The funniest part is

I want one of these.

I'm still enamoured of unfitted kitchen design. I was looking at some fancy, expensive cabinet brochures the other day, and thought, "These kitchens are all ugly, boring and completely free of personality," which is a good thing, because I can't afford them anyway.  In the end (and I do mean The End, because I pretty much expect to die of old age by time my kitchen renovation is completed), I will have achieved something akin to "shabby chic." Perhaps "shabby eclectic" or "shabby rustic" or  "shabby scrap and salvage" or just "shabby." In which case I should probably just keep what I have right now and save a whole bunch of money.
.

Mark Steyn, Christian evangelist

Read it all. 

h/t Pundette

December Turned to May

What sweeter music can we bring
Than a carol, for to sing
The birth of this our heavenly King?
Awake the voice! Awake the string!
Dark and dull night, fly hence away,
And give the honor to this day,
That sees December turned to May.
Why does the chilling winter’s morn
Smile, like a field beset with corn?
Or smell like a meadow newly-shorn,
Thus, on the sudden? Come and see
The cause, why things thus fragrant be:
‘Tis He is born, whose quickening birth
Gives life and luster, public mirth,
To heaven, and the under-earth.
We see him come, and know him ours,
Who, with his sunshine and his showers,
Turns all the patient ground to flowers.
The darling of the world is come,
And fit it is, we find a room
To welcome him. The nobler part
Of all the house here, is the heart.
Which we will give him; and bequeath
This holly, and this ivy wreath,
To do him honour, who’s our King,
And Lord of all this revelling.
What sweeter music can we bring,
Than a carol for to sing
The birth of this our heavenly King?

Robert Herrick (1591-1674)

A most beautiful, merry and blessed Christmas to our readers!
.
 

More Christmas music

From the incomparable Jim Reeves.

.

Oxymoron of the day

Heh, we saw this sign on a recent family outing.

Speaking of quivering with excitement

Recognize anyone special in this trailer, Mrs. P.?
.

May contain more than a trace of Peanuts

 Mark Shea directs our attention to 10 Things You Probably Didn't Know About 'A Charlie Brown Christmas'.

Thank God Charles Schulz stuck to his guns (#1-3), that he followed his artistic sensibilities even when they conflicted with his personal taste (#4), and that he sought to glorify Christ in his art, as we all should in every work we do (#5). The rest, as they say, is history! (I'm also glad 'ACBC' is no longer a Coke commercial.)

We now enjoy "A Charlie Brown Christmas" on DVD, but every time I hear the opening chords of "Christmas Time is Here" I think of the excitement that ran through our house when those once-a-year broadcasts aired: "How the Grinch Stole Christmas", "A Christmas Carol", "The Sound of Music".  You always hoped the CTV station from Regina wouldn't be coming in too fuzzy when "The Sound of Music" started on Christmas Eve!

I've added to my list of favorites as I've grown older: "It's a Wonderful Life", "Meet Me in St. Louis". For me, this is still the best moment from them all:

Theo on the Agenda

I enjoyed this interview between two of my favourite Canadian journalist-guys, Steve Paikin and Theo Caldwell, as they discuss the U.S. presidential race.  Theo thinks it's a two-horse race at this point: Newt and Mod-hair Ken Romney, whereas I hope, along with Pundette, that Rick Perry still has a shot (but then everyone knows that Catholic mothers who wear pants all think alike). Anyway, Theo could talk for 22 minutes about stale cheese and I'd still listen with rapt attention. He is as insightful, eloquent, witty and dapper as ever. (Have I ever mentioned how stupid SUN News network is for cancelling his show?) Don't worry, Theo, I'm not planning to dye my hair red or start wearing a black spandex unitard any time soon.

It's the marshmallow on our figgy pudding.

Still quivering with excitement from our stay in the "Listener of the Day" slot, we Housewives now find ourselves tucked into SteynOnline's Countdown to Christmas. Woo-hoo!

A great read for anyone who has been wondering how Mark made the leap from wordsmith to warbler.
.

Demography is only half the equation

You also need Faith in God. Most other kinds of "Believing" just won't do. Feel sorry for Europe by all means, but be mindful that they consciously chose their fate.


