The Velvet Hammer

Sometimes it is good to keep old ways. One that I practice and think is a good way to go is called Hogmanay or "First Footing" by my Scots family.

Here is what I sent to my dearest friends just now. I choose to also share it with you.

Source: (English Version)

http://www.new-year.co.uk/firstfoot.htm

"It's traditional in Scotland to go "first-footing" on Hogmanay, a wonderful excuse to go out visiting friends and partying all night, but certain things are essential to make your New Year go with a swing.

Here's our pocket guide....
Hawf (half) Bottle
Your most important travelling companion. For it's traditional - and polite - to offer just about everyone you see a "dram". It's also traditional for it to be whisky. Though in these more cosmopolitan times, it could be anything alcoholic.

Lump of Coal
In days of yore never mind the whisky, it was traditional for First Footers to carry a lump of coal with them. This was lovingly placed on the host's fire. If you're determined to do Hogmanay by the book then take the coal by all means but be prepared for some grief when you set it on top of the central heating radiators!

Toasts
Not pieces of carbonised bread in case of hunger pangs on your New Year yomp, but the good wishes you bestow on Hogmanay gatherings.

A simple and appropriate one is:
A guid New Year to ane an a' And mony may ye see
(A good New Year to one and all And many may you see)

The more jingoistic may offer:
Here's tae us. Wha's like us. Damn few, and they're a' deid!
(Here's to us. Who's like us. Not many, and they're all dead!)

Depending on the type of gathering you are attending you may hear other "toasts". They could be:
Gaun yoursel', Big Man!
(You're a big chap, drinking a lot and are going to continue to do so!)

Gie it laldie!
(Party furiously!)

Map
An absolutely essential item. Not to make sure you get home again - rather to make sure you don't! Have it all marked up with the best parties and bashes so you don't miss a jig!

Six Pack
Not so much in case the whisky runs out. More in case your party spirit runs dry. Then it makes a handy seat on the pavement while you await that elusive taxi home. However, should you be actually taking it to drink then make sure it's "good quality" Jocko Brew, hand it over generously to your hosts and quickly find something more palatable.

A Tall, Dark Handsome Stranger
The first person to cross the threshold at Hogmanay brings all the luck, good or bad, for the year ahead. And, to follow in tradition they have to fulfil certain criteria.
They have to be male, tall, dark and handsome. They cannot be doctors, ministers or grave-diggers (!) - oh, and your first footer cannot have eyebrows that meet in the middle! If you do find a first footer that fits the bill (for remember, we Scots might be handsome but, as a race, we're not renowned for our height) then hang on to them - you could make a packet!
P.S. Being a First Footer is great because tradition dictates you can claim a kiss from every lady in the place! XXXXX!

Hangover Cure
This isn't part of your First Foot Pack as such, more something you'll need as dawn breaks the following morning with a thunderous bang in your heid! We only have two suggestions - take to a darkened room or keep partying.
Seriously, we'd be very interested in your hangover remedies and we'll display the best so other can benefit from your hard-earned wisdom."

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Scots version:

Source: http://www.hogmanay.net/history/faq#hogmanay

"What is Hogmanay?
Hogmanay is celebrated on New Year's Eve, every year, usually in a most exuberant fashion in Scotland as hundreds of thousands of revellers take to the streets to see in the New Year. In the cities of Glasgow and Edinburgh it has become a huge ticketed festival. Celebrations start in the early evening and reach a crescendo by midnight. Minutes before the start of new year, a lone piper plays, then the bells of Big Ben chime at the turn of midnight, lots of kissing, and everyone sings Auld Lang Syne. And then there is more kissing. Elsewhere in Scotland, particularly in more remote parts, customary first footing and Scottish dances, or ceilidhs (pronounced "kayli"), take place. For centuries, fire ceremonies -- torch light processions, fireball swinging and lighting of New Year fires -- played an important part in the Hogmanay celebrations. And they still do.

