If asked about your New Year’s Resolutions for 2010, the best response is “I am far from perfect, but self-criticism sessions went out with Chairman Mao. So Happy New Year, and let’s have another drink.”
If friends and family insist you make resolutions, perhaps at gunpoint, you may benefit from this list of the Top 10 Best New Year’s Resolutions Ever:
If you are flying home after the holidays, please be aware that more stringent airport security measures are now in effect.
Details here, here, here, and here.
UPDATE: “Underpants of Mass Destruction.”
Hat tip: Erika Niedowski, Washington City Paper.
Image by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com
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If starting or reviving a blog is one of your New Year’s resolutions and you live in the DC area, come to the Cleveland Park Library at 2:30PM on Saturday, January 9, 2010 for “Blogging 101.”
The free two-hour Introduction to Blogging Workshop, a presentation of the DC Bloggers Meetup, will be led by Web veteran Christopher “Kier” Conroy. The session will explore types of blogs, a review of blog platforms, professional blogging, and Q & A. Kier has prepared some worksheets and handouts, too.
Space is limited; RSVP here (requires free Meetup registration).
Cleveland Park Library
3310 Connecticut Ave NW
Washington DC 20008
(Near the Cleveland Park Metro station, on the Red Line)
Image (“Two Bloggers, after Norman Rockwell”) by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com
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After a humiliating loss against the arch-rival Dallas Cowboys in their last home game, penultimate contest of a disastrous 2009 season, Washington’s NFL team might want to rethink a change of name.
The U.S. Supreme Court refused to consider the right of Pro Football, Inc. to use an ethnic slur as the trademark of the NFL team in the Nation’s Capital. This was no endorsement of the name; the decision was based on a technicality. If shame can’t convince Dan Snyder and company into abandoning the trademarked racial slurs and stereotypes, if the front office discounts the bad karma the name has brought, perhaps this abysmal season — and decade — may encourage them to re-brand the team with a new name and start over.
Come to think of it, given their 4-11 record, DC players and coaches might benefit from similar re-branding after next week’s game. We suggest entering the Federal Witness Protection Program.
Preview the new team uniform here.
Image by Mike Licht. Download a copy here (team uniform here). Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com
Comments are welcome if they are on-topic, substantive, concise, and not obscene. Comments may be edited for clarity and length.
Bob Dylan performs a spirited version of Hal Moore and Bill Fredricks’ “Must Be Santa” on his Christmas album. The tune was also recorded by Mitch Miller in 1961 and Lorne Greene (with a kiddie choir) in 1966. The hilarious British attempt by Tommy Steele, OBE is more Music Hall than polka.
Brave Combo’s spirited ”Dyno” (“push”) version of the tune may have been Dylan’s inspiration.
Royalties from Bob’s Christmas in the Heart recording will be donated to charity in perpetuity.
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Santa has returned to the Polar Fulfillment Center. If you think you have received a coal delivery in error, please call Customer Support between 0800 and 1700 hrs IST (Mumbai time).
Image (“Santa’s Spreadsheet, after Haddon Sundblom”) by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com
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The Bowen Beer Bottle Band, under the direction of Matt Bowen.
We suggest Bach as an encore (a Donald Allured transcription).
Happy holidays.
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There must be mistletoe hanging in the Capitol dome. The U.S. Senate gave insurance companies a big, juicy Christmas Eve kiss by passing the Health Insurance Enrichment Act by a vote of 60 to 39.
The Republican public reaction: “Bah humbug.” Privately, the GOP and healthcare industry lobbyists probably slapped Joe Lieberman (“The Grinch Who Stole Health Reform“) on the back, thanked him for his hypocrisy in eviscerating the bill, and wished Senator Joe and the entire Lieberman family a prosperous and happy Hanukkah.
President Obama fled DC ahead of an impending ice storm and the wrath of Public Option proponents.
And to all, a good night.
More here.
Image by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com
Comments are welcome if they are on-topic, substantive, concise, and not obscene. Comments may be edited for clarity and length.
Blogs with Bite is an occasional omnivorous sampling of food blogs and sites we find particularly tasty. Follow the trail of bread crumbs back to earlier editions, starting here.
Here’s a fresh holiday serving of Blogs with Bite:
Society for the Protection & Preservation of the Fruitcake – Founded ca. 1999 by Mary Beth Frezon. Recipes, history, philosophy, links. That green stuff in the cake? Candied citron peel. Robert Sietsema’s “Short History of Fruitcake” is still tasty; Linda Stradley’s version is short and sweet. Apollo 11 brought fruitcake into space in 1969; it was an odd pineapple variety but, typically, some astronauts refused to eat it. Fans of the dense pastry should blast off to Mondo Fruitcake. What makes fruitcake so durable? Sugar and alcohol (see Cynthia Bertelsen’s post on fermentation). The Caribbean, source of sugar and rum, has its own especially dense Black Fruitcake. Is baking too much trouble? Try an inflatable fruitcake.
Cookie Cutter Museum – Knightstown, Indiana. There are also cookie cutter museums in Poland, NY and Joplin, MO, and a national Cookie Cutter Collector’s Club. Cookie boards (wooden molds, like the ones used for Spekulatius and Springerle) preceded tin cookie cutters. Alice Ross has a nice history of shaped Christmas gingerbread.
Snow Cream – Got snow? Make snow cream.
Latkes vs. Sufganiyot – Hanukkah smackdown! A deep doctrinal rift divides the world Jewish community this time of year. Which fried treats should be served during the Festival of Lights, savory potato latkes (pancakes) or sweet sufganiyot (jelly donuts)? Sufganiyot (singular, sufganiyah) are favored in Israel (emphatically so), latkes in Europe and the USA. Some celebrants try to avoid this conflict by serving fritters.
Christmas Pickle – Heard about the traditional German Christmas ornament shaped like a pickled cucumber, and the “Hide the Pickle” game? It’s a hoax or urban legend. Really. Honest.
If your workplace compels you to participate in the pernicious practice known as “Secret Santa,” there’s only one thing to do. Sabotage. Give awful and inappropriate gifts. They are given anonymously, so why not give the gift that shows how much you care?