From a fabulous-looking site: Mommy Life

The decision of one or more generations to not have children and walk away from their faith has ultimately affected the whole economy of a country. For this reason our compassion needs to be properly placed. Since this experience, I have chosen to focus compassion towards a society who has lost faith in God and who have only placed faith in themselves, causing a failure and collapse which extends to all of us financially and socially. I pray for an increase of faith in society. Only then will there be economic prosperity.

h/t Pundette
.

I'm having chicken for Christmas

More here
.

Glittering crowds and shimmering clouds

 This fall we took our first trip to New York City.  We had a great time even though about 50% of the souvenirs we bought were umbrellas.

Our hotel was in Secaucus, New Jersey. It was beautiful. It's not always easy to find a single room that holds five people, but the Hyatt Place has them.

(This is only half the space - there was also a sitting area with a pull-out couch.) Plus, the room bore the hallmark of luxury: the TV had more inches than years I've been alive.

Break out the eggnog!

Christmas comes but once a year - and so have our links from SteynOnline since we started blogging in 2009. I am very excited to be today's Listener of the Day.
.

And speaking of chocolate

Bernard Callebaut, Canada's world class chocolaterie.

Forget the diamond anniversary ring. I want this for Christmas. I had to resist the temptation to file this bookmark under "Faith and Devotions" and instead opted for "Shopping". I especially enjoy the interactive chocolate map.
.

It's Rummage Sale day at DOH

In honour of the Fourth Sunday of Advent, here is a column that was published in the December, 2009 issue of Catholic Insight. 

The Spirit of Christmas Present

I have an embarrassing admission to make: as a long-time devotee of 19th century English literature (and Dickens in particular), I have only just recently read “A Christmas Carol.” I can hear the incredulous gasp all the way from Ottawa, where my sister lives. (A decade ago, she gifted me with the book, and now I can tell her that I have finally got round to reading it.) I have no defence, other than to say that my procrastinator’s disposition knows no limits.

O, I almost forgot, but it's a good thing Mrs. Beazly didn't

Today is the first of the O Antiphons, O Wisdom. I see Mrs. B. has posted a video. Enjoy.
.

This year Mark Steyn has released a Christmas album AND accurately predicted the devastation of society as we know it.

Do you even have your Christmas shopping done yet?

You know, I still remember the moment I found out Ronald Reagan had had this whole other life as an actor before he became President of the United States. I can just see my kids having the same reaction years from now with Mark Steyn: "You mean he wrote books, too?!"

UPDATE:

Hello, SteynOnline readers! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Thanks for spreading some Christmas cheer our way, Mr. Steyn!
.

If you need to have this explained to you, you are not a nerd. Congratulations!

If you think it's really funny, you are classified as nerdoid.

If it makes you angry, then I'm afraid nerdifaction is complete and you should just go back to working on your Klingon costume once your spasms have subsided to the point where it's safe to use scissors.

Thank you,  Mark Shea.

 Mrs. P weighs in. The only way this joke could be more complete is if Leonard Nimoy was behind Patrick Stewart, making rabbit ears (with the Vulcan salute, of course).
 .

Jim Cuddy reminds me why I love him.

I was a little disappointed with Blue Rodeo's last album. Not so with Jim Cuddy's latest solo work.

Skyscraper Soul. Get it. Listen to it. Love it.




I also love Jim Cuddy because in the notes of every Blue Rodeo and solo album he tells his three children and wife of twenty-some years how much he loves them.

And because he reminds me of Woody the Cowboy.

 Separated at birth.

Am I right?








This week the Ottawa Citizen was running a contest in which Cuddy fans could win tickets to his February stop at the National Arts Center, as well as a library of all his CDs. One lucky contestant will also get to meet the man himself after the concert. Now,  I already have all his CDs and my tickets to the concert, but I still kinda wish I had entered. Jim Cuddy has written the soundtrack to my life, and I would have looked forward to the melancholy ballad he might have penned after meeting me: "Nervous Mumbling Idiot Girl from Ottawa":

Oooh, I was tired when I met her,
But I smiled and said hello,
She said somethin' that sounded like "Newtnk apptr ak lrrr,"
And that's when I knew it was time to go....

In other news, Blue Rodeo is about to be inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame.
.

