Sunday, November 28, 2010

Christmas Quotes


Christmas waves a magic wand over this world, and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful.  ~Norman Vincent Peale


Christmas is a time when you get homesick - even when you're home.  ~Carol Nelson


He who has not Christmas in his heart will never find it under a tree.  ~Roy L. Smith


I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come round, as a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable time; the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys.  ~Charles Dickens


Christmas is the gentlest, loveliest festival of the revolving year - and yet, for all that, when it speaks, its voice has strong authority.  ~W.J. Cameron


The best of all gifts around any Christmas tree:  the presence of a happy family all wrapped up in each other.  ~Burton Hillis


One of the most glorious messes in the world is the mess created in the living room on Christmas day.  Don't clean it up too quickly.  ~Andy Rooney


Happy, happy Christmas, that can win us back to the delusions of our childish days; that can recall to the old man the pleasures of his youth; that can transport the sailor and the traveller, thousands of miles away, back to his own fire-side and his quiet home!  ~Charles Dickens, The Pickwick Papers, 1836


There has been only one Christmas - the rest are anniversaries.  ~W.J. Cameron


'Twas Christmas broach'd the mightiest ale;
'Twas Christmas told the merriest tale;
A Christmas gambol oft could cheer
The poor man's heart through half the year.
~Walter Scott


Christmas is a necessity.  There has to be at least one day of the year to remind us that we're here for something else besides ourselves.  ~Eric Sevareid


Our hearts grow tender with childhood memories and love of kindred, and we are better throughout the year for having, in spirit, become a child again at Christmas-time.  ~Laura Ingalls Wilder


May Peace be your gift at Christmas and your blessing all year through!  ~Author Unknown


I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year.  ~Charles Dickens


Never worry about the size of your Christmas tree.  In the eyes of children, they are all 30 feet tall.  ~Larry Wilde, The Merry Book of Christmas


Christmas is the season for kindling the fire of hospitality in the hall, the genial flame of charity in the heart.  ~Washington Irving


Gifts of time and love are surely the basic ingredients of a truly merry Christmas.  ~Peg Bracken


Isn't it funny that at Christmas something in you gets so lonely for - I don't know what exactly, but it's something that you don't mind so much not having at other times.  ~Kate L. Bosher


At Christmas, all roads lead home.  ~Marjorie Holmes


Instead of being a time of unusual behavior, Christmas is perhaps the only time in the year when people can obey their natural impulses and express their true sentiments without feeling self-conscious and, perhaps, foolish.  Christmas, in short, is about the only chance a man has to be himself.  ~Francis C. Farley


It is Christmas in the heart that puts Christmas in the air.  ~W.T. Ellis


For centuries men have kept an appointment with Christmas.  Christmas means fellowship, feasting, giving and receiving, a time of good cheer, home.  ~W.J. Ronald Tucker


Even as an adult I find it difficult to sleep on Christmas Eve.  Yuletide excitement is a potent caffeine, no matter your age.  ~Carrie Latet


Christmas is a time when kids tell Santa what they want and adults pay for it.  Deficits are when adults tell the government what they want and their kids pay for it.  ~Richard Lamm


Blessed is the season which engages the whole world in a conspiracy of love!  ~Hamilton Wright Mabie


Love is what's in the room with you at Christmas if you stop opening presents and listen.  ~Author unknown, attributed to a 7-year-old named Bobby


Christmas is forever, not for just one day,
for loving, sharing, giving, are not to put away
like bells and lights and tinsel, in some box upon a shelf.
The good you do for others is good you do yourself...
~Norman Wesley Brooks, "Let Every Day Be Christmas," 1976


When we were children we were grateful to those who filled our stockings at Christmas time.  Why are we not grateful to God for filling our stockings with legs?  ~G.K. Chesterton


Christmas is the day that holds all time together.  ~Alexander Smith


I wish we could put up some of the Christmas spirit in jars and open a jar of it every month.  ~Harlan Miller


From a commercial point of view, if Christmas did not exist it would be necessary to invent it.  ~Katharine Whitehorn


In the old days, it was not called the Holiday Season; the Christians called it 'Christmas' and went to church; the Jews called it 'Hanukkah' and went to synagogue; the atheists went to parties and drank.  People passing each other on the street would say 'Merry Christmas!' or 'Happy Hanukkah!'  or (to the atheists) 'Look out for the wall!'  ~Dave Barry, "Christmas Shopping:  A Survivor's Guide"


Remember
This December,
That love weighs more than gold!
~Josephine Dodge Daskam Bacon


I sometimes think we expect too much of Christmas Day.  We try to crowd into it the long arrears of kindliness and humanity of the whole year.  As for me, I like to take my Christmas a little at a time, all through the year.  And thus I drift along into the holidays - let them overtake me unexpectedly - waking up some find morning and suddenly saying to myself:  "Why, this is Christmas Day!"  ~David Grayson


A Christmas candle is a lovely thing;
It makes no noise at all,
But softly gives itself away.
~Eva Logue


Christmas is not as much about opening our presents as opening our hearts.  ~Janice Maeditere


Perhaps the best Yuletide decoration is being wreathed in smiles.  ~Author Unknown


Oh look, yet another Christmas TV special!  How touching to have the meaning of Christmas brought to us by cola, fast food, and beer.... Who'd have ever guessed that product consumption, popular entertainment, and spirituality would mix so harmoniously?  ~Bill Watterson, Calvin & Hobbes


Only in souls the Christ is brought to birth,
And there He lives and dies.
~Alfred Noyes


