Just a Sci-Fi Kid Like Me

One nice thing about lockdown, I suppose, is this is the first year where no one is guilt-tripping us for Christmas visits.

On the flipside, no holiday parties either, and holiday parties and making holiday food are my favorite seasonal things.

I got all my holiday shopping done online on Black Friday, which I'm always ambivalent about--on the one hand, how nice to get it all over with, on the other, how depressing that familial relationships can be codified by the exchange of goods.

Every year I pour over holiday recipes, but this year more so as I hunt for things that are small but also comparatively luxurious. I'm not sure why I think a nice cake or pie will somehow "fix things" but apparently I do.

I'm also trying to get a bunch of things done before the holidays. As ever I wonder at how many things end up on my docket. (The answer is: I say yes, or I volunteer, or I want to help someone with publishing so I say I'll be their co-author and--)

I also saw this article on Jolabokaflod and what I really want to do now is having a Christmas Eve zoom party to talk about books. Scott says people will be zooming with their families, and I ask, will they really? REALLY? (Maybe it's just my fam that doesn't zoom, I dunno.)

Scott went shopping this morning. He said the nice thing about Texas is that they sell turkey fryers year-round (ours met with an unforunate accident).

So here's the tree:



I started the chevre truffles and will work on cornbread in a bit. I'm the kind of nerd who looks forward to feasts because I like cooking for more than two peope--I blame my Mom since most of my recipes were designed to feed eight people.

I got out no cards this year (though thanks to everyone who sent us cards!) and packages probably won't go in the mail until Monday. I feel somewhat guilty, but figure that people who love me want me to be sane. (And have you looked outside recently? Eek!)

Anyhow, we're finishing cleaning up and will have friends Diana and Zach over tomorrow! Yay!

The Post displays abnormal quirkiness in this article asking well-known authors:

"IF YOU COULD SPEND A HOLIDAY WEEK AS A FICTIONAL CHARACTER , WHICH WOULD YOU CHOOSE AND WHY?"

My favorites:

Scrooge | in Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol

Scrooge, pre-visitation by the ghosts.

Prior to all that supernatural humbuggery, Ebenezer Scrooge was a contented, prosperous businessman. He paid his taxes and left everyone alone. In addition to his other qualities, he was prescient about energy conservation, even as far back as the 1830s. Did he let Bob Cratchit -- a man of unproven accounting competence, insofar as we know from the story -- burn ton after ton of coal and contribute to global warming? Talk about an inconvenient truth! In addition, Scrooge's views on how to deal with the poor and the "surplus population" were eminently utilitarian and sensible. Did Tiny Tim go on to become a useful member of society? Did he contribute in any meaningful way? Dickens is rather silent on that point.

Finally, Ebenezer Scrooge -- God bless him -- courageously and solitarily refused to go along with the crass commercialization of Christmas. What a shame that Dickens, an otherwise reliable moralist, should have given into such treacle and populist sentiment and turned this ethical exemplar -- this quiet giant of Stoicism -- into a mere warm and fuzzy old cuddlebear.

-- Christopher Buckley, author of "Thank You for Smoking"

and

Sub-Mariner, King of Atlantis | a Marvel Comics character

My first choice was Sinbad the Sailor because he's the original mack daddy explorer who scooped princesses worldwide and fought all the ill Harryhausen monsters, so you know he would have been cool to have been for Christmas, but with the war on terror going on . . . let's be real: Who the heck wants to get on a plane to Santo Domingo and end up in Syria with a bag over their head, being told waterboarding ain't torture?

So I'm thinking I'd like to be Prince Namor of Atlantis -- aka the Sub-Mariner. Not only is Namor good-looking and in incredible shape (check the abs), he's also an irascible, mixed-breed playboy, half-man, half-Atlantean (how very Caribbean of him). The fact that he can outswim a speedboat and outfly a jet and is as strong as one thousand men don't hurt either.

Why the Sub-Mariner? Well, like any good Island boy, I've always wanted to see the sea, but the way James Cameron has seen it: deep and strange. And a week as the Sub-Mariner would give me just that opportunity. The sea, as we all know or don't want to know, is dying. If you want to see it while it's still got legs (or life), see it now. I'd dive straight into the Puerto Rico trench, hang with the lantern fish, arm-wrestle giant squids and maybe track down the ruins of Atlantis.

Yes, the Sub-Mariner.

But only for the holiday. Seven days as the Sub-Mariner: a miracle. A lifetime as the Sub-Mariner, watching the seas die: a heartbreak.

And I, like most people, like my holidays light.

-- Junot Diaz, author of "The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao"


My own pick: Probably a toss-up between Death of the Endless and Jean-Luc Picard. If Death, we can share plum pudding and tea with teddy bears. I bet she likes to play Jenga too, but if not I know she at least likes Twister. That sounds very merry to me. If Picard, we'd also have plum pudding and tea and I'd bully him into singing French carols for awhile and then we'd have a lovely chat about archaeology.

~~

In other news I have an interview on the 14th. It looks to be one of those old-school types where I spend all day having mini-interviews with lots of people. Oh and I have to prepare a presentation on the importance of special collections. Um yeah. Locals, expect invites to a "congratulation or commiseration" outting that evening...