The Day After Christmas

A friend of mine, John Austin wrote a song about the day after Christmas and it's pretty good. It paints a picture of the strewn detritus that is pretty inevitable after the typical family Christmas. It would work as a pretty good "morning after" song in general, and he just picked December 26th as the biggest let-down day of them all. It's a hopeful song, though, and like a lot of John's songs points to hope in tragedy.

My parents countered that inevitable post-holiday letdown in their own way. They were married on Boxing Day in England. In all fairness, Boxing day is really still a pretty big deal in the UK. It's the day after Christmas when people still give gifts and everything is still closed. This, of course, made it hard to find things like florists and caterers, but all the same, there they were.

My Dad is a small-town methodist, and my Mom was as Catholic as they come. They were married in England after a really quick courtship. I'm not sure my Dad's family even made the trip from upstate New York. I know my Mom's Catholic great-aunt almost boycotted the wedding because they would be serving communion to a protestant. But there they were, married nonetheless.

So they added some joy to the day after Christmas that wasn't there before. For our family, the time between Thanksgiving and New Year's is one event after another. I, my sister, and my grandmother all have December birthdays. We celebrate our parents' anniversary, and, oh yeah, there's Christmas.

December was stressful growing up. There was a lot to remember, and we always seemed to have lots to do and gifts to buy. Looking back, though, I think my parents made the right call - picking the 26th for their wedding. For them, the day after Christmas is not just changing batteries, cleaning the mess, and eating leftovers. It is a dinner out, sweet gifts, and a memory of a wedding that happened 41 years ago, across an ocean, in a small chapel, on a day when everything else was closed.

So Merry Day After Christmas to you all. And happy anniversary, Mom and Dad.

My wife brought this home from a Christmas Party

Stupid white elephant gift exchange. Seriously.

She rocks the Old MacDonald

Our five year old had her first piano recital on Thursday. She practiced Old MacDonald like mad and here was the result:



Unfortuately, my friend Bart called in the middle of the performance, so we missed the thrilling "here a song, there a song, everywhere a song song." but it was good. My favorite part was when she held out a whole note, she would sing "hooold two three four" - like we needed to know she was pausing on purpose.




The teachers, God bless' em made the kids do a rock-n-roll bow at the end a-la Spinal Tap. It was thrilling to say the least.



I was pretty surprised when the teacher said that her pitch and rhythm were advanced for her age, and that she could pitch-match with her voice. I guess I hadn't been noticing (bad Dad!), but I've always loved it when she sings. I think she wants a violin next.

Dining out: Restaurants named after foods

I have an informal rule about dining out.

When dining at a restaurant that has a "famous" dish (e.g. "El Famous Burrito"), or an eponymous dish (Steak and Shake), one must always order said dish on the first visit to that restaurant.

Usually it works out, with the obvious exceptions of Red Lobster and Olive Garden. And I did bend the rule at the Chicago Chop House, by ordering steak instead of chops. But I've had prime rib at Lawry's, Burritos at numerous establishments. I've eaten Chicken at Harold's Chicken Shack and, of course, numerous burgers and pizzas.

The real treat comes when restaurants have a special that is named for the restaurant. Such as the "Combinacion El Tapatio" at El Tapatio in Chicago on Ashland and Roscoe. Ordered that the first time I went there and loved it. I've probably ordered that a dozen times. Still don't know what it is... I think some kind of tacos and enchiladas. But it's great, and I'll order it again.

The dilemma occurs, of course, when numerous items are named after the restaurant (e.g. the "Lloyd's house salad", and the "Lloyd's burger" and the "Lloyd's chipped beef on toast"). When that happens, I usually forego the rule because - let's face it - there is obviously no sacred bond between Lloyd and that salad. Probably Lloyd just paid attention during the brand and marketing class in business school.

The rule has served me well, and I will most certainly continue to follow it. Of course, I will need to venture carefully if I ever go to Hooters.

Sugar and my daughter, Grendel-Beast

We had Beck's brother over on Saturday to build gingerbread houses and mingle the cousins. We had a great time. The above photo is me holding a sugar-crazed daughter who miraculously stopped moving long enough to get a picture.

The houses were great. Except for my friend Laura's house that didn't exactly stick together using frosting. So... we went to the hot glue gun. FYI - if you need to build a gingerbread house in a hurry (and hey, who doesn't) a hot glue gun works WAY better than frosting. And... the glue is non-toxic, so therefore everything is officially edible. Of course, no one eats a gingerbread house anyway. They just sit on their cardboard getting stale while we all pick the jujubees off the roof.

Anyway good time was had by all - until about 10 o'clock. We had geniusly timed my two-year -old's sugar rush to dissipate at 9 pm, so she went to sleep while I was reading her stories (LOVE when that happens). But my five year old turned in to Grendel the beast at about 10:30. She was that unholy combination of sugar, lack-of-sleep, and being five. She spun a legendary tantrum that not only woke her sister, but invoked the dreaded Santa threat ("you think Santa's going to bring you presents if you keep acting like this?") Histrionics ensued, and then finally, peace.

It's worth it though. Parents only get about five or six years to create magic Christmases and after that it's all i-Tunes gift cards and mountain bikes. So we'll keep making the gingerbread and cookies, and deal with the tantrums. I say it's an even trade. But, if someone knows of a good sugar-free Christmas treat, I'm all ears.

It's the hypocrisy, stupid

I hate hypocrisy. I think we all do. Especially this time of year.

Christmas is an extremely dishonest time of year - we greet each other with "Merry Christmas" and extol the "Christmas Spirit." The truth is one in ten of us are out of a job and the other nine are scared to death. I'm stressed out about shopping and bills. I don't know how this is going to end.

So I think that is what galls us so much about Blago. He is the hypocrite's hypocrite. He lies as a first option, not a last resort. He was elected to root out the corrupt state government and restore honor to the gov-ship of Illinois after the Ryan debacle. Instead he's just as sleazy.

That actually makes him worse because not only did he rip us off, he played holier than thou while he was doing it by differentiating himself from the other crooks. Kind of like an anti-gay congressman being caught in a men's room stall.

It just seems particularly bad at Christmas.

How they will view the recession in 100 years

I have been thinking a lot about the current recession, like every other American, and I was wondering if part of our problem was that we have a very narrow historical view of what is happening.

What got me thinking was the way people are running around saying that the current problem is all Clinton's fault. Or Reagan's. Or Carter's. I'll betcha that the crisis in the 70's could be traced back to the 50s, and the way the economy was restructured to accommodate the suburban explosion of post-war America. 1950s America was the result of a deficit-friendly government providing college educations and jobs to most white Americans.

Before that, we had the war-industrial complex with a depression sandwiched between two huge wars. But what came before World War I? What was so significant about the last third of the 19th century?

How bout this for a thought. The problems we are facing now are just a continuation of the economic structure that was invented in the second half of the 19th century and the first few years of the 20th. That was when a few significant things happened:

1. America began to become a dominant industrial economy
2. The focus of our economy moved from farming and slavery to industry and ownership
3. We stopped focusing on producing and started to focus on owning

I'll probably formulate this more later. But an economy based on consuming more than it can produce, and a constant borrowing to pay it "later". I have a feeling that maybe we've reached the end of this. I'd love to read a really macro historical view of the last 150 years or so in terms of economics.

ok enough for now. wake up people - dancing with the stars is on.