(no subject)

[domarzione]

Disney+ is apparently launching with a splat. Technical difficulties with the app, formatting of The Simpsons episodes accidentally ruining visual jokes because they're getting cut off, and they decided to edit the Han-Greedo scene again for god knows what reason. And you can't search "MCU" and get any MCU. Meanwhile, if you want the first episode of The Mandalorian, it's out there in the ether to DL. 


Brought the plant in from the fire escape because it's going to go below freezing today. One cat now thinks I've gotten him a snack tree. (It's a cat-safe plant, ftr. And he already chews on my actual salad.) Other cat is holding out for people food because he loves lettuce. 


For cats and food, if you are interested, I have an IG where both are posted. I look a lot more vegan than I am there, but it's mostly by circumstance. Also, if you've ever wondered why there's so much food in my fic... 


This week so far has brought about The Fall of Don Cherry, which means nothing to anyone who (a) isn't Canadian or (b) doesn't follow hockey closely. But it's a big thing in those circles. Grapes has been a fixture of the game for almost fifty years and a national icon in Canada for almost all of it. He's 85 and carries the values and prejudices of someone of that age and it's the combination of the two that has brought his downfall -- he criticized immigrants for not being sufficiently demonstrative in their gratitude for Canadian veterans because he didn't see enough poppies in his now-heavily-minority hometowns. The thing of it is that Grapes has been a walking microaggression for decades, has been calling non-Anglo-Canadian hockey players names on national television for decades, and nobody's really given a crap for decades because That's Just Grapes. He's the benignly xenophobic uncle at every family gathering, except the state television channel gives him the highest pulpit in the land to spew his nonsense. Which is why I am just so sick of the righteous tut-tutting from hockey media that he's gone too far because he has been exactly this far for 37 years and state television was fine with it until a twitter mob formed. Own your faults and stop pretending Grapes is "un-Canadian" when he's been held up as ur-Canadian all this time. You could have pulled him aside or pulled him off the air with the first "Chicken Swede" or the first time he dissed a Quebecois. Instead, he became an icon. 


(Uh, apparently the antidepressant withdrawal symptoms include crankiness as well as extraordinary fatigue. Side note: antidepressants continue to be like the mafia: the omerta of mental illness with the inability to get free of them. Side side note: take your meds.) 


The CVS on Amsterdam and 86th put its Christmas windows in and I protest. Veterans Day is too early. Thanksgiving is too early, but we've lost that fight. I think we need to update that Community gif to "It's not Christmas, it's November Tenth!"

Comments

[ratcreature]

At least you get Halloween. My supermarket starts with its Christmas stuff in September. One year it was in late *August*.

[domarzione]

Yeah, you really need a retaining wall for Christmas there.

*Withdraws 20th Century joke about Germans not recognizing borders*

[peoriapeoriawhereart]

Clearly you need more squash and root vegetables. Only baked goods may invade September and only if the weather is crisp.

If it's August, someone is required to go to Glitter Camp. Through an intensive crafting regime they will learn there is no Christmas that early, without it involving sewing, knitting or woodworking.

[ratcreature]

Halloween is at least making inroads. Normally I'm not that thrilled about retail trying to establish new or non-local commercially viable holidays, but I will take pumpkin decorations, if they actually put them up before Christmas sweets.

Unfortunately right now they put out the first Christmas things in late summer, then add a little Halloween stuff in October, and then add more Christmas things after.

[peoriapeoriawhereart]

That will not do. Not positive how we make sure the Halloween Pirates and Clowns defend you from all Christmas before its time. You may need images of Boris Karloff and some novelty tunes to inoculate the populace.

The other option is to look at the locally Christmas Seasonal Goods and then figure out the Halloween equivalent. As an American, I'm happy to help you rebrand Anything into Halloween. Especially candy. Have you met peanut butter kisses or candy corn? These really are Very Halloween, though the candy corn now comes in Easter pastels which, it should be more purple. I'd be okay with various purple candies being more available.

[ratcreature]

Afaik neither of those sweets is sold here. The most Halloween candy here is gummi animals in spooky shapes. One local supermarket also sold certain non-pumpkin vegetables and fruit under a Halloween branding this year for some reason, though I have no idea what violet potatoes' connection to it is supposed to be, nor for the red fleshed apples. Those looked really cool though and were actually quite tasty, with a good flavor in addition to the unusual color.

[peoriapeoriawhereart]

https://halloweenlove.com/peanut-butter-kisses-celebrating-halloweens-most-hated-candy/ will explain the first. Think saltwater taffy but harder and very peanut buttery. It's best to get the chewing started with molars. Candy corn really is just sugar shaped triangularly and is either white yellow and orange, or it might be yellow orange and chocolate brown. I like it, but it's mostly the nostalgia.

If the marzipan factories don't have to be doing Christmas that soon to achieve everything, they could considering throwing in on things.

Here we have taken dark purple on as an additional halloween color, mostly for the lights originally, but it's also good for beads and lets ones Mardi Gras materials have a second life.

Now, since you're 'considering' Halloween as a defense from premature Christmas, you should know Popcorn Balls and caramel apples. These have been waning here, but since they're a pain to make at home but fun to eat, they might assuage shops into We Don't have to Retail Madness Christmas Yet.

[peoriapeoriawhereart]

Did they at least only start with the lights? (I'm far enough north that Holiday Lights really can start after Halloween. Before if they are Spooky like cute purple bats or orange jacks.) But after Veterans' Day for the faux greenery etc. After Thanksgiving for simulated snow, Victorians. and packages.

I'm not sure when it's okay to put Santa Crow in the basketball hoop. (That was a very Energy Efficient Christmas display and hilarious after house after house of Lights Gone Mad (part of that neighborhood's covenant. They did if iirc have some lights, but I think they got snipped at and then they Went For It and probably at that point people figured No, we're not going to be sticklers.)

[domarzione]

No, no. CVS had the red present backgrounds up and the Victorians in place and packages and the works. There was no sense of easing into it -- full bore Christmas. They skipped over Thanksgiving entirely.

[peoriapeoriawhereart]

That's totes within your rights to be Miffed about. We're clearly still within the Pre-Raphaelite zoning. This is the only Victorian that's scheduled prior to Thanksgiving, and that only because the Game is Always Afoot.

This is Gourds, Maize and Pie season. If it's not mulled apple cider or roasted nuts, it's Too Early. Lights and very Shiny Things, they are permitted since it's not like the cornucopias are easy to store and there's only so many honeycomb paper turkeys you want in life.

[skieswideopen]

I can't disagree with you at all about Don Cherry. The only thing that surprised me was that he actually got fired this time.

They didn't make MCU a searchable term? Really? Okay, then. Interesting choice.

[domarzione]

Apparently D+ fixed the searching issues on the first day, so props to them. If they're going to roll out a project that's essentially still in beta, at least they can fix things.

I'm not so surprised about Cherry, to be honest. They were paying him a lot and he was no longer the attraction he once was -- I am not the only HNIC devotee who uses the first intermission to get stuff done in another room because once you see what Grapes is wearing for the day, it's totally uninteresting. It makes them look good, like they are Doing Something and not like they've been enabling his behavior for decades.

[kiratael]

Without the buffer of Thanksgiving and with no tradition of live (or once live) trees, my Japanese friends put their trees up November 1st. This month races by fast enough already!

[domarzione]

At least there is historical understanding there. CVS has no excuse!