For the spirit of Christmas fulfils the greatest hunger of mankind.  ~Loring A. Schuler


This is the message of Christmas:  We are never alone.  ~Taylor Caldwell


Tradition: sit with husband in a room lit only by tree lights and remember that our blessings outnumber the lights.  Happy Christmas to all.  ~Betsy CaƱas Garmon, www.wildthymecreative.com


At Christmas play and make good cheer,
For Christmas comes but once a year
~Thomas Tusser


Christmas is for children.  But it is for grown-ups too.  Even if it is a headache, a chore, and nightmare, it is a period of necessary defrosting of chill and hide-bound hearts.  ~Lenora Mattingly Weber


Sing hey!  Sing hey!
For Christmas Day;
Twine mistletoe and holly.
For a friendship glows
In winter snows,
And so let's all be jolly!
~Author Unknown


To perceive Christmas through its wrapping becomes more difficult with every year.  ~E.B. White, "The Distant Music of the Hounds," The Second Tree from the Corner, 1954


Oh, for the good old days when people would stop Christmas shopping when they ran out of money.  ~Author Unknown


I can understand people simply fleeing the mountainous effort Christmas has become... but there are always a few saving graces and finally they make up for all the bother and distress.  ~May Sarton


It is the Christmas time:
And up and down 'twixt heaven and earth,
In glorious grief and solemn mirth,
The shining angels climb.
~Dinah Maria Mulock


Fail not to call to mind, in the course of the twenty-fifth of this month, that the Divinest Heart that ever walked the earth was born on that day; and then smile and enjoy yourselves for the rest of it; for mirth is also of Heaven's making.  ~Leigh Hunt


The perfect Christmas tree?  All Christmas trees are perfect!  ~Charles N. Barnard


Great little One! whose all-embracing birth
Lifts Earth to Heaven, stoops Heaven to Earth.
~Richard Crashaw


I do like Christmas on the whole.... In its clumsy way, it does approach Peace and Goodwill.  But it is clumsier every year.  ~E.M. Forster


At Christmas
A man is at his finest towards the finish of the year;
He is almost what he should be when the Christmas season's here;
Then he's thinking more of others than he's thought the months before,
And the laughter of his children is a joy worth toiling for.
He is less a selfish creature than at any other time;
When the Christmas spirit rules him he comes close to the sublime...
~Edgar Guest


Christmas is the season when you buy this year's gifts with next year's money.  ~Author Unknown


The Church does not superstitiously observe days, merely as days, but as memorials of important facts.  Christmas might be kept as well upon one day of the year as another; but there should be a stated day for commemorating the birth of our Saviour, because there is danger that what may be done on any day, will be neglected.  ~Samuel Johnson


As long as we know in our hearts what Christmas ought to be, Christmas is.  ~Eric Sevareid


When we recall Christmas past, we usually find that the simplest things - not the great occasions - give off the greatest glow of happiness.  ~Bob Hope


[I]t is the one season of the year when we can lay aside all gnawing worry, indulge in sentiment without censure, assume the carefree faith of childhood, and just plain "have fun."  Whether they call it Yuletide, Noel, Weinachten, or Christmas, people around the earth thirst for its refreshment as the desert traveller for the oasis.  ~D.D. Monroe


Roses are reddish
Violets are bluish
If it weren't for Christmas
We'd all be Jewish.
~Benny Hill


May the spirit of Christmas bring you peace,
The gladness of Christmas give you hope,
The warmth of Christmas grant you love.
~Author Unknown


Christmas!  The very word brings joy to our hearts.  No matter how we may dread the rush, the long Christmas lists for gifts and cards to be bought and given - when Christmas Day comes there is still the same warm feeling we had as children, the same warmth that enfolds our hearts and our homes.  ~Joan Winmill Brown


May you have the gladness of Christmas which is hope;
The spirit of Christmas which is peace;
The heart of Christmas which is love.
~Ada V. Hendricks


The best Christmas trees come very close to exceeding nature.  ~Andy Rooney


What is Christmas?  It is tenderness for the past, courage for the present, hope for the future.  It is a fervent wish that every cup may overflow with blessings rich and eternal, and that every path may lead to peace.  ~Agnes M. Pahro


Be merry all, be merry all,
With holly dress the festive hall;
Prepare the song, the feast, the ball,
To welcome merry Christmas.
~William Robert Spencer


The Christmas season has come to mean the period when the public plays Santa Claus to the merchants.  ~John Andrew Holmes


If "ifs" and "buts" were candy and nuts, wouldn't it be a Merry Christmas?  ~Don Meredith


Once again, we come to the Holiday Season, a deeply religious time that each of us observes, in his own way, by going to the mall of his choice.  ~Author Unknown


I heard the bells on Christmas Day
Their old, familiar carols play,
And wild and sweet
The words repeat
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!
~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow


The message of Christmas is that the visible material world is bound to the invisible spiritual world.  ~Author Unknown


Were I a philosopher, I should write a philosophy of toys, showing that nothing else in life need to be taken seriously, and that Christmas Day in the company of children is one of the few occasions on which men become entirely alive.  ~Robert Lynd


Mankind is a great, an immense family.  This is proved by what we feel in our hearts at Christmas.  ~Pope John XXIII


I love the Christmas-tide, and yet,
I notice this, each year I live;
I always like the gifts I get,
But how I love the gifts I give!
~Carolyn Wells


'Tis blessed to bestow, and yet,
Could we bestow the gifts we get,
And keep the ones we give away,
How happy were our Christmas day!
~Carolyn Wells


