God bless us, every one!

"I never could see why people were so happy about Dickens' 'A Christmas Carol', because I never had any confidence that Scrooge was going to be different the next day." -- Dr. Karl Menninger.

Merry Christmas!

"Several hundred million people get a billion or so gifts for which they have no use, and some thousands of shop-clerks die of exhaustion while selling them, and every other child in the western world is made ill from overeating -- all in the name of the lowly Jesus." -- Upton Sinclair (circa 1925).

Miraculously, his name survives

Christmas Eve. Matthew Arnold, English poet and critic, born on this day in 1822. He wrote:

"Miracles do not happen."

Holiday of the Month: Christmas

"If Jesus Christ were to come today, people would not even crucify him. They would ask him to dinner, hear what he had to say, and make fun of him." -- Thomas Carlyle.