There are things one should never undertake, some journeys too dark for the human mind to withstand. Seriously.

Last night we went out and haphazardly, crazily, willy nilly bought ALMOST all the presents we have to buy--used bookstore, new bookstore, Tar-jhay.... Do not try this at home. The seams of my being tried to escape, pushed at this crazy, consumerizing flesh, but. Capitalism won out over humanity in the end. (You hear that, Mr. Bush?) It is insane to do this.

Am I the only one who increasingly dreams of tropical beaches or couch and robe for the holidays? Who just wants to pretend they don't happen? And am sadly trapped in a traditional familial world who would be hurt by this and that isn't necessary just to decrease my stress level and amount of consumer debt so every year... Every year... Every year... ? Maybe next year I'll just take Christopher somewhere fun for his birthday, which is December 25, and that will be a break from it.

But we did get stuff for people.

Sadly, none of it will get to anyone by Christmas except for our families. We're doing our holiday cards today, or starting them today, so none of those will make it either. And I know you've been saving a place on the mantelpiece. Damn. Next year, we'll just buy New Year's cards and have done with it.

The good news is Kelly and Gavin are coming by pre-actual X-mas gathering after gathering after gathering, albeit briefly, on their way to their own family gathering. Yay!

Three worthwhile stories from CNN yesterday:

Item

There's an uproar over a planned Houdini exhibit in Appleton (which has had to fight for the right to even call itself Houdini's hometown...). They're going to disclose the way Metamorphosis worked. I'm a huge Houdini fan, and I even wrote him as a character in my very first script (which I still like and should go back to now that I know what I'm doing). And I guess my problem with the houha is that almost every single book about Houdini, including some of the ones for kids, disclose how this trick was done--it's one of the most commonly known secrets in magic. Plus, there's the other thing--yes, I think Houdini would have been pissed off had anyone done this when he was alive, but he was the one who assured people his tricks were not magic but illusion. He was very up front about the fact that they were +tricks+. It always made me more impressed when I found out how simple some of the illusions actually were.

This one is sort of like people who whine about DVDs removing the magic from storytelling--not because they stop a lot of people from going to theater to see movies, but because the commentaries and extras take away the illusion. Well, I just think that's bullshit. If anything, hearing people talk about achieving a great moment of film makes me more aware of the magic of it--how hard it is to actually create--than the reverse.

item, the middle

The Spitzer has sent its first glorious images back. I already feel ownership of it, like I think we all do about the Hubble. We know just how this works and yes it is magic.

item, the last

Hampton Court thinks it may have caught a ghost on its security camera. (Too lazy to post image, go look at it.) When I was at Hampton Court, my friend Jenny and I went through the maze out back without paying the stoner collecting pound coins, and got lost, and then went back in the exit. It was head-spinningly fun, but we didn't see any ghosts. Be a nice place to live if you were one though.

earworm: the whole of Blue Gardenia, Hal Isbitz

random rec: "UP LATE: American Poetry since 1970," Ed. Andrei Codrescu

namecheck: Kristin "Best Person I Know" Livdahl