Where did the word Hogmanay come from
Nobody knows for sure where the word "Hogmanay" came from. Opinions differ as to whether it originated from the Gaelic oge maidne ("New Morning"), Anglo-Saxon Haleg Monath ("Holy Month"), or Norman French word hoguinané, which was derived from the Old French anguillanneuf ("gift at New Year"). It's also been suggested that it came from the French au GUI mener ("lead to the mistletoe") or a Flemish combo hoog ("high" or "great"), min ("love" or "affection") and dag ("day"). Take your pick.

What are the origins of Hogmanay?
Hogmanay's roots reach back to the anamistic practice of sun and fire worship in the deep mid-Winter. This evolved into the ancient Saturnalia, a great Roman Winter festival, where people celebrated completely free of restraint and inhibition. The Vikings celebrated Yule, which became the twelve days of Christmas, or the "Daft Days" as they became known in Scotland. The Winter festival went underground with the Reformation and ensuing years, but re-emerged at the end of the 17th Century. Since then the customs have continued to evolve to the modern day. It is only in recent years that Hogmanay has been celebrated on such a large scale: the first event of its kind was at "Summit in the City" in 1992 when Edinburgh hosted the European Union Heads of State conference. Edinburgh's Hogmanay festival was so successful that it spawned similar events throughout Scotland for the millennium Hogmanay festivities. This year the big three Scottish Ne'er celebrations are Edinburgh's Hogmanay, Glasgow's Hogmanay and Stirling's Hogmanay.

How has Hogmanay changed?
The older generation will tell you that today's Hogmanay street party events are nothing like the Hogmanay celebrations they used to experience.

What is the symbolism of fire at Hogmanay?
The flame and fire at Hogmanay symbolises many things. The bringing of the light of knowledge from one year to the next, lighting the way into the next uncharted century, putting behind you the darkness past, but carrying forward its sacred flame of hope and enlightenment to a better parish, and in this day, a new fresh year,burning away of the old to make space for the new.

What is First Footing?
Traditionally, it has been held that your new year will be a prosperous one if, at the strike of midnight, a "tall, dark stranger" appears at your door with a lump of coal for the fire, or a cake or coin. In exchange, you offered him food, wine or a wee dram of whisky, or the traditional Het Pint, which is a combination of ale, nutmeg and whisky. It's been sugggested that the fear associated with blond strangers arose from the memory of blond-haired Viking’s raping and pillaging Scotland circa 4th to 12th centuries. What's more likely to happen these days is that groups of friends or family get together and do a tour of each others' houses. Each year, a household takes it in turn to provide a meal for the group. In many parts of Scotland gifts or "Hogmananys" are exchanged after the turn of"

midnight.

Enjoy, Mah Dearies!

Angelina Jolie has won. Not an Oscar, but to some, a much better reward. The beautiful actress-turned-humanitarian was ranked as the topmost respected humanitarian celebrity this year, as 2007 comes to a close. The poll was conducted by Reuters' humanitarian website, Reuters Alertnet (www.Alertnet.org), which praised Jolie's efforts as a U.N. ambassador and person of the people.

Jolie is an ambassador for UNHCR, a refugee agency through the U.N. She has received high praise for her work, including from UNHCR spokesman Peter Kessler, who described Jolie as someone who "... goes out to see for herself, to get up close and very personal. She doesn't travel with film crews, and I think that is real testimony to her dedication to the cause." Reuters reports that Jolie has visited over 20 top spots of need, including Iraq.
Source: http://www.thecelebritycafe.com/features/12807.html
28-Dec-2007; Written by: Susie Kopecky

Angelina's Goodwill Ambassador page at UNHCR United Nations High Commission on Refugees:

http://www.unhcr.org/help/3f94ff664.html

UNHCR Fact Sheet on her work:

http://www.unhcr.org/help/HELP/439d41052.pdf

Yes I am behind in my e-mail. Here is your chance to see Elizabeth and a lot of fine people. Go in Peace.

It is all lies! I knew it.

