Comments on: Ask an Amateur Scientist: Christmas

By: crystalsinger

crystalsinger — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 11:27:07 +0000

"I couldn’t imagine Christmas at any other time of year (except maybe July, when I’m looking for a deal on a used car or a mattress). Think about it: no more hot cocoa. No more fuzzy sweaters with nine volt battery pouches and blinking reindeer eyes. No more plastic surgery after standing out by the river waiting for fireworks in the dead of night and losing the tip of your nose to frostbite."

Um, well we have none of that in the southern hemisphere. Except the reindeer jumpers – somehow they seem to transcend both season and geography. :-/

By: Doctor Zen

Doctor Zen — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 04:23:36 +0000

My blog http://storiesaresignposts.blogspot.com/has its Christmas post up, and I'm going to link this page to it if that's ok. I go into why it makes more sense to go with modern myths like the Grinch and Doctor Who than the religiously sanctioned ones

By: Emily

Emily — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 06:37:09 +0000

I want a knee-length "hooray to be gay!" sweater. Do they sell those on Amazon?

By: Robin

Robin — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 02:32:55 +0000

Well said as always, Brian.

Last I heard, the Biblical scholars and astronomers have placed the birth of Jesus (demigod or not, the guys seems to have existed), at somewhere around August or September of 4 CE. There was a comet or a really bright supernova or something that became the Star of Bethlehem in the story. So yes, they fudged the date quite a lot in order to co-opt the pagan solstice celebrations.

Happy Festivus, everyone!