There are no strangers on Christmas Eve.  ~Mildred Cram and Adele Comandini


There is a remarkable breakdown of taste and intelligence at Christmastime.  Mature, responsible grown men wear neckties made of holly leaves and drink alcoholic beverages with raw egg yolks and cottage cheese in them.  ~P.J. O'Rourke


Christmas is not a time or a season but a state of mind.  To cherish peace and good will, to be plenteous in mercy, is to have the real spirit of Christmas.  ~Calvin Coolidge, 1927


No matter how carefully you stored the lights last year, they will be snarled again this Christmas.  ~Robert Kirby


Except the Christ be born again tonight
In dreams of all men, saints and sons of shame,
The world will never see his kingdom bright.
~Vachel Lindsay


Like snowflakes, my Christmas memories gather and dance - each beautiful, unique and too soon gone.  ~Deborah Whipp


When Christmas bells are swinging above the fields of snow, we hear sweet voices ringing from lands of long ago, and etched on vacant places are half-forgotten faces of friends we used to cherish, and loves we used to know.  ~Ella Wheeler Wilcox


I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come round apart from the veneration due to its sacred name and origin, if anything belonging to it can be apart from that - as a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time.  ~Charles Dickens


At Christmas-tide the open hand
Scatters its bounty o'er sea and land,
And none are left to grieve alone,
For Love is heaven and claims its own.
~Margaret Elizabeth Sangster


There's nothing sadder in this world than to awake Christmas morning and not be a child.  ~Erma Bombeck, I Lost Everything in the Post-Natal Depression


The one thing women don't want to find in their stockings on Christmas morning is their husband.  ~Joan Rivers


The Supreme Court has ruled that they cannot have a nativity scene in Washington, D.C.  This wasn't for any religious reasons.  They couldn't find three wise men and a virgin.  ~Jay Leno


I hear that in many places something has happened to Christmas; that it is changing from a time of merriment and carefree gaiety to a holiday which is filled with tedium; that many people dread the day and the obligation to give Christmas presents is a nightmare to weary, bored souls; that the children of enlightened parents no longer believe in Santa Claus; that all in all, the effort to be happy and have pleasure makes many honest hearts grow dark with despair instead of beaming with good will and cheerfulness.  ~Julia Peterkin, A Plantation Christmas, 1934


The earth has grown old with its burden of care,
But at Christmas it always is young....
~Phillips Brooks


Nothing's as mean as giving a little child something useful for Christmas.  ~Kin Hubbard


The worst gift is a fruitcake.  There is only one fruitcake in the entire world, and people keep sending it to each other.  ~Johnny Carson


Let Christmas not become a thing
Merely of merchant's trafficking,
Of tinsel, bell and holly wreath
And surface pleasure, but beneath
The childish glamour, let us find
Nourishment for soul and mind.
Let us follow kinder ways
Through our teeming human maze,
And help the age of peace to come
From a Dreamer's martyrdom.
~Madeline Morse


Have yourself a merry little Christmas, make the Yuletide gay.  ~Ralph Blane


It is good to be children sometimes, and never better than at Christmas when its mighty Founder was a child Himself.  ~Charles Dickens


Three phrases that sum up Christmas are:  Peace on Earth, Goodwill to Men, and Batteries not Included.  ~Author Unknown


I once bought my kids a set of batteries for Christmas with a note on it saying, toys not included.  ~Bernard Manning


Christmas begins about the first of December with an office party and ends when you finally realize what you spent, around April fifteenth of the next year.  ~P.J. O'Rourke, Modern Manners


Next to a circus there ain't nothing that packs up and tears out faster than the Christmas spirit.  ~Kin Hubbard


Once again we find ourselves enmeshed in the Holiday Season, that very special time of year when we join with our loved ones in sharing centuries-old traditions such as trying to find a parking space at the mall.  We traditionally do this in my family by driving around the parking lot until we see a shopper emerge from the mall, then we follow her, in very much the same spirit as the Three Wise Men, who 2,000 years ago followed a star, week after week, until it led them to a parking space.  ~Dave Barry


Keep your Christmas-heart open all the year round.  ~Jessica Archmint


Wouldn't life be worth the living
Wouldn't dreams be coming true
If we kept the Christmas spirit
All the whole year through?
~Author Unknown


The universal joy of Christmas is certainly wonderful.  We ring the bells when princes are born, or toll a mournful dirge when great men pass away.  Nations have their red-letter days, their carnivals and festivals, but once in the year and only once, the whole world stands still to celebrate the advent of a life.  ~Author Unknown


We ring the bells and we raise the strain
We hang up garlands everywhere
And bid the tapers twinkle fair,
And feast and frolic - and then we go
Back to the same old lives again.
~Susan Coolidge


I never believed in Santa Claus because I knew no white dude would come into my neighborhood after dark.  ~Dick Gregory


Christmas is a time to open our hearts to God and his gifts.  Just like the rest of the year.  ~Author Unknown


I'm dreaming of a white Christmas,
Just like the ones I used to know,
Where the tree tops glisten
And children listen
To hear sleigh bells in the snow...
~Irving Berlin


Christmas Eve was a night of song that wrapped itself about you like a shawl.  But it warmed more than your body.  It warmed your heart... filled it, too, with melody that would last forever.  ~Bess Streeter Aldrich


Mail your packages early so the post office can lose them in time for Christmas.  ~Johnny Carson


