Where's My Lantern?

Thank Hathor It's Friday!

"You have love, and music...why are you killing each other?"

Honestly...

Diogenes (1873) by Jules Bastien-Lepage

In one of life's more amusing ironies, the Greek philosopher known as Diogenes of Sinope is best remembered nowadays as the guy who supposedly carried a lantern around searching for one honest man.

Why is that ironic? Because that story is a lie (he was seeking a human, i.e., someone capable of using reasoning, but claimed he couldn't find any).


Nevertheless, Diogenes and his search remain a useful metaphor in the modern world, in no small part because there are so many liars and knaves among us.

For instance, there are the liars and knaves at The New Yorker magazine, who will be using the Eric Drooker painting "Shopping Days" (shown at right) as the cover art for their next issue

Never mind that the sort of mass shootings that have been on people's minds lately aren't carried out by young, married white couples. Never mind that it is simply false to suggest, as this image clearly does, that it is as easy to buy hand grenades and automatic weapons as it is to buy a carton of milk.

No, what really rankles is the asinine commentary on the painting by The New Yorker's art editor, Françoise Mouly: "If only Eric Drooker's image were a fiction."

I can't even wrap my head around that level of stupid...

National Cookie Day

Today is National Cookie Day, so it's okay to indulge a little bit. If you're looking for something simple, I like the  Nestle Toll House cookie dough products.

I bought some of their Pumpkin Spice dough on sale just before Thanksgiving, and I still have one package left, so today's as good a day as any to use it.








If I had the time and energy, though, I'd make something more like this:

White Chocolate Chunk Macadamia Nut Cookies, recipe here

"Fess up. You're going to spend all of Christmas Eve baking cookies to give away."

It is possible that I might, yes...we'll see...

Yup

From the wonderful webcomic xkcd, by Randall Munroe, which you should read every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, as I do.

Until Next Time...

Not all of my favorite Christmas songs are centuries-old traditional hymns and carols. Every so often something new and wonderful in this genre comes along, and when it does I am happy to embrace it. So it was with "Christmas Canon," a 1998 song by the remarkable group Trans-Siberian Orchestra.

Based on Johann Pachelbel's popular Canon in D Major, the song blends that familiar music with a very simple Christmas-themed lyric performed by a children's choir, supported by the band (including a string section). The song was included on the group's second album, The Christmas Attic, and is one of the most popular Christmas songs of the digital age based on number of purchased downloads. It deserves it's place alongside the more traditional fare.

Today's send-off is the splendidly-done official music video production of the song. Enjoy...