quasigrecian thoughts
Apr. 22nd, 2011 08:36 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
calimac1. An article claiming to explain how Easter resists commercialization. Basically, because the crucifixion is such a downer. I don't think that's it. That hasn't prevented Easter from being associated with fluffy bunnies and eggs. In any case, the crucifixion is Good Friday; Easter is the resurrection, which is an upper. (In a classic comedy plot, there's always a moment just before the end when it seems that all is lost; that makes the happy ending stand out more.) The author seems aware of this, and says that the resurrection story is too inherently religious to be commercialized: you either have to accept it as truth or not, in a way you don't have to with Christmas. Again, I don't think that's it. With Christmas, you also either have to accept that the baby born that day is God or not. That seems a pretty important point, considering all the Christmas carols, sung lustily by secular amateurs, proclaiming a positive answer to that question. Whereas Easter parties seem a lot less about the Easter story than Christmas parties are about the Christmas story.
No, I think the answer is much simpler. Easter is a movable feast. Christmas and Valentine's are on the same date every year; Memorial Day and Thanksgiving stay in the same day of the same week. But the date of Easter can vary by over a month. Commercial planners would rather not deal with that, so they tend to leave the holiday alone, not totally, but more than with other holidays.
2. Interview with a guy who says "virtually all multitaskers think they are brilliant at multitasking, [but] you know what? You're really lousy at it." I find that amusing, because I've thought from an early age that I was lousy at multitasking, since probably before the term was invented. Maybe that means I'm actually good at it.
3. Here's somebody who thinks that Saito in Inception is "marginalized". (He's non-white, you see.) What? He's the most powerful character in the movie (except for Pete Postlethwaite, who's hardly in a position to do much), his relationship with Cobb is the frame and linchpin of the plot, he's the only person who can outwit the heroes, and he forcefully injects himself into the caper over the others' objections. To say he's "marginalized" because - I dunno - because he's less expert than the experts he hires, and he gets shot and is kind of out of things for part of the middle, and he has to get rescued at the end (just like a guurrrl), is stretching things so far you could prove anybody marginalized by those standards.
4. Sage advice to take it easy, man.
5. PG&E informs me that we've received a "bonus credit" for saving gas this winter. Well, of course we did. This winter was the one where our gas heater was off for a month and we froze absent-mindedly (I thought I just had it on really low), until I cried for help and the utility fairies told me how to turn it back on again.
6. Article in The New Yorker this week (abstract free online) on the oil in North Dakota, a sea of it so huge, so vast, so all-encompassing, the article says, that if we extracted it all, it could fulfill the U.S.'s energy requirements for nearly two years. [pause to absorb this statistic] We're hosed.
No, I think the answer is much simpler. Easter is a movable feast. Christmas and Valentine's are on the same date every year; Memorial Day and Thanksgiving stay in the same day of the same week. But the date of Easter can vary by over a month. Commercial planners would rather not deal with that, so they tend to leave the holiday alone, not totally, but more than with other holidays.
2. Interview with a guy who says "virtually all multitaskers think they are brilliant at multitasking, [but] you know what? You're really lousy at it." I find that amusing, because I've thought from an early age that I was lousy at multitasking, since probably before the term was invented. Maybe that means I'm actually good at it.
3. Here's somebody who thinks that Saito in Inception is "marginalized". (He's non-white, you see.) What? He's the most powerful character in the movie (except for Pete Postlethwaite, who's hardly in a position to do much), his relationship with Cobb is the frame and linchpin of the plot, he's the only person who can outwit the heroes, and he forcefully injects himself into the caper over the others' objections. To say he's "marginalized" because - I dunno - because he's less expert than the experts he hires, and he gets shot and is kind of out of things for part of the middle, and he has to get rescued at the end (just like a guurrrl), is stretching things so far you could prove anybody marginalized by those standards.
4. Sage advice to take it easy, man.
5. PG&E informs me that we've received a "bonus credit" for saving gas this winter. Well, of course we did. This winter was the one where our gas heater was off for a month and we froze absent-mindedly (I thought I just had it on really low), until I cried for help and the utility fairies told me how to turn it back on again.
6. Article in The New Yorker this week (abstract free online) on the oil in North Dakota, a sea of it so huge, so vast, so all-encompassing, the article says, that if we extracted it all, it could fulfill the U.S.'s energy requirements for nearly two years. [pause to absorb this statistic] We're hosed.