Source;
http://edition.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/12/29/bhutto.death/

CNN: Bhutto aide suggests cover-up

KARACHI, Pakistan (CNN) -- A top aide who helped bathe Benazir Bhutto's body after her death said the former Pakistani prime minister clearly had bullet wounds to the head, calling a lie the government's conclusion that a sunroof lever was involved.

"It's beginning to look like a cover up to me," Pakistan People's Party information secretary Sherry Rehman said in a CNN interview.

This has been one hell of a week; The Lady and the Tiger. (in the US and friends.)

A last look....oh...I am too upset to say all.....yet, but I will in time...

Police abandoned security posts before Bhutto assassination
Nick Juliano
Published: Friday December 28, 2007

Police abandoned their security posts shortly before Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto's assassination Thursday, according to a journalist present at the time, and unanswerable questions remain about the cause of her death, because an autopsy was never performed.

Pakistan's Interior Minister on Friday said that Bhutto was not killed by gunshots, as had been widely reported, and doctors at Rawalpindi General Hospital, where she died, say there were no bullet marks on the former prime minister's body, according to India's IBNLive.com. Furthermore, according to the news agency, there was no formal autopsy performed on Bhutto's body before she was buried Friday.

CNN is now reporting that it wasn't gunshots or shrapnel that killed Bhutto, but that she died from hitting the sunroof of the car she was riding in. The network said sources in Pakistan's Interior Ministry said nothing entered her skull, no bullets or shrapnel.

Do you even believe this? So the bomb got over 100 people near the vehicle and NOT her? How stupid do they hope we are?. Sorry, Charlie. Dream on.

She was killed by the current government of Pakistan (in my never humble opinion) and they should pay for this.

This is WAY too much like Diana's murder by the British government special forces (again, in my firm opinion.)

No interference. No attack. Yeah, right.

Similar to the tiger story really - red herring it and the main cause is forgotten.

Won't work. Not ever.

I sponsor a girl through Save the Children. She lives in an area which is poor and illiterate. She is a really sweet little girl. We have written to each other.

It is not too late this year to think about the Children. You can choose a child in another country, this country, girl, boy...it does not matter! Children are children wherever you go. They are our future (unless global warming and damages done take us out) and they need, in my not so humble opinion, love, security, health, home, family, care, education, play.

Not necessarily in that order. But LOVE is definitely #1.

Save the Children wrote me today:

-------------------------------------------

Natural disasters in Bangladesh, Bolivia, Indonesia, Sudan and California, made this a year of hardship for so many of the children we serve.

Thankfully, our generous supporters made it possible to reach so many of the children and families impacted. We hope you will support us again by giving to our End of Year Campaign.

But sadly unless there is an emergency in the media, many of the children we serve are forgotten. These children and their struggles may not be in the headlines, but they still need help every day...

Nearly 10 million children under 5 die each year from preventable causes such as diarrhea;
103 million children of primary-school age — two-thirds of them girls — are not attending school;

More than 600,000 children in the developing world live in families that must survive on less than $1 a day; and 1 in 6 children in the United States lives in poverty.

As a Save the Children supporter, we ask that you please not forget about the vulnerable children we serve. The issues facing children in need don't vanish when the headlines change. Won't you please make your tax-deductible donation today for the children who face hardship every day?

By supporting Save the Children, you help us make a difference. Please make your tax-deductible donation now -- for the children.

If you are over 70, recent legislation may affect you: Under the Pension Protection Act of 2006, you can make an outright gift to Save the Children by making a direct transfer from your individual retirement account (IRA) — without paying federal income tax on the distribution. The process is straightforward and will maximize the benefit of your IRA gift. Learn more about the Pension Protection Act of 2006.

https://secure.ga4.org/01/YearEnd2007/nU1wtq16qpPw5??WT.mc_id=1207_IDM_EY_1_L

So - just consider it.

