In America, we waste 40 percent of our entire food supply or 1,400 calories per person per day, according to a new study.
That number is just shocking, and I think it needs to make us re-evaluate our conversation about hunger, farming, and our policies around food.
Well, we knew our Christmas card wasn't exactly traditional when we sent it out last week, but we had no idea it would get the reaction that it did.
In the past we used to sit around a table at Christmas and sign physical cards for our various contacts--authors, artists, etc. In today's Web 2.0 world, we've move to creating and sending out an e-card (sorry, U.S. postal service, but it's a lot cheaper and budgets are tight).
So this year with Advent passing faster than we realized, we whipped together this e-card trying to make a joke out of our December cover.
So here are some fun Christmas links:
There are surprisingly few official rules about decorating churches, much to the chagrin of those who have been crowded out by Christmas poinsettias or engulfed by Easter lilies. At times, admittedly, the altar looks like it's been attacked by a rioting mob of florists.
For a few Christmases, our extremely unmusical family would attempt to sing "The 12 Days of Christmas." It was painful to listen to, but it inevitably turned into a good opportunity for laughter—such as when my Polish grandmother sang "three Polish hens" rather than French hens.
Turns out we could have been making a mockery of a secret Catholic catechetical tool. An e-mail forward claims the infamous song was used by Catholics oppressed by the British to teach the faith, though a quick Internet search shows that the origin of "The 12 Days of Christmas" is uncertain.
Here are some very Catholic--and very non-Catholic--gifts:
After Michelle Newcomb’s 4-year-old son said he wanted to be a priest, the Indiana mom decided to create a game just for him. Interest in her game grew, and now The Priest Game has been reproduced for sale. The matching game is not competitive and teaches young children numbers and colors, along with Catholic prayers and explanations of religious items and symbols.
When I first imagined a 108-foot Christmas tree and 40 other smaller (just 50 feet maybe?) trees adorning St. Peter’s Square and the rest of the Vatican, I couldn't help but wondering if Pope Benedict wasn’t that green after all. How old must a 108-foot Christmas tree be? How many acres of Austrian forest were decimated for the pope?
But Benedict is one step ahead of me. This year, the largest tree will be recycled into children’s toys and furniture, reports Zenit News agency.
The war on Christmas has gone up a notch from heated rhetoric to plundering.
It seems that outdoor nativity statues, as well as menorahs, are often stolen. So, I learned in this NPR piece, people are taking a defense step, putting GPS on Baby Jesus.
Indoor nativities, thank God, are a bit safer. Here are a couple of fun options:
There was a big Christmas display two blocks away from the house I grew up in until age 6. Every year, even when we moved out of the state, we came back to watch Santa and his sleigh rise up a pulley system in the spotlight.
As impressive as that display is, it just got blown out of the water by the Holdman's display in Utah. This picture doesn't do it justice. Any picture, in fact, cannot do it justice. Go to the site and watch their videos: The lights are animated to go with music!
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