::cough::Hi and welcome to Top ::cough:: Comments. This time of year I usually do a series of ::sneeze:: seasonally topical diaries, and this year is ::sniffle:: no different. Follow me below the orange pile of tissues after a word from our sponsor, and if you haven't had one yet I've arranged to have flu shots available...
Here at Top Comments we strive to nourish community by rounding up some of the site's best, funniest, most mojo'd & most informative commentary, and we depend on your help!! If you see a comment by another Kossack that deserves wider recognition, please send it either to topcomments at gmail or to the Top Comments group mailbox by 9:30pm Eastern. Please please please include a few words about why you sent it in as well as your user name (even if you think we know it already :-)), so we can credit you with the find!
As you may have guessed, instead of carolers (or vampires), Casa Brillig apparently invited Rhinovirus into our home. I'm glad this is now and not closer to Christmas (while not Christian, we're of the cultural 'give presents and eat well on the 25th' holiday tradition). It did remind me of several Christmases over the years where things didn't go the way everyone envisions: healthy with no, shall we say, complicating events. Let's gather around the fireplace, tissues and medications of choice, be they nyquil or whiskey, and share our tales of holiday adventures!
I don't know exactly how old I was and I cannot find the picture of me with the date on the back, but when I was a wee toddler in the wabe, I apparently spiked a fever of 105 or so on Christmas Eve. I remember stories of the doctor saying cool baths and aspirin (yes, I am that old, that baby aspirin were for children), and of my parents being up most of the night. My fever broke near morning, and I was cool, contented and very, very rosy-cheeked, as the picture I cannot put my hands on in time for tonight's diary demonstrated. I don't remember ever seeing pictures of either of my parents on that day, oddly enough :).
Fast-forward to high school, when I helpfully was slicing bread to go with the stew Mom had made after our annual trek to see Santa arrive. I sliced off a chunk of the tip of my right middle finger... not a lot, but enough that I bled like a warfarin overdose patient with a paper cut. Off to the Urgent Care facility, where after an insanely long wait, they bandaged my finger too tight and I woke in the middle of the night with it ice cold and thumping. A little rearrangement of the bandages, and all was well, but this plus a second slicing years later is why my job at major holidays is NEVER slicing bread.
Finally, there was the year we had Christmas at my sister-in-law's house in rural Maine. She was just out of vet school, and with her husband had moved shortly before. There was not enough furniture, or heat, or much of anything except love, food and family. I developed another truly high fever, enough that I was hallucinating and spent the night bundled in a sleeping bag on the floor with space blankets over and under me. Why don't I know how high it was? Because my SIL had one thermometer. That was used with animals. Yes, the image you're getting is exactly right. I was putting that nowhere near my mouth!
Those are three of my Adventures In Christmas, have any of your own tales to tell or should we pass the peppermint schnapps around for our hot cocoa?
Brillig's ObDisclaimer: The decision to publish each nomination lies with the evening's Diarist and/or Comment Formatter. My evenings at the helm, I try reeeeallllyy hard to publish everything without regard to content. I really do, even when I disagree personally with any given nomination. "TopCommentness" lies in the eyes of the nominator and of you, the reader - I leave the decision to you. I do not publish self-nominations (ie your own comments) and if I ruled the world, we'd all build community, supporting and uplifting instead of tearing our fellow Kossacks down.
From Ed Tracey:
In the front-page story about the Senate report detailing the use of torture - mwalton4 uses a 40 year-old book by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn to great effect.
From Otteray Scribe:
In leftprogressive's diary about hateful homophobic Baptist preacher Logan Robertson, northbronx has a suggestion for making sure African lions do not starve.
From Yasuragi:
Top comment from readerwriter in kos' diary Pelosi taps Doctor Doom to head Dems' messaging project.
From NancyWH:
Nominating this comment by lgmcp, from librarisingnsf's diary SF Chronicle Photographer Suffers Concussion After Being Hit By Police Baton At Berkeley Protest.
Several flagged comments:
This comment by Eileen B flagged by Lady Libertine, from Meteor Blades' Today we learn more details of the villainous behavior of U.S. torturers from a redacted report.
This comment by DCCyclone, flagged by AndrewMN in Jeff Singer's Daily Kos Elections Live Digest 12/9.
I regret I have no comments to nominate. It's not for lack of good options, it's the gradually developing fever since I wrote the diary earlier today. I don't have enough hand sanitizer to wipe all of dKos clean...
Top Mojo for yesterday, December 8th, first comments and tip jars excluded. Thank you
mik for the mojo magic! For those of you interested in How Top Mojo Works, please see his diary
FAQing Top Mojo.
1) Take back your own community & unite with by FishOutofWater — 128
2) The NSA has your number...Anonymous has your DK. by The Marti — 100
3) LOL! So glad you got a subscription. by poco — 96
4) Yep Human Antibiotic Use is Mere Hobby. by Gooserock — 90
5) I'm flummoxed but their willingness by bastrop — 87
6) This ain't "24," and you ain't Keifer Sutherland by BlackSheep1 — 87
7) It's useful to remember that Christie by Puddytat — 83
8) I just wish it would lead to charges. by ColoTim — 83
9) legal system no longer protects ordinary citizens by Don midwest — 82
10) Cheney et al by JekyllnHyde — 78
11) Political power, police powers, and money by Persiflage — 73
12) It can be done, huh? by hnichols — 71
13) Any damage to Christie emboldens his two by polecat — 66
14) Failure to comply is punishable by death. by kharma — 61
15) Look at how the cars stayed back! Look at how by bkamr — 59
16) testimony by his staff against him by misterwade — 58
17) The Level of Govt That Controls Police is ENTRY by Gooserock — 58
18) Someone who knows and can prove something by judyms9 — 57
19) That's true. by bastrop — 54
20) That whole "be polite" thing is stupid by Shadowmuffin — 53
21) Whenever I read a cop saying by gulfgal98 — 52
22) I thought about it twice - they're still cowards by quince — 51
23) Fucking cowards! by DerAmi — 51
24) These cops need Depends by quince — 51
25) That may be true here by Catte Nappe — 49
26) Uh, What's Plan B? by JekyllnHyde — 49
27) when they don't do the same... by deben — 47
28) That photo was posted or tweeted among... by Bob Johnson — 47
29) Festivus pole defective, not saving me from bath. by jwinIL14 — 46
30) Uhhhmmm, pay attention please. by RudiB — 48
Top Pictures for yesterday, December 8th. Click any picture of a cat to be taken to the full comment. Thank you
jotter for the image magic!