-------------------

My husband and I both changed our beneficiaries to our life insurance and our wills to charity. UNICEF and Abused Spouses. We have supported both groups over time. Save the Children is very similar to UNICEF. They do not give your money to the child. They give it to a community program that will help all the children. Brilliant, yes?

It was meant to be. It arrived late yesterday afternoon and was for my true love. My one gift this year. It is a beautiful Akun Bracelet from the Somaly Mam Foundation in Cambodia where young girls are enslaved in great numbers by the men because they prefer sex partners from 5 to 14. Somaly Mam was one of these girls. She says that she is dead inside and yet she really is a phoenix. She rose from her own ashed and is helping girls escape this horrible practice.

http://www.somaly.org/

The Akun bracelet is the first project the girls do on their way toward learning a skill that will give them an income. I bought one and intend to get my own when I am working again.

I received today a thankyou from their Sister organization AEFSIP Cambodia:

http://www.afesip.org/

I would like to share it with you as my present to you:

Dear Colleagues and Supporters,

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year 2008 !!!!

It is of great days of the year, you are meeting your beloved ones, your parents, your children that you are dreaming before the coming days. You will laugh, smile and enjoy the life. You are surprising.
That is life on Earth and God bless you for you were doing good.

On behalf of Afesip Cambodia, We would like to express our special thanks for your lasting support to Afesip and its activities and the women and children victims.
Be your good act remain in our heart for ever.
More and more victims of trafficking request for help and AFESIP Cambodia is making effort for charity fund raising from abroad, that is you !

Nothing is more precious than doing good in your life and nothing worse than you destroy yourself by bad deeds.

From All Our Heart.



IT Department
AFESIP Cambodia
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
# 62CEo, Street 598, Sangkat Boeung Kak 2,
Khan Toul Kork, Phnom Penh.
Tel/Fax: (855-23) 884 123
Mobile : (855-12) 1706 306
Website : www.afesip.org

Hysterical!

http://www.elfyourself.com/

I hesitate to say this but I may start watching tv again occasionally. I saw something tonight so right and so brilliant it snapped me out of my seasonal blues. It was a child's idea. Maybe we should have a child for President. The concept is so simple that we seem to have lost that kind of vision.

http://www.playpumps.org/site/c.hqLNIXOEKrF/b.2559311/k.7BCB/Playpumps_International_and_the_PlayPump_water_system_Kids_play_Water_Pumps.htm

I went to the site after seeing the report and discovered the statistics which are horrifying:

Over 1,000,000,000 people have no clean drinking water.

Water-related diseases are the #1 cause of death in the world claiming 6,000 lives a day and 80% of all sickness in the world.

40,000,000,000 hours hauling water - women and children

"Having the PlayPump has changed people's lives here. Before they were having to walk a long way to collect water in wheelbarrows. Now, having access to water means they can even grow vegetables. And the pump still works whether or not there is a power cut." said Nicole Cloete, who runs a school and home for street children in Africa.

Or as one beautiful young girl said, "Water is Life."

So what is important in this season of giving? Burying your family in presents? More bling? Or is life meaningful to you?

Just consider doing the best thing for the greatest number of people. Just consider it.

Dennis and Elizabeth Kucinich

Dennis won the Independent Democratic vote and Ron Paul won the Republican Independent vote.

http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/2489/t/4823/content.jsp?content_KEY=3623

Dennis has married a wonderfully activist and beautiful English woman. She has walked the walk and gone to Africa and India to help people. They would make a wonderful fresh face for the closeted side of america, our humanity.

Have you checked out her credentials? Impressive at 27. Yes he has a sweet young thing by his side. The older male ideal bar none. Look around.

This is a story of hope of life rising just like the Xmass myth. I will explain some about the myth on Xmass but not today.

Dennis may be a goofy-looking short man. For someone who slept in a car as a home with his mother and siblings, I would say he is the new American Dream. From a parked car to President. I have heard Dennis several times. He has ALL the right ideas for healing of this nation.

