Who would have thought that sodomy-loving, latte-drinking Noo Yawk City would have been Ground Zero for what happens when government services are cut back to the bone, but apparently because the Sanitation Department lost a bunch of employees, streets weren’t getting snowplowed as quickly as usual (Exhibit A: Blogenfreude’s crazy pictures of West 30th Street yesterday).

The problem with streets not being plowed is that while the locals can strap on snow shoes or cross-country skis, it’s a bit of an issue for the sick, the pregnant, and the ambulances.

To wit:

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You know that scene in The Grinch Who Stole Christmas when the Grinch’s heart swells up three sizes?  Yeah, that kind of happened to me when I was watching this video about Jim and Dylan in Chelsea.

[NYT: Santa Left a Forwarding Address]

On the heels of Nojo and Serolf’s holiday music selections, I present to my fellow Stinquers my all-time favorite Christmas carol, “Merry Christmas from the Family,” by Robert Earl Keen, which captures a slice of Texas quite accurately.

Don’t forget to put the FUN back in dysFUNctional this year, kids!

The British scientific publication Royal Society Journal Biology Letters has published new research showing that female red squirrels have sex with up to 14 males a day because the male squirrels are “usually willing and available.”

One of the scientists noted the obvious drawbacks to “having multiple partners means more energy expended on mating, increased exposure to predators as well as increased potential for the spread of sexually transmitted diseases.  Promiscuity also encourages harassment from male squirrels trying to coerce them into having sex.”

Happy Holidays!

[MSNBC: Promiscuous Squirrels Mate With Up to 14 Males a Day]

I wanted to post something about this story three months ago, and then forgot. An article in my fishwrap updating the story has reminded me to do so.

Texas takes its sports seriously, or at least football and basketball (the male version).  The role of the girls, of course, is to be the pretty cheerleader cheering on the jocks.

That is kopacetic, of course, until you’re asked to cheer for your rapist at a basketball game.

And you’re told to chant:

No, really. That was the chant. You can’t make shit like that up.

Pass the eggnog and Xanax, today’s blogfill of stories from across the country is a doozy of Seasonal Affective Disorder:

• North Carolina Supreme Court voids “second parent” gay adoptions
• GOP the big winner in House seats reapportionment. Blue America, start breeding! [H/T Dodger]
• One in three working families are earning less than 200% of the federal poverty level
• Horses are being abandoned by Irish who can’t afford to feed them
• Undocumented Guatemalan woman battles to regain custody of her child who was taken from her
• EPA delaying new rules on smog and toxic emissions because of cost to businesses, nevermind the cost of 12,000 dead human beings each year

On a more upbeat note, the crazy Pacific storm prevented lunar eclipse observations in Ess Eff, but here are some pretty pictures of it.

While D.C.’s Adams Morgan neighborhood has its Festivus Pole and annual Airing of Grievances, suburban Loudoun County may be winning in the “Most Inclusive at Winter Solstice Time” contest.

The ABA Journal reports that the county courthouse in Leesburg is hosting not one, not two, but ten seasonal displays, because of a county policy that the first ten people or groups to apply for a permit get a holiday display. Read more »