The wisdom of the aged

Listen, you young whippersnappers. At some point (soonish), I'm going to share my old-guy wisdom with you. I haven't quite figured out what I'm going to say, but each pronouncement will be a genuine pearl of wisdom. Would you like to see a flash of the kind of thing I might flaunt? Probably at the top of my list would be something like this:

1. For heaven's sake, blot the cottage cheese with a tissue if it's wet on top.

So don't worry. Pretty soon I'll publish my final list of Important Things for Young People to Know. And then life, which seemed so hard, will become easy. You'll have the key, the code, the wisdom. You'll be set.

A future for deleted scenes

When I enjoy a book, it's a hard moment when I reach the last page. All those good feelings, all that enjoyment -- over? Done?! It can't be!

But maybe the book doesn't have to end there. What about all those great scenes the author deleted? And the story lines that were abandoned? And characters that didn't make it into the final version?

When I have time, I think I'll create a few "pages" on the Xmas Carol blog. Apparently you can set up separate pages (in addition to the main web page, in other words) that people access through tabs. I see a "Deleted Scenes" tab coming up in my future.

I want the XC blog to deliver extra value to readers, to give them a solid reason to visit. In addition to interesting posts, the deleted scenes might fit the bill nicely. And then readers can meet Margo, a great deleted character. And what about James, Maria Kennedy's other love interest? Didn't know about that one, did you?

Anyway, food for thought. Also, since Xmas Carol is an ebook, I could easily tack these features on at the end of the book. But I'm not sure that would be a great idea. Still, think about it: ebooks can go on forever if the author keeps adding stuff. Betcha can't do that with paper books.

About those TV interviews with gun nuts

In the last two weeks, I've seen at least 20 interviews with "gun advocates" on TV. Armed with this data, I think I can draw a summary conclusion about these people. They're all stupid. There doesn't seem to be one functioning brain cell in any of their heads.

So this means...the stupid people are all armed. That makes me feel real safe. You?

Weird weather across the globe

This Christmas proved to be one of weather extremes across Europe. In neighboring France, summer-like temperatures of 24.3 degrees drew holiday goers out to the beaches. But in Russia, Moscow reported temperatures on Boxing Day of minus 25 degrees Celsius and the Siberia region has reported temperatures in recent days as low as minus 60 degrees Celsius. A wave of extreme cold that began in mid-December has resulted in the weather-related deaths of 120 people in Russia, 80 in Ukraine and around 60 in Poland. 

Even as the evidence for climate change piles up around us, humans are doing absolutely nothing to limit greenhouse gas emissions. Instead, we're fracturing the ground we stand on and poisoning the water table -- to extract more oil. (Okay, Ireland and a few other places are indeed trying to staunch the flow of greenhouse gases. But that's miniscule help in these circumstances. What's needed is massive, global change).

Our descendants are going to hate us, and rightly so. We are world-killers, species-killers. We are death incarnate.

The Roman Catholic church is a cesspool

I'll let PZ tell you about it. I'm too nauseous, myself. Ugh.

Who would you bring back?

At this time of year we're deluged with lists of notable people who died in the last 12 months. The reading of these names fills us with longing and sadness, and serves as a reminder. Death comes so frequently to our world. This is why we find these lists helpful: they refresh our memories.

But let's move beyond this. Who would you bring back from the dead, if you could do such a thing? Don't limit your response to those who died this year -- but on the other hand, let's not dive deeply into the past, either. Let's limit the choice to people who died in our lifetime. So no bringing back Lincoln, in other words. (And we're talking about famous people, not your sister Hildy, though she was sweet as pie.)

My answer is John Lennon. Who would you bring back?

Death porn

A lot was made recently about a NYC newspaper that printed a photo of a man who was about to be killed by a subway train. Yes, it was disgusting. But they do this all the time.

Yesterday, an 11-year-old boy was killed by a dump truck as he tried to cross the street. Local TV stations played endless loops of video of the boy buying a soda and something to eat at a deli -- seconds before he walked into the street and was killed. The video also showed him fixing his jacket and schoolbag on the sidewalk outside the store after his purchase, and stepping toward his death.

This is not okay. It's death porn and it's disgusting that the news people show this sort of thing. Yes, report on the boy's death. But don't try to titillate the viewers -- not when you're talking about a death, and especially when it's a child. I'm not even sure the parents should see that video, never mind random viewers.

I called the media vampires the other day. But it's worse than that. They're ghouls, eating the dead before our eyes. It's utterly disgusting. And if this happens in our country on a regular basis -- which it does -- then we are disgusting. Welcome to the United States of 2012.