Whatever else be lost among the years,
Let us keep Christmas still a shining thing;
Whatever doubts assail us, or what fears,
Let us hold close one day, remembering
Its poignant meaning for the hearts of men.
Let us get back our childlike faith again.
~Grace Noll Crowell


And the Grinch, with his Grinch-feet ice cold in the snow, stood puzzling and puzzling, how could it be so?  It came without ribbons.  It came without tags.  It came without packages, boxes or bags.  And he puzzled and puzzled 'till his puzzler was sore.  Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before.  What if Christmas, he thought, doesn't come from a store.  What if Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more.  ~Dr Seuss


O Christmas Sun!  What holy task is thine!
To fold a world in the embrace of God!
~Guy Wetmore Carryl


Christmas is a day of meaning and traditions, a special day spent in the warm circle of family and friends.  ~Margaret Thatcher


Love came down at Christmas,
Love all lovely, Love Divine;
Love was born at Christmas;
Star and angels gave the sign.
~Christina Rossetti


Christmas - that magic blanket that wraps itself about us, that something so intangible that it is like a fragrance.  It may weave a spell of nostalgia.  Christmas may be a day of feasting, or of prayer, but always it will be a day of remembrance - a day in which we think of everything we have ever loved.  ~Augusta E. Rundel


Santa is very jolly because he knows where all the bad girls live.  ~Dennis Miller


It is the most human and kindly of seasons, as fully penetrated and irradiated with the feeling of human brotherhood, which is the essential spirit of Christianity, as the month of June with sunshine and the balmy breath of roses.  ~George William Curtis


'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, - not even a mouse:
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
In hopes that St Nicholas soon would be there....
~Clement Clarke Moore


People can't concentrate properly on blowing other people to pieces if their minds are poisoned by thoughts suitable to the twenty-fifth of December.  ~Ogden Nash


Christmas gift suggestions:  To your enemy, forgiveness.  To an opponent, tolerance.  To a friend, your heart.  To a customer, service.  To all, charity.  To every child, a good example.  To yourself, respect.  ~Oren Arnold


Christmas in Bethlehem.  The ancient dream: a cold, clear night made brilliant by a glorious star, the smell of incense, shepherds and wise men falling to their knees in adoration of the sweet baby, the incarnation of perfect love.  ~Lucinda Franks


Oh! lovely voices of the sky
Which hymned the Saviour's birth,
Are ye not singing still on high,
Ye that sang, "Peace on earth"?
~Felicia Hemans


We hear the beating of wings over Bethlehem and a light that is not of the sun or of the stars shines in the midnight sky.  Let the beauty of the story take away all narrowness, all thought of formal creeds.  Let it be remembered as a story that has happened again and again, to men of many different races, that has been expressed through many religions, that has been called by many different names.  Time and space and language lay no limitations upon human brotherhood.  ~New York Times, 25 December 1937, quoted in Quotations for Special Occasions by Maud van Buren, 1938, published by The H.W. Wilson Company, New York


Which Christmas is the most vivid to me?  It's always the next Christmas.  ~Joanne Woodward
   


Christmas waves a magic wand over this world, and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful.
Norman Vincent Peale

Blessed is the season which engages the whole world in a conspiracy of love.
Hamilton Wright Mabi

Christmas - that magic blanket that wraps itself about us, that something so intangible that it is like a fragrance. It may weave a spell of nostalgia. Christmas may be a day of feasting, or of prayer, but always it will be a day of remembrance - a day in which we think of everything we have ever loved.
Augusta E. Rundel

Remember, this December, that love weighs more than gold.
Josephine Dodge Daskam Bacon

Christmas gift suggestions:
To your enemy, forgiveness.
To an opponent, tolerance.
To a friend, your heart.
To a customer, service.
To all, charity.
To every child, a good example.
To yourself, respect.
Oren Arnold

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus! It would be as dreary as if there were no Virginias. There would be no child-like faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.
Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies!
Francis P. Church
From the New York Sun, September 21, 1897.

If there is no joyous way to give a festive gift, give love away.
Author Unknown

Let us remember that the Christmas heart is a giving heart, a wide open heart that thinks of others first. The birth of the baby Jesus stands as the most significant event in all history, because it has meant the pouring into a sick world of the healing medicine of love which has transformed all manner of hearts for almost two thousand years... Underneath all the bulging bundles is this beating Christmas heart.
George Mathhew Adams

From Home to home, and heart to heart, from one place to another.
The warmth and joy of Christmas, brings us closer to each other.
Emily Matthews

Somehow, not only for Christmas,
But all the long year through,
The joy that you give to others,
Is the joy that comes back to you.
And the more you spend in blessing,
The poor and lonely and sad,
The more of your heart's possessing,
Returns to you glad.
John Greenleaf Whittier

It is Christmas in the heart that puts Christmas in the air.
W. T. Ellis

The merry family gatherings -
The old, the very young;
The strangely lovely way they
Harmonize in carols sung.
For Christmas is tradition time -
Traditions that recall
The precious memories down the years,
The sameness of them all.
Helen Lowrie Marshall

The best of all gifts around any Christmas tree: the presence of a happy family all wrapped up in each other.
Burton Hillis

Love came down at Christ
Love all lovely, love divine;
Love was born at Christmas,
Stars and angels gave the sign.
Christina Rossetti

Christmas ... is not an eternal event at all, but a piece of one's home that one carries in one's heart.
Freya Stark

I heard the bells on Christmas Day.
Their old familiar carols play.
And wild and sweet the words repeat.
Of peace on earth goodwill to men.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Christmas is a time when people of all religions come together to worship Jesus Christ.
Bart Simpson

