More articles : )

[conuly]

City, suburban residents try hand at fish farming

It's Time to End the War on Salt

The zealous drive by politicians to limit our salt intake has little basis in science


And a post on Santa and Yes, Virginia.

Comments

[mc776]

I recall reading the original some years ago and thinking that it was a well considered and mature handling of the real value of myth in human culture.

I also believed that Virginia was fictitious and the fundamental message of the editorial was strictly - if implicitly - for adults only, and not to be taken literally.

Reading it now, albeit having been primed by McGowan's commentary, and trying to read it as someone actually addressing a real child, it just seems like the very sort of thing Christ would rather the person who did it tied a millstone around their own neck before taking a quick dip in the sea. (In before "How evangelical!")

(Side note: fortunately my own parents never had the time or bother for such gweilo silliness... I only had myself to blame when I got pressured into making a show of believing when I was six, and rationalized the folly away as Pascal's Wager at work (if right and believe: extra presents; if any other combination: no extra presents).)

tl;dr McGowan totally ruined this thing for me and I am better for it

[conuly]

Virginia is definitely a real person - or was, anyway.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yes,_Virginia,_there_is_a_Santa_Claus

[mc776]

it just seems like the very sort of thing

I admit that what follows these words is grossly inappropriate and apologize for them.

What that comment describes, however, I still believe comes off as precisely the sort of condescending wording you should never use while addressing children.