But that is not what most Americans want. They was to pretend that George - the Dummy in Charge is right. We don't need a brain I have a countdown calendar and his idiotic statements. It can't come soon enough that last day.

Oh and their couple name can be Denniz. haha

When you are lead by imbeciles and "devils", you are entirely screwed if you smile and sit there. If you are willing to do that, I will show you no mercy. You need to leave or change. I have a book for you. I have thousands but let us start with one.

"Politics of Experience" by R. D. Laing
http://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/philosophy/works/en/laing.htm

This book shows you WHY people are suffering so many mental ailments now. It shows how you could walk someone back to sanity (assuming you care) I will give you Cliff Notes, lazy ones, for you are legion and I still want you to get something.

If you are happy with the culture as it is and smile and function easily, you are messed up in heart and mind. Who could be happy about this????

That's why I wrote about Brad. He and Angie and their kind are the only hope that we have left.

I only WISH they were running for Co-Presidents. (I am a dreamer/Gemini/both sides/why not ? person.)

If you are depressed, have a mental illness or are upset in any way about the state of things, you are incredibly on the right track. And people will gladly kill you for that so be careful!

Read more! »

Don't make me start a category called wtf because I can and will and NONE of us will like it. This is a bit along that line because, bitch that I am occiasionally, I still love people a lot.

Check out this article. No HOHOHO (Whore or mythical man) for this father!!!!!!! I hate what medicine, drug companies, insurance companies, and all their black plans have done to our country. We the People call for an end to this corporate madness. Or all bets are off.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-transplant22dec22,1,500306.story?coll=la-headlines-california&ctrack=2&cset=true"

Cigna refused to pay for a 17-year-old leukemia patient's liver transplant until the family staged a protest Thursday, but Nataline Sarkisyan died shortly after the reversal.

Screw you CIGNA and all your ilk. You are the Grinches of our lives and we want you gone. Give us Universal Health Care or it will be New Orleans in every city town and village. That's a promise.

There has to be an end to this madness.

If there is not, the human race will be obliterated as functional human beings even before we are destroyed physically - and at that point who will care? With no action on global warming, we are assured of destruction. But in the meantime, anyone with some heart or thought or soul - call it what you will - should consider trying to stop it.

Women, as usual in the lead in futurethink, are banning together in a tax revolt in honor of the spirit of the Boston Tea Party.

Sorry honies. It is time for civil action again. (there are exceptions to what I am about to say but since the number is so small, I am not mentioning it.) These people (politicians) are not smart. They may have genius IQs but intelligence never equaled social usefulness. Trust me I know. My husband's IQ is 185 and he has a reading ability of 2000 words a minute and photographic memory - which means if it goes in it does NOT come out. I only have 145 and 90 some percent of people do not understand me one bit. In Cleveland, especially, I am immensely lonely. But I know enough to know that these politicians - nearly to a man and a woman are so self focused that they are completely useless to us, America on the Planet Earth.

I say we take back the power and fire them. They are our employees - it is right THERE in the Constitution if you read it. We have been trying to force that issue from our own little house with the Supreme Court for 15 years. They nearly accepted our case but rejected it ONLY because it had not been brought at a State level.

So - ok - State level attorneys - here is my complete challenge to you.
1. The government people are paid from the taxes they thrust upon us all (I am about to post a rant on that aspect).
2. That makes them our employees.
3. What gives them the right to refuse to answer our questions AND our needs.
4. How can we fire them all? (nearly all)

Until then there is a serious tax revolt going on and I have joined it.

Go to the link above
.
And do not forget the Posse Comitatus.

http://www.dojgov.net/posse_comitatus_act.htm

I won't.

Agoraphobia

I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day But Wouldn't Leave My House

Amnesia

I Don't Know if I'll Be Home for Christmas

Borderline Personality Disorder

Thoughts of Roasting on an Open Fire

Dementia

I Think I'll Be Home for Christmas

Depression

Silent Anhedonia, Holy Anhedonia, All is Flat, All is Lonely.

