Coronavirus, Covid 19 Discussion and How It Has Affected Your Daily Life Chat Thread

[aart]

but I'm still mad at my doggo because I was almost done and it takes a few days to clean/dry them and now it's gonna be late probably. Also she knows better.

No Doubt.

 

[birdlovin gal]

I am BAD! I made some chocolate truffles for Christmas gifts. Only I substituted milk chocolate for dark chocolate. DON'T DO IT! They're sooooo soft that even frozen you can't pick one up. Your fingers just sink into it.

However, all is not lost. It makes a good sweet dip to go with salty, crunchy potato chips.

Mmmm, try pretzels

 

[IamRainey]

Today, after 73 years I decided I needed to know why Chistmas songs are called carols instead of "songs" or "music". Turns out carols are an old pagan custom of singing in new seasons. Once there were spring carols and summer carols and autumn carols and, of course, winter carols were simply re-assigned to Christmas which comes at about the Winter Solstice.

I found that out here where there are lots of other Christmas questions answered. In case you're got your own, that is.

And, BTW, my personal favorite Christmas carol is a French one which translates to Bring a Torch, Janette Isabella.

And here it is in the French.

Hope you enjoy them!

 

[ChocolateMouse]

Yep! Caroling and wassailing are old timey pagan traditions and many OLD christmas carols were once pagan carols at that, but the further back you go the more it gets muddy. For example, the song "The Holly and The Ivy" references "The Running of the Deer" which is an old pagan tradition of hunting deer for a feast on the morning after the solstice, as well as the idolation of holly and ivy in general. Some of these sorts of carols with strong pagan origins are on my holiday playlist for that reason, despite being christianized.

TBH, most of modern Christmas comes from anglo-saxon pagan traditions. The tree, the lights, the star on top, mistletoe, even santa, all appropriated, adapted, and converted. Kind of like how the Romans swept in and turned all the Greek gods Roman all those years ago. It's a whole thing. On the other hand, it's much easier to find supplies for pagan celebrations as a result. Just cross out the "christmas" and write in "yule"!

Here's a couple of my favorites, a couple generic wassailing songs and a couple modern carols I like. My youtube playlist has more on it but some of it is a bit tongue in cheek, off topic, or dumb favorites of mine. You've been warned.

Ima give yours a listen Rainey.

 

[IamRainey]

Here's a rundown on what to expect as side effects of the 2 most promising vaccine candidates.

Might as well be clear about them up front and make a commitment to deal with 'em as, unless you get both doses, you've wasted the first one.

 

[ChocolateMouse]

Yep, sister said she couldn't raise her arm over her head for 2 days after her first shot but it was fine after. Our plan is to rotate who gets the vaccine once a week so chores stay manageable and we're not all one-armed for a day or two at the same time.
Then again we're not getting vaccinated until late anyhow. We're young, and low risk.

 

[Molpet]

I found that out here where there are lots of other Christmas questions answered. In case you're got your own, that is

Good site


I got lost for awhile in there

 

[ChocolateMouse]

Good site


I got lost for awhile in there

Definitely interesting. Very Christianized so they gloss over some of the intricacies of the pagan traditions and unpleasant reasons why they have those origins but I guess that's the point of the website is to present info from the Christian side of things. I'm glad to see they're presenting at least a big part of the history.

 

[MROO]

I am BAD! I made some chocolate truffles for Christmas gifts. Only I substituted milk chocolate for dark chocolate. DON'T DO IT! They're sooooo soft that even frozen you can't pick one up. Your fingers just sink into it.

However, all is not lost. It makes a good sweet dip to go with salty, crunchy potato chips.

Try rolling a small ball of it in crushed potato chips. It may dry up the mush ... and would taste amazing! Or bottle it and tell 'em it's hot fudge sauce for ice cream!

 

[IamRainey]

James Reston, Jr. wrote a very interesting book called The Last Apocalypse: Europe at the Year 1000AD. He wrote it in response to the hysteria surrounding the impending Y2K (if anyone remembers that complete non-event). It's very readable and very interesting and it's concerned with the closing of the first millennium of the modern era and the resulting fear that the world would come to an end. That overreaction ushered in the spread of Christianity all over Europe stamping out age-old traditional religions -- often by force.

It's part of a trilogy of books which cover expelling Moors and Islam from Europe and how the 3rd crusade turned a prosperous and tolerant polyglot Mediterranian culture into the conflict-ridden Middle East v Western society we live with today.

I highly recommend them all.