Have an Overly-Informed Halloween

 I was unable to publish this when I drafted it, so I present it for Halloween, 2024, along with a handful of... cheerier links to celebrate the season. It's not all horror flicks and jump scares, after all. An entire knife will fit into a Snickers bar... that's... that's just trivia. Happy Halloween!

We relish our standing as an outlet for the weird and unexplained, and take our duties (probably too) seriously -- especially when it comes to informing others who, these days, are likely to have been misinformed.  Our rambling rants on all things suppressed notwithstanding, we truly enjoy researching and learning things about which we, too, have usually been misinformed.

We've found that nothing is more frightening than the truth, and that is why, this Halloween (2019), we have decided to bring you a rundown of facts that are likely to terrify you into becoming a doomsday prepper and government-labeled "likely terrorist."

Thanks for being on our list and have a Happy Halloween!

https://mentalfloss.com/article/601457/most-popular-halloween-candy-by-state-map
https://www.rt.com/usa/438321-project-maven-google-ai-cloud/
https://www.rt.com/usa/451977-darpa-telepathic-soldiers-artificial-intelligence/
https://www.rt.com/usa/424511-charlottesville-neo-nazi-marine/

© The Weirding, 2019

Merry Christmas 2019

Elf on the Shelf: The NSA's Spy in Plain Sight

Wishing everyone a wonderful holiday season.

Remember, Citizen, if you fail to enjoy yourself, They will know!

© The Weirding, 2019

The First Christmas Card - J.C. Horsley, 1843

First Christmas Card - J.C. Horsley, 1843

© The Weirding, 2017

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

© The Weirding, 2018

Happy May Day!

Beltane - The May Day Festival

© The Weirding, 2018

Happy Holidays 2017

Happy Holidays

The holiday season goes by many names depending largely on one's faith and knowledge of history, but it is a celebration of the Winter Solstice during which charity and kindness toward one's fellow man is central.

Instead of delving into the controversial history of the Christmas season, we decided to share some heartwarming stories we hope will lift your spirits this holiday.

Enjoy!

Alan Bresloff: Jewish faith spurs his volunteerism — as Santa Claus

Hanukkah is not the Jewish Christmas—but they are cousins.

Saturnalia: Celebration, Sacrifice, and its Influence on Christmas

Mince Pie and a Chat for the Lonely

Festivus Web - Official Site

Experts believe they have found tomb of Santa in Turkey

Have a safe and happy holiday season!

© The Weirding, 2017

Squanto was Real, and He was an Escaped Slave

Squanto

According to tradition, Squanto was an English-speaking Native American who proved invaluable to the survival of the Pilgrims, teaching them the ways of the Native Americans, and translating for them. It was with his help that Thanksgiving between the Pilgrims and Indians first came to pass.

The truth, however, is much spottier: Squanto was captured by British slave traders in 1614, then sold as a slave in Spain. He escaped to England before making his way back to Cape Cod in 1619. Sadly, his home village of Patuxet had been wiped-out by disease.

There were 35 Pilgrims among the Mayflower's 102 passengers, and Squanto taught them to cultivate corn, as well as where to hunt and fish. The Indians celebrated an autumnal harvest feast, and it is probable that they invited the Pilgrims to attend, but the Pilgrims held no such observance. Pilgrims did not become part of the traditional Thanksgiving myth until the 1890s.

President Abraham Lincoln set aside Thanksgiving as a national holiday in 1863, specifically to create unity in a divided nation. Squanto, or Tisquantum, is believed to have died in 1622.

© The Weirding, 2017

Happy Halloween 2017!

Halloween 2017

Happy Halloween 2017 from your friends to The OddBlog and The Weirding!

© The Weirding, 2017

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving!

© The Weirding, 2016

Happy New Year, 2015

First of all, Happy New Year to everyone! Sorry for the delay but I've been out of "the loop" for a minute.

I'm doing my best to get things done regarding the site update and restructuring but it's an awful lot of work. You may have noticed some changes here, as well. Unfortunately, I got sidetracked by the holidays and some personal issues so I'm just now getting back to it.

So, I'm still collecting stories I plan on bringing to you at some point, I just haven't had the opportunity to do so as of yet. I promise to get to them ASAP.

© The Weirding, 2015

Happy New Year!

I did not realize I had not wished you all a Happy New Year. I was actually kind of searching for something to talk about on another blog when I realized I hadn't said "Happy New Year" on any of them. I forwent it on the others but wanted to make sure I said something here because this one is a bit more tied to those kinds of traditions and superstitions.

I know I haven't been around much and it's because visitation dropped-off so sharply that it just wasn't making much difference. I've tried working social media to attract a few more readers but I'm not so good at shameless promotion. I realize it's an insanely overcrowded market from every angle but I still kind of prefer people find it on their own because then I feel like they're here for the material and not because I asked them (or they just like me). Because that can be a sticky wicket.

