Today's As It Stands: Here We Go Kissing in the New Year

(editor's note: The Times-Standard didn't update their Opinion section in the Online version 12/28. So here it is.)

Dave Stancliff/For the Times-Standard

Posted: 12/28/2008 01:31:06 AM PST

Have you ever been to a New Year's party where, at the stroke of midnight, everyone started kissing? Who hasn't? It's an old tradition and also a superstition.

In Biblical times the act of kissing or touching ones lips to those of another, or to another person's cheek was a token of affection or respect.

Kissing was common not only between male and female relatives (Genesis 29:11; 31:28), but also between male relatives. (Genesis 27:26, 27; 45:15; Exodus 18:7; 2 Samuel 14:33) It was likewise a gesture of affection between close friends. (1 Samuel 20:41, 42; 2 Samuel 19:39) Kissing might accompany a blessing. (Genesis 31:55)

Historians credit the Romans (are we surprised?) with starting the tradition of kissing and merrymaking on New Year's Eve. They called it the Festival of Saturnalia. Later on, the English and the Germans would celebrate the coming of the new year by kissing the first person they met when the bells chimed twelve.

Europeans have celebrated with masked balls on New Year's Eve for hundreds of years. Tradition says the mask symbolizes evil spirits from the old year and the kiss (after taking off the mask) is an act of purification.

I've always viewed this superstition/tradition with anticipation. What better way to start the new year than with a kiss? Beats a kick, as they say. My first kiss of the year, for the past 34 years, has been for my wife, Shirley.

Before marriage, I went to some pretty odd New Years Eve parties. The saddest one was in 1970, just days before I left for Vietnam. A lot of people kissed me that night, probably thinking they wouldn't see me again.

My buddy and I threw a New Year's Eve costume party three years later, when I was a civilian again, and someone showed up in a frog costume. I think (this was long time ago and it was a good party) he went around telling the women he was really a handsome prince and a kiss would release him from his warty exterior.

To kiss the one dearest to us, at any time, is sublime. On New Year's Eve, it takes on meaning from that last moment of the old year, and gives the promise of a good year ahead. It says you both believe the best is yet to come.

Because Jan. 1st is the first day of the year, people have historically connected what they do on that day with their fate throughout the rest of the year.

Don't attend a New Years party without a date, if you don't want to end up watching everyone else pucker up. Then again, booze doesn't disinfect mouths, and in a room full of strangers you're probably better off kissing the dog when the clock strikes twelve.

If you find yourself at a New Year's party where you have no wish to kiss anyone in the room, there are tactics to it. For example, have something physical in, or over, your mouth. An inhaler, toothpick, or even a surgical mask, will do the job.

Another ploy worth considering is to excuse yourself a few minutes before midnight to take a “head-clearing” walk. You can return after the kissing has stopped. Sometimes retreat is the better part of valor.

This kissing thing at New Year's can be serious stuff. Michael Christian, who wrote “The Art of Kissing” under the pen name William Cane, said the zeal of New Year's Eve can lead to mixed messages and lingering awkwardness. In other words, be careful how you kiss your neighbor's wife when she wanders under the mistletoe.

A recent survey for an American mouthwash manufacturer found that 6 percent of people greeting the New Year at midnight plan to kiss their pets. I find it odd that this statistic isn't higher. There's a lot of animal lovers out there.

I plan to greet the New Year by kissing my wife first, and then my pug. After all, there is a pecking order in our house.

As It Stands, I'd like to wish all my readers a safe and Happy New Year!

Image from http://www.allposters.co.uk

Bush's Legacy: He Leaves us a World that Hates Americans!

Click here to read how America's image has been badly tarnished during his eight years in office.

Find out why the world doesn't like us nowadays. This article in today's Chicago Tribune lays out the whole mess.

Robert Graham, LA sculptor, dies at 90

    

photos by Bob Chamberlin/LA Times

Robert Graham was known for his major civic monuments across the nation. Most of his work can be found in the LA area, however, as the artist lived in Venice. His legacy is visible all over LA. The largest, and most prominent public work that he did is in LA. Called the "Great Bronze Doors", it is a huge entryway topped by an angel, and was made for the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, in 2002.

How many cats do you see in this illusion?

HINT: There's more than 7 of them.

A Writer Tries Not to Use, or Buy, Plastic for One Week

Your probably saying "it doesn't sound that hard." But think about what that really means. No plastics period. "No one can do the whole thing in one week," warned Beth Terry, an accountant from Oakland California, who blogs about trying to live the plastic-free life at fakeplasticfish.com

Did the writer manage to do it? Read this article in the Chicago Tribune Online edition to find out, and to get educated on just how much plastics play a part in our everyday routine.

The Snow Plough Business is Booming in a Bad Economy

All we seem to hear about these days are businesses going bankrupt or laying off thousands of employees.

But there's one business that is benefiting from the snowy blanket that covers many northern states right now: the snow plough business.

It just goes to show that one person's misery may be another's gold mine!

Snow plough operators everywhere right now are singing, "Let it Snow! Let it Snow!" Click here to read how ice is nice for some people.