Christmas is not a time nor a season, but a state of mind. To cherish peace and goodwill, to be plenteous in mercy, is to have the real spirit of Christmas.
Calvin Coolidge

Christmas is the season for kindling the fire of hospitality in the hall, the genial flame of charity in the heart.
Washington Irving

Christmas reminds us we are not alone. We are not unrelated atoms, bouncing and ricocheting amid aliens, but are a part of something, which holds and sustains us. As we struggle with shopping lists and invitations, compounded by December's bad weather, it is good to be reminded that there are people in our lives who are worth this aggravation, and people to whom we are worth the same. Christmas shows us the ties that bind us together, threads of love and caring, woven in the simplest and strongest way within the family.
Donald E. Westlake

Christmas won't be Christmas without any presents.
Louisa May Alcott

Christmas, children, is not a date. It is a state of mind.
Mary Ellen Chase

Do they still make wooden Christmas Trees?
Charles Schulz
Linus Van Pelt in Peanuts.

Forget about the crackers,
And forget about the candy;
I'm sure a box of chocolates
Would never come in handy;
I don't like oranges,
I don't want nuts,
And I HAVE got a pocket-knife
That almost cuts.
But, oh! Father Christmas, if you love me at all,
Bring me a big, red india-rubber ball!
A. A. Milne
King John's Christmas.

He who has not Christmas in his heart will never find it under a tree.
Roy L. Smith

Heap on the wood! - the wind is chill;
But let it whistle as it will,
We'll keep our Christmas merry still.
Sir Walter Scott

And is it true? and is it true?
This most tremendous tale of all,
Seen in a stained-glass window's hue,
A Baby in an ox's stall?
The Maker of the stars and sea
Become a Child on earth for me?
And is it true? For if it is,
No loving fingers tying strings
Around those tissued fripperies,
The sweet and silly Christmas things,
Bath salts and inexpensive scent
And hideous tie so kindly meant.
No love that in a family dwells,
No carolling in frosty air,
Nor all the steeple-shaking bells
Can with this single Truth compare -
That God was man in Palestine
And lives today in Bread and Wine.
John Betjeman

And in our world of plenty
We can spread a smile of joy
Throw your arms around the world
At Christmastime.
Bob Geldof and Midge Ure
Do They Know It's Christmas?

And So This Is Christmas;
And What Have We Done?
Another Year Over; A New One Just Begun;
And So Happy Christmas;
I Hope You Have Fun;
The Near And The Dear Ones;
The Old And The Young.
John Lennon
Happy Christmas (War is Over).

At Christmas play, and make good cheer,
For Christmas comes but once a year.
Thomas Tusser
The Farmer's Daily Diet, 1557


   

"It's better to like beautiful girls than to be gay" -- Silvio Berlusconi, Italian Prime Minister, speaking about his latest scandal, in which a teenage girl told of the "bunga bunga" orgies she witnessed at his home when she was 17.

"I feel sorry for straight men. The only reason women will have sex with them is that sex is the price they are willing to pay for a relationship with a man, which is what they want." -- Stephen Fry, actor, claims straight women don't really like sex.

"I had a sickening feeling every time I thought about it. I still do." -- George W. Bush, writing in his new memoir, Decision Point, that he still feels bad no weapons of mass destruction were found in Iraq.


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Saturday, November 27, 2010

Deathday: Playwright Eugene O'Neill 1953


Eugene Gladstone O'Neill (16 October 1888 – 27 November 1953) was an American playwright, and Nobel laureate in Literature. His plays are among the first to introduce into American drama the techniques of realism, associated with Russian playwright Anton Chekhov, Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen, and Swedish playwright August Strindberg. His plays were among the first to include speeches in American vernacular and involve characters on the fringes of society, engaging in depraved behavior, where they struggle to maintain their hopes and aspirations, but ultimately slide into disillusionment and despair. O'Neill wrote only one well-known comedy (Ah, Wilderness!). Nearly all of his other plays involve some degree of tragedy and personal pessimism.


Illness and death

After suffering from multiple health problems (including depression and alcoholism) over many years, O'Neill ultimately faced a severe Parkinsons-like tremor in his hands which made it impossible for him to write during the last 10 years of his life; he had tried using dictation but found himself unable to compose in that way. While at Tao House, O’Neill had intended to write a cycle of 11 plays chronicling an American family since the 1800s. Only two of these, A Touch of the Poet and More Stately Mansions were ever completed. As his health worsened, O’Neill lost inspiration for the project and wrote three largely autobiographical plays, The Iceman Cometh, Long Day's Journey Into Night, and A Moon for the Misbegotten. He managed to complete Moon for the Misbegotten in 1943, just before leaving Tao House and losing his ability to write. Drafts of many other uncompleted plays were destroyed by Carlotta at Eugene’s request.

O'Neill died in Room 401 of the Sheraton Hotel on Bay State Road in Boston, on November 27, 1953, at the age of 65. As he was dying, he, in a barely audible whisper, spoke his last words: "I knew it. I knew it. Born in a hotel room, and God damn it, died in a hotel room." The building would later become the Shelton Hall dormitory at Boston University. There is an urban legend perpetuated by students that O'Neill's spirit haunts the room and dormitory. A revised analysis of his autopsy report shows that, contrary to the previous diagnosis, he did not have Parkinson's disease, but a late-onset cerebellar cortical atrophy.

He is interred in the Forest Hills Cemetery in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts.

