1. Go to Comic Book Plus and free download The First Christmas in New Super 3Dimension (1953)!
2. Buy a pack of 3D glasses for $3.95! You can still get them in time for Christmas!
Experience the Christmas story as never before!
A number of religions, not just Christianity and Judaism, have major or minor holidays this time of year. While individuals focus on their own faith, it is also a time to think about following any religion.
The word “better” above is in quotes, because there is not a singular standard for what it means to be a good or better Jew, Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, etc. And among the options, I am in a weak position, or no position at all, to suggest what that might be. But I’m softly going to try, given the season.
If your idea of what it means to be a better adherent to your religion involves inflicting suffering, pain, abuse, damage to others, you should think again. Investigate whether there is something in your religion, maybe in the most basic and sacred moments and ideas, that contradicts that. Investigate whether you have been misled or have misled yourself, because they and you are human with all the human tendencies that those higher teachings are trying to change.
Christmas is just one example. Innocence is born, with the power and potential to do great good. Others are committed to eradicating that potential as soon as possible, and if not at the start, later on. If you think that is just a religious story, it is not. It is the story of history and the story of any day, this day, torn from the headlines.
Which side of the story are you on? Will you use your religion as pretext and excuse for being on the wrong side? Will you use your religion, which has been trying to teach you this, to rise above your natural human limitations and be…better?
Today is the winter solstice in the northern hemisphere. The shortest daylight of the year, the start of the inexorable amble to…more light!
During difficult times—war, pandemic, etc.—it can be hard to look away from whatever shady public events overwhelm our attention. It has been said this year that like the Grinch, some seem committed to stealing Christmas from us.
“They” haven’t stolen Christmas and “they” will not steal the winter solstice.
If you are in the northern hemisphere (some of you are not, so happy summer solstice), the winter solstice is a little different in different places. Warmer places get a little colder while more moderate places get a lot colder.
Here is the good news. The earth, our home planet, is circling and spinning. The day lights will get longer, the dark nights will get shorter. Spring will arrive in three months. Ever thus.
“They” will not and cannot change that.
Happy Winter Solstice!
“A monster had arrived in the village. Just by using his mind, he took away the automobiles, the electricity, the machines, because they displeased him. And he moved an entire community back into the Dark Ages, just by using his mind.”
Rod Serling introduces the Twilight Zone episode It’s a Good Life (Season 3, Episode 8):
Tonight’s story on The Twilight Zone is somewhat unique and calls for a different kind of introduction. This, as you may recognize, is a map of the United States, and there’s a little town there called Peaksville. On a given morning not too long ago, the rest of the world disappeared, and Peaksville was left all alone. Its inhabitants were never sure whether the world was destroyed and only Peaksville was left untouched, or whether the village had somehow been taken away. They were, on the other hand, sure of one thing – the cause. A monster had arrived in the village. Just by using his mind, he took away the automobiles, the electricity, the machines, because they displeased him. And he moved an entire community back into the Dark Ages, just by using his mind. Now I’d like to introduce you to some of the people in Peaksville, Ohio. This is Mr. Fremont. It’s in his farmhouse that the monster resides. This is Mrs. Fremont. And this is Aunt Amy, who probably had more control over the monster in the beginning than almost anyone. But one day she forgot. She began to sing aloud. Now the monster doesn’t like singing, so his mind snapped at her, and turned her into the smiling vacant thing you’re looking at now. She sings no more. And you’ll note that the people in Peaksville, Ohio, have to smile. They have to think happy thoughts and say happy things because, once displeased, the monster can wish them into a cornfield, or change them into a grotesque walking horror. This particular monster can read minds, you see. He knows every thought, he can feel every emotion. Oh, yes, I did forget something, didn’t I. I forgot to introduce you to the monster. This is the monster. His name is Anthony Fremont. He’s six years old with a cute little-boy face and blue guileless eyes. But when those eyes look at you, you’d better start thinking happy thoughts. Because the mind behind them is absolutely in charge. This is the Twilight Zone.
Serling closes the episode:
No comment here. No comment at all. We only wanted to introduce you to one of our very special citizens, little Anthony Fremont, age 6, who lives in a village called Peaksville, in a place that used to be Ohio. And if by some strange chance you should run across him, you had best think only good thoughts. Anything less than that is handled at your own risk. Because if you do meet Anthony, you can be sure of one thing: you have entered the Twilight Zone.
Below is a five-minute clip from the episode. If you can and are willing, you will find this episode streaming. It was originally scary, but today you might find it scarier that a man-child with infinite power demands that people have good thoughts about him—or else.
The Twilight Zone.
“I negotiated directly with the drug companies and foreign nations, which were taken advantage of our country for many decades to slash prices on drugs and pharmaceuticals by as much as 400, 500 and even 600 percent.”
Trump, December 17, 2025 and other times
Your next steps
Bottom line: If someone asking for your money, business, or trust can’t get basic facts right (or won’t admit when they’re wrong), that’s your cue to either walk away or scrutinize everything else much more carefully.
Claude AI
Bob:
Someone said he had slashed prices by 600%. Is that possible?
Claude:
No, that’s not mathematically possible in any meaningful way.
