Jesus Was a Jew, But Didn’t Eat Chinese for Xmas

[Stingo]

Is it Christmas yet? As we face an economic crisis and a new Administration coming in to revlieve the incompetent old one, the Philadelphia Inquirer focuses on the sappy today, even while at the same time claiming to hold a public trust for the reader. They can’t even get facts straight about new Christian traditions.

http://allspinzone.com/wp/2008/12/21/jesus-was-a-jew-but-didnt-eat-chinese-for-xmas/

[Igel]

1. I knew Xians that made it a practice of going to movies on Xmas.

They simply didn't keep Xmas and if they didn't want to be stuck at home on Xmas--with just about everything closed--they went to movies.

But talking about Jewish "traditions" on Xmas implies some sort of observance, not observance-avoidance. It's like talking about Xian Eid traditions in Muslim countries--they're not so much what you do to observe, but what you do while everybody else is observing and you're not.

Xian movie-going on Xmas is the same: It's not done in imitation of Jewish "observance", but innovated (in parallel) for the same reasons. Some sort of activity that can be done in an urban environment when everything else is pretty much shut down. Post hoc is not good reasoning.

Personally, I'm not offended when people don't discuss what I do for Hanukkah or Eid because, well, they're non-observances, traditions by default, not entirely by choice. What I do on Xmas and New Year's isn't tradition; let's face it, if Xmas was abolished and a normal workday, and everything was open as usual on New Year's, my "traditions" would simply vanish. There'd be no point in them, and I wouldn't feel any temptation at all to continue my long-"cherished" traditions.

I somehow tend to think that if Xmas vanished, most Jews wouldn't make a point of taking off work to go to movies on 12/25, nor would they eat Chinese food.

[tomreedtoon]

3. And they must always be lame, stupid movies.

The films of preference for Thanksgiving and Christmas viewing are almost always Hollywood sentimentality and CGI. The worst example of which was The Grinch, with Jim Carrey overacting and mugging and turning a simple, nice half-hour animated program into a two-hour trip through Holiday Hell.

Or this year's mess, Marley and Me, a film centered on that curse levied on thousands of so-called family movies - a cute dog. A continual irritation that is supposed to teach us how wonderful it is to own a creature that turns food into feces right on your living room rug. Cute dogs in movies will make a generation of Americans agree with the Korean principle of cooking canines. Anything to keep them out of our hair.

[eridani]

2. But- he lived at home until he was 33

--he went into his father's business, and he thought his mother was a virgin and his mother thought he was God.

Or, maybe she was a woman.
She fed a crowd at a moment's notice with very little food.
She kept trying to explain things to a bunch of men who just didn't get it.
And even after she died, she had to get up after three days because there was stll more work to do.

Old, but still funny.

[TrogL]

9. Jesus was never a carpenter

He always made his living as an wandering preacher living on donations.

[AsahinaKimi]

4. I always eat Chinese .. for the Holidays..

But then I eat, Korean, Thai, Japanese, Vietnamese, Malaysian, and any other kind of
Asian food available in San Francisco...(Some times I even eat non-asian foods..but don't
tell my Dad!! haha!!!)

Meri Kurisumasu to Yoi otoshi o omukae kudasai!!!!

[Stingo]

5. I'm doing the movie/chinese food thing,

though I may end up doing Thai.

[AsahinaKimi]

6. Thai is great...

I like Pad Thai...
There is a place around here that delivers Dim Sum, though I will probably
get something to go! Chicken fried rice!

[Stingo]

8. It's all within walking distance, and the Pad Thai sounds great.

Love that Kinky Friendman quote.

[Yavapai]

7. Maybe it was the sweet and sour pork...

"They just don't make Jews like Jesus any more"

Kinky Friedman