Sick Stuff

A couple of days ago, I wrote that I agreed with the Pope about the commercialization of Christmas. I liked his suggestion about having a Nativity scene at home to help teach kids that the holiday is really about the birth of Jesus. Other people have chosen a sicker way to express their displeasure with Santa materialism.

Locally, there's someone who has Santa hanging in a tree, bound and gagged.

Today, I read this:

...Joel Krupnik and Mildred Castellanos decked the front of their Manhattan mansion this year with a scene that includes a knife-wielding 5-foot-tall St. Nick and a tree full of decapitated Barbie dolls. Hidden partly behind a tree, the merry old elf grasps a disembodied doll's head with fake blood streaming from its eye sockets.

In a telephone interview Wednesday, Krupnik explained that his family thought it would be a fun way to make a comment about the commercialization and secularization of Christmas.

"It is a religious holiday, but they have turned it into a business. And it shouldn't be," he said. "We didn't put it up to offend anybody. It was just something that came out of our imagination."

Offend anyone? What about terrify? Especially children! Or horrify ... especially those who don't believe in sick violence like that. What kind of message does that send to people? The wrong one!

The link to the whole article and picture is here. Ugh.

Wednesday Mind Hump

1. Have you ever received a gift that was so horrible you couldn't wait to return it?

Nope

2. What's the last book you finished? Was it any good? How long did it take you to read it?


I finished Songs In Ordinary Time by Mary McGarry Morris. It took me about a month to read but it was really very good, one of the best I've read in a long time. She really understands how dysfunctional families work!

3. If you could go on a vacation right now, where would you choose to go?

Hawaii, especially after seeing all that lovely scenery on Lost!

4. Do you call it soda, or do you call it pop?

Soda pop. :D Naw, I call it soda.