Stuff I like by Benita

I remember posting this on my blog last year, but Slate’s recycling it so I can, too. It’s a good one.

“What I love about the holidays are what Warren and his ilk surely consider distractions: the trees, the lights, Santa, and Muppet specials.”

“For much of my life, I felt guilt about our happily godless Christmases. I worried that we were leeching off of someone else’s holiday. When Bill O’Reilly railed about “Christmas under siege,” I felt complicit. If I was content to listen to Christmas-themed pop songs instead of hymns, to open presents with gusto instead of heading to church, or to dig right into the meal instead of saying grace, was I diluting the holiness of others’ celebration? Was I insulting Jesus? Cheapening the experience for Christians? “

I absolutely love the NYT’s annual magazine devoted to the often overlooked deaths of the past year. They’re not obits; they don’t list hobbies like ‘avid golfer’ or ‘loved sewing and gardening’; they don’t list survivors. They tell a story. A wonderful story of the kind of life these people lived. Beautiful.

This is nice.

“Instead of buying stuff for people who don’t need it and will probably return it anyway, I’m going to take all the money that I would have spent on presents, find some needy people — not a charity — and give the money directly to them,”

Honestly, I feel similarly about the whole gift-giving frenzy. I understand wanting to give thoughtful, personal presents to loved ones and sharing the joy of Christmas and all that good stuff…

but, seriously, I have heard (and read on Facebook statuses) the majority of people bitch and moan about completing all their Christmas shopping, then they bitch and moan about getting shitty presents. What’s the point, people? Take some of the money you would have spent and buy something nice for yourself, that you actually want! Then make a donation to your favorite charity with the rest. And spend Christmas with your family and friends, with no worries about opening a horrendous present or receiving yet another gift card you might accidentally throw away or forget to spend, therefore wasting your relative’s hard-earned money.

This probably stems from not having any Christmas traditions of my own or any sort of emotional attachment to the holiday, but it makes sense to me. I know this is totally cliche, but I always feel incredibly left out at Christmastime because I don’t fit in with the masses.

Anyway, at least I’m not broke in January, and I even donated to the Humane Society this year. So there.

This is so cute.

What the fuck?

Lyons, 31, asked about collecting a $30 reward for turning in shoplifters but decided not to follow up because she felt bad about doing it.

This is an amazing collection of cookies with photos!

I love looking at pretty cookies because I’m not much of a cookie-baker. I don’t have the patience for it and my cookies never turn out pretty or identical.

Next time you read a menu, think about this.

I’m glad they’re being punished for this ridiculous stunt, and even better than jail time, they are banned from making any profit for four years from books, movies, TV appearances, reality shows, etc!

This is a nice month-by-month look at pop culture of 2009.