Although his written instructions had stipulated that it not be made public until 25 years after his death, in 1956 Carlotta arranged for his autobiographical masterpiece Long Day's Journey Into Night to be published, and produced on stage to tremendous critical acclaim and won the Pulitzer Prize in 1957. This last play is widely considered to be his finest. Other posthumously-published works include A Touch of the Poet (1958) and More Stately Mansions (1967).

The United States Postal Service honored O'Neill with a Prominent Americans series (1965–1978) $1 postage stamp.


Eugene O'Neill : Complete Plays 1932-1943 (Library of America)American Experience - Eugene O'Neill: A Documentary FilmEugene O'Neill's A Moon for the Misbegotten (Broadway Theatre Archive)Eugene O'Neill : Complete Plays 1913-1920 (Library of America)Long Day's Journey Into NightEugene O'Neill's Mourning Becomes Electra (Broadway Theatre Archive)Eugene O'Neill's The Iceman Cometh (Broadway Theatre Archive)Eugene O'Neill / TIME Cover: October 21, 1946, Art Poster by TIME MagazineEugene O'Neill : Complete Plays 1920-1931 (Library of America)Eugene O'Neill: Beyond Mourning and TragedyEugene O'Neill's Beyond the Horizon (Broadway Theatre Archive)Eugene O'Neill's Ah, Wilderness! (Broadway Theatre Archive)The Cambridge Companion to Eugene O'Neill (Cambridge Companions to Literature) (Volume 0)Famous Authors: Eugene O'Neill (Dol)

Friday, November 26, 2010

Some Wierd But Cool Macbook Concept Designs

Do you think you can come up with a better design than Apple for its popular products such as the MacBook and Mac mini? here is a collection of apple coolest but weird concepts.Most of them are pretty nifty, maybe the designers over at Apple would want to check it out for their next product design.

1. Macbook Water Concept

Greeks proposed a concept centuries ago that the world is made up of four basic elements namely Air, Earth, Water and Fire. Well MacBook Air is already out in the market so who says that we shouldn’t expect a MacBook Earth, Water and Fire too. Dvice has made an excellent concept of these 3, however we liked the iFluid idea MacBook Water is an iFluid device that has less booting time than a cell phone. Pour the fluid on a flat surface to get the MacBook Water started and to close it simply wipe the fluid off the surface. Storing it at temperate below 0°C voids the warranty of the product. But unfortunately it is impossible to make it now, lets hope it in next century. Via sizlopedia.
2. Macbook 3d Concept 
We have stepped in world of 3D-enabled technologies. Just imagine chat rouletting in 3D! and a hingeless spine design. Take a look at this MacBook 3D. Via yankodesign. 
3. Apple Mac-tribook Concept

The Apple triBook aims to resolve the issue of screen space that traditionally is a bugbear for most users of notebooks. The triBook comes with two additional side screens in additional to the main screen; thus increasing the total screen space to 21″. The two folding screens are intended to offer users more options to multi-task. However prima facie evidence, as gathered from reading other reports online, suggests that it is gamers who have responded most cheerfully to this news. Via maclife

4. Foldable Macbook Touch Concept

Introducing the first OLED touchscreen flexible macbook ever, the first laptop you can model at will. Via tommasogecchelin

 5. Virtual Macbook Air Concept 
Imagine a lighter MacBook Air, with a virtual keyboard instead of the physical one. The use of two touchscreens made the need of a mouse futile and now no real keyboard, small laser projector that displays a virtual keyboard on a flat laptop surface, makes it much thinner than Dell 9.99 concepts and of course old macbook air which is much fatter in front of it via Petitinvention

6.Digi-roll Macbook Concept 

This is next generation macbook concept where you can actually roll your laptop like an umbrella. Imagine how portable it’d be all rolled up. There’s an in-between configuration that you could theoretically use to browse email quickly, and the straps double as places to plug in your USB devices. It also has a detachable webcam you could use on your macbook or wear on your wrist, however digi roll is not specfically designed for apple but it would be cool to have it for macbook
via D-roll

7. Transparent Macbook Concept

A picture really does say a thousand words. Wouldn’t it be completely magical to have a transparent laptop? Via 2day
 
8.MacBook Mini Concept


It just looks too good and perfect to be true—which is why I want it to be real: It is less than half the size of any macbook and with the perfect, dream technical specs to boot. It features a foldable trackpad which saves up the space when you are not using the keyboard. One other mockup of the MacBook mini by the same designer is a sliding trackpad, which sounds like a better idea than the foldable one. Via slashgear.


9. Macbook with Optimus Maximus Concept



Optimus Maximus, is the dream of any heavy computer user and what if the two technologies combine? Macbook with a completely customizable OLED using optimus maximus. It would looks stunning and the minute you see it, you would realize that you are looking at a device that has some actual richness of personality and could provide a richer experience.


10. Macbook Folder Concept



Is it next MacBook? no, but everyone likes to put their 2 cents in. It’s called the Mac Folder – not all that different from any other laptop but this could be the netbook everyone wants/expects Apple to make. This ultra slim e-folder ‘Macbook Folder’ is equipped with a touch screen display, a large-button keyboard, two built-in speakers, MAC operating system, Bluetooth and wireless LAN. Via laptopinyo.

Helping the Homeless: a few propositions and provocations


France Bula reported this morning that the City and Province have reached an agreement on the funding for additional homeless shelters this winter. While I was pleased to read this, I couldn't help but think about some other cost effective approaches that might be worthy of further consideration to help the homeless. So here's what I posted on Frances' Blog. I'd welcome any comments, or better still, I'd encourage anyone who agrees with some of these ideas to help promote them and make them happen.

