Happy birthday, Frank Zappa.
And a happy solstice to everyone else. The days get longer from here. Especially the ones following Inauguration Day.
Thus, “Whippin’ Post.”
He is risen
Happy birthday, Frank Zappa.
And a happy solstice to everyone else. The days get longer from here. Especially the ones following Inauguration Day.
Thus, “Whippin’ Post.”
Mad Blog Media 
Must be cool to be born on the Winter Solstice. Its my favorite day of the year, given that I am a dark side kind of person.
“There’s a dark side to each and every human soul. We wish we were Obi-Wan Kenobi, and for the most part we are, but there’s a little Darth Vader in all of us. Thing is, this ain’t no either-or proposition. We’re talking about dialectics, the good and the bad merging into us. You can run but you can’t hide. My experience? Face the darkness. Stare it down. Own it. As brother Nietzsche said, being human is a complicated gig. So give that ol’ dark night of the soul a hug. Howl the eternal yes!”
Chris Stevens, Northern Exposure
Happy birthday Frank. You could really play that Strat. Tomorrow things start getting brighter. Spitting rain down here right now. Guess Brown Canyon Ranch ride will wait for another day. Mountain Heart did a really good cover of Whipping Post.
Things might not get brighter till January 21, 2021.
Then we need more light.
Goethe’s final words: “More light.” Ever since we crawled out of that primordial slime, that’s been our unifying cry: “More light.” Sunlight. Torchlight. Candlight. Neon. Incandescent. Lights that banish the darkness from our caves, to illuminate our roads, the insides of our refrigerators. Big floods for the night games at Soldier’s Field. Little tiny flashlights for those books we read under the covers when we’re supposed to be asleep. Light is more than watts and footcandles. Light is metaphor. “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet.” “Rage, rage against the dying of the light.” “Lead, Kindly Light, amid the encircling gloom — Lead Thou me on! The night is dark, and I am far from home — Lead Thou me on!” “Arise, shine, for thy light has come.”
Light is knowledge. Light is life. Light is light.
More holiday cheer:
https://www.farnamstreetblog.com/2014/12/history-of-christmas/?utm_campaign=12.21+Last+Chance+for+Guaranteed+Shipping+-+%2420+ship+%28znCWSQ%29&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Official+-+The+Newsletter+%28US+-+Mountain%29+
Winter solstice marks the “shortest” day of the year, in terms of sunlight. But for anyone who cares about such statistics or observations, the “fastest” day of the year is about two weeks later, around January 3rd, when Earth goes through the perihelion and is hence orbiting the sun at its maximum velocity (conservation of angular momentum and all that).
So, if it feels as if you’re just trying to hang on during the hectic holiday season, it’s not just in your head — it’s astronomical geospatial relations. The days are short and fast, and we’re all spinning in a slightly different direction while simultaneously hurling through space at around 60,000 mph. Makes for one crazy holiday season. But also one sweet ride. Perspective, yeah?
Also the earliest sunset was about about two weeks earlier on Dec 4th, which is a day I always look forward to getting past. Hurrah for later sunsets!
“Growing up in a place that has winter, you learn to avoid self-pity. Winter is not a personal experience, everybody else is just as cold as you, so you shouldn’t complain about it too much. You learn this as a kid, coming home crying from the cold, and Mother looks down and says, ‘It’s only a little frostbite. You’re okay.’ And thus you learn to be okay. What’s done is done. Get over it. Drink your coffee. It’s not the best you’ll ever get but it’s good enough.”
Garrison Keillor
Hard to go wrong with Chris In the Morning and Garrison Keillor.
always liked his Bobby Brown more than the other one…
“Being and non-being create each other.
Difficult and easy support each other.
Long and short define each other.
High and low depend on each other.
Before and after follow each other.”
Tao te Ching, interpretation by Stephen Mitchell
Light will always follow dark, in spite of the miscreants getting ready to inhabit the people’s house. As far as they go, I think this part of the Mr. Mitchell’s Tao applies.
“If you want to get rid of something, you must first allow it to expand.”
Oops. Change expand to flourish.
Did I mention that it’s a sunny 21 commie Celsiuses down here? (that’s 70 of your ‘Merican Fahrenheits).
& it’s sunny
To say that Lance’s visit here has not gone down well in many quarters is an understatement.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=11771247
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=11771030
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/hawkes-bay-today/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=1503460&objectid=11771176
Hurben, sorry this one took a while to make the page. Any comment with more than three links in it gets rerouted to the Twilight Zone unless I or Rod Serling intercede.