When you reduce a price by a percentage, you’re taking away that percentage of the original price. A 100% reduction would bring the price to zero (you’ve reduced it by the entire amount).
If you tried to reduce by 600%, you’d be subtracting 6 times the original price, which would give you a negative price — meaning you’d somehow be paying customers to take the product.
Bob:
What should I say to someone who claims to slash prices by 600%?
Claude:
Here are some approaches depending on the context:
If it’s casual conversation:
If it’s a business/professional setting:
If it’s advertising/marketing:
The diplomatic approach:
Give them an easy out: “I think there might be a typo — did you mean 60% off or maybe prices are 1/6th of what they were?”
Most people make this mistake innocently (typo, brain slip, or genuine confusion), so gentle correction or just ignoring it is usually the way to go unless accuracy really matters in that situation.
Bob:
What if it is a business or professional setting, where someone making the claim is asking you to give them something of value—your business, your money, your endorsement, your approval, your trust?
Claude:
In that case, this is a serious red flag and you should address it directly. Here’s why and how:
Why it matters:
This reveals one of three problems, all concerning:
Any of these should make you pause before giving them your money, business, or endorsement.
How to address it:
Be direct but professional:
What their response tells you:
Your next steps:
Bottom line: If someone asking for your money, business, or trust can’t get basic facts right (or won’t admit when they’re wrong), that’s your cue to either walk away or scrutinize everything else much more carefully.
Oh, my love, we live in troubled days
Oh, my friend, we have the strangest ways
All my friends on this one day of days
Thank God it’s Christmas
Oh, my love, we’ve had our share of tears
Oh, my friend, we’ve had our hopes and fears
Oh, my friends, it’s been a long hard year
But now it’s Christmas
Yes, it’s Christmas
Thank God it’s Christmas
The moon and stars seem awful cold and bright
Let’s hope the snow will make this Christmas right
My friend, the world will share this special night
Because it’s Christmas
Yes, it’s Christmas
Thank God it’s Christmas
For one night
Thank God it’s Christmas
Thank God it’s Christmas
Thank God it’s Christmas
Can it be Christmas?
Let it be Christmas
Every day
Oh, my love, we live in troubled days
Oh, my friend, we have the strangest ways
All my friends on this one day of days
Thank God it’s Christmas
Yes it’s Christmas
Thank God it’s Christmas
For one day
While we–me and maybe some of you–wait for the next post, a photo break. The full moon barely veiled by clouds.
I don’t generally use emojis. But I sent a Hanukkah text greeting to a loved one who does use emojis and I decided to lean in.
When I searched emojis for Hanukkah, I got the usual suspects: menorah, Jewish star, wrapped gift box, etc.
And a chicken.
Is there something I don’t know about Hanukkah? Potato latkes are a traditional food, and you can’t make latkes without eggs, and you can’t have eggs without chickens or some other egg-laying animal.
Maybe that’s it. Or maybe something more esoteric that the keyboard developers know about.
I guess I will declare this chicken
the unofficial mascot of Hanukkah. At least for now.
The First Commandment in the Bible is not the First Command in the Bible. That is found in the first few lines at Genesis 1:3:
יְהִ֣י א֑וֹר
Y’hi or
Let there be light
In a sense, that is more essential than any of the later commandments, whether 10 or 613 or any number in between.
If our actions, words or thoughts are maintaining or increasing the light, we are doing well.
If our actions, words or thoughts are decreasing or putting out the light, we are not doing as well.
Even though the First Command is not literally aimed at us, as the commandments are, it is obvious that we can be charged with the responsibility.
This is a Season of Lights. Y’hi or.
The story of the Hanukkah songs written by Woody Guthrie (1912-1967) is a wondrous musical miracle.
In more than 3,000 songs, including the true American national anthem This Land Is Your Land, Woody Guthrie chronicled the struggles of working-class Americans and championed labor rights, social justice, and resistance to oppression.
Then there is the story of Woody Guthrie and Hanukkah:
In 1942, Woody Guthrie moved to Brooklyn and married Marjorie Mazia, a Jewish dancer with the Martha Graham Dance Company. They lived across from Marjorie’s mother, Aliza Greenblatt, a respected Yiddish poet and activist. Through his close relationship with Greenblatt, Guthrie became acquainted with Judaism, studying Jewish texts and history and sharing songs with his mother-in-law.
In the late 1940s (primarily 1949-early 1950s), Guthrie wrote several Hanukkah songs, some for local Brooklyn community centers where he had bookings for children’s Hanukkah parties, and some for his own children. He identified the Jewish struggle with that of displaced Oklahomans and other oppressed peoples, filling notebooks with lyrics about Hanukkah, Jewish history, and spiritual life.
The remarkable twist came decades later. After Guthrie’s death in 1967, these songs sat forgotten in his archives for almost 30 years until his daughter Nora discovered the Hanukkah lyrics around 1998. Nora asked the Klezmatics, a Grammy-winning klezmer band, to compose new music for her father’s unpublished lyrics. The result was the 2006 album “Woody Guthrie’s Happy Joyous Hanukkah,” which blended klezmer with American folk and bluegrass.
If you don’t know much or enough about Woody Guthrie, Hanukkah or klezmer music, this is the perfect opportunity to listen and learn.
Bob Schwartz 