Homeschooling mom moment of the day

Mom: Are you girls enjoying the Authors card game?
Misses Pinkerton: Yes!
Mom: Are you learning lots?
One of the younger Misses Pinkerton: Yes, I've pretty much memorized all the titles of the books by Jane Eyre!
.

Understanding Islam

In a bid to help explain why some Muslim clerics think bananas and cucumbers are evil.

Dr. Sanity:

The men of Islam are obsessed with sex beyond even the wildest imaginings of the Western male's mind. And the obsession is extremely bizarre and pathological.
[...]
Consider for a moment a culture that would prefer to let little girls die in a burning building than to risk having them run out of said building not clothed in properly modest dress; and tell me that such a society is less preoccupied with matters of sex than we are in the West.
Enormous effort goes into veiling women, dressing women modestly, silencing women, covering women's bodies, punishing women, controlling women, reviling women, humiliating women, beating women, subjugating women, avoiding the dishonor of women, keeping women uneducated, policing women, infantilizing women--in short, dehumanizing women -- all under the guise of "protecting" and "honoring" them as they relegate them to animal-like status.

h/t Deborah Gypong 

Snippet of Steyn

Oodles of humour (and insight) in just 25 words.

After 30 years of promoting "diversity" and "dissent" and the "courage" of "artists" who take "bold", "transgressive" "stands", everyone in Hollywood now thinks exactly alike.

h/t FFOF
.

Time for some Advent inspiration

This is a different tune than the one I'm used to, but it is very lovely. And of course you can't beat this sort of choir, not even with a haugenhaas arrangement.

If I had unlimited kitchen storage space

And unlimited funds, I would probably get me one of these:

A cathedral bundt pan. Who knew such a thing even existed? There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio...

Update: And this... omigosh, too cute! (You simply must have a medieval village surrounding the cathedral). Can't you just see these in a gingerbread colour, dusted with icing sugar?

.

Our Lady of Guadalupe,

Pray for us.

Can't...blog...

Too busy playing with new toys. Yes, I know, it's not Christmas yet, but I'm apparently going to cook a turkey for the big family gathering this year, so I want to try this thing out before the fact. (Very unlike me, I know.) Today, we're making the Mother of All Chili recipes.

And the best part (besides getting a better price than this, which I did) is, I didn't have to order it online or drive 200 miles to buy it. Picked it up at my local Co-op grocery/hardware store after Mass today. It feels good to shop locally (even though the dang thing was probably made in China...)

.

New MacBook update

It's proving to be really handy! It's great for distracting the kids while I get my writing and correspondence done on the Acer. They could play with that amazing Trackpad all day. And they'd have to, wouldn't they, because it didn't come with any games! (What can you possibly say about a computer that doesn't have FreeCell?)

Oy vay! What can you say about a company that doesn't know when to use adverbs?
.

One of the great things about having a blog hardly anyone reads

Is that you can re-post things and nobody minds. Such as the lovely photos of the Delicious Things of Christmas Past. (We haven't done any baking yet this year, but as soon as we do, I'll put up some snaps).

Tealight holder on right not baked by me. 

Oops! How did this get in here?

.

Not really happy posting for a Sunday in Advent

Will it impress anyone if I say that I was just as skeptical as The Steyn about the so-called Arab Spring? Probably not. Wish we'd both been wrong.

 In the so-called "Facebook Revolution," two-thirds of the Arab world's largest nation is voting for the hard, cruel, bigoted, misogynistic song of Shariah.
The short 90-year history of independent Egypt is that it got worse. Mubarak's Egypt was worse than King Farouk's Egypt, and what follows from last week's vote will be worse still. If you're a Westernized urban woman, a Coptic Christian or an Israeli diplomat with the goons pounding the doors of your embassy, you already know that. 

Jim Reeves

Because I just feel like listening to his mellow, mellow voice.


Advent inspiration can come from anywhere.
.

Happy Advent

I'm only four days late with this wish, but may you have a peaceful, fruitful Advent season.

...more peaceful and fruitful than mine has been so far. I'm embarrassed to say that we've been so busy running around doing relatively useless things, I have not even had time to set up my own Advent wreath. Peace on earth? I would like fifteen minutes of it on my own schedule...

Here, courtesy of EWTN, is a link to some daily Advent devotions.
. 

For your cartoon viewing pleasure

Here's another Disney flick you'll never see in a rerun on TV.