When I first started volunteering with the Building Community Society in the DTES, my first proposition was that we should build more shelters as a short term solution. I was attacked by a number of community organizers for proposing this, noting that shelters are nothing more than stop-gap. But the realty is that they are an effective way to get people off the streets. I think the current administration should be complimented for getting some new shelters in operation. But they can be surprisingly expensive to operate, so other solutions are required.

Two years ago this administration also supported proposals from Gregory Henriquez and myself to create additional housing stock using prefabricated modular housing, located on ‘temporary sites’. It could then be relocated to other future development sites. I was encouraged by the city’s interest; however, other than a subsequent announcement by Kerry Jang that he would like to explore the idea further, nothing has happened. I have offered to meet with Kerry Jang and Dennis Carr in the housing department to discuss this approach further. Both indicated an interest in getting together, and I expect to meet with them in the coming weeks.

However, the real purpose for this note is to suggest some other things that the Mayor and city could be doing, in concert with the Province, the private sector, and the non-profit sector to further address homelessness. I have written about some of these ideas before, but here they are again, since they may warrant further consideration.

1. house the homeless in existing apartments, rather than wait for purpose built housing to be completed. This is the approach followed by Toronto’s Streets to Homes program, with considerable success. In addition to getting instant housing, Toronto also arranged for a variety of support services. This program took more than 2000 people off Toronto’s streets in a cost effective way. I don’t understand why we haven’t tried it. To those who say it’s because we don’t have available rental stock, I say, nonesense. We have hundreds of units coming available every month…many would be suitable.

2. help create more employment. I have supported Shirley Chan’s BOB and EMBERS in the DTES. I am convinced that with a concerted effort by City Hall, these organizations and others could do much more. We need to talk about this, and do something about it. While I appreciate many of the homeless are not able to work a full time job, or even a part time job, many could benefit from some employment programs. Christmas is a time when many of us feel a bit more charitable…perhaps we can help get a few more people working.

3. one reason the homeless have a hard time getting a job is that they don’t have an address, and they don’t have suitable clothes and they often need support with hygiene. Since the shelters do not offer an ‘address’, I would like to think that we could come up with a creative way to give people an address, if only for the purposes of job applications. Why not Post Office boxes for the homeless who want them? the city doesn’t have to provide them…just promote the idea.

Similarly, the city could be helping people get cleaned up…..why aren’t there free barber shops for anyone who wants to get a haircut and shave in order to get out and find work? Again, the city doesn’t need to hire barbers and hairdressers…just be a catalyst…talk about the idea, promote it and it may well happen. there are lots of retired barbers and hairdressers who I suspect would be happy to help out…

Similarly, the city could help find clothing for those who need clothes… Many of us have clothes we would happily donate to those looking to keep warm or clean themselves up to get work. Often, we just need a nudge and info on where to take things to follow up. I think the city could work with other social agencies to help in this effort.

Many people can’t find work because they need dental work and other similar assistance. Again, I know there are some volunteer programs operating in the DTES, but we need more. I’d like to think the city could make this sort of thing happen. Perhaps what is needed is a public call to get dentists to help out, in the DTES, or in their own offices. I’m convinced that some real help could be offered in a short period of time.

4. family/friend reunification..I know that many are on the streets to escape unhappy family lives. But many more have cousins and uncles or grandparents or just friends with whom they might like to be reunited, if only they had some encouragement and assistance. There are lots of us who love surfing the internet who could volunteer some time to help people reconnect. I am told the Salvation Army has such a program…But so much more could be done. Just as libraries have a day when people can bring back their overdue books without fines, we should establish a day when people are encouraged to reestablish overdue relationships.

I’m sure some of you are probably thinking that I have lost my mind by suggesting that the Mayor should be doing some of these things…

I know that many people have mental illnesses and addictions that need to be addressed. These are major challenges. But I know there have been successes in other communities with the kind of programs I am suggesting.

I would like to think that this Mayor, with all of the publicity and attention his office can muster, could and should play a role in promoting a broad range of intiatives to help improve the lives of the homeless and destitute. And why not do so at this particular time of year.

Last year Pete McMartin, one of my favourite columnists, wrote about school kids who helped create Holiday Greeting Cards for the homeless and others in the DTES to send to family and friends…they got stamps and helped find addresses …. it was a lovely story and I’m convinced that so much more could be done along these lines.

So to conclude, yes it is important to build new, suitable designed permanent housing. And yes, additional shelters are helpful, especially if they have lockers (and too many do not). And yes we need more facilities for those with mental illnesses and addictions…..

But there are many more small, complimentary things that could be done. They take leadership and caring, and I’d like to see some of these ideas discussed, and if valid, implemented this holiday season.

christmas sms, christmas sms messages, merry christmas sms, christmas text messages

christmas greetings, christmas greetings text, christmas message, christmas cards, christmas quotes, christmas wishes, christmas sayings, christmas poems, holiday greetings

Christmas, the second-greatest feast day in the Christian calendar (after Easter Sunday), celebrates the nativity, or birth, of Jesus Christ.

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What is the date of Christmas 2010? Answer: Christmas Day falls on Saturday, December 25, 2010.

