sundries

[rm]

Someone stole the sign from Auschwitz. With what intent is unknown, but I'm not sure I can think of a creepier artifact on the entire planet to have gone missing.

CNN legitimizes the War on Christmas "debate" by treating the whole thing as if it's an actual discussion or, for that matter, actual news.

Judges in Oklahoma are deciding whether the general public should be able to look-up online whether you've had an abortion. The implications of this one are terrifying and include the potential for a lot of job discrimination.

Tiny gingerbread houses! That perch on your mug of cocoa! via schpahky

Look, this isn't really a spoiler for The End of Time, but there are a couple of production stills in the article. John Simm. As the Master. In a gag. I could look at that picture ALL DAY.

Patty is safely in Ohio visiting her family, despite epic traffic last night that made us wonder just a bit if she'd make her flight (friends were less lucky). I won't have her back until New Year's Day and miss her already (it is cold in our bed!) but this isn't a very long time for her to be gone considering what digs are like.

In the realm of "2009 is completely stupid" the door to the office in our apartment came off the hinges last night. We were not, in fact, having sex up against it at the time.

It's supposed to snow tomorrow. And snow a lot. I am almost excited.

But meanwhile, did I mention it's fucking cold? I've been resisting breaking out the great coat because even though it's the warmest thing I own, it weighs about ten pounds and isn't really fun to wear on the subway. Also, it's a little weird now that Americans have actually seen Torchwood -- I mean those ads were all over the buses for _months_.

There is now tinsel up on the Ianto memorial at Mermaid Quay.

Comments

[redstapler.livejournal.com]

Someone stole the sign from Auschwitz.

...

Well that's horrifying and creepy.

I can't wait to see where it turns up.

ETA: I showed Josh the Simm picture and he looked at it for a moment, grimaced, and said, "Yeah. There's nothing subtexty about that image at all."

[fmanalyst.livejournal.com]

The snow is supposed to start here this afternoon. We're supposed to get a FOOT! We don't get that much snow down here.

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

As someone who has walked through that gate I agree on the creep factor. *shudders*.

The BBC has no idea what they have done to million of fangrrls and bois the world over with that pic.
*Stares*

[51stcenturyfox.livejournal.com]

I know, right?

[rm.livejournal.com]

Hahahaahahaha. THAT PICTURE IS SO HOT. Also OMG, wait 'til you see my fucking Yuletide story.

[bodlon.livejournal.com]

- Who the fuck steals the Auschwitz sign?! Just...jawdrop. I can't even decide what the best case scenario there is other than you don't steal the fucking Auschwitz sign.

- You know what makes me want to finally break down and declare war on Christmas? People treating my non-observance of Christmas like an act of war.

- OTOH? Those houses are made of pure awesomesauce. <3

- Considering my list of possible cosplans for Gally, that John Simm pic is alarming. And really, er, distracting. I'll just be over here, confusing my roles some more.

- We might get snow today!

- Nothing says mourning like tinsel.

[brewsternorth.livejournal.com]

OTOH? Those houses are made of pure awesomesauce. <3

MTE. I can see why the blogger is fond of the candy-cane-dust-topped ones.

[rm.livejournal.com]

- Nothing says mourning like tinsel.

Actually, this is sort of on point. One of the things I'm going to talk about in the paper is (particularly when I reference historical instances of mourning for fictional characters) the idea of going to graves/memorials to celebrate things like birthdays and holidays and the degree to which that in particular has come into play with the Mermaid Quay display.

[thunderemerald.livejournal.com]

John Simm. As the Master. In a gag. I could look at that picture ALL DAY.

UH. HUH.

[hrafn.livejournal.com]

Tiny. Gingerbread. Houses.

Perched on cups.

Those are so marvelous! *flails* And I love how detailed the blog post is!

[magicwoman.livejournal.com]

I can't believe someone had the balls to steal the Auschwitz sign. It's the first news information I heard as I was waking up this morning.

What can I do to protest to the judges in Oklahoma regarding making public searches for abortion.

I'm not excited - it's supposed to snow starting Sunday. Probably. Maybe. It's been so cold that I don't want to see any flakes. Period. Today it might get into the double digits.

Susan

[rm.livejournal.com]

re: Oklahoma -- because it's in the courts I don't think there's anything we can do, other than inform people that this is the sort of thing going on in America today.

[dremiel.livejournal.com]

Those little houses are incredibly cool! We usually make a gingerbread sukkah for the table during Sukkot (a tradition which started several years ago when it stormed through all eight days and we only managed a couple of soggy eat-toast-under-an-umbrella kind of meals in the actual sukkah).

I may have to adapt these into tiny thyme-topped sukkahs to perch on top of cider mugs!

[marcmagus]

Someone stole the sign from Auschwitz.

WTF? Just reading that gives me a chill.

Staver keeps a "Naughty & Nice" list that shows which retailers include references to Christmas in their advertising and which do not.

Am I the only one who had to read between the lines to figure out which were naughty and which were nice [and whose initial thought was wrong?]

[taffimai.livejournal.com]

My first thought was, "Good, now I can shop at all the naughty ones guilt-free!"

[aviv-b.livejournal.com]

I wish I could say that any of this surprises me, but sadly it doesn't. Staver should do well to keep a list of all his fellow legislatures who have been caught in naughty situations over the last year.

What possible reason could people have wanting to know someone elses medical issues (or as we have seen in the health care debate, has abortion suddenly become something other than a legal medical procedure?). Public interest? No, don't think so. Harassment, firebombing of property, yeah think so.

As for the sign...I'm speechless. That's all.

[marcmagus]

Yeah, I'm kind of excited about the idea of a list of retailers I can visit without having to deal with that "Christmas" stuff. Think they have a companion list of places who don't "Happy Holidays" us either? I'm sure they find those naughty.

[britgeekgrrl.livejournal.com]

Okay, wait a minute. I missed something...

WHAT picture?

[rm.livejournal.com]

Click the link to the article. Scroll down. See John Simm as the Master. In a gag.

or go direct to picture here: http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/46947000/jpg/_46947031_008442568-1.jpg

[britgeekgrrl.livejournal.com]

HOLY MOTHER OF -

*ahem*

I think I need a cigarette.

Edit: the fic just writes itself, doesn't it?

[rm.livejournal.com]

AYUP. I can't stop looking at it. It's going to make some of the Gally cosplay options this year rather... interesting.

[britgeekgrrl.livejournal.com]

Oh.

Oh my.

That's a very good point.

*mentally revises packing list*

[tsarina.livejournal.com]

A friend of mine, who is incredibly, devoutly Catholic was at the grocery store a couple days ago. The checker said to her "Happy holidays, since you probably don't celebrate Christmas." We can't decide if it was just general weird passive aggressive crazy or because my friend is Korean. She gets a lot of evangelists who assume her race makes her a heathan.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Let's see, clerk was being racist and passive-aggressive about her internalized fear of the war on Christmas all at once. That's halfway to BINGO at least.

[malle-babbe.livejournal.com]

You know, if Christians like that checker were more focused on "be compassionate and trying to make the world a better place" rather than "When I think about the Apocalypse, I touch myself!" or "If I find out that you are not religious, I'm going to badger you nonstop about it!", folks would be way more comfortable with "Merry Christmas".

And that is quite a sizable slab of clueless wrt your friend, tsarina...