I didn't cheat. Honest, I didn't.

You are most similar to James Joyce's Finnegans
Wake. You are complex, well read, and
fascinating. I love you. I love you more
every time I see you. You are the ultimate
person.


To which work of fiction on my shelf are you most similar?
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Santa and the Mushrooms of Christmas

Jonathan Ott, an American mycologist, suggested in 1976 that the use of the Fly Agaric in the midwinter festivals of deepest Siberia may have inspired some of the modern features of Santa Claus. The Siberian winter dwelling, or yurt, had a smokehole in the roof, supported by a birch pole. At the midwinter festivals, the shaman would enter the yurt through the smokehole, carrying a sack with dried Fly Agaric or urine from already intoxicated people, perform his ceremonies, and ascend the birch pole and leave. Ordinary people believed that the shaman could fly, either himself or on flying reindeer. Therefore, Santa Claus is robed in red and white, the colour of the Fly Agaric; enters the chimney; can fly in a reindeer sleigh; carries the gift in a sack; and lives on the North Pole

Click above for more. Much more.

America’s Great Depression Postponed

Jim Powell on the U.S. President we were all taught to deplore:

Harding inherited the mess, in particular the post-World War I depression -- almost as severe, from peak to trough, as the Great Contraction from 1929 to 1933, that FDR inherited and prolonged. Richard K. Vedder and Lowell E. Gallaway, in their book Out of Work (1993), noted that the magnitude of the 1920 depression "exceeded that for the Great Depression of the following decade for several quarters." The estimated gross national product plunged 24% from $91.5 billion in 1920 to $69.6 billion in 1921. The number of unemployed people jumped from 2.1 million in 1920 to 4.9 million in 1921.
...

"The seven years from the autumn of 1922 to the autumn of 1929," wrote Vedder and Gallaway, "were arguably the brightest period in the economic history of the United States. Virtually all the measures of economic well-being suggested that the economy had reached new heights in terms of prosperity and the achievement of improvements in human welfare. Real gross national product increased every year, consumer prices were stable (as measured by the consumer price index), real wages rose as a consequence of productivity advance, stock prices tripled. Automobile production in 1929 was almost precisely double the level of 1922. It was in the twenties that Americans bought their first car, their first radio, made their first long-distance telephone call, took their first out-of-state vacation. This was the decade when America entered ‘the age of mass consumption.’"

Over the years since undergraduate school I have become aware of how FDR's idiotic policies turned an economic setback into a full-fleged depression. I was prepared to see good in Coolidge if not Hoover, who was, after all the father of the New Deal, or at least as much of it as survived the courts, but all I knew of Harding was Teapot Dome, the probability of an extramarital sex life, and the rumor that he was part African by descent, a rumor one also hears of Eisenhower.

Powers makes a remarkable case for Warren G. Harding as President. If such matters interest you, pleas take a look at it here.

Makes Sense

Saytr. It doesn't matter what you are passionate
about, you are a passionate individual. Yes,
you have heard the stereotype before: all
satyrs really want is sex, but you know that is
not true. Even if your passion is sexual in
nature; that does not mean that it is the only
thing one can be passionate about. You enjoy
your life to the fullest, and you pay little
head to those who would call you a hedonist.
You are happy, that is all that really matters.


What Type of Changeling Are You? (Now Including Pictures for Each Kith)
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