Christmas 2009

I decided I didn’t want to spend Christmas in Seattle—for too many reasons to count up, actually. So I joined family and friends in the Palm Springs area.

I flew yesterday, Christmas Day. I’m assuming that the reason both legs of the journey were jammed was that all airlines have cut back on numbers of flights, and of course are flying those crappy smaller craft. (I once flew DC to LA on Christmas day on a DC10; you could have held World War III there & no one would have got hurt. It was wonderful.)

And Alaska Air has achieved what I had thought to be impossible: they’re worse than United when it comes to passenger experience.

For one thing, that “passengers may take aboard one bag to fit in the overhead bin and one other to fit under the seat in front” thing is obviously pro forma. People were hauling on board steamer trunks, practically, and the staff didn’t do anything. When they start announcing that if you’re seated in the last eight rows of the plane, all the overhead bins are already full, so you should just cram your stuff in any place you find open, you know that things are bad.

(Basically, they’re admitting that people are ignoring that “regulation” wholesale with great success, so you’re a chump if you actually adhere to it. And that “carry-on bags must fit into this space” contraption at the gates is a complete waste of space.)

There was more, but you get the drift.

Still, I made it and got home, had a great Christmas dinner of lamb, sautéed squash and watercress and mint salad, and a good old catch-up conversation.

Today we went hiking in a riverbed, in scenery much different from the PNW. (As illustrated by these two pix.)

Soaking in Seattle

Whitewater foliage

Following the hike (my best friend and I were so involved in catching up that we overshot the visitors' center and ended up practically in Cabo San Lucas before we realized) there was a lovely picnic.

Tomorrow we're off to an old-time spa, served by actual hot springs, where the mob used to come in the 30s and 40s. I have a much-needed shiatsu massage lined up for me, and a thorough soak in the thermal waters.

So—flights aside—I hope your holiday was as good as mine.

You knew the job was dangerous when you took it

This comes to me courtesy of a connection of a connection with a DOT MIL email address, so make of it what you will.

I only hope it doesn’t delay the Merry One on his appointed rounds tonight.

As it is, I don’t know how he’s going to mange to get my prezzies to me, since—while I do have a fireplace—it doesn’t have a, you know, chimney. But then, I’m not sure how I rate on the naughty-nice scale this year. So maybe I don’t care.

(But who’ll eat the double-chocolate brownies I’m putting out, with 1% milk?)

Moscow Cat Theatre

I came upon this video, which cracked me up, even though I’m not wild about trained animal acts.

But since I passed on the dogs-decorating-the-Christmas-tree video last week, I might as well give cats equal time.

Enjoy.

Mit brennender Sorge

Troubling news that reinforces the notion that the Holy See grows more clueless with every passing pope: Benedict XVI is fast-tracking canonization for John Paul II & Pius XII.

Coming in the same week as the theft of the Arbeit Macht Frei sign over the main entrance to Auschwitz, it’s a heavy blow to people of good will everywhere, who’d like to think this is a Season of at least the Semblance of Light for the People of the Book.

Frankly, I’m not that wild about the idea of Saint John Paul II, even though he’s got about the best press of any pope since the Apostle Peter. Despite his well-cultivated global outreach and all those trips, John Paul’s papacy was pretty much dedicated to maintaining the status quo of the Church, including the policies of repressing women and covering up for pedophile priests.

Might as well canonize Alexander V.

But it’s Pius XII, the pope who swapped the moral high ground for a continued lease on Vatican City during World War II, who makes a travesty of sainthood.

His apologists claim he was cultivating a delicate neutrality with the Nazis and fascists that enabled him to…well, I’m not sure. Mostly keep despotic hands off Church property and maintain its position of emitting a beacon of light in a black world. And they point to him sheltering Jews in religious properties in Rome after the Germans occupied Italy and started deportations.

Can you say: too little, too late?

I knew you could.

Like John Paul, Pius XII was more concerned with holding on to whatever power and prestige the Roman Catholic Church possessed than in showing real moral leadership. (Given that moral courage was never in greater need than during the Nazi era, the failure of Pius was all the more despicable.)

If they’re handing out sainthoods for that, can Newt Gingrich be far behind?