Journal of Post-Ralphaelite Thought

Thanksgiving 2012 is remarkable for a number of reasons. Officially it falls on the 4th Thursday of November, which is usually the last Thursday as well, but because of how the calendar played out this year, we have another Thursday in November which falls after Thanksgiving. If you use Black Friday as the start of the Christmas Shopping, it means an extra week of Ho-Ho-Holiday sales for merchants, for which they are surely thankful this year. Speaking of Black Friday, I'll leave that again to the more intrepid - I have no desire to go out and mix it up with bargain-crazed shoppers. It used to be this annual Orgasm of Consumerism started at 5 AM or so, Friday morning, but it has steadily crept forward, first to Midnight, and now, in some cases to 8 PM Thanksgiving day. To which I say, shame on you Merchants. And shame on you, Shoppers, since without your enthusiastic support, this inexcusable practice would not happening. This year is also notable for the fact that Thank...

This happened a couple of days ago but I've been under the weather and it still gripes my ass. If you were a loyal TCU fan (I'm an alumni) and foolishly chose to watch the Rose Bowl Parade on NBC / channel 5 here in the Dallas/Fort Worth television market you probably waited patiently to see the TCU float and Horned Frog marching band. Alas, you would have been rewarded with bitterness. About 30 seconds before the Frogs came a marching, NBC decided to cut away for a couple of minutes of commercials, huzzah!  After they return to parade coverage after pimping for their sponsors, you could hear the faint strains of the Horn Frogs fading into the distance. FAIL! All we get is about 5 seconds of a tape-delay insert shot. No float. Booyah! To which I say, "What the fuck?" They had a list of the parade participants and the order in which they appeared - it's not like TCU snuck up on them. Some jack-leg producer just decided if ONE OF THE FUCKING SCHOOLS IN...

Every July 4 th I wander down the street and watch the Ryan Place parade in the sweltering July heat. It's a neighborhood event that has more patriotism in its pinky finger than anything you'll seen on your HD TV from the comfort of your air-conditioned house. To hell with fireworks -- this is my favorite thing about the 4 th . Neighbors and friends from near and not so near gather for the fun. Differences are put aside and we share the sense of celebration. I love the description "the American Experiment," despite attempts to co-opt the term for narrow partisan purposes. The experiment fails when we stop recognizing that no one person or group has a monopoly on wisdom, virtue , common sense or love of country. Me and my good friend the Whited Sepulchre at the Ryan Place Parade.