WEEKENDER Column : No El!
I love the holiday season. No, not exactly right. I love many things about it. Couldn’t care less about the gift giving in my direction. Love seeing the joy the things we send to the relatives bring, especially the grandchild, Haven. I love the meals, the cookies, the extra rations of grog.
I do not love the rushing around, the shopping and the packing of gifts. It has led to considerable strife between the Long-Suffering Wife and me. It cuts into the grog consumption.
I don’t love the hangovers.
I love “Scrooged”, the not perfect but still pretty good Bill Murray depiction of the Charles Dickens classic. It’s a regular for me and always makes me weep. Especially if I have exceeded my ration of grog, a likely outcome after a shopping/wrapping/packing session with the Long-Suffering Wife.
I love my Christmas music selection. I have, over the years, programmed several all Christmas music stations. In so doing I have become more than sick of “Have a Holly Jolly Christmas†and “Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeerâ€. My personal collection is not what you’ll hear on the radio in large part. “Here comes Santy with his bag of shit” and that sort of tune always make me smile.
But, having said all that I was appalled and then furious when I heard the Pennsylvania Lottery run their “Happy Holidays” commercial for the first time last night. This is written on the day that the calendar page just turned to November, by the way. First of all I HATE the Happy Holidays sentiment. Say what you really mean and you risk offending the Kwanza and Jewish among you, they say, whoever “they†are. I think that they don’t care as much as you might think. And I know I don’t. Wish me Merry Christmas, please. But not quite yet.
But really, the background music for the Pennsyvlvania Lottery commercial is “The 12 days of CHRISTMAS”. You get it? There are CHRISTMAS wreaths and trees and candy canes and…
Wait, I just heard a commercial for “Chex Mix†that has the “Carol of the Bells†in it. And another one….and another one. Shoot me now.
I know , this is a pretty standard rant, where the greedy merchants rush the season and I’m not ready for it. But damn it seems really early. Lucky for me it’s always time for grog.
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Reach Jim at contact@jamesrising.com Even more rants are on his blog, updated every day that ends in “y” at jamesrising.com
