Kimkins Controversy - Kimkins Scam

Outside the Box School Fundraising

Parents and teachers, are you looking for simple elementary school fundraisers? SchoolPop.com has a fresh approach to school fundraising. The site is set up so your supporters can go through to shop at many of their favorite online stores and have a portion of their spending go towards the school of their choosing. This is actually a very apt topic for a diet related site given the fact that the stereotypical school fundraiser used to be selling chocolate bars. Rather than buying empty calories to support the local school, you can pay for a day at a spa or a smaller set of clothes and have a portion of the money go to the school fundraiser. If you are planning a hotel stay anytime soon, you should check in to SchoolPop.com first, I noticed that the partners who were donating the biggest percentages were national hotel chains. Marriott gives 9% of your spending to the school of your choice.

Christmas Music Continued

Celine Dion is quite possibly the best known French speaking singer in the World today. This popular Christmas song had its beginnings as a poem composed by a French poet at the behest of his parish priest. O Holy Night is a very difficult and demanding song and as an ironic consequence, it has been attempted by countless mediocre pop singers over the years. Celine Dion is not one of these.

Peuple à genoux is French for Fall on your knees.

Chicago Stuff

There is a regionally specific site for social news and chatting for inhabitants of the Windy City. That has to be one of the most widely recognized city nicknames in the World, we are of course talking about Chicago.

You can use this site to keep abreast of meetings and events in the area. There is also a classified section. If you live outside the city, WindyChat could also be a great resource for honest reviews of restaurants. There is a thread on the forum with spectacular pictures taken around the downtown area this holiday season.

Bless Us All !!!

This is cute, but it has me wondering about reproductive physiology. How is it that all the boys in the Cratchit family are frogs and all the girls are pigs? I guess I should really forget about such foolish questions and just suspend disbelief for the rest of the month. Make sure your chimney is clean for tomorrow night folks

Did you know that Dickens churned this particular story out so that its sales could be used to pay off a personal debt? Personal debt and Christmas are just as topical today as they were back in 1843.

Free and Legal Christmas Music VI : Iconic Christmas Corniness

I don’t cringe when I hear Brenda Lee comin’ on strong with this 50’s Christmas megahit. If I had been one of the lemmings plummeting down the mall escalators in the past few weeks, I may have reached some kind of saturation point and started feeling some kind of humbuggery when it started blasting from the PA speakers. As it is, I am at peace with the World and that includes this song. I couldn’t make it through the whole video of Hanna Montana’s version.

Free and Legal Christmas Music V : Guitar Harp Instrumental

Guitar harps would probably me more popular if not for the existence of guitars…and harps.

Seriously though, I really do love the sounds that come from these uncommon and ungainly instruments.

Just today, I was trying to decide what Christmas songs I should try to learn on my guitar. It is hard to get motivated to learn music that you can only play at one time of year.

Looking Through Binoculars

Buytelescopes.com has what appears to be a pretty self explanatory name. You may be surprised to know that they also have the best astronomy binoculars for everyone from beginners to professionals as well as the perfect binoculars for birdwatchers. I just got my Christmas greeting from a dear birdwatching relative of mine, she had recently traveled to the southern hemisphere on a birdwatching excursion and she added several species to her list of sightings. I remember traveling with her decades ago when she had a high end monocular that she had mounted onto a used rifle stock. This contraption earned some unwanted attention from people in uniform, even though she had painted the stock a very cheery color. I am glad that she sticks to binoculars these days.

Buytelescopes.com is a great resource for information about astronomy for young and old alike. They also feature a gallery of customer photos. Each picture comes with details of what equipment was used to obtain the image. There are pictures of birds, wildlife and also astronomical images.

Free and Legal Christmas Music IV : Smooth

Jazz seems to be a default genre for many Christmas playlists. Harry Connick Jr. is about as smooth as you can get. This particular tune gets a little too loud and showy in the middle for my tastes.

I am going to look around for instrumentals for my next few installments. Vocals are nice but instrumental music is much better to have playing during meals and also when relaxing.

Free and Legal Christmas Music III: Aaron Neville

Finally, a performance that I like. Here is Aaron Neville singing Please Come Home For Christmas.

This is exactly what a secular Christmas song should be, mellow and pleasant. The video is nice to look at, too. It is very reminiscent of the typical Christmas pageants put on in schools around the country. I can remember that when I was the same age as the kids that were featured in this video, my music teacher suggested that I should just move my lips during the performance. I don’t think that I was the only person in my class to whom she gave that advice. I did however take it very personally.

Free and Legal Christmas Music II : Country Christmas

Here is another Christmas song from Universal. I don’t like this one that much either. I grew up in an area where a lot of people listened to Country Music. I was surprised to find out that this singer, Sammy Kershaw tried to get elected as lieutenant governor of Louisiana earlier this year. He ran as a Republican.