Welcome to the Republic of Berryland!

Long may her queen reign! (I’m going to keep my money there… and trade sasquatch fertilizer for berries and tea)

For Christmas, I started a country.

I hope it grows and prospers!

[update – premitted embryonic cloning research, and am passing a law for no public usage of marijuana, though it’s still legal to use at home.]

current folks in my dossier –

The Republic of Blue Islands – New York Times Democracy
The Queendom of ConcreteWaffer – Anarchy
The Borderlands of Hamstring – Left-wing Utopia
The Disputed Territories of Ire – Capitalist Paradise
The Dictatorship of Java Scotia – Authoritarian Democracy
The People’s Republic of Molenium – Democratic Socialists
The Commonwealth of Thirteen – Liberal Democratic Socialists

am I missing any?

edbook‘s prep for some of his photos is amazing. -30F is a frightening temperature to work in. The man gets smashing results, though… just a little wander through will show you that. I don’t think I’d go out in that weather for anything but a labor of love.

I’m glad that local weather is so mild… I get heavy rain sometimes, and a hurricane warning every rare while but those are quite simply dealt with, and neither are as threatening as so many other places. Another blessing to add to the nice collection I’ve got already.

Merry Christmas, and I hope that everyone can spend time reflecting on the spirit of the season….Good Cheer to all. And to all a good..erm, Day.

Beyond the Bible and Seuss’s Grinch, check out –

Letters from Father Christmas: a collection made up of the letters that Santa wrote to Tolkein’s family seasonally for over two decades. Each year a different problem occurred at the North Pole, including some whoopsies from a bumbling Polar Bear who lives with St. Nick and a few invasions by goblins (this predates Middle Earth, but I’d bet that some development was done during the creation of the letters, including a spiffy language key in the back which was sent to Tolkein’s children so that they could help decipher goblin cave writings).

The artwork and writing is so nifty and clever… The favorite edition being the one which has pages that are actually envelopes, from which you take out beautifully reproduced letters to read, Griffin and Sabine style. However, one of the newer editions (the oversized 1999 Revised edition) includes many additional years’ worth of letters that the special edition does not and is really quite comprehensive.

My first encounter with the book was working in charge of kids’ books in the early 90s. I have a lot of fond memories doing story hour, and wish that the letters could’ve been implemented over the course of the two weeks leading up to the holiday…two letters a session would’ve been perfect. Unfortunately, it was not to be… I’d still like to read them with my sweetheart sometime… I think she’d really dig ’em.