h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Have a good Christmas Smudger

Sounds like a good christmas, does your dutch crimbo

Still snowing.......... so just loaded up the fire with some wood, a nice glass of wine, and now have got the TV on, the missus is cooking in the kitchen with the nippers, the dog's are streched out!


Everything good in our house, might go for a nice pale ale later

Holland has already had its big Christmas celebration -- the kids get their presents on Dec. 5, the day before Saint Nicholas Day. Sinterklaas is said to live in Madrid, and to choose a different harbor to arrive in each year, so the children in different parts of Holland can get equal chances to meet him. Sinterklaas travels with servants called 'Zwarte Pieten' ('Black Peters'). The church bells ring when they arrive. Sinterklaas wears red robes and rides into town on a white horse. Every town has a few of Sinterklaas' helpers, all dressed like him. They hand out presents.

That sounds way more atmospheric than your average department store Santa!

More on Christmas in Holland:

Good kids get presents. Bad ones get put in a sack and taken to Madrid, where they spend a year learning to behave.

here's a recipe for a Dutch Christmas cake:

http://www.whychristmas.com/fun/recipe_kerstkrans.shtml

the dutch are so praticable, so much commonsence for a flat country

That's because they so rarely have to fight an uphill battle.

Ohh... Black Peters... how is that still a thing.

One might argue: "Why not? A lot of Dutch are black."

But of course I know what you're getting at and there may come changes. Just like the Swedish church has lately decided that God may be referred to as being of no gender.

Great A´Tuin springs to mind

Interesting times - if you care about these things, that is

Evidently the Pope is okay with tweaking the language of the Lord's Prayer. Instead of "Leas us not into temptation" the new phrase will be "Let us not fall into temptation." I'm not sure what kind of temptation God might have led people into....

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want
He makes me down to lie
Through pastures green he leadeth me the silent waters by
With bright knives he releaseth my soul
He maketh me to hang on hooks in high places
He converteth me to lamb cutlets
For lo, he hath great power and great hunger
When cometh the day we lowly ones
Through quiet reflection and great dedication
Master the art of karate
Lo, we shall rise up
And then we'll make the bugger's eyes water.

Bleating and babbling we fell on his neck with a scream
Wave upon wave of demented avengers
March cheerfully out of obscurity into the dream.

I am not following this path that has opened up.

It's arguable that if you want to become a better person, religion might help, but is probably not the only way, if it even is a way. Plenty of self-styled religious people don't have it in them to be truly kind and virtuous. Apparently, whatever caused the world to be peopled by them had its reasons, which you and I are not privy to. So be polite, and prepared to flee to safety if you are dealing with a true nutcase. Otherwise, think about this moment that will never come again. You might learn something from it, even if you don't realize what the lesson was until later....

Heh... paulh, Pierce and I are clearly members of a cult.

We're quoting from Animals, Chapter 4, verses 3-4.

Who wrote "Animals"?

Pink Floyd, paulh.

Here's 'Sheep':

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UqlsVZ1zxMk

Who would sync Pink Floyd's Sheep with random clips from the black comedy/horror flick _Black Sheep_!?

That's just disturbing!

I didn't watch the video I just minimise the window, plug in the headphones (like I'm on a conference call) and pretend I'm working.

Moved on to 'Echoes' now

Disturbing is a poor word