Très cool side note: by a stroke of good luck, our family inadvertently acquired the original sheet music for this song (hoarding isn't always bad). And no, it's not for sale. Yet.
.

Worst photoshop job of all time

This photo was actually posted on the SUN website. Yes, on a news website. You know, where journalists work. Making news.  (It has now mysteriously disappeared, however, not unlike some of their former excellent program hosts).  My buddy Theo Caldwell says he can remember when this snap was taken. Cuz he was in it. Try to guess where he was standing. No, really, try. You'll never guess.

For the love of all that's truthful and classy, can't you guys at SUN even try? Oy vay.

This kind of reminds me of a recent family photo:

I am, of course, on the far left (no wonder my girls are so beautiful!)
.

My new MacBook

and I are getting on splendidly this week--- perhaps because it's been shut down since last Thursday and is now gathering dust in my bedroom.
.

Happy birthday Mr. Beazly

So much for the box of homemade candy I was planning to mail you a week ago... (Trying to remember what the road to hell is paved with...) In honour of your birthday, a Savage Chickens cartoon:

Happy Thanksgiving

To all our lovely American readers! Sure, there's always way too much negative crappy stuff going on in the world, but there is also much to be thankful for, and maybe we need to focus on that a little more often. God is good.
.

And scientists actually wonder sometimes

why people laugh at them. From our killer headlines file:
Scientists find huge caribou herd thought lost in Canada

How in blazes do you lose, actually lose an entire herd of caribou--even in Canada? Gary Larson, where are you when we need you?
.

I note with disappointment

That in the new Macbook user's manual, under Chapter 4 ("Problem, Meet Solution"), subheading "Problems That Prevent You from Using Your Macbook Pro", there is no category for "Basic Stupidity."

PS, all you Gnostics (Apple fans): so far, I hate this thing. (This after hearing, from TOOOO many people, "You'll LOVE it.") Only time will tell.
.

"Then there was the tired old liberal in a sweater..."

The one, the only, Standford Nutting. And the nut behind him, Kevin O'Brien. Interesting interview. 

"We have two choices in dealing with the Standord Nuttings of the world: to laugh at them or to kill them. It’s more effective to laugh at them."

.

The only time I like these words

"Winter Conditions Exist, Icy or Slippery Sections, Swirling Snow, Drifting Snow"

...is when they are followed by "Travel not recommended." Winter has truly arrived in my part of the world.

(Not an actual picture of my street, but it could be.) 

Steyn would have something to say about this

80 is the new 65 when it comes to retirement, survey says.

On the issue of Social Security there was an age divide. Those in their 60s expect Social Security to provide 46 percent of their retirement funding. But more than a quarter of Americans in their 20s and 30s expect no income at all from Social Security during their retirement.

Duh! There's a reason for this. Read After America. 

I recently read an article in the Cdn Reader's Digest called "60 is the new 20". It was written by a retiring civil servant, who was looking forward to a long, fun retirement, after having a cushy, easy, and pointless government job all his life. It was supposed to be funny, but after reading Steyn, the piece made my blood boil. Just who does that retiree think is paying for his well-padded retirement?
.

Stupid and stupider

Because Dumb and Dumber just won't cut it this time. Which is more asinine, the secular world in general, or Benetton in particular?

"Benetton had said its "Unhate" campaign was aimed at fostering tolerance. It featured photo montages of purported enemies kissing."

Where to begin? The pope doesn't hate anyone, whereas Benetton's "unhate" campaign is openly hateful of the Catholic Church and the Holy Father. Tolerance, anyone?


Blessed are ye when they shall revile you, and persecute you, and speak all that is evil against you, untruly, for my sake: Be glad and rejoice, for your reward is very great in heaven.
.

Just in case my daughters ever visit the blog

THIS is what I want when my current mixer (lovingly dubbed "The Kitchen Chump 2000" by Mrs. Beazly) goes to its eternal reward--or for a certain milestone birthday, whichever comes first.

Isn't it just the loveliest, most shiniest piece of kitchen art you've ever seen?

Oh, and I also want the pasta attachment. MMmmmmmm.... fresh, soft, whole wheat pasta...
.