Here is a collection of Happy Christmas 2010 SMS

Christmas may be many things
or it may be a few.
For you, the joy
is each new toy;
for me;
it’s watching U.
-----------------------------------------------
Two things upon this changing earth can neither change nor end; the splendor of Christ's humble birth, the love of friend for friend.
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Ur friendship is a glowing ember through the yr n each december frm its warm n livin spark v kindle flame against da dark n with its shining radiance light our tree of faith on Christmas night.
-----------------------------------------------
May all the sweet magic
Of Christmas conspire
To gladden your hearts
And fill every desire.
-----------------------------------------------
()"""() ,*
( 'o' ) ,***
=(,,)=("')<-***
(""),,,("") "**
Roses 4 u...
MERRY CHRISTMAS to
U...
-----------------------------------------------
Lets welcome the year which is fresh
Lets welcome the year which is fresh and new,Lets cherish each moment it beholds, Lets celebrate this blissful New year. Merry X-mas
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Can I have your picture, so Santa Claus knows exactly what to give me. Happy Christmas.
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If one night a big fat man jumps in at your window, grabs you and puts you in a sack don't worry I told Santa I wanted you for CHRISTMAS.HAPPY CHRISTMAS
-----------------------------------------------
Have an ideal Christmas;
an occasion that is celebrated as a reflection of your values, desires, affections, traditions.
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Heap on the wood!-the wind is chill; But let it whistle as it will, We'll keep our Christmas merry still.
-----------------------------------------------

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Thursday, November 25, 2010

Weirdest Things Smuggled on an Airplane

You might think that the increased security at airports around the world would deter would-be smugglers, but you'd be wrong. Motivated most often by profit, passengers have been caught with a jaw-dropping array of items, from tiger cubs and monkeys to exotic fish and even a human corpse. And while smuggling is certainly no laughing matter, these stories of failed subterfuge are, in equal parts, bizarre, outrageous, and funny.

Snakes On A Plane, Almost
In a particularly memorable baggage malfunction, headlines were made this September when the luggage clasp of a known wildlife smuggler broke in an airport, depositing a pile of live reptiles on a conveyor belt at Malaysia's Kuala Lumpur International Airport. The 95 boa constrictors, other snakes, and turtles that the smuggler was attempting to export illegally earned him six months in jail and a $61,000 fine.

Fish Under Skirt
"Flipping noises" alerted officials to the 51 live tropical fish tucked into the pockets of an apron hidden under the skirt of a woman traveling from Singapore to Australia this June. She might have been successful in the hoop skirt era, but not today. As it stands, if the woman is found guilty of smuggling wildlife, she could face an $85,000 fine and serve a 10-year prison sentence.

Underpants Full Of Geckos
Ants in your pants: Bad. Forty-four geckos in your underwear? Much, much worse. In early 2010, a German man was caught trying to sneak 44 endangered geckos and skinks out of New Zealand in pouches sewn into his underpants. The man claimed the lizards, which can sell for as much as $2,000 each, were for his personal collection.

Carry-On Chihuahua
Small dogs in handbags are as plentiful as paparazzi pictures of teacup-dog toting celebrities. But in late 2009, customs officials in Dublin Airport were surprised to find the outline of a Chihuahua in a man's hand luggage on a security X-ray. Suspecting it was a toy dog, customs officers got a second surprise when they unzipped the bag and found a tiny, and very real, canine. The dog, which according to the Mail Online, was to be a gift, was placed in quarantine.

Corpse In A Wheelchair
Plans that resemble the plot from "Weekend at Bernie's" rarely end well, and this one is no exception. This past April, a woman and her adult daughter were arrested after trying to board a plane from Liverpool to Berlin with the woman's recently deceased 91-year-old husband. The women had placed the corpse in a wheelchair and covered his eyes with sunglasses. Upon discovery, they said they thought he was just asleep.

Songbirds In Leggings
They say you can tell a lot about a man by his shoes. But in May 2009 at Los Angeles International Airport, the socks were the giveaway: Bird feathers and droppings on his socks alerted agents to a man smuggling more than a dozen exotic songbirds in specially made leggings under his pants. Carried this way on a flight from Vietnam to Los Angeles, the man was arrested and the birds put in quarantine at a zoo.

Pygmy Monkeys In Pants
In 2002, employees at Los Angeles International were tipped off to a smuggler when a bird of paradise flew out of his suitcase. But that wasn't all: The man's baggage held 50 orchids and three more birds tucked into nylon stockings. And that still wasn't all. When asked if there was anything else, the man admitted to having a pair of pygmy monkeys in his pants. The monkeys were moved to the Los Angeles Zoo, but all four birds died.

Crocodile Menagerie
There's a big, big difference between a crocodile handbag and a crocodile in a handbag. In late 2009, a man was arrested upon landing in South Africa after a flight from Thailand with 70 live animals in his bags. Eight tiny Caiman crocodiles, dozens of snakes, a turtle, and scorpions were among the animals confiscated and quarantined at a South African zoo.

Tiger Cub Surrounded By Stuffed Animal Toys
Which one of these things is not like the other? In August 2010, authorities found a sedated two-month old live tiger cub tucked into an oversized bag amidst stuffed tiger toys. The Thai Airways passenger who was heading to Iran from Bangkok claimed she was carrying the bag for someone else.

Cockroach Stowaways
Sometimes, smuggling is collateral; a byproduct of unhygienic conditions. And that, unfortunately, was the case for a number of airline catering companies recently cited for unsanitary conditions. LSG Sky Chefs and Gate Gourmet were among the companies penalized for cockroaches, flies, mice, and "other signs of inadequate pest control." In other words, you might be getting a little more than you bargained for when those catering companies unload meals for purchase on the country's biggest airlines. The moral of the story? Keep your carry-ons zipped and bring your food from home.