There's a lot of strange plants on our planet...

        Rafflesia is a genus of parasitic flowering plants(right). It was discovered in the Indonesian rain forest by an Indonesian guide in 1818. The plant has no stems, leaves or true roots. It spreads its root-like haustoria inside the tissue of a vine. The only part of the plant that can be seen outside the host vine is the five-petaled flower. In some species the flower may be over 100 cm in diameter, and weigh up to 10 kg. The flowers look and smell like rotting meat, hence its local names which translate to "corpse flower" or "meat flower".

 

(Above)The titan arum or Amorphophallus titanum is a flowering plant with the largest unbranched inflorescence (group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem) in the world. Due to its fragrance, the titan arum is also known as a carrion flower, the "Corpse flower", or "Corpse plant". Below, are a couple of more exotic plants. Photos thanks to Damn Funny Photos (2006).

 

 

As It Stands: It's Time to Stop the Government Gravy Train for Corporations

       By Dave Stancliff
       We’ve bailed out the bankers on Wall Street.
       We’ve bailed out Freddie Mack and Fannie Mae.
       We’ve bailed out the Big Three.
       Now the Commercial Real Estate Properties want money.
       When is someone going to bail out me?
       Like Janis Joplin, all I want is a Mercedes Benz.
       Seriously, when do the handouts end?
       When we have no more money to hand out? No, because that’s what we’re doing now. The government is busy printing funny money and spending it faster than it takes the bills to dry.
       This latest example of shoddy management practices begging for relief, comes from Richard Cowden, managing editor of the Real Estate Law and Industry Report. He told NPR “that it’s been a train wreck for the commercial real estate market,” during a recent interview.
       Cowden was talking about getting loans. Whether you are a plumber looking to buy a $20,000 truck or a real estate company looking to refinance a $20 million office building, the credit crisis has made it harder to get a loan now. The banks are giving out less loans this year and playing the Grinch, even though they got their cash infusion from Congress.
       Experts are talking about $400 billion of commercial mortgages that will mature in 12 months. Why should that bother you and I? Michael Grupe, a vice president with the National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts, says the pipeline for funneling cash into the system has slowed down. “It’s not like there’s been a mild slowdown here. The pipeline is frozen. No money is coming out,” Grupe told the press.
       So now we have to wonder what that means. What is going to happen when hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of commercial real estate can’t get refinanced when it comes due? “We don’t want to find out, “ Grupe said.
         Maybe “we” ought to find out. I’m sick and tired of big business getting massive loans because they can. What happened to declaring bankruptcy these days? It use to be when you couldn’t pay your bills as a businessman your only recourse was to declare bankruptcy.
         Now, for reasons that I suspect are corruption at it’s finest, the big boys are lining up with sob stories and trying to scare Congress and the American people into giving them a handout.
Grupe and others in the real estate industry have been meeting with officials at the Federal Reserve and asking the government for help.
         I’m sure getting tired of hearing that the only way to save the economy is to print more bad money for bad businessmen, who will go on being bad, regardless of the amount given. CEOs are getting their obscene bonus checks while the pink slips trickle down to the rank and file.
         Economists are starting to admit that our current situation is as bad, if not worse, than the Great Depression. We all know that it lingered on for years, and what we’re facing now looks like a repeat in the worst way.
         Whose next? Giant entertainment industries like Disneyland? I can just see Goofy stating Disney’s case in Congress. He’ll probably blend in there nicely.
          We can’t keep bailing out every big business that comes asking for funds. It’s just not possible. Businesses are going to have to tough this out and come up with a future model for doing business. But if they keep getting handouts for doing a shoddy job, where’s the incentive for them to change their ways?
         As It Stands, call it tough love, but I think it’s time to stop the government gravy train. 

Global cyber-crime more profitable than illegal drugs

A sure sign of the new millennium is that cyber-crime has passed illegal drugs in world-wide crime according to experts.

Russian hackers are targeting the U.S. and Europe daily, hiding in cyber-rat holes that even the police have been unable to uncover.

The chief international culprits are the Russians and the Chinese. Both have attacked the U.S. Department of Defense computers recently, as well as both Obama's and Mccain's computers during the presidential election.

Even NASA has been attacked repeatedly. But most of these reportedly young and smart hackers crimes come in the following areas; pilfering online bank accounts, swiping Social Security numbers, stealing credit card data and peeking at email log-ins and passwords, are accounting for an estimated $100 million-a-year global cyber-crime business.

Welcome to 21st Century crime.

 

Lakers celebrate Christmas and beat Celtics 92-83

If you missed this game, you missed the NBA at its best. It was the first time two teams with as few as a combined seven  losses have played against each other.

It was the East leader and the West leader, and the West was best! The Lakers are out to get revenge for last year's NBA Finals Playoff loss.

This was a good way to make a statement. The Lakers are officially prime time!

                     photo by Wally Skalij/LA Times

Merry Christmas 2008 to my blogger friends and visitors!

The Stancliff Family wishes you all a very merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! May all of your wishes come true!