Lysol is a blessing from the Lord

I'm not sure why, but that's the first thing that popped into my head upon reading these words:

By 4:30 a.m., the park was empty, wiped clean of any traces of the camp that had been there since Sept. 17.

It's about time. Some of their grievances were/are legit, but crapping, fornicating, and shooting up in public is not. There have to be better ways to change the world.


Irony nugget: "A state court judge held a hearing Tuesday afternoon on the legality of the eviction."
Excuse me? Zuccotti park is PRIVATELY OWNED. As for "legality", what the hell has been going on there daily for the past two months?
. 

"I don’t now I thinke gust do what you want."

One of the many comments from public school kids replying to the query: "Would you like to be home-schooled?" It's an NY Times piece, further discussed by Pundette. Amusing, yet profoundly sad.

i think that homeschooling is ok but public schools are better because its almost like life you are going to have to deal with people that you dont like in life and school shows this at times.i dont think this could preper us for the real world because your not comunicatingi with people as much as you would at school.for most people it is a good learning activity

Every so often

You have one of those "I'm glad I'm homeschooling" moments. It makes all the other more, ahem--challenging-- times worthwhile. The other day the Misses Pinkerton were playing Scattergories. The letter was "H" and one of the categories was "authors". My 9-year-old wrote down Hilaire Belloc. It warms the cockles of a mum's heart.
.

Margaret Wente explains

the Occupy movement. (Just to give our readers a break from the Steyn--though who could ever need one?)

These people make up the Occupier generation. They aspire to join the virtueocracy – the class of people who expect to find self-fulfillment (and a comfortable living) in non-profit or government work, by saving the planet, rescuing the poor and regulating the rest of us. They are what the social critic Christopher Lasch called the “new class” of "therapeutic cops in the new bureaucracy." 

The trouble is, this social model no longer works. As blogger Kenneth Anderson writes, “The machine by which universities train young people to become minor regulators and then delivered them into white-collar positions on the basis of credentials in history, political science, literature, ethnic and women’s studies – with or without the benefit of law school – has broken down. The supply is uninterrupted, but the demand has dried up.” 

It’s not the greedy Wall Street bankers who destroyed these people’s hopes. It’s the virtueocracy itself. It’s the people who constructed a benefit-heavy entitlement system whose costs can no longer be sustained. It’s the politicians and union leaders who made reckless pension promises that are now bankrupting cities and states. It’s the socially progressive policy-makers in the U.S. who declared that everyone, even those with no visible means of support, should be able to own a home with no money down, courtesy of their government. In Canada, it’s the social progressives who assure us we can keep on consuming all the health care we want, even as the costs squeeze out other public goods.

Do read the whole thing. Mamas, don't let your babies grow up to be social workers or government bureaucrats. Think doctor, dentist, plumber, electrician, bricklayer instead. 

h/t SDA

Requesting prayers

for a very dear friend who has been diagnosed with ovarian cancer.
.

From our Killer Headlines file

Fake exorcist arrested for molesting trusting women

The sub-title is almost as good: "Confesses to 'inappropriate' touching in court but blames his actions on the devil"

Saudi Arabia’s religious police arrested an Egyptian man claiming to have exorcism and spiritual healing powers for molesting many women by telling them he can rid their bodies of the devil through their sexual organs.In court, he blamed the devil for his acts.

Instead of jail time, he'll probably receive some kind of government award, and get his own talk show. The mainstream media won't carry this story, cuz the perpetrator is not a Catholic priest. 

.

A picture is worth 99% of words

 Hey, buddy. Neither are you.

*

Invasion of the cranky vegans

Coming to a university near you. h/t Steynian gold, in one little teaser:


"Ryerson U, a Human Rights Tribunal and a 37-year-old student make this one a nominee for Story of the Year"


The actual story (National Post) is about a vegan student who feels discriminated against because her college faculty (Social Work) won't let her to do her PhD on (wait for it) animals. 

Sinem Ketenci, 37, who immigrated from Turkey as a young woman and studied at Lakehead University in Thunder Bay before doing a master’s at Ryerson, alleges a senior professor disagreed with her comparison of maltreated animals with marginalized people, said the connection was “very inhuman and racist,” and pressured Ms. Ketenci’s untenured supervisor into withdrawing his recommendation of her PhD candidacy at other schools, which she called an academic “kiss of death.”

