It’s up to almost sixty thousand now.

I was actually surprised at how low the early reports were, considering how widespread the devastation was, and how densely populated many of the areas were. I won’t be surprised if the final tally ends up being in the hundreds of thousands, as areas start reporting in that we haven’t even heard from yet.

Jay Manifold reminds us of the potential for a much larger tsunami than the one that hit this past weekend. Patricia and I were wondering last night what we would do if we heard about a Canary collapse. It might be sufficient to get out to the west county. If we have to go further than that, we might be SOL, because there are only a couple roads that head into the Everglades here, and they’d probably be jammed once people figured out what was happening. Though I wonder if the Bahamas would take the brunt of it, and much of the energy.

Of course, it wouldn’t be just Florida that gets hit. The entire eastern seaboard would likely be wiped out, all the way up into Canada.

I’m always a little disconcerted by holiday products that are food in the form of sentient creatures.

When a child, I loved getting chocolate Easter bunnies, not because I believed in the resurrection, or because I loved bunnies (I don’t mind them, but I find cats preferable as pets) but because I love chocolate. But I was always put off a little by the fact that I had to eat a bunny. And a helpless bunny at that, one that, by virtue (if that’s the right word…) of being composed purely of sugar and cocoa and various fats, but no proteins or muscle tissue, was in no position to defend itself, and was entirely prostrate to my gustatory whims.

Now comes Christmas, and Patricia has put a chocolate Santa in my stocking. And not just any chocolate Santa, but knowing my weakness (hers is dark chocolate), a milk chocolate Santa.

So what do I do? It’s not bad enough that I eat it, but lest I consume the foil wrapping, thus making my teeth and fillings vulnerable to powerful local radio stations and the mind-control beams of the incompetent CIA (whose incompetence extends to the possibility of scrambling my brain, but probably not leaving it uncorrupted by their brain-death beams), I had to strip the foil down from it prior to consuming it and its precious life-giving constituents. Kind of like stripping down a cadaver before consuming it, lest one get the threads of the clothing of the helpless victim caught in one’s incisors.

(Ummmmm…….braaaiinnnsss)

Anyway, my choice was to put it out of its misery immediately, by biting off its head. Then, the rest of the body can lie painless and dormant as I consume the remainder over the next few days.

So, am I sick, or should I start a rock band?

Like, for example, this one by the appropriately named A. E. Brain.

When I see that the blogfather has linked to someone, I assume that it needs no further linking, unless I (rarely) have some unique words of wisdom to append to it.

Is that right? Are there really readers of this website who don’t also read Instapundit? If so, then perhaps I should reconsider my position, but my preference is to point out things that people won’t read elsewhere, for parsimony of my efforts, if for no other reason.

Like, for example, this one by the appropriately named A. E. Brain.

When I see that the blogfather has linked to someone, I assume that it needs no further linking, unless I (rarely) have some unique words of wisdom to append to it.

Is that right? Are there really readers of this website who don’t also read Instapundit? If so, then perhaps I should reconsider my position, but my preference is to point out things that people won’t read elsewhere, for parsimony of my efforts, if for no other reason.

Like, for example, this one by the appropriately named A. E. Brain.

When I see that the blogfather has linked to someone, I assume that it needs no further linking, unless I (rarely) have some unique words of wisdom to append to it.

Is that right? Are there really readers of this website who don’t also read Instapundit? If so, then perhaps I should reconsider my position, but my preference is to point out things that people won’t read elsewhere, for parsimony of my efforts, if for no other reason.

I’m not a Christian, but I’m certainly not offended when someone wishes me a Merry Christmas, and while blogging will be light for the next couple days, I’d like to wish all my Christian readers the merriest one yet.

There has never been a Christmas when the world is at peace, and this year is problematic, but it was one in which Afghan women who used to be beaten or worse for appearing in public with too much face exposed, and without their men, just voted in an election, casting many of their votes for other women. It is one in which the Iraqi people, despite the totalitarian scum who continue to murder them indiscriminately, continue to register to vote in their own upcoming elections.

Sadly, it is also one in which thousands continue to be murdered and raped, in never-ending wars in Africa, and the traffic in human slavery continues unabated. But as I said, these things have been going on since time immemorial, and if there’s more of it now, it’s only because there are more humans than ever before–not because humans are becoming worse.

Despite that, in many ways, for many millions of people, things are better on this planet than they’ve ever been, and with diligence and courage, we can continue to spread the zone in which people can celebrate Christmas, and other holidays of this solstice season, free from fear and want.

I’m originally from Popland, but I’ve been living in Sodavania for the past quarter century.

And they missed a category. In some parts of the south, it’s actually “cocola.”

The sharp division between the UP and eastern Wisconsin is fascinating. I remember back in the seventies when my cousins moved to Milwaukee from where we lived in southeast Michigan, they told me about having to get used to the new vocabulary (they also called water fountains “bubblers”–weirdos).

I’m curious about the “other.” What do they call soft drinks in New Mexico?

Further thoughts: harkening back to Albion’s Seed, it would seem that both Puritans and Quakers are soda drinkers, whereas the Presbyterians opt for coke. And the Cavaliers seem to be a mix between the two. But which folkway created the pop drinkers? (Note that it really was culturally appropriate to split off West Virginia from Virginia way back when).

I’m originally from Popland, but I’ve been living in Sodavania for the past quarter century.

And they missed a category. In some parts of the south, it’s actually “cocola.”

The sharp division between the UP and eastern Wisconsin is fascinating. I remember back in the seventies when my cousins moved to Milwaukee from where we lived in southeast Michigan, they told me about having to get used to the new vocabulary (they also called water fountains “bubblers”–weirdos).

I’m curious about the “other.” What do they call soft drinks in New Mexico?

Further thoughts: harkening back to Albion’s Seed, it would seem that both Puritans and Quakers are soda drinkers, whereas the Presbyterians opt for coke. And the Cavaliers seem to be a mix between the two. But which folkway created the pop drinkers? (Note that it really was culturally appropriate to split off West Virginia from Virginia way back when).

I’m originally from Popland, but I’ve been living in Sodavania for the past quarter century.

And they missed a category. In some parts of the south, it’s actually “cocola.”

The sharp division between the UP and eastern Wisconsin is fascinating. I remember back in the seventies when my cousins moved to Milwaukee from where we lived in southeast Michigan, they told me about having to get used to the new vocabulary (they also called water fountains “bubblers”–weirdos).

I’m curious about the “other.” What do they call soft drinks in New Mexico?

Further thoughts: harkening back to Albion’s Seed, it would seem that both Puritans and Quakers are soda drinkers, whereas the Presbyterians opt for coke. And the Cavaliers seem to be a mix between the two. But which folkway created the pop drinkers? (Note that it really was culturally appropriate to split off West Virginia from Virginia way back when).