drunk 4-yr old steals Xmas pesents from neighbors (yes, it's a true story)!

wow. just wow. - sj

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (WTVC-TV) - A 4-year-old boy, beer in hand, is accused of stealing Christmas presents from his neighbors. It's a strange story, but also a sad one.

April Wright is 21 years old and is going through a divorce with her husband who is in jail. She says she is not sure how her 4-year-old managed to get out of the house, open a beer, and steal the neighbors presents from under their tree. Now she's just glad he's okay and says she won't let it happen again.

The child, Hayden Wright, was found around 1:45 am Tuesday, click here for rest of story/original article.

Merry Christmas, John Waters!

this is a ridiculously-awesome Christmas clip a friend (Rodney Anonymous, Dead Milkmen) recently posted on line. I can't stop laughing. See his awesome blog, "Rodney Anonymous Tells You Hor To Live" here. - sj

Rodney: "OK, as there appear to be some folks out there who don't know the story behind "cha-cha heels" here's the clip from John Waters' "Female Trouble." WARNING: This clip is NSFW and contains language that you wouldn't want your kids to here. That said, it is also the greatest statement about Christmas that American cinema ...has ever made (TBS should just show a loop of this for 24 hours)"

Votes are in: Holidays not worth the trouble!

Well, y'all voted (er, actually just 12 of you did), and here is the breakdown for the holiday poll I posted mid-December. The question was, "are the holidays worth the trouble?"

58% of you said, "no."
41% of you said, "barely."

"that's the spirit!" part I

Today I managed to get my first, real, "hey, the next couple of weeks just might be fun" feeling! I was in a local starbucks and was buying gift cards for my kid's teachers/day care providers (great idea my wife had!). Their teachers are great and we're so appreciative of them! So I was deciding between 3 different credit-card sized gift cards, one cuter/cooler than the next, and then I had to decide on the type of holder the card went in. A red fabric pouch with a reindeer on it or a red knitted mitted? Cool! So I finally suss this out, and I order a quad venti latte and ask, "does anyone ever order 5, 6, or 7 shots?" The Baristress(?) answers, "oh, 8 is the most-common number of shots I get!," dude behind counter answers, "oh I made a 12-er once!," and yet another employee yells, "I made one once that was ALL shots; it was ONLY SHOTS!" I ponder that for a few seconds, then make a terribly dumb mistake and head out without my bag-full of gift cards (9 in all, not cheap) and coffee beans. As I'm practically out the door, a young woman says, "you forgot your bag!" I was just like, "that rules. wow. thank you so much." I was relieved to the core; for the pain I didn't have to endure.

And that's when it hit me: the Christmas spirit! People were smiling. I was buying things. people were helping; nice. a quad latte. people were cheery; fun. and they were saving my ass (ie: money).

ah, the holidaze....