Every year, just before Thanksgiving, the city of Morris puts on a Parade of Lights, always in the dark and the bitter cold. The citizens line up along the streets, freezing our butts off, while hyper-excited kids are bouncing off the curb, waiting for the candy to start flying. Then along come the floats, with local beauty queens waving, 
lights flashing, Pounce (the university mascot) looking terrifying,
crews running alongside with bags of candy, and then, most importantly, along comes Santa.
It was all very exciting, especially for the kids. I guess the holiday season has officially started.
UM twin cities campus-
Enrollment: 56,000
Mascot: gopher
UM Morris campus-
Enrollment: 980
Mascot: COUGAR
I think this community solidarity huggy stuff is a good thing.
I am also intensely grateful that I am not in a situation that makes it necessary for me to participate in one.
chigau, I make sure i am not in such situations. Eremitic, I.
(prevention, cure)
So..does that mean there’s been a truce declared in the war on Xmas?
(Off topic : England skittled for just 172 runs in the 1st Ashes Test in Perth. 7 wickets to Starc and 2 to Doggett on debut. Inacase anyone iselse inintrested. Weatherald & Labuschagne to open our batting soon.Usman Khawaja would’ve but has spent too much time off the ground.)
^ In case anyone else is intrested.
November sure seems early for it – but then here in Adelaide, Sth Oz, we have our Christmas pagent – in daylight & often hot sun- in November too. Even earlier actually – first weekend this month.
Gather its to help commercial intrestes whip up hype and get people buying more and earlier..
X-D
Yes, who ever heard of promoting Xmas before December? What will they think of next?
@ 2,3
Who would have guessed either of these two guys as misanthropes? Astonishing revelation. X-D
In case anyone else is interested the day’s play in Perth ended with Australia on 123 runs for 9 wickets. Ben Stokes took 5 wickets for 23 runs.
I’m one the unsociable people too.
In England we seem to start selling Easter eggs immediately after Christmas and Hot Cross Buns, which were Good Friday only, are now sold all year. Cromwell banned them completely btw.
It does make sense.
Is that Miss Quilted Parka of 2025‽
Ugh! A month of Xmas music. Ugh! Ugh!
A week ago they lit up the Yule Cat (Jólakötturinn) here in Reykjavík, a large wire statue covered with 6500 LEDs. The Yule Cat is the pet of the Icelandic Santa Clauses and their Giant man-eating mother Grýla. On the evening of the 24th December, the cat prowls around the houses and enviscerates every child that does not have a piece of new clothing – Icelandic Christmas stories are not very warm and fuzzy.
So, compared to that, the Morris mascot? Not impressed. :-)
@11: I went to a Canadian Tire the other day, and they were playing some particularly obnoxious Xmas trash. Made my purchase and got the hell out as fast as possible.
Glad to see the beauty queens were warmly dressed! I rather liked Pounce’s attempt to soften it’s image with lots of bubbles.
strangerinastrangeland@ 12
Not quite the Yule Cat, but another thing that cheers me up!
.
The ghost from The Ring hears a cat.
.https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1JKdTp6Jke/
What’s “Starbuck Heritage Day”? Does this have some relationship to the origin of a chain cafe? Or some kind of association with trying to kill a big white whale? Is there a problem with big white whales in southeast Minnesota. Inquiring minds need to know.
df @8
I’m still not a guy.
🖕🏻
StevoR @4:
THE WAR ON CHRISTMAS CANNOT END UNTIL CHRISTMAS ENDS ITS ILLEGAL OCCUPATION OF NOVEMBER!
(Which seems to have further expanded to October.)
chigau @17: How many years has Silentbob been misgendering you, despite repeated corrections?
^ Raging Bee : Yup.
@19. Rob Grigjanis: An awful lot.
Also been trolling and obsessing over John Morales for an awful lot of years too.
Refusing to actually answer my questions to him for at least a year or so as well.
If I ever misgender someone here, let it be known that I am not very familiar with Anglophone names.
Sweden has proper Germanic names like Augustus or Cesar.🙂
Pounce the mascot needs an upgrade if he (she?) is to protect the university from fascist scum.
SecUnit standard, at the very least. Nanotech for self-repair, tactical nukes optional.
Rob @19
A long time. He hasn’t got my age right, either.
@ Robro 16.
You’ve guessed incorrectly on the origin of Starbuck Heritage Day. It started in the 1970s in honor of Dallas Cowboys star quarterback, Roger Staubach. Unfortunately the committee got the spelling wrong. Either that or it’s the name of a town near Morris.
crivitz @ #25 — I had not considered the Staubach misspelling connection. Kudos to you.
chigau @#24 — My apologies if I have ever misgendered you with “guy”. I have no knowledge of your gender or your age, or anyone else here for that matter. Names are a poor way to tell. I tend to use “guy” in a non-specific way, but I’ll try to be careful about that in the future.
robro @26
No worries. If you do it, I probably wouldn’t notice.
When the df (AKA Silentbob) does it, it’s malicious.
Raging Bee @18
Nah. It’s still November 1st. That’s when the Halloween decorations come down and the Christmas ones go up.
It’s the Goth kids holding the line for us!!
crivitz @25
Or
Somebody was a really big fan of Battlestar Galactica…