the spirits of the season

and I’m not talking brandy and rum for once. In our continuing series of inclusive, multiculti holiday features here on the ol’ raincoaster blog, there is one group we have overlooked; a group, it could be said, that has more right to representation on Jesus’ birthday than any other. A group with which he has a great deal in common. Indeed, they are a group in which he always took an unhealthy interest. We are going to rectify that omission now. We are going to post this heartwarming commercial from South America featuring a group to warm the cockles of your…cockles.

The accursed. The shunned. The murderous. The insane. The undead.

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feline fine…a revolting cat-centric Christmas story

Masochistic reindeerStop me if you’ve heard this one.

No, you haven’t. You’d have killed yourself long before now; some knowledge simply cannot inhabit the mind of a human being of normal and wholesome inclinations without causing it to warp into pathalogical and destructive antipathies.

Let me tell you the story of a man and his cat. A man, his cat-sitter, his cat, and his cat’s dildo.

My ex told me this story, and he was friends with the cat-sitter. At least, I pray to God he was and this wasn’t just another “uh, it happened to my friend, yeah, my friend” thing. I already know he has low standards…

I suggest you fortify yourself with at least a quart of Fin du Monde, for surely you do not want to read this sober. It is a sign of the coming apocalypse, non? as surely as Britney‘s twatflashes are, although I don’t recall them being specifically mentioned in the Book of Revelations, now that I come to think of it, although I’m sure that’s only because the author was too polite and delicate to mention them. You know how those Old Testamentators are.

So this fellow, he lived in Montreal, and he was going back home for Christmas. He had the ticket, he had the time, he had the happy and welcoming family awaiting his return.

He also had … a cat.

So, as is the way of things, he required a cat-sitter. Not to sit upon the cat, although in retrospect if he’d gotten a really fat one this would have solved so many, many problems right there, but no; rather, to wait upon the cat. To feed it and brush it and pet it and let it in when it wanted and also, it must be said, out when it wanted, too. It was a very spoiled cat.

So this fellow finds a friend of his who is living, much like myself, in somewhat hovellish circumstances, one where the telling of the ancient Christmas story brings not so much joy and good will as raw envy that the straw in the stable was at least dry and it was spacious enough to fit a family of three plus all those wise men, not to mention the donkey.

No word on whether it was a Longdonkey.

He offers to his enhovelled friend the chance to move to his somewhat more luxurious digs for the duration of the holiday season, and his friend predictably jumps at the chance. On the day, he arrives bright eyed, bushy-tailed, and willing to make a big fuss over the feline in residence, although he cannot be said to be all that thrilled about this particular kind of pussy. Still, he knows what side his bread is foie gras-ed on, and resolves to play nice with Fluffy or Tiger or Snowball, as the case may be.

He gets the grand tour: here’s the bathroom, here’s the fridge, here’s the remote, here’s the catfood. So far, so good. The homeowner picks up his suitcase, preparatory to frappé-ing la rue. “Wait,” says he, “There’s one more thing I have to show you.” And he walks over to a kitchen drawer, opens it, and pulls out a popsicle stick.

Foo-Foo isn’t spayed, and she’s in heat, so if you wouldn’t mind, she likes it if you just do this…”

and he bends down with the popsicle stick in his hand and does the predictable thing to Foo-Foo who does, it must be admitted, appear to like it very much indeed.

Well, thinks the cat-sitter, I have a choice here. I can retain my personal dignity and tell my friend that I refuse to sexually service his cat. And then I can then give him back the keys and take the #40 back to my coldwater studio by the train tracks.

He quite enjoyed his two weeks at the penthouse, and by all accounts Foo-Foo did as well.

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Hello latte

Hello LatteThis was sent to me by a Norwegian residing in Japan whom I’ve never met, and who found me online through the title of a newsletter I used to edit, which also happened to be her first name. Still is, as far as I’m aware, unless she went and changed it because of the notoriety.

Because we are, as you know, all about the decorative caffeinated beverages here on the ol’ raincoaster blog, when she saw this she felt compelled to forward it here, just for me ‘n thee.

Those Japanese really DO have too much time on their hands, dontcha think?

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a Tory takes the 86-seater limousine

Chauffeur...I recognize this joke even in German

Heartlessly stolen from Iain Dale‘s site, which is normally not nearly salacious enough for the likes of me. I gather I’m only tolerated there because people are just waiting breathlessly for me and Verity to get into some kind of idiological catfight to the death. T’would be unmissable indeed, but I think we’re both too smart for that.

In any case, here’s the story, emphasis mine. To pare even a word from this telling is sacrilege, but copyright is copyright, alas; it is in its way a perfect little fable of modern right-wing urbanity. Click the link above for the original.

I am delighted to see that at least some traditions don’t change in the good old Tory Party. I think it was Lord Curzon who was introduced to the delights of public transport in the 1920s for the first time…as he paid his fare he said to the driver of the Number 24, “now, take me to 23 Eaton Square, there’s a good chap.

Following in this fine tradition the resplendent Eurosceptic MP Bill Cash also got on a Number 24 this week and proceeded to ask the driver to wait a couple of minutes for some friends who were having difficulty with the ticket machine outside the Garrick Theatre. My witness to the ensuing events tells me that Mr Cash became more than a little exasperated when the driver of the bus explained that he most certainly could not do as requested and closed the doors. Cash stood in the way but the doors were too strong for him. “I demand you stop this bus now,” spluttered the hapless parliamentarian, but to no avail…

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free upgrade on British Airways: one time only

Death Takes a Holiday 

Nothing beats a free upgrade to First Class on an overseas flight, eh? The legroom, the fully-reclining seats, the super-attendant staff, the gourmet meals, the Champagne, the rapidly-stiffening corpse in the last row.

Some people will do anything to get an upgrade!

‘It was a very strange and unsettling thing to experience.

‘We were about half way into the flight and getting my head down to sleep when I heard a commotion from behind the curtain in first class.

‘Stewardesses were running up and down the aisle. There was no panic but there was a sense of urgency. The staff were very professional.

‘There was a call over the loudspeakers for a medical doctor. From where I was sitting towards the back of First Class I was aware of them performing resuscitation techniques behind the curtains as I tried to watch the in-flight movie – Mission Impossible III.’

‘I felt quite uneasy. But some passengers were being very British about it and simply not acknowledging there was anything wrong.

‘One of the stewardesses then came to me and said there was some rather bad news. There had been a death on board.

‘She asked would I mind awfully moving to the other side of the cabin because they needed to bring the body in. The first class section was about 80 per cent full.

‘Four male stewards came I carrying the poor chap who was in his 60s or 70s and casually dressed. But he was a bit too big for them. Another passenger lent a hand as they propped him up

‘They wrapped him in a blanket and strapped him in and semi-reclined the seat. But his head was exposed and leaning to one said, as if he were asleep. I could see the top of his head throughout the flight…’

BA said the dead man was taken into First Class because business class was full.

You know, they had me until I got to that line. I mean, sure the guy’s dead and all, but I’m not seeing where it makes more sense for him to be dead in First Class than in Economy. After all, he won’t be needing any of that Champagne, and after a couple of hours he won’t be able to recline anyway.

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