Have a nice tryptophan

To all the USAmericans seeing this, Happy Hurray-for-Tryptophan Day!

FIRST, THE FUN BITS
Some cute thing I slapped together, the text of which is largely stolen from a list at RadAss Homo. I did something similar for Halloween, but few saw it.

45 secs. - SFW? There are sparsely dressed men but no outright nudity or sex. Is that work safe?

Two animated cartoons from the New Yorker. I especially love the little girl's reaction in the first one. 40 secs. - SFW or family gatherings

NEXT, TODAY'S

Chris Austad, a model/actor who should get more work so we can
look at him more often. He's definitely something to be thankful for.

FINALLY, SOME FAIRLY NEGATIVE


However Thanksgiving may have begun, I think many of us have made it -- albeit perhaps unwittingly -- a day dedicated to the excessiveness and wastefulness of USAmerican culture.

Here, in a country which such unhealthy eating habits that even our poor people can be fat -- a phenomenon that amazes many in the rest of the world, where poverty means no food -- many of us spend this day eating more than most people in the world consume in an entire week.

In a country that makes up roughly 10% percent of the population yet consumes 25% percent of the world's resources, many of us spend this day eating too much food, filling up too many trash cans with waste, using up massive amounts of electricity to cook food and heat the house and light empty rooms and run the television constantly.

And, most misguided of all, many of us will spend tomorrow driving unnecessary miles to overcrowded stores and shopping for things we can't really afford so we can give them to people who don't really want them, all because forty years of television and magazine advertising have brainwashed us into believing that happiness can be found in possessions and that consumerism is what makes USAmerica great.

I urge you to do things differently. Make your holidays simpler.

Use less food but savour what you use more. Instead of the traditional spread of turkey AND ham with all the many trimmings, make that special dish what everyone loves so much. No one ever got up from that dish still hungry, did they?

Make Christmas presents instead of buying them, or vow to buy all your gifts at a used book store. I've done this for years, and it's amazing how much thought goes into it. You really have to think about the people you know to find the right book for them. And that thought makes both the giving and the receiving more meaningful.

Instead of the usual dead tree that becomes a decorated fire hazard before it becomes a brown, tinsel-covered carcass on the curb, buy a living tree in a pot, with roots and dirt and everything. After Christmas, plant it somewhere, even if the apartment-dwellers among you end up giving it to a park or the local elementary school.

There's a warmth and a beauty to these holidays, but it comes from the personal thought and actions we put into them, not from being a mindless consumer, wielding a credit card as if it were the key to happiness.

I'm sorry to be so serious on a holiday, but at least I put the fun stuff first this time.
I'm learning.

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