Which, as we know, is the exact same thing as being swallowed by a python, or having your throat ripped out by a pack of hyenas. She may have a case. Solid proof that she is PhD material:


1) Whiny and pathetic, not afraid to play the race card, which is entirely immaterial in this case:
“If I were white, born here, this case would not have happened,” she said.


(Oh please! Would you have been able to achieve a university degree if you'd stayed in Turkey?)


2) Has elevated obfuscation to an art:

“I believe that the faculty’s reaction has its basis in the strict religious belief of ‘men’s domination over animals’ that racialized people’s suffering should not be spoken about in the same context of animal suffering and that sympathy for animal suffering is not as important as sympathy for racialized peoples’ suffering,” her complaint reads. “It is as if one must choose and cannot believe in both.”

3) No sense of logic or ethical consistency:

a) The woman says she has been a vegan for three years, and a vegetarian for seven before that, so her commitment is a decade long and serious, but she admits to a certain ethical looseness.Asked whether her sneakers have leather detailing, for example, she shrugs it off with a maybe, as if it is the exception that proves the rule.“Animals shouldn’t be treated like animals either,” she quips. “Increasing animals’ value, I am not decreasing the value of humans.”

b) (On being accused of racism): “How am I being racist if ‘race’ is a part of my identity?”


Umm, we ALL have 'race' as part of our identity. Unless white is not a 'race'. Does that mean only whites can be racist? Or that no one can be racist. Or that we're ALL racist? 


All in all, it seems to have left her scarred for life: 

In an interview Monday, Ms. Ketenci said the fallout has extended to her personal life, costing her friends among fellow students, and left her “traumatized.”

 Wow, that's tough, but it's not as bad as being killed and eaten by a predator, which would have happened if she'd been an animal in the wild. 


She is asking for $15,000 compensation. Try getting that from a tribunal of goats or rabbits. Maybe humans and animals aren't equivalent after all. 

What kills me (as always) is that my tax dollars are, in one way or another, supporting this nearly-middle-aged college student's  existence, lifestyle, grievances and "education."

I'm sure she will triumph in the end: 

When her qualitative research project about animal rights activism in social work was denied this year, leading ultimately to this complaint, Ms. Ketenci’s response was to suggest a new one about the “marginalization and systemic discrimination of animal rights activists.”

Gotcha, Ryerson.

.

I thought I was the only one

...who thought the villain from Monsters vs. Aliens, Gallaxhar, looked like a certain POTUS.

But it turns out I'm far from alone. My 9-year-old, on seeing the photos, chimes in: "And they're the same too! Except that Obama wants to destroy America, instead of the whole world." Kids say the darndest things.
.

It's Election Day in Saskatchewan!

Go vote!
.

Steyn sums up Oakland

More specifically, the "Occupy" riots of last week: 

I don’t “stand with the 99%,” and certainly not downwind of them. But I’m all for their “occupation” continuing on its merry way. It usefully clarifies the stakes. At first glance, an alliance of anarchists and government might appear to be somewhat paradoxical. But the formal convergence in Oakland makes explicit the movement’s aims: They’re anarchists for statism, wild free-spirited youth demanding more and more total government control of every aspect of life — just so long as it respects the fundamental human right to sloth. What’s happening in Oakland is a logical exercise in class solidarity: The government class enthusiastically backing the breakdown of civil order is making common cause with the leisured varsity class, the thuggish union class, and the criminal class in order to stick it to what’s left of the beleaguered productive class. It’s a grand alliance of all those societal interests that wish to enjoy in perpetuity a lifestyle they are not willing to earn. Only the criminal class is reasonably upfront about this. The rest — the lifetime legislators, the unions defending lavish and unsustainable benefits, the “scholars” whiling away a somnolent half decade at Complacency U — are obliged to dress it up a little with some hooey about “social justice” and whatnot.

At least someone is still blogging

Even if it's depressingly, well, depressing... The one, the only, Pundette.


But when the parents themselves have never fully embraced adulthood, the goal of bringing a child to independent maturity (the real point of child-rearing, by the way) becomes a difficult trick to pull off.
.

