Maggie's Farm

Our Christmas Tree is a museum of sentiment. Essentially no store-bought stuff except things we found on our travels that stick on a tree, and all of my small bird ornaments. We have our kids' rattles, things they made in kindergarten, things like that.  It's all personal.

The BD genius was to store them all in a living room bureau. 4 steps to take 'em out, 4 steps to throw them back in. No boxes, no wrapping ornaments, no fuss, almost no hassle. Bureau is a lovely 1500s hunk of wood.

If some old things break, it's ok. Nothing material lasts but Christmas lasts. We're planning a few small get-togethers, and we are signed up for Christmas Eve service (outdoors, I think).

When grandkids, will ask them each to pick one ornament to take home for their own tree. 

 Tony Hsieh’s American Tragedy: The Self-Destructive Last Months Of The Zappos Visionary

 The race against time to save Pompeii

 The Timing of Evolutionary Transitions Suggests Intelligent Life Is Rare

I assume they are referring to squirrels 

 Do social media platforms have a moral responsibility to limit expression? 

 Question For ABC: Are You Reporting Good Morning America As An In-Kind Campaign Donation To Dems?

 THE REAL FASCIST THREAT WAS NEVER TRUMP – IT'S CORPORATE POWER

 'Science says' is a game anyone can play

 Receipt-filled thread about COVID found in Red Cross blood samples show virus was likely HERE in 2019

 Italians Told To Stay Home Over Christmas, Not Go Outside…

 San Diego Unified School District Forcing Teachers To Attend White Privilege Seminars Where They Are Forced To Acknowledge They Live On Stolen Land, Reject Whiteness…

Diversity and Social Justice Are Big Business in Education, and You’re Paying for it

California is shedding residents and businesses.

 James Comey to teach at Columbia University Law School

NYP:

 Democrats misbehaved for four years in trying to delegitimize Donald Trump’s 77,736-vote victory. Trump and many Republicans have been misbehaving for four weeks in trying to delegitimize Joe Biden’s 43,809-vote victory.

 Up to 280,000 Ballots ‘Disappeared’ Overnight Along with Trailer, USPS Whistleblower Alleges

 No, The Video From Georgia Doesn’t Show Voter Fraud

Trump Has Only Himself To Blame for Losing the Election. Trump could have reined in his Twitter attacks, surrounded himself with truth-tellers rather than sycophants, and reached out to other voters. He didn't. That's why he lost.

California Winter

It is winter in California, and outside
Is like the interior of a florist shop:
A chilled and moisture-laden crop
Of pink camellias lines the path; and what
Rare roses for a banquet or a bride,
So multitudinous that they seem a glut!

A line of snails crosses the golf-green lawn
From the rosebushes to the ivy bed;
An arsenic compound is distributed
For them. The gardener will rake up the shells
And leave in a corner of the patio
The little mound of empty shells, like skulls.

By noon the fog is burnt off by the sun
And the world's immensest sky opens a page
For the exercise of a future age;
Now jet planes draw straight lines, parabolas,
And x's, which the wind, before they're done,
Erases leisurely or pulls to fuzz.

It is winter in the valley of the vine.
The vineyards crucified on stakes suggest
War cemeteries, but the fruit is pressed,
The redwood vats are brimming in the shed,
And on the sidings stand tank cars of wine,
For which bright juice a billion grapes have bled.

And skiers from the snow line driving home
Descend through almond orchards, olive farms.
Fig tree and palm tree - everything that warms
The imagination of the wintertime.
If the walls were older one would think of Rome:
If the land were stonier one would think of Spain.

But this land grows the oldest living things,
Trees that were young when Pharoahs ruled the world,
Trees whose new leaves are only just unfurled.
Beautiful they are not; they oppress the heart
With gigantism and with immortal wings;
And yet one feels the sumptuousness of this dirt.

It is raining in California, a straight rain
Cleaning the heavy oranges on the bough,
Filling the gardens till the gardens flow,
Shining the olives, tiling the gleaming tile,
Waxing the dark camellia leaves more green,
Flooding the daylong valleys like the Nile.

For personal reasons. Bob was an old soul before he reached full adulthood. Politics cannot save any of us. We post on politics often because freedom matters. All the same, it often just feels like theater, or soap opera.

Here

I guess I am a natural American, because I never follow leaders. I expect them to follow me. Exception for military...

The name/word is on the tip of my tongue 

Ray Dalio on unstable societies 

 The late Professor Walter Williams was right about poverty

Los Angeles Locks Down — All Residents Forced To Remain Indoors – Walking Outside, Exercise Banned…

US Media Drove Fear of COVID-19

Who gets vaccines first? 

Me! 

 Mayors Fear Long-Lasting Effects Of COVID-19

U. N. Chief Guterres Demands World Reset To Forestall A Climate Apocalypse

 European Court May Soon Rule On Whether Climate Crisis (scam) Violates Children’s Human Rights

 TRUMP’S COMPLAINT

 "This Needs Answers": CCTV Video Of Georgia Poll Workers Sparks Election Fraud Outrage

The Dems Had No Choice But to Rig the Election. This time they were ready -- because there was too much at stake.

The Party That Failed - An Insider Breaks With Beijing

Record of ballerina with young dancers in 1972 found in Royal Academy of Dance archives

 Walter Williams, R.I.P.

 Female Academics Especially Fuel Charge To Turn Higher Ed Into Therapy

Georgetown Professor Likens Defunding The Police To Abolishing Slavery…

 8 Reasons Straight Men Don’t Want To Get Married

Why traditional masculine attributes still matter on the battlefield

CNN daily nightmare is unfolding courtesy of James O’Keefe and Project Veritas

 Biden Wants More Refugees, But It Could Take Years To Rebuild The Resettlement System

 Trump Tells Crowd “See You In 4 Years” If Biden Wins…

Talent shows early, doesn't it? The phrasing. Other things can show later, but not talent. Thanks, Gerard.

Zabar's.com

About 100 years ago, I loved to go into that store. 

1 lb. Dried Porcini

Things with truffles 

Fitify is an online conditioning program which can be as tough or as easy as you can handle.

It is a free app.   People use it at the gym, or at home. 

 Soccer-playing buffalo

 Smith College Alums Demand Whistleblower Jodi Shaw Undergo More White Privilege “Training” to “Safely Interact With Students”

That's sick 

 I’m a Professor from an Immigrant Family. Please Stop Telling Me That My University Is Racist

COVID "cases" are not positive tests 

 California's Newsom Warns Of "Dramatic, Arguably Drastic" New Restrictions To Come As Hospitalizations Hit Record Highs: Live Updates

A short history of Operation Warp Speed

 CNN: Hey, Guess What? China Wasn’t Honest About Its COVID-19 Response After All

 LA Supervisor Bans Outdoor Dining, Then Dines Outdoors

Black Fragility? A bestselling book offers a prescription for race relations that casts whites as sinners and blacks as children.

 Another book:  Amity Shlaes’ ‘Great Society:’ How Poverty Won America’s War on Poverty

 This election only reinforced the value of the Electoral College

 Joe Biden Plans To Destroy Charter Schools…

Norway Criminalizes Hate Speech Against Transgender People... In Private Homes Or Conversations

 Why Did The Berlin Airport Take 23 Years To Build?