Culture

From a German spokesman for the efforts to rid us of Santa Claus [http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_1622369.html]: > "St. Nicholas is not Father Christmas. The values associated with the former are selflessness, charity, solidarity, giving and sharing. He is perfect for getting across the

It's flying across the Internet: An amazing Christmas light display [http://www.break.com/articles/houselights.html]. It might be fake. Snopes is investigating as I type.

George Will has a great op-ed in the Washington Post this morning [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/18/AR2005111802400.html] . The gist: In a society of entitlement and social autism, no one appreciates manners any more. > Sociology discerns connections, and there may be one between

Ryan Seacrest will take over Dick Clark's role at Time Square, but I don't really think it's an attempt to further homosexuality. Though it's my understanding that Seacrest is gay, he does a heckuva good job with American Idol and people like

Maybe it's no accident that freaks frequently win the Nobel Prize: > Best known for inventing dynamite and creating and funding the Nobel Prizes, Alfred Nobel was also a playwright, though his work has (perhaps justifiably) gone unstaged–until [December 10, 2005]. In Stockholm, on the same day

> You can't call this top cop a plainclothes policeman - not after he appeared on television in a canary-yellow dress, sporting dark red lipstick, matching nail polish and a nose ring. > State officials ordered a probe into the behavior of Devendra Kumar Panda, an inspector general

> The man of the year is a woman? For the first time in 10 years, GQ magazine is featuring a woman on one of three covers of the annual Men of the Year issue. That woman: Jennifer Aniston. Link [http://aolsvc.news.aol.com/movies/article.adp?id=20051115073909990058]

> "You can hardly turn on a television set, go to a movie, or listen to a political speech without the supposedly 'marginalized' person ... being portrayed, catered to, lauded, romanticized, or analyzed. ... > "We now have The L Word, a program on Showtime, described as Sex