EPISODE 741: MY ORTHODONTIST IS ALSO A DEMON SLAYER

Your Beard Looks like a Covid Mask that They Cut a Mouth Hole In

Dec 12, 2022

POP CULTURE SPIRIT WOW

IT’S STARTING TO LOOKING TOO MUCH LIKE CHRISTMAS

Somewhere between Friday night and Sunday morning the closeness of Christmas suddenly descended upon me.

Ways that Being an Adult are Different than Being a Kid #137: When you hear Christmas is next week it makes you violently ill.

Every year I want to slow down these weeks, to take some time to take stock and consider the stuff that I’d planned (or promised) to do versus the reality.

And instead it’s like the grade school bully tied me to one of those things that spins round and round on the playground, and now everything is a blur and it’s going to stay that way until around December 28th when I finally break free, stagger off and vomit in a trash can.

So yeah—Happy Holidays, everybody!

THIS IS YOUR WEEKLY REMINDER THAT IF YOU ARE A PRIEST YOU SHOULD NOT HOLD A BABY AT CHRISTMAS MASS

Part of my anxiety as Christmas approaches is wondering what I’m going to have to endure at Midnight Mass. Like, will the choir insist on singing all the verses of everything? I love you choir directors, I get the impulse, but Midnight Mass is not a concert. We’re at church, not the Viper Room.

Also, please don’t do arrangements of songs that no one knows. You want to give your choir a challenge on Christmas, convince your tenors not to option up any chance they get. Sorry guys, but this isn’t a barbershop quartet.

But obviously my biggest fear is the homily. I appreciate all too well how challenging it can be to give a homily on Christmas. The weeks leading up to people are mentioning it to you, saying they can’t wait, and the pressure builds to say or do something original, which is what leads to things like deciding to use someone’s baby as a prop.

The fact is, yes, you need to have something to say for Christmas, but it doesn’t have to be a whole song and dance. Christmas very much speaks for itself. Seriously, our job as priests on Christmas is mostly to avoid getting in the way. Let the liturgy do its thing.

As a general principle, what I like to do is just to highlight some one element of the Christmas story that has been speaking to me this year, like the star or the shepherds or the character I most relate to this year. I just try to put a little spotlight on that one thing, maybe give it a couple fresh details that somehow speak to our celebration, and leave it at that.

Hot tip: If your homily mentions the phrase “The Incarnation” you’re almost certainly going in the wrong direction. Some people are immediately going to think “theology lesson” and return to thinking about the presents they just opened. The rest will try and stay with you, until they discover in fact you are turning this into a theology lesson, at which point, their energy depleted, they will fall asleep.

James Whitbrook @Jwhitbrook

I will kill for you, Suletta Mercury

MY MANGANIME PITCHES

Last month I was at Anime Con, a convention for lovers of manga and anime (for newbies, manga are a Japanese-style of comic books, anime cartoons which are often based upon those manga). I am almost totally unfamiliar with these art forms.

And at Anime Con, I was completely thrown by the book titles. For example:

This is the story of Hanako-san, a ghost girl who haunts a toilet and grants wishes.

This is a book about a girl who has severe social anxiety.

This is a book about a tomboy who has a crush on her friend, who only sees her as one of the boys.

There should be an entire sub-genre for books have exclamation points at the end, like this one.

This is an anime about a girl who does really well at school work but then is lazy at home.

This is the story of a girl who moves to a new school and starts a horticulture club.

And finally:

There are also SO MANY demon/demon school manga.

They’re wild, right? So different than Western comic titles.

I’m always interested in trying new things, so I’ve been studying these works, and I have some ideas I think I’m ready to try out.

Warren and Sue are Having a Party (and They Did Not Invite Roshi!)—The story of Roshi, a nerdy girl about to graduate from high school who is not invited to the popular kids’ graduation party. I think this can go about 85 volumes.

Susann the Shopclerkgirl—Susann moves from a small town in Japan to New York City, where she gets a job at Macy’s and is stalked by a possessed demonic serial killer.

I Ate a Demon and Now It’s In My Belly!—Tally, a construction worker, thought his life was pretty much over when he retired. But when a case of what he thought was food poisoning actually turns out to be the hatching of a demon in his belly, he discovers a whole new purpose and set of friends.

Charlie Makes Sushi!—The tale of Charlie, an aspiring sushi chef who lives with his parents and has a crush on his boss Cheryl.

Stevie with the Demon Eyes—Stevie was your normal high school student until he woke up one morning to discover his eyes are demons with minds of its own.

Mary, Nikki, Liu and The Giant—The story of three young women who are living their best lives in Tokyo—Mary works for an ad agency, Nikki has her own gastropub, and Liu is a model—and the giant who occasionally shows up out of nowhere and trashes a bunch of buildings, killing thousands.

What do you think? They’re winners, right?

WHEN STEVE AND MARTY COME TO PLAY THEY DON’T PLAY AROUND

Steve Martin and Martin Short did SNL this week, and since they were in town they also did Fallon. And they delivered maybe the greatest 8 minutes that show has ever had. It was like a Christmas present I didn’t even know I needed.

NEW VIBE: YOUNG ROYALS

Young Royals is a Swedish Netflix show about Prince Wille, the second in line to be king of Sweden—basically the Prince Harry—who comes to the elite boarding school where his brother the Crown Prince went and promptly falls in love with another boy. And, for reasons I won’t spoil, this becomes a HUGE problem.

Reasons to love this show: It has two seasons that are each 6 episodes. The actors are gorgeous and talented. There’s a girl who loves horses.

And even if it is very soapy at times, I feel like there’s something very real in Wille’s struggle. There are these moments when Wille and Simon hug, and it’s like they’re clinging to each other while everything around them is very rough and unfriendly waters and that is definitely a vibe I can appreciate.

THREE TWEETS