Drachenadler wrote:

Hiiiiiiiiidddddeeeeeey Hoooooooooooooo!

Drachenadler wrote:

Baptists believe it is in April as well.

dionysius wrote:

It's all in how you explain it. For example, you turned 1 at the end of your first year and 45 on your last birthday; you are now in your 46th year, which will end on your 46th birthday. Likewise, the end of the year 2000 was the end of 2000 years, making the beginning of 2001 the dawn of a new millenium. I only had one local friend at the time who got it also.

now don't hate me for calling you 46.

EDIT: For someone who doesn't get it, ask him if he was a year old the day he was born.

dionysius wrote:

I know but if the 3 kings showed up in year 1 it sounds like they're late. So being a little bit wrong actually (IMO) improved the precision of the sentence.

...and I understand and agree with your nit about NYEve 2000 being the end of the millennium? But that's a harder party to sell. Anyway I tried 'splainin' it to someone and they came back with "You celebrate your millennium and I'll celebrate mine. "

Ah. Sure. A millennium just ended. Right there! And another one! :drink: :woohoo:

brandog wrote:

Um...

FYI... Peter Sinfield wrote the lyrics...

ScottFromWyoming wrote:

While nits are being picked, I might as well pick on one of my favorites as well. There was never a Year Zero. In the flawed chronology we inherited from a monk who couldn't count, Dionysius Exiguus (Dennis the Menace, as I call him, and one of the guys my online name refers to), the Year 1 Before Christ was succeeded immediately by the the Year 1 Anno Domini. No "0" came in between them; this is the reason that the milennium properly began on January 1st 2001, NOT 2000. We had to wait until two thousand years had passed completely. I wore myself out trying to explain this to people five years ago.

It was Little Dennis who screwed up our exact dates; Jesus was probably born a few years before 1 AD. I for one would like to go back to the Roman practice of naming years by the names of the eponymous serving consuls, but then we need to add another layer to bureaucracy, and who needs that?

miamizsun wrote:

Even though it was only a few hundred years after the fact, the specific date had become lost, and the holiday was celebrated at different times in different areas (that's my understanding, anyway). Same goes for Easter (the holiday keeps its pagan name)...

*****

It's interesting that the writer invokes Puritans as being the definitive Christian interpretation. Of course they're as nutz as any in history. The gift-giving, if I recall correctly, began in year 0 (We 3 Kings, Gold, Frankincense, Myrrh, anybody?).

Sure the holiday has been co-opted from what we grew up with and it will be again. Still, the original message of peace and love is sincere (the blog link posted below does have a good handle on it) and I'll stick my neck out too and say that when I see "Merry Christmas" I recognize it for what it is: a simple greeting. I don't get all chapped seeing "Happy Hanukkah" tho so maybe I'm just not paying attention.

Christmas controversies crop up coast-to-coast

I believe in Father Christmas
Keith Emerson, Greg Lake, and Carl Palmer

They said there’ll be snow at christmas
They said there’ll be peace on earth
But instead it just kept on raining
A veil of tears for the virgin’s birth
I remember one christmas morning
A winters light and a distant choir
And the peal of a bell and that christmas tree smell
And their eyes full of tinsel and fire

They sold me a dream of christmas
They sold me a silent night
And they told me a fairy story
’till I believed in the israelite
And I believed in father christmas
And I looked at the sky with excited eyes
’till I woke with a yawn in the first light of dawn
And I saw him and through his disguise

I wish you a hopeful christmas
I wish you a brave new year
All anguish pain and sadness
Leave your heart and let your road be clear
They said there’ll be snow at christmas
They said there’ll be peace on earth
Hallelujah noel be it heaven or hell
The christmas you get you deserve

dmax wrote:

my thoughts, exactly.

Way cool. Always thought those pagans had it right with their worship of things that really mattered, like trees, rain, sun, weather, wind, fertility, and so on.

I also like the author's take on making it more commercial. I can agree with that in an extremely perverse way.

miamizsun wrote:

"We wish you a happy Honda-day,
we wish you a happy Honda-day,
we wish you - BLAM!"

Drachenadler wrote:

Have you seen the RP name Buck_Fush? I LOVE IT!!

Drachenadler wrote:

Where did you FIND these?

I think this guy has a pretty good take on things.

Drachenadler wrote:

A doberman angel? You ain't kiddin, Joe....

samiyam wrote:

Nice one, Stu. I've always liked Lehrer...

Is this forum title a trick question? (Just kidding.)

I doubt it could get any MORE commercial than it already is....

A Christmas Carol
by Tom Lehrer

Christmas time is here, by golly,
Disapproval would be folly.
Deck the halls with hunks of holly,
Fill the cup and don't say when.

Kill the turkeys, ducks and chickens,
Mix the punch, drag out the Dickens.
Even though the prospect sickens,
Brother, here we go again.

On Christmas Day you can't get sore,
Your fellow man you must adore.
There's time to rob him all the more
The other three hundred and sixty-four.

Relations, sparing no expense, 'll
Send some useless old utensil,
Or a matching pen and pencil.
("Just the thing I need, how nice!")

It doesn't matter how sincere it is,
Nor how heart felt the spirit,
Sentiment will not endear it,
What's important is the price.

Hark, the Herald Tribune sings,
Advertising wondrous things.
God rest ye merry merchants,
May ye make the Yuletide pay.
Angels we have heard on high,
Tell us to go out and buy!

So, let the raucous sleighbells jingle,
Hail our dear old friend Kris Kringle,
Driving his reindeer across the sky.
Don't stand underneath when they fly by.

Yikes!

I guess we don't have to weep for the future...it's here!

Merry CHRISTmas ,indeed.