"Humbug" just don't cover it...

No - I'm not talking Scrooge-level, pinched-up meanness; I'm just sick to death of the ballyhoo and self-destructiveness of the perversions of "the holidays"...have been for years now.

Yep, I was a guy who, years ago, got out with the consuming masses and wandered about the malls, zombie-like, spending money I didn't have, all for something called "Christmas spirit."

I learned - late - that it's a scam, a ruse to separate one from even more of one's money and, despite the shril protestations of staunch "defenders" of "Christmas," it's more about fattening retailers' bottom lines than it is about any religious observances.

Yes, I still like seeing the old movies, and will ride around town tonight trailing a group of kids belting out horribly off-key carols on a tour of "Christmas Tree Lane" (I'll be swilling Irish whiskey and smoking cigars wif my kid brother the cop). Those are the things that matter, the family gatherings and such, where you can share time, the most precious gift of all.

So don't accuse me of being a Scrooge when I wax less than enthusiastic about the bulk of these "holiday" trappings; it's just that I don't care for a lot of what goes on this time of year.

What a Year...

Yeah, so I've been out of touch a while.

We've elected the first black President, suffered the worst economic metdown since the Great Depression, seen the rise of the Looney-Toon Right, and lost Michael Jackson.

Me, I matriculated at an online college; nearing the end of my third eight-week "semester," I'm carrying a 3.7-something GPA, and hope to make the Dean's list with my kid brother the cop. We'll frame it and present it to our Mother as further proof of the errancy of dire predictions made by others long ago.

I have a three-week break coming up. It would probably be a good time to keep my intellectual engine tuned up by visiting here and ranting a bit.

Boy, are you ever in for it.