I wish you all a Merry Christmas, and hope the joy, hopefulness, and spirit of the season finds a place in your heart.
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Warm and wet here at the BOL. And cool and wet, which is pretty unpleasant. Still, it’s not 25F and a howling snowstorm… so it’s ok.
Did the rest of my stuff, then loaded up and finally got to the BOL. Spent some time putting stuff away, while W and D2 shot pool. D1 went back to sleep.
Had a nice meal. Opened most of the presents and got some useful things. Everyone seemed pleased with their gifts.
Today we will open the rest of the gifts, empty our stockings and gorge on the candy, and eventually have a nice meal. Duck is on today’s menu.
I’m hoping everyone has a little bit of joy today, but if not, know that you are still loved, and a part of the community. Talk to someone if you need to.
I’m stacking good memories, and hoping they are enough to get me through the bad times.
Find your joy where you can, and treasure it.
nick
This is SteveF pretending to be Denis.
First Post!! Happy Christmas to everyone.
This is the real Denis, also wishing the joy of the season to everyone.
A profound “thank you” to Barbara for allowing us to play here in memory of EBT, and thanks to Nick for keeping the door open every day. You are both truly lights to the world.
Mass attended, Crib admired. Extremities chilled*. Brunch now underway, but emergency gingerbread rations provisionally engaged and devoured while the rolls are baking.
Juniormost family member is building something technical and complicated-looking out of Lego-compatible bricks. Seems like it might be an internal combustion engine or maybe a pebble-bed reactor?
* If the churches here don’t make some improvements to their central heating, I may have to consider Judaism, a religion in which it is not only acceptable but appropriate to wear a head covering during services.
It was 2025 when the “Make Heated Pews” movement began in earnest.
I’ve mentioned the mandatory remedial Math class at my daughter’s college. College freshmen were given refreshers on simple word problems. Algebra. Graphing functions.
By the end of the semester they were doing exponents and logarithms and “show this expression in its simplest form”, so it’s not quite as bad as I’d been thinking. It’s still pretty bad.
But the mandatory remedial English was worse. By the end of the semester their “research paper” had a requirement of two typed pages, with “some” references required. “Internet research” was allowed but the students couldn’t use LLM to write their papers, which I interpret as the students needing to do some light editing of the papers which LLMs wrote so that they get past whatever checkers the teacher uses. Little to no reading required and as late as late November the teacher sent around a page explaining the difference between “your” and”you’re” and similar “confusing” words.
And most of the students in each class were struggling with the material.
In a not-bottom-tier college.
Fifty years of the US Department of Education have brought the US from #1 worldwide in high school achievement to … this.
Chisenbop or literally counting 1 … 2 … 3 … 4 … ?
A “good” school with lots of student loan money and/or Daddy cash involved in paying the tuition would put priority on keeping the checks flowing.
Thanks for teaching me a new thing today! A neat Christmas present.
play here in memory of RBT
Would the real DENIS have made such a mistake or is SteveF playing mind games?
The resumption of student loan interest accrual in 2023 took a lot of discretionary spending out of the economy which had grown dependent on that $90 billion annual fix.
Taco Bell is a system for distribution of dehydrated “food”, particularly proteins, reconstituted with boiling water at the point of sale. “Mexican” flavor is convenient to cover the intense amount of MSG and chemicals necessary to make the product palatable.
Del Taco also had infrastructure in places where Jack in the Box wants to reestablish their brand, most importantly in Orlando, which the company targeted for aggressive expansion in 2026.
Merry Christmas to all. ( and someone in Arkansas gets a billion $ gift).
@SteveF
FFS
Accused Nat’l Guard Shooter Hit With Federal Murder Charge; US Atty Pirro Says Death Penalty Possible
https://redstate.com/bobhoge/2025/12/24/doj-hits-accused-guard-shooter-with-federal-murder-charge-jeanine-pirro-says-opens-door-to-execution-n2197462
Our legal system is despicable.
Every second that this excrement remains alive is an affront to the concept of justice.
For a certain definition of “palatable”.
A number of people have come across my vision lately, discussing the number of restaurants using Sysco prepared foods. That’s why, they claim, the food from different chains tends to taste the same, it’s not as good as it used to be, and even a lot of local restaurants are using the packaged food to save time (ie, cost).
Some further claim that this is because of private equity firms acquiring so many restaurants (like so many other businesses) and pushing the standardization and extreme cost-cutting measures. Unique local cuisine, out. House specialty, out. Showcasing the chef’s talent, out. Making an extra $0.28 per customer, in.
None of this is from my own knowledge. I eat at a restaurant once or twice per year and have done so for a couple decades. I can research the holdings of Vanguard and a few different private equity firms, though.
I figure it’s a self-correcting problem, mostly. If the restaurants continue to get worse and become not worth the money, they’ll go out of business.
Well, opinions differ.
When I worked at St. Louis University, I used to eat at Del Taco on campus .at least once a week, and was sad when it closed
I don’t want to downplay any criticism of the Department of Education, but I remember JEP saying much the same as the following quote:
“In 100 years, we have gone from teaching Latin and Greek in high school to teaching remedial English in college.”
― Joseph Sobran
Early 70’s Taco Johns had deep-fried burritos on the menu. I used to get three for lunch with a side of a cup of tomatillo sauce. I’d unwrap all three, stand them in the sauce to soak, then take alternate bites.
Leftover pizza is calling.
Pretty much, yes.
Overlay a graph of average time spent watching television, 1960-2025.
Add internet and smartphone usage.
Not sure what metric to use for the introduction of calculators into elementary and middle school.
ADDED:
Also not sure how to capture the transition of teachers from teaching into DEI-soaked unionized agents of social change pimping for Democrats.
Literally counting, no fancy system.
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Presents have been opened. I got tools and tool related accessories, so I’m good. Oven is preheating for cinnamon rolls…
Coffee is about half in me, and half still in the pot.
It’s 67F and grey, but that beats 3ft of snow, or flooding.
Merry Christmas to all!
n
Merry Christmas!
Currently we have sun peeking under the cloud deck from the southeast and a nice rainbow to the northwest.
Over to some friends place for supper, early afternoon.
https://newrepublic.com/article/79470/1895-8th-grade-final-exam-i-couldnt-pass-it-could-you
My parents couldn’t afford the luxury of a high school education during the Great Depression. As teenagers they had to go to work to support their brothers, sisters, and parents.
Years ago, JEP posted a similar test to the one I linked above. An eighth grade education used to be more rigorous than we expect today.
My dad became a tool and die maker, and later a successful machine shop business owner. I assume it was via apprenticeship, and I know he was a union man. He taught himself advanced mathematics from books. Algebra and Trig.
“Oven is preheating for cinnamon rolls…”
Check.
I’ll second that, even with the original typo.
A Merry Christmas to all!
Dropkick Murphys – “The Season’s Upon Us” (Video)