Manic

Deck the Halls and Walls and House and Lawn and Streets and Stores and Office and Town and Cars and Buses and Trucks and Trees and Fire Hydrants and ....

Narcissistic

Hark the Herald Angels Sing about Me

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

Jingle Bell, Jingle Bell, Jingle Bell Rock, Jingle Bell, Jingle Bell, Jingle
Bell Rock, Jingle Bell, Jingle Bell, Jingle Bell Rock, Jingle Bell, Jingle
Bell, Jingle Bell Rock, Jingle Bell, Jingle Bell, Jingle Bell Rock, Jingle
Bell, Jingle Bell, Jingle Bell Rock, Jingle Bell, Jingle Bell, Jingle Bell
Rock, Jingle Bell, Jingle Bell, Jingle Bell Rock, Jingle Bell, Jingle Bell,
Jingle Bell Rock, Jingle Bell, Jingle Bell, Jingle Bell Rock, Jingle Bell,
Jingle Bell, Jingle Bell Rock, Jingle Bell, Jingle Bell, Jingle Bell Rock,
Jingle Bell, Jingle Bell, Jingle Bell Rock, Jingle Bell, Jingle Bell Rock,
Jingle Bell, Jingle Bell, Jingle Bell Rock, Jingle Bell, Jingle Bell Rock,
Jingle Bell, Jingle Bell, Jingle Bell, Jingle Bell Rock
............(better start again)

Oppositional Defiant Disorder

I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus So I Burned Down the House

Paranoid

Santa Claus is Coming to Get Me

Passive-Aggressive Personality

On the First Day of Christmas My True Love Gave to Me (and then took it all away).

Personality Disorder

You Better Watch Out, I'm Gonna Cry, I'm Gonna Pout, Maybe I'll Tell You Why

Schizophrenia

Do You Hear What We Hear?
Multiple Personality Disorder ---
We Three Queens Disoriented Are

Senile Dementia

Walking in a Winter Wonderland Miles From My House In My Slippers and Robe

Social Anxiety Disorder

Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas While I Sit Here and Hyperventilate

I know that our Duhsidon't (my new name for bushy)has refused to accept global warming as an issue. He lives by Toddler Laws. 2 year old, spoiled boy perspectives which go along the line of:

If it looks like mine, it's mine.

If I want it to be mine, it's mine.

And even more drivel based on the mythical endorsement of god.

Yeah, ok.

Not in my universe.

Read more! »

Okay - might not be yer cuppa tea...

but here it IS;

http://adoniscabaret.co.uk/saucy-santa-hen-night/index.htm

England and not the US per usual.... (snore)

Brad Pitt - Hello!

Brad is one of my new heros and not because he married (basically) my absolute favorite female alive - Angelina Jolie. Most of you wooud have NO clue how many connections these two make in my heart and mind and spirit. Too long to tell, actually. So let me tell you, instead, part of why...

http://www.makeitrightnola.org

Read more! »

You might love or hate me. In any situation that might be true. But let me tell you this:

I voted for Dennis for President once and I can do it again.

You see these are the things:

He's not perfect, he's admitted it and most of us are ok with that.

He may look like an Elf in a Hollow Tree - but he's NOT! lol

I can't believe that people are so shallow that they poke fun at his height or looks. What idiots! You may know them by their behavior! It is a real teller! LOL

Dennis is ACES in my own book. He wants a Department of Peace. And your rejection of that is based on....? I really want to know. Because is this makes no sense to me.

Have you SEEN his new wife??? Elizabeth is an activist - Mother Theresa and AIDS in Africa - OMG! I am NOT even there!!! And I would LOVE to be there right now... Hell, America - we NEED an attractive woman for a change. We have had ugly men and women for way too long!

Short poll:

Yes?
No?

Send to the Pubhouse owner. I'm a dang activist writer only.

lol

It's more than plenty and I HAVE plenty more. Are you sure that you can handle it?

Ok well yes or no I have one or two left so do your best.

Fair warning... rofl!!!!