WRITER'S BLO(G/CK)

The Christmas season has always been a very big part of my life, and Advent has always been a very big part of my Christmas season. And as today marks the beginning of the 2022 Advent season (nonsecular Advent, anyway), I decided to make that the topic of today’s blog post.   When Does the Christmas Season Start? There seems to be some disagreement on exactly when the Christmas season starts. According to modern consumerism, the Christmas season can start as early as August, with holiday merchandise sharing the seasonal aisles with the Back to School supplies on store shelves. According to my dear Aunt Grace, the Christmas season didn’t begin until Thanksgiving dinner was over. (Mom usually followed Aunt Grace’s declaration of when the Christmas season started to the letter, ending the year’s moratorium on Christmas music upon our return home from Aunt Grace’s house late Thanksgiving afternoon/evening.) Aunt Grace died of cancer before ‘Black Friday’ evolved into the commer...

Fifty-nine years ago today, the BBC aired the first episode of a new show called “Doctor Who”. That makes today the first day of year sixty for the program.       To Spoil or Not to Spoil? After watching the most recent episode (“The Power of the Doctor”), I had to decide whether or not to discuss it here in this post. There’s something for me to complain about in that episode (which is always fun for me here in the blog), but I’d rather not give away the big ending for those few of you who not only have yet to see it but have also managed to miss the myriad news leaks about the big ending in the months leading up to that episode’s airing. Ultimately, I’ve decided to go ahead and spoil. I’m going to count on everyone who chooses to read this having seen up through last year’s episodes. And before I get to the most recent episode I’ll post a SPOILER WARNING. You have been warned. Origins of a Young Whovian At some point in the early 1980s, my fr...