A Very Merry

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Wikipedia has launched a delightful new project called Wikiquote. Harlan Ellison on the subject of this time of year: Christmas is an awfulness that compares favorably with the great London plague and fire of 1665-66. No one escapes the feelings of mortal dejection, inadequacy, frustration, loneliness, guilt and pity. No one escapes feeling used by society, by religion, by friends and relatives, by the utterly artifical responsiblities of extending false greetings, sending banal cards, reciprocating unsolicated gifts, going to dull parties, putting up with acquaintances and family one avoids all the rest of the year…in short, of being brutalized by a ‘holiday’ that has lost virtually all of its original meanings and has become a merchandising ploy for color tv set manufacturers and ravagers of the woodlands. ~ Harlan Ellison, “No Offense Intended, But Fuck Xmas!”, The Harlan Ellison Hornbook (via Wikiquote)