feeling sad- Page 3

[DottieD'Luscia]

Posted: 12/4/06 at 11:37am

Peach, one of my babies is gray and white and absolutely adorable (and he knows it, too).

Elphaba, I totally understand where you're coming from, but I do hope you reconsider about the kittie.

[chicolini]

Posted: 12/4/06 at 3:36pm

I read a great take on holiday depression in December's issue of Food and Wine magazine, of all places. Here's an excerpt:

But society could fix all those problems and I’d still get the blues in December. This is when winter begins to extract real sacrifices. At Thanksgiving, you’re still coasting from summer’s last push. Thanksgiving is a harvest party, and while city rats like me don’t do any of the harvest work, the farmers who grow my food do, and they tell me that, by November, when the vines are brown and the pigs are slaughtered and the work is done, they finally have time to cook and plenty to cook with, and it makes them feel great. But a month later, the joy fades and the mean reality of the season sets in. Northeasterners who tend to cook seasonally are already tired of tubers by Christmas and are starting to remember that the grocery shopping doesn’t start to look up until the end of April, and that’s if you like ramps. December is when I finally hear the message being tapped out by the clawing tree branches against the dull aluminum sky.

In theory I should have figured it out months ago, because the days have been getting shorter since the end of June. By Thanksgiving the cycle is nearing the end and by Christmas it’s done. The winter solstice seems like a low point, but it’s a turning point. Yes, the sidewalks will ice over, the potatoes will sprout, but daylight is already fighting its way back. The nights yield to longer and longer days. This is the origin of the northern European winter festivals that are older than Christmas itself. Those ancient Germans, dressed in furs with their hair done in styles that must have appalled the Romans, knew one thing in their bones: The shortest day of the year called for a huge party. Observations of the solstice throughout Europe were so intense that the Church didn’t even try to stamp them out. Instead, in the fourth century a.d., Pope Julius I announced that, from then on, Christmas would be held on December 25, around the same time as those pagan celebrations rebelling against winter’s darkest hour.

In other words, we don’t get depressed at this time of the year because of the holidays. We have holidays at this time of the year because we are depressed. I find this immensely comforting somehow. The problem’s not me, and it’s not society either. It’s the planet. When I miss my subway stop because I’m preoccupied by grim thoughts, I remind myself that tree-worshipping pagans felt the same way, more or less. And that they figured out the cure: Light a bonfire, roast meat, get loaded and hunker down with the people you know best.




Pete Wells' article Cooking Up a Little Christmas Cheer

[Nina Myers]

Posted: 12/4/06 at 6:41pm

[YouWantitWhen????]

Posted: 12/4/06 at 6:55pm

Well, I think I am baking on Saturday, so if you want to take a short trip west, and visit with two kitties who would love another uncle, you are welcome to come join us in a cookie backing festival.

That, or I can just send you and Steve a few dozen of the end product!

Stoli and Zorra send their love, as do I.

[Elphaba]

Posted: 12/4/06 at 11:54pm

cookies!!!! Yup, I think I'll bake here on Saturday. We're driving to San Diego Sunday for a show, or I'd drive over!