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[John G.]

There was something special though. We have a young member who is neurodivergent. But he is musically gifted. He played a beautiful version of O Come, All Ye Faithful on the organ. Just perfect. And he used the organ’s bells and whistles, too. The bell choir all applauded (with our gloves on) when he finished.

[John G.]

Nine!

[John G.]

Watching a PBS documentary, The War on Disco. Excellent.

[John G.]

Now starting Hurry Sundown, which I have never seen. Not liking it so far.

[Rodzinski]

“We Need a Little Christmas” from Mame.

[Rodzinski]

Jane, sorry to hear. My once vast array of aunts and uncles has been whittled down to 4 living. It’s never easy.

[Ron Pulliam]

Now starting Hurry Sundown, which I have never seen. Not liking it so far.

it has a great song, however.

[Ron Pulliam]

Christmas Eve is done!

Christmas day is nigh!

I had a great time at my cousin's with all my other cousins who were there.  We dined on chili, chicken and dumplings, and we drank tea. 

It was good!

We opened presents, and we all dispersed.  I was home before 8 p.m.  And that was good.

[Ron Pulliam]

I am now very sleepy and will retire before I nod off at this here keyboard.

[Rodzinski]

I have used Macs and PCs and can use either. I’ve mostly used Macs and have never found them user-unfriendly. Given the choice, I’d go MAC as the security tends to be better (fewer viruses anyway) and I like their interface.

[Rodzinski]

Christmas children hunger for Christmas morning…

[Rodzinski]

Glad a good time was had, Ron. A merry Christmas to you.

[Rodzinski]

In-laws came out for Christmas Eve. Wife’s brother brought them. Very difficult even getting them into our house. But we had a good feast, and the kids had a good time.

[John G.]

Good night, all. Time for visions of sugar plums.

[George]

The Goodreads scandal, a bit long. From today’s New York Times:

But first, the scandal: “Internet sleuths figured out that an author named Cait Corrain, whose debut novel was scheduled for 2024, had created fake accounts on Goodreads in order to review-bomb other books — overwhelming them with negative one-star reviews. When confronted online, she concocted a fake online chat to divert blame to a nonexistent friend; when that hoax was uncovered, she confessed, citing a “complete psychological breakdown.” Her publisher and her agent dropped her; the planned publication of her novel was canceled. As often happens in these scandals, the use and abuse of Goodreads — a site whose cheery name masks a recent history of abhorrent user behavior — has left many people hurt and at least one person’s career in ruins.”

Oh, my goodness!

[George]

“Goodreads is broken. What began in 2007 as a promising tool for readers, authors, booksellers and publishers has become an unreliable, unmanageable, near-unnavigable morass of unreliable data and unfettered ill will.”

Wow...fortunately, I only use it to keep track of the books that I read.

[George]

“Goodreads is broken. What began in 2007 as a promising tool for readers, authors, booksellers and publishers has become an unreliable, unmanageable, near-unnavigable morass of unreliable data and unfettered ill will.”

Because Amazon purchased it

Oh, no!

[George]

SEVEN!

[bk]

Yes, Do over is January 1.

[bk]

I will admit to having several meltdowns this evening.

[bk]

I really don't care who knows it.

[George]

Jane, here is the conclusion and suggestion on how to fix the problem.

“So how to fix it? It starts with people: Goodreads desperately needs more human moderation to monitor the goings-on. Obviously, part of any healthy discussion is the ability to express displeasure — those one-star reviews, ideally accompanied by well-argued rationales, are sacrosanct — but Goodreads has enabled the weaponization of displeasure.

It’s not just fledgling authors being pummeled. Earlier this year, Elizabeth Gilbert, the best-selling author of “Eat, Pray, Love,” decided to withdraw a forthcoming novel, “The Snow Forest,” after Goodreads users bombarded its page with one-star reviews objecting primarily to the fact that the novel (which no one had yet read) was set in Russia and would be published at a time when Russia and Ukraine were at war. There is most likely no way to eliminate personal attacks entirely from the site — or from the internet, for that matter — but having more human beings on hand to mitigate the damage would certainly improve the experience.”

Thanks Iris.  It seems like a good solution, and sadly it is necessary.

I recall the story about Gilbert pulling the book.  While not a fan of hers I was tempted to read the book because of the protests.

I've seens readers calling out the impossibility of writing a bad review on books that haven't been published yet and wondered why Goodreads didn't remove them.

People can read and review books because they get Advance Reader Copies...as long as they actually read the books and review the actual books.

[bk]

Six days of this crap is enough. Yes, feeling a bit better, but the constipation is not helping things and I'm doing everything I've read to do to no avail. It's not complete constipation (CC) but enough to be irritating.

[bk]

Also, my hand cramping like crazy.

[bk]

Enough is really enough, as Babs and Donna sang.

[bk]

Worst Christmas Ever ever, certainly, although reading the posts has been very helpful.

[George]

Brahms celebrating Christmas with cats:

Nice!

[bk]

I'd like to punch a reindeer right now.

[bk]

Oh well, all one can do is outlast this crap.

[bk]

I defy Santa to come down the chimney tonight.