Another Christmas Story

This one, via Digby. It's a quick read, and I'm going to give you the punch line -- but you'll have to read the story to get it:

I didn't say get the story. I said get the kid his peaches.

It's about working on a newspaper in the 1950s, but it's about a lot more than that: it's about what we've lost, now that we've become a money-driven corporate culture. And it's about what Christmas should mean.

And another:

The comedian Margaret Cho has been busking around her hometown, singing, plinking on her guitar and nearly stripping to raise money for the homeless. San Francisco has pop-up restaurants, art galleries and shops, but Ms. Cho’s may be the first pop-up charity.

Through social media, she has notified fans, who brought coats, pants, shirts, shoes, blankets and lots of socks as well as cash, which she gave away at each event. Her ninth and final performance was on Tuesday.

Via Balloon Juice.

I can related to this, big time -- I came really close to living on the street a number of years back. Being me, of course, my biggest worry was how I was going to take care of Ben. Fortunately, it didn't happen, but it happens way too much -- we're the fucking richest country on earth, and we have people living on the streets while presidential candidates are putting in elevators for their cars?

So my year-end giving, such as it is, is to Ali Forney Center and food banks, stuff like that. Because that was almost me.