More sounds of silence

Life with only one computer in the family is taking its toll. Our main PC died two weeks ago and everyone is competing for time on my crummy laptop. Needless to say, I'm at the bottom of the priority list. High school students doing online classes, and hubby doing financial stuff have bumped me somewhat lower on the must-use-computer ladder. I'm biting the bullet and ordering a new laptop this week.
.

It is a noise which to cleave the head

One of the many reasons DOH kind of worships the ground upon which Mark Shea treads... 


He introduced us to this, "English as She is Spoke", an 1855 Portuguese-English phrasebook composed by one Pedro Carolino, who did not, of English, one word speak. 


The following gems come from the page titled "Familiar Phrases".


I am catched cold.
I not make what to coughand spit.
(which explains how I've felt for the last two weeks)

Do not might one's understand to speak.
You mistake you self heavily.
(which perhaps describes DOH on any given day)



This one is eerily prescient of modern education: 
Apply you at the study during that you are young.




And oh, there's so much more. Enjoy. And thanks, Shea! Now I'll have even less time to get my housework done. 


Take that boy and whip him to much!
.

Rousing

Happy All Saints' Day!



I had to post this version, because I couldn't find my favourite one on YouTube (new lyrics by Carey Landry and Buddy Caesar, co-arranged by David Haas and Marty Haugen, and accompanied by kazoo, pan flute and bongo drum).
Language Warning on the Brit version: Militant, Sexist/Patriarchal, Christocentric
.

Corporations rule the world

We may not like it, but it's true, and not likely to change any time soon. Boycott campaigns don't tend to work, cuz, like pretty much all the products you buy in any given category (soap, jeans, hot chocolate powder, alternative music) are ultimately manufactured by the same corporation anyway. As the cow said in Babe, "The way things are is the way things are." And the only way you can avoid it is to quit shopping. Entirely. Forever. And get some land and raise your own potatoes and chickens, and never leave.

I'm tired of celebs, politicians (even the POTUS!), and now (incredibly) corporate-owned CEOs droning on in support of the OWS protestors. Steyn:

 Indeed, the default political position of your average CEO — "socially liberal, fiscally conservative" — was pioneered by a generation of Brit rockers raising awareness for fashionable causes while sheltering their royalties beyond the reach of Her Majesty's Treasury.
So today we have maverick corporations expressing solidarity with the oppressed . . . well, I was going to say "workers" but that doesn't seem quite the word for "Occupy Wall Street," does it? Non-workers of the world unite, you have nothing to lose but your six-figure college debt!

 [...]

 Rockers pretend to be revolutionaries, then tenured professors do, and then CEOs of multinational subsidiaries for whom solidarity with deadbeats they'd never dream of hiring offers an electric tingle that the Rotary Club lunch can't match.

Check your hypocrisy at the door, Ben and Jerry. 


Corporations rule the world. Getting all upset about it won't really help. Demanding that the gubmint "do something" about it won't help, because, practically speaking, the gubmint is wholly owned and operated by corporations. And lastly, defecating on Wall Street won't help. Go home, people. Do something useful. 
.

Happy All Saints' Eve

Would you let your daughter dress up like a witch  feminist? Pundette.

And it's not even Halloween yet

Adults (who don't need them) wearing diapers? Incompetent fools dressing up like the President? The Steyn (and no, he's not one of the fools. How I wish he would run for prez...)

"At a million-dollar San Francisco fundraiser today, President Obama warned his recession-battered supporters that if he loses the 2012 election it could herald a new, painful era of self-reliance in America." 

Oh, no! The horror! 

"Self-reliance" is now a pejorative? Nice to have that clarified.

[...] 

Is it too late for a Self-Reliance Awareness Day? No, there's no ribbons. Make your own damn ribbon. If that's too much to hope for, how about a Multi-Trillion-Dollar Debt Awareness Day? The ribbon starts out black but turns deeper and deeper red. How about a We've Spent All The Money Including The Money For An Awareness-Raising Ribbon Day? An Impending Societal Collapse Awareness Day? 

Yes, yes. I'm aware the cost of diapers adds up over a month, and you can't use your food stamps to pay for them. Tough. This country's broke. As I said last week, it has to pay back $15 trillion just to get back to having nothing at all. And that's more money than anyone ever has had to pay back. Were you aware of that? Distressingly large numbers of Americans still pining for ever more swaddling in the government cradle seem entirely unaware.

h/t Pundette 
.

