although the undead gargantuan squid is perhaps revealing too much about my plans.
No squid, but it does have full frontal nudity.
Dean Cameron (hey, I recognize those eyebrows!) is in a show in Minneapolis, Love Tapes, "an unexpected, unconventional romance involving videotapes, hula hoops and rock n' roll," and we're getting comp tickets! We're off to the theater on Saturday. It's written by that godless fiend, Penn Jillette, and Spongebob Squarepants (OK, a human behind Spongebob), so you know it's got to be good, right? It's not too late—get your own tickets and show up.
We're planning to make a fun evening of it all. I've been putting in too many late hours here, so I'm going to take a day off.
Ho ho fhtagn!
Phil went to a SciFi Con and all I got was a…Santa Cthulhu! Yes! The war on Christmas begins again, and it's coming earlier every year. I shall wage it in my own way, existing as an atheist while cheerily saying "Merry Christmas!" to everyone. We really need to develop a situation where some people are saying "Happy Holidays!" and freaking out Bill O'Reilly because they're not saying "Merry Christmas", while others are saying "Merry Christmas" and freaking out Bill O'Reilly because we're co-opting a Christian holiday. I want to see him rupture himself.
Thank you all very much!
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And I go for Decemberween, 'cuz it'll infuriate him that some flash cartoonists can just make up a holiday and have it be celebrated with equal fervor.
You guys are on crack. It's Winterval now, remember? No?
Congrats on your recognition in Nature magazine. I just read about it in a stray back issue of a computer magazine someone left on board.
You don't say "at chez xxx", you say "chez xxx". Also, capitilisation is not required.
Only in Britain. In New York, the accepted athiest holiday is Festivus, and I believe Saturnalia is soon to be ratified as the proper term by the Athiest Council of California.
If only there were holidays for those of us who are merely somewhat athier.
I had been assuming that you must have read Jeff VanderMeer's City of Saints and Madmen, which features much squiddy goodness, but if not, you should. In addition to the texts, there's some very cool squid art....
I got some neat stuff yesterday. My Darwin bobbleheads (http://www.science.siu.edu/zoology/darwin/) arrived yesterday. They are excellent. The resin they're made of is very dense and solid and the modelling is excellent. These are not the usual crap. The seriousness of the execution, and portrait makes a nice contrast with the inherent silliness of bobbleheads. And any profits go to supporting Darwin Day activities at Southern Illinois.
I'll be bringing one in to work to hopefully give me an opportunity to proselytize.
BTW, fans of the Fry and Laurie Jeeves and Wooster will find the bobbling Darwin head reminiscent of a scene at the end of one of the episodes where Jeeves sits down with Wooster to play a piano boogie tune.
Start your own. I recommend you consider the equinoxes for such a holiday. Half full, half empty, sort of wishy washy. Maybe a Charlie Brown Day?
Do merely somewhat atheists believe only in demi-gods?
Thank you, Magnum. I was going to make the same comment myself.
And although I had never heard of the War on Christmas until after last year's holiday season was over, I shall gladly join the frontlines of this most important battle this year. We must not cut and run from the war, after all.
In all honesty, I love celebrating commercialized Christmas. Candy canes are cool.
You need to get yourself a Handome Family "Octopus" shirt:
http://www.handsomefamily.com/Nmerch.html#anchor856075
http://www.handsomefamily.com/youthshirt.jpg
You guys are on crack. It's Winterval now, remember? No?
Only if you are in the Northern Hemisphere. For us it's high summer and the winter icons of the season are just weird.
"you find the evolution-deniers living smack in the middle of the most fossil-rich areas of the world"
I don't know about that. Paris is in one of the most fossiliferous regions on the planet (known as the Paris Basin, natch) but it's not noted for its creationists. Of course most of the fossils are molluscs and other invertebrates and I guess they don't register on the average creationist radar.
That statement is so totally not subject to possible hilarious misinterpretation.
Their lyricist, Rennie Sparks, is one of the great philosophical minds of the 21st century.
You guys have it all wrong. We should be claiming "christmas" as our own instead of trying to create a competing holiday. After all, I've never met anyone who likes cookies and presents and hot spiced wine more than us atheists.
Now if only I could find a light-up scene of Darwin, Wallace, and Santa Claus for the lawn...
I used to live in Brandon, Manitoba, a couple hours from Winnipeg. Trust me when I say our Canadian Bible Belt is nowhere near as bad as the things I hear about from "The South".
Chris, Chris. Repeat after me:
"Athy
Athier
Athiest"
It's positive, comparative, superlative.
And I'm pedanticer than thou.
FINALLY the giant squid light switch covers are ready for public consumption!
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=170074376767
thanks
Maybe Steinbach and a few outlying rural communities are pious, but Winnipeg is by no means "In the Bible Belt" of Canada. It is, after all, the first Canadian City to elect a gay mayor.