Dec 13, 2007

Thursday

I want to make it clear that in yesterday's post I was making fun of phony medical claims and not people claiming to be Quakers. I inadvertently left a "c" out of the work quackery in the title, making it appear that I was warning against off-brand Quakers. As far as I know there are no off-brand Quakers, just real Quakers. We here at the Sneed blog have great respect for the Quaker tradition in America and have enjoyed their fine oatmeal on many occasions. I apologize for any confusion this error may have caused. On the health front, I seem to be getting a lot better. I have some facial pain yet, but other than that I am feeling better. Thanks for all your kind words and thoughts. As predicted by my friend Kurt, my fabulous weight loss didn't hold and I am nearly back to my former weight. The Seafood King called to see if I was up to some golf, but I had to beg off. I went to the barbershop and got my haircut. I also shaved again for the second time in 25 years and I don't like the result. I look ridiculous without my beard, so I'm growing it back. Christmas is the season where my cynicism reaches it's peak. You may recall that I predicted that the post-Thanksgiving euphoria about Christmas sales would soon give way to hand-wringing over people keeping some of their money for eating and paying the light bill. Now there's this. I get that there are tons of poor kids who will not enjoy the magic of Christmas, but I get a little annoyed when our news outlets run stories about how we are just not making the grade this year, donation-wise. Especially when it seem blantantly manipulative. Every year without fail, about two weeks before Christmas we are urged to get out and give to poor kids who may miss Christmas. Then, just before Christmas we will be told that people stepped up just in time and things turned out okay. It's the same every year. Christmas is a big enough pain in my butt without a big old helping of guilt piled on. Tonight will be the first real freeze of our winter and tomorrow is expected to get even colder. I had to pile all my potted plants together under the pergola and cover them with plastic sheeting. We have had rain here all week, despite the long-range forecast for a dry winter. Our crack weather people are on the defensive and are reminding us that winter doesn't start for eight more days, so these storms are fall rain and not winter rain. Glad they cleared that up. Things in this blog represented to be fact, may or may not actually be true. The writer is frequently wrong, sometimes just full of it, but always judgmental and cranky

7 comments:

Elma said...

Hey! I thought you lived in a hot place!

Kurt said...

I love Christmas, and no weathermen or poor people are going to spoil my mood!

Bobby D. said...

If there is snow and extra special grub, I love Christmas. I have a nice stocking with my name on it-- I think that makes all the difference.

Bobby D. said...

You know something? I got the Quakers mixed up in my head with the Shakers. (nice furniture) But that was yesterday--today I woke up and had it sorted out.

I was visited by Jehovah's Witnesses yesterday. I gave them about 15 seconds of my time--but I was polite this time cuz I'm all in a Christmassy mood.

Steve Reed said...

If you buy cheap oatmeal instead of Quaker oats, well, THAT's off-brand Quakery. :)

I'm getting tons of charitable solicitations right about now, and the guilt is running high...which makes part of me want to resist it and not give anything at all. (sigh)

Anonymous said...

Did ya notice that some boxes of Quaker oatmeal have "made in Canada" on them? I don't know if all their products are made there, but imagine my shock....I thought this was an "all american" product!
Quaker Quackery for sure!!

Squirrel said...

I'm watching "It's a Wonderful Life" as I type this.

puttin me in the Xmas moood.