Anyway, Happy New Year!

© C Harris Lynn, 2013

Merry Christmas 2013!

I know the PC police have decreed we are to say "Happy Holidays" but I don't do that because it's Christmas -- always has been.  Actually, I -- and many others -- used to always say "Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays" as a matter of course; it acknowledges New Year's and Thanksgiving, as much as anything else.  However, also like many others, the PC brigade has so angered me over this non-issue that I no longer say "Happy Holidays" out of sheer fucking spite.  Rebellion!

But that's all negative and I'm in a great mood!  Well, good mood.  Fair; my mood is classifiably Fair.

Seriously though, I had a good X-mas and I hope all of you did as well.

© C Harris Lynn, 2013

Happy Thanksgiving

Terribly sorry I haven't been here more often. I'll see what I can do to rectify that in the future. But I wanted to wish our American readers a Happy Thanksgiving and everyone a Happy Chanukka.

I am busy right at the moment with some stuff here and there but I'm still scanning the news for weird stuff. I injured my hand a few weeks back and am still typing with obly one thumb so it may be a short while before I can get back to you.

© C Harris Lynn, 2013

Easter / Ishtar / Oster

For our Christian readers, today is a special holy day.  However, Easter was a holy day long before Christianity.  There was a captioned photo circulating across the Web the other day suggesting that Easter was originally a term for Ishtar, an ancient goddess, but an historian pointed out that Ishtar was not the origin of Easter.  It appears that Ostern is actually the Germanic pronunciation of Easter.

Happy holidays!

© C Harris Lynn, 2013

Happy Thanksgiving!

Americans celebrated Thanksgiving today and I wanted to wish everyone a happy holiday. I know things have been slow but I am putting together a rather large project that I've been playing around with for a few years now. It's a long way from being a sure thing and I don't know how much it will matter to readers of this blog but it is dominating my time for now. We're still churning out posts here though, just more slowly than we used to.

© C Harris Lynn, 2012

Valentine's Day Roleplay Lands Couple in Jail

When the cops learned that the handcuffed, naked woman in the back of a Subaru was there voluntarily, they replaced the fuzzy cuffs with real ones and hauled both her and her boyfriend off to jail for disorderly conduct.

It began when supermarket patrons called police to report what appeared to be a kidnapping in progress. When police arrived, they learned the young couple was engaged in a sexual roleplaying scenario.

© C Harris Lynn, 2012

Happy New Year!

Everyone at The OddBlog hopes all of you have a safe and happy New Year!

Don't forget your black-eyed peas and sauerkraut and all of that this year; I often wondered if 2011 wasn't any better because people forgot to eat their lucky foods this time last year. I honestly do not even know for sure if you eat them today or tomorrow, but whenever you do it, do so with happy thoughts for 2012.

Anyway, we'll see you then!

© C Harris Lynn, 2011

Christmas

I know I haven't been updating as often as I usually do lately, and for that I apologize, but things IRL heated-up slightly with the holidays and I've been behind the eight-ball on the blogs. I decided to take a break this year, even though I have few plans. I'll be gone for Christmas day but only for a bit, and since it's almost the weekend, I figured you wouldn't be able to tell really, but I wanted to let you know.

I don't know what next week will bring, but I am trying to be a little less aggressive until after the holidays. I have no idea what to expect then, as I have other projects I want to pursue. I've been doing this for five some-odd years now, after all - I deserve a little time away.

But I actually have some more stories to bring you in the interim, so I don't know what to tell you.

© C Harris Lynn, 2011

Happy Holidays

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and has a happy holiday weekend. I have already taken down the Thanksgiving and Fall decorations and started with the Christmas bits, but I'm nowhere near where I will end up. I am not setting up the tree this year because of the kitten, who I'm sure will knock it over or at least make it a trial to keep standing upright. I'm not fighting with her over climbing the stupid thing all month long.

Anyway, happy holidays!

© C Harris Lynn, 2011

Tennessee College Calendar Includes Wiccan Holidays

Vanderbilt University's Office of Religious Life made faculty members aware of four Wiccan/Pagan holidays by including them on the 2011-12 religious holy days and observances calendar. The holidays include Samhain (Ocotber 31^st) and Beltane (May 1^st). Vanderbilt's religious policy indicates that students might be absent on religious days such as these, and faculty and staff must honor those rights.

Allowing these absences is up to professors. A spokesperson told reporters they had no way of knowing who was of what faith amongst the student body and faculty, and whether or not one celebrates a religious holy day - or is even actually a member of the faith s/he claims - is "on the honor system."

Vanderbilt employees have only two paid holy days - Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. However, they also get two personal days in addition to vacation time. Students have several more, including numerous federal holidays. Tennessee is known to be fiercely conservative, but Vanderbilt follows the BBC Interfaith Calendar, which includes Pagan holidays.

The word "holiday" literally means "holy day."

© C Harris Lynn, 2011