charming

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I just saw a Charmin ad that honored the memory of the late Dick Wilson with a series of brief cuts from his "Don't Squeeze the Charmin" ads over the years. Seriously, I'm touched. I think that's nice. Lots of ad spokesmen have passed away and been summarily replaced with nary a word of thanks for their years of service. Commenters at the YouTube link above express some dissatisfaction with the memorial itself, but I'm just glad there was one.

So here's to Dick Wilson. He's squeezing the clouds now.
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holiday classic

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John Scalzi has reposted his list of the Ten Least Successful Holiday Specials, which he first presented three years ago. Last time, I quoted the Ayn Rand one (still my favorite), so I'll vary it a little this year:

The Lost Star Trek Christmas Episode: "A Most Illogical Holiday" (1968)

Mr. Spock, with his pointy ears, is hailed as a messiah on a wintry world where elves toil for a mysterious master, revealed to be Santa just prior to the first commercial break. Santa, enraged, kills Ensign Jones and attacks the Enterprise in his sleigh. As Scotty works to keep the power flowing to the shields, Kirk and Bones infiltrate Santa's headquarters. With the help of the comely and lonely Mrs. Claus, Kirk is led to the heart of the workshop, where he learns the truth: Santa is himself a pawn to a master computer, whose initial program is based on an ancient book of children's Christmas tales. Kirk engages the master computer in a battle of wits, demanding the computer explain how it is physically possible for Santa to deliver gifts to all the children in the universe in a single night. The master computer, confronted with this computational anomaly, self-destructs; Santa, freed from mental enslavement, releases the elves and begins a new, democratic society. Back on the ship, Bones and Spock bicker about the meaning of Christmas, an argument which ends when Scotty appears on the bridge with egg nog made with Romulan Ale.

Filmed during the series' run, this episode was never shown on network television and was offered in syndication only once, in 1975. Star Trek fans hint the episode was later personally destroyed by Gene Roddenberry. Rumor suggests Harlan Ellison may have written the original script; asked about the episode at 1978's IgunaCon II science fiction convention, however, Ellison described the episode as "a quiescently glistening cherem of pus."

Thanks to liveavatar for tipping me to this year's appearance. I expect many, many others are linking to it as well, judging from the enormous list of trackbacks at Scalzi's.
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the snows of yesteryear

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It's snowing again. Appropriately, it started while I was upstairs, poking through boxes, and finding this photo from 1989.

( it's a snowman )

more seasonality

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By request, I'm reposting the "Corporate Tree" picture. I took this in 2000, at the garden center where I worked in the corporate office. "Corporate" in this picture, refers to this office. The garden center itself had, literally, truckloads of trees. Anyway, this seedling pushed its way up behind the building, between the sidewalk and the cinder blocks, and since it was the season, I decorated it.

( O Tannenbaum )