Some Miscellaneous Thoughts

First of all, loyal readers, Kris' cat Phoenix is aptly named. He is alive and well (more or less), still hiding in the rafters, but has come out several times long enough to eat and eliminate. Once the trauma of surgery is forgotten he should be okay.

Some time ago I told of a dream in which Conan O'Brien appeared to me singing "When Irish Eyes are Smiling." I called him Colin instead of his proper name. I apologize to Mr. O'Brien, to all his heirs and assigns, and to anyone else who cares. I have a "hold harmless" document here for him to sign at his convenience.

The Republicans have dusted off the old Laffer curve of supply side economics and are arguing that a lower tax rate will actually increase federal tax revenues. Logically, if that's the case, the best tax rate should be zero percent. That way, everyone could do whatever business seems best to them without any tax worries and the government would just be rolling in revenues. It's just silly, of course. George HW Bush was right to call it "voodoo economics" but that doesn't stop these people from trotting it out again to bamboozle the gullible and win votes.

Speaking of politics, Congress recently considered legislation putting the US on record in opposition to coerced marriages of adolescent girls. House Republicans blocked it, claiming it would cost something like twenty million dollars a year for enforcement (without saying why it would cost anything) and might encourage abortions (again without saying how or why). By my calculations, twenty million dollars a year works out to about seven cents per man woman and child in this country. I'm willing to spend that much, or much more, to keep children away from forced marriages.

One of my little Christmas rituals is to read the nativity stories in Matthew and Luke. They are different from one another. Matthew traces Jesus' heritage through forty-two generations all the way back to Abraham and tells the story of the Magi. Luke is more comprehensive, I think, telling us of Zachary and Elizabeth and the birth of John, then relating the familiar story of Caesar's taxation plans, the birth of Jesus in a stable, and the angels and shepherds.

The Magi, by the way, always were referred to as kings or wise men when I was a child. More recent translations of the story in Matthew call them the three astrologers, which kind of diminishes them, at least to me.

I like the stories, but, sad to tell, to me they are just stories.

My sister Patti claims there is a Christmas song this year called, "I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas." Can that possibly be right? Can the singer even imagine the care a hippo would need? Better dig a big pond in the backyard and have plenty of money for the truckloads of food it would eat and the waste to be removed. And the reindeer would all have hernias by Christmas morning after flying a hippo to someone's house. And don't even get me started about Santa trying to get the animal down a chimney to place under a tree. (The hippo would probably eat the tree by Christmas morning too.) I thought "Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer" was the lowest possible taste in Christmas novelty songs, but I suppose I was wrong.

Kris and I drove to Denver on Christmas day to celebrate with her mother. It was just the quiet sort of Christmas day we wanted after the emotional roller coaster of Christmas Eve. (I say quiet although my mother-in-law has a hearing loss and keeps her television and record player on very high sound levels.) But it was nice and we are now living on leftovers. So probably are all of you. A very merry Christmas to everyone, and keep Christmas with you, all through the year.