Question for the day -

If everyone is a unique individual with their own tastes, likes, and dislikes then how do mass produced one size fits most popular culture and brand names used as an expression of self continue to flourish?

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Feliz Navidad, Happy Holidays, Happy Yule, Merry Winter Solstice, Happy Kwanzaa, and sooooooo.....many, many more.

Point is, whoever you are, wherever you're from, whatever you do or don't believe in, you and I have something in common. We are both human beings. We both have families, those we were born into and those we've chosen. We both bleed if you cut us. We both smile if you let us.

So please, accept this small gift from me today. A wish for you and those you love to have peace and fellowship. To take deep breaths and sigh contented sighs. To love and to be loved. To put all the problems in the world and in our lives on hold, for just a little while. Tomorrow, we can go back to solving them, together.

:)

Greyhound

They have departed this world, yet still they ride through it. Charon, their driver, collects the coins from off their eyes, from under their tongues. The asphalt is his river now. Grey souls riding a grey bus, a faded dog on each side, chasing an eternal rabbit. Each soul searching for a reason for what was, for a path to what will be. Searching for their own angels, running from their own demons. Each has their own reason for not leaving this veil of tears, not yet, for not going wherever it is that the dead go, not yet. Doggedly chasing phantom rabbits down a moonlit interstate, in a bus with chrome sides worn to a dull almost transparent finish. As soft as dead leaves. As sharp as new wine.

Humanity Who'se to Blame? -

People blame this. People blame that. People blame everything, except people. People themselves are the problem. We always divide into 'Us' and 'Them'. Different people use different dividers. Some use sex. Some use money. Some use religion. Some use ethnicity. Some use other things. But, whatever we use to divide, we always divide. If division were the end of it that would be fine. Us and Them. Them and Us. But we're never satisfied with leaving it at that. We always want to go from Us and Them, to Us versus Them. They must be corrected. They must be contained. They must be controlled. We can voyage into space, and create computer networks that span our globe, yet we can not handle the simple truth that our neighbor is different from ourselves. I believe that humanity will never advance as a species until we can stop seeking to destroy those who pose no true threat to us, but are only different from us.

Tom Waits/Cookie Monster mashup - God's Away On Business

Hi! My Name is Shannon and I am a Food Critic -

Yes, it's finally happened. I've become one of those @#!!%$! snobby food critics.

1. Why does 90% of everything on the menu have to be something fried? Fried shrimp, fried chicken, country fried steak, french fries, fried fish, fried cheese, fried pickles.... enough!

2. What's the difference between a 12oz and a 14oz steak? 2oz of inedible rubber gristle that the cook left on instead of trimming it off.

3. Pssst! I have super powers just like in the X-Men movies. Really, it's true. Want to know what my mutant ability is?  I can taste how many miles what's on my plate rode in the back of an 18 wheeler truck to get there!

4. If everything on the menu comes to the restaurant prepackaged, then it's not a restaurant. It's a microwave with a waitress attached.

5. Not directly food related but, if you can't do basic math or understand simple English sentences then, you have no business waiting tables, running a cash register, etc.

6. There are plenty more, but I'll stop with five so this list doesn't degenerate into an expletive laden tirade.

Not all restaurants have all of these issues.  It's just that too many of them have at least some.  Some restaurants have great folks waiting tables who are working their tails off, but are overworked and unappreciated in whatever chain food ghetto their working at to pay the rent.  Other places, the cook is giving it his/her all but can't really do that much with the cardboard cutout ingredients shipped in from four states and two space shuttle flights away.

In short, there are too many so called restaurants where what's important is the theme not the food.  It's a chic bistro, or it's a slam'in sports bar, or it's a family dinning experience, or it's a trendy cafe, or it's a nostalgic trip to food like grandma used to make,  or it's one or another of a hundred other theme's.  But when you look at the menu, surprise, it's all the same stuff out of can or freezer bag, just un-thawed and dressed up a little different for each theme.

So here's to more focus on food and less on themes.  Better food might not fix all our problems, but it's a start.

Fairy Tale Princess -

A fairy tale princess with blood in her tears and steel in her heart.
I wrote this world for you.
I hope you like it.