Just sayin

The Steyn, on that "driving lesson" gone wrong:

It's hard to see what Canada has to gain from admitting significant numbers of people from the culture that spawned the Shafias. Perhaps in time one could make functioning western citizens of them, but it would be a slow process and, even if we had the stomach for it, would be unlikely to justify itself in cost-benefit terms. So instead they come and settle into a culture that asks nothing of them. And slowly but remorselessly we adapt to them: Police departments learn to tiptoe round touchy subjects like "honour killing"; hospitals evolve from "FGM" (the pejorative "female genital mutilation") to "FGC" (the less judgmental "female genital cutting"); and a courthouse in Ontario discreetly reorders its day in order not to inconvenience the translators that "Canadian citizens" now require:On Fridays, the judge told the jurors, the lunch schedule will be shifted so the interpreters, all male, can get to mosque for prayers.The multicultural experiment is not worth it. By the time those who foisted it on the post-war west acknowledge that, it will be too late.

Feminism, Feminism, wherefore art thou, Feminism?

.

I think I need this mug

Because it just feels right. 

More Savage Chicken gear here.
.

Pro-abortion teachers' unions

And other incongruous delights. Mark Steyn points out some facts that Joe Biden sorta forgot to mention when he visited the fourth grade class in PA...

Since 1970, public school employment has increased 10 times faster than public school enrollment.



Five years ago (the most recent breakdown I have), the [York City] district had 440 teachers but 295 administrative and support staff. If you're thinking that sounds a little out of whack, that just shows what a dummy you are: For every three teachers we "put back in the classroom," we need to hire two bureaucrats to put back in the bureaucracy to fill in the paperwork to access the federal funds to put teachers back in the classroom. One day it will be three educrats for every two teachers, and the system will operate even more effectively.


As in so many other areas of American life, the problem is not the lack of money but the fact that so much of the money is utterly wasted.
.

Steyn on modern education

"the great advantage of mass moronization is that it leaves you too dumb to figure out who to be mad at."


via Pundette
.

Why oh why

When kids say their tummy hurts, but they are hungry (and stomach flu is going around), and you tell them that they should have a piece of toast and some clear juice, but NOT to have a baloney sandwich... they have a baloney sandwich. And some cheese.

Do you know how much fun it is to hand-pick tiny pieces of baloney and cheese from carpet with a fairly deep pile? Well, it's not. I think I want a Shop-Vac for Christmas.
.

The exquisitely brainy

...and always entertaining Pundette:

I hope the kids were as tuned-out to Biden's unctuous pitch as they appeared, because the odds are slim that dear teacher (who has trained them well in the art of the drone, if the beginning of the video is any indication) will explain, after the sage giver-of-gifts has zoomed away in his thirty-car motorcade, why the York school district has no money, or why soaking -- er, asking -- the rich to throw more dollars at them will never, ever, ever make their schools better.

[...]

Our bureaucrat-heavy schools are collapsing under their own weight and the kids are the ones getting crushed.

Seeing these poor kids sitting passively in their government classroom learning to mindlessly swallow the wonders of entitlement and class envy is positively nauseating. 
[...]


So most of the kids are poor readers and can't do much math. This is how liberalism perpetuates itself.
.

Sorry for the silence

That's the nature of family life. Er, not silence, but the lack of blog posts. Health issues, the very least of which was a visitation to our home of stomach flu and head colds. We sally on. In the meantime, do something useful.

Mom enjoying a picnic with Dad & the kids, Summer 2011

A funny, smart blog

Maybe because we seem to have so much in common. Some snippets and samples:

 Dog barf and light beige carpet is a marriage made to last forever.


As a housewife, I am probably supposed to be fairly adept at housekeeping.  You might be a little surprised to learn, however, that I actually stink at it.


Left to their own devices, though, teens have about the same impact on housekeeping as toddlers.  They are always and everywhere eating.  They have way too much stuff to keep track of; and they will take and lose your car keys.


Sound the trumpets!  Cue the ticker-tape parade!  It’s the 100th post here at the Uncommonhousewife Blog!  It took a little over a year to get here, which I’m feeling pretty good about.  Readership, on the other hand, could use some work.  


Yes, Uncommon housewife, we feel your pain.
.