b.rox

It’s come to my attention that, in their zeal to celebrate International Flag-Burning Day, some folks may actually be running out and buying flags to burn.
This kind of defeats the spirit of the holiday. By purchasing new flags, you’re only supporting the flag industry. That’s not going to help “burn the scourge of nationalism away”!
Much [...]

Today is Midsummer. It’s just about the biggest holiday of the year in Sweden and Finland and I’m assuming the rest of the Nordic countries too. It should be a big holiday here too, but alas, it isn’t. Nevertheless I shared some pickled herring with Thomas and Ben from ACORN.
Then a huge crew of evangelical [...]

The astronomical solstice snuck up on me again.

I’ve managed to stretch my first Father’s Day into a whole weekend. It started Friday night and with any luck I’ll still be celebrating Monday morning. But in the midst of all this raucous debauchery I wanted to give a shout out to the women who made all this possible: my mom, my wife, my [...]

I couldn’t afford a genuine Punic Persephone coin but I did find a cool pewter pendant. The face of the goddess is surrounded by a sheaf of wheat, representing Demeter, her mother. The perfect gift for Persephone’s mother on her first Mother’s day.
Xy calls it an amulet.

Also, my Mom and Dad are visiting from Indiana. [...]

Something about Jazzfest (presented by Shell) inspires me to stay up all night. Even when I don’t actually go to the Jazzfest. Especially when I don’t actually go.
(For the record, we never go, unless someone gives us free tix, and this year no one has, so we’ve been celebrating our own private Jazzfest at home [...]

I won’t be there, but this sounds interesting:

Valentine’s day press conference 11:00 am in front of city hall to celebrate the love between the city council and the private interests who will make millions demolishing public housing. Half hour, fun, satirical protest! Wear red, bring a date!

[via txt msg from Brice Nice]

Today’s the Chinese New Year. I’m a bit disturbed that our child will be born in the Year of the Rat, because I don’t particularly care for rats. But maybe I should learn to respect the rat. Did you know rats share the gift of laughter with us?
I got a card from my friend MF [...]

Today is Mardi Gras, the most wonderful day of the year. Ideally I’d be getting up at the crack of dawn, donning a wild costume, and venturing forth to partake in a day of mad revelry, probably hooking up with the Societé de Sainte Anne and walking from the Bywater to the Marigny to the [...]

Well, we did it. For a while I didn’t think we would be able to pull it off. First there was my sprained ankle. Then Xy came down with a cold. Then I came down with some kinda low-grade sore-throat thing. I was very close to canceling.
But in the end it all came together. We [...]

Xy made one circuit of the bonfire, not easy for a pregnant lady given the general rowdiness.
Next year, prob’ly not.
Our old friend Tony stopped by. Living in Seattle seems to have softened him up. In the old days, I had to be careful, as drinking around him had a high correlation with major hangovers. Now [...]

I got some clothes and a swell electric garlic roaster for Christmas this year, but by far the coolest gift comes from my dear departed Grandma Mildred.

It’s a crib blanket that I used as a child forty years ago, handmade by Grandma. The theme seems to be travel. It says: “BY AIR, BY SEA, BY [...]

There are nineteen balusters
In our balustrade.
I painted them all orange today
Each one a different shade.
Actually that’s not true.
I painted sets of two
In alternating hue.
This tortured verse
Has gone from bad to worse
But do not curse
My name.
I plan to have a merry Christmas
And hope you will do the same.

I’ve started a new tradition. I’m not shaving between Thanksgiving and the end of the year. This gives me an annual chance to appreciate just how gray my beard is getting. I’d say I’m about 50% gray at this point. Then, on New Year’s Day, I’ll shave it clean and get a fresh start.
Footnote: I [...]

Today’s the northern solstice, the longest night of the year and the shortest day. Tomorrow the days will start to get longer again. In the fiction of Ursula K. le Guin, this day is known as Sun-Return. Out of darkness, light.
I’m always surprised how many people are completely unaware of the solstice. You could argue [...]

Here’s the note I’m sending off with our solstice cards this year, mainly to people who (I think!) don’t read this blog.

A question to all the Christians out there:
How would you like to see non-Christians act with regard to Christmas? How can we be both respectful to you and true to ourselves?
Clearly we can’t celebrate the religious aspect of the holiday, so would you rather we not participate at all? That doesn’t seem quite fair, since [...]

We’re having a holiday open house at the office today, and we all brought cookies and other sweets. I thought it would be fun and unique to bring brandy balls. So I made them last night and brought them in this morning, and placed them on the table with a sign.

But Boss Lady’s husband (Elliott, [...]

Xy wanted to give some trinkets to the neighbor kids this holiday season, so she had one of the girls compile a list.

Tomanique
Shawn’ae
Shawniah
Shawnique
Jurr’ieon
Jurr’eall
Melqueisha
Amy
Tyesha
Joshua
Zykeith
La Aarea
Keira
Lamar
Justin
Cheveniqua

Ages range from one to fifteen, and three-quarters of the kids are girls. I was surprised by the sheer number of kids on our little block, though a significant chunk of the [...]

After the culinary fiasco of 2004, I approached this year’s Thanksgiving with some trepidation. My confidence was not bolstered when Xy finally read the creme bruleé recipe and asked the following immortal question:
What’s an egg yolk?
I couldn’t believe she was serious, but it turns out she’s never separated an egg before and couldn’t remember [...]