"Althouse takes boxing day pretty seriously."

Said Old and slow in last night's open thread, "Sunrise — 7:13." It was only the second post of the day. The first, "Tea with Larry," at 9:29 a.m., was also an open thread. It consisted of 2 photographs and the single sentence, "It's a no-news Saturday, the day after the day after Christmas."

It was the day after the day after Christmas. But it was not Boxing Day. Boxing Day is the day after Christmas, and there were 5 posts on Boxing Day. So what was this day after the day after Christmas? Do we call it nothing but the day after the day after Christmas (or, if we say Boxing Day, the day after Boxing Day)?

It is the Feast of St. John the Apostle and Evangelist. Those who have grown weary of the Christmas holiday might turn to the Feast of St. John the Apostle and Evangelist for fresh inspiration.

But now it is December 28th. Is it a back to normal day? Will scanning the headlines in the usual way yield blog posts in the natural way that is my long custom? If not, is it a day with a name — like Christmas, Boxing Day, and the Feast of St. John the Apostle and Evangelist — a day we might observe with special activities?

It is a special day, but it's a day I wouldn't want to focus on: It is the Feast of the Holy Innocents:

The Feast of the Holy Innocents was one of a series of days known as the Feast of Fools, and the last day of authority for boy bishops. Parents temporarily abdicated authority. In convents and monasteries the youngest nuns and monks were allowed to act as abbess and abbot for the day. These customs, which were thought to mock religion, were condemned by the Council of Basel (1431). In medieval England children were reminded of the mournfulness of the day by being whipped in bed in the morning; this custom survived into the 17th century....

"Perhaps because they have so many kids, they said they aren’t the types to hover over their children and check their homework."

"And as it is physically impossible to shuttle their children to extracurriculars all over town, they are often free to do what they want within a two-mile radius. In short, because they are not capable of meeting the expectations of parenthood in the modern age, they do not try to. 'We have these childless friends come over and they’re like, "You always seem so calm,"' Mrs Korczynski said. 'They say, "You ignore most things, but if something’s going on then you can hop on that."'  There are, of course, downsides. Every morning the children struggle to get into the one bathroom they share with each one banging on the door, yelling for the shower (the parents have their own). Dinners are like battles royale — 'they know if they’re late there might not be any food left,' said Mr Korczynski."

From "Why we decided to have seven children Americans are having fewer kids, worried about the high cost and uncertainty of the world. But for John and Sasha Korczynski, raising a large brood has been a leap of faith." That's in the London Times, but the family lives in the U.S. — in Florida.

How will they pay for college? "I think this is where having a big family comes in handy for college, because they do give you better financial aid packages."

Sunrise — 7:13.

The conversation continues into the night in this day without news.

Tea with Larry...

It's a no-news Saturday, the day after the day after Christmas.

Sunrise — 7:18.

Write about whatever you want in the comments.

"I used to love feeling her body, her big body next to me in bed, the softness of her body — you know, the extra tummy and the extra booty, you know, next to me...."

"I miss that — that voluptuousness — being able to, you know, lean up next to her and feel her — for lack of a better word — draping over me. That's no longer an option. Now it's, it's cuddling and it's cuddling as tight and closely as we can — or as I can. And that's, that's the extent of the intimacy. I'm at a loss for why there's no physical intimacy. There hasn't been any...."

Said a man who's wife lost a lot of weight on Ozempic, in "Marriage and Sex in the Age of Ozempic: An Update," today's episode of the NYT podcast "The Daily." (Link goes to audio and transcript at Podscribe.)

ChatGPT has been watching me, collecting what it can of my thoughts, and today, it serves it up to me — as if it's cool fun and compliments — as "Your Year With ChatGPT."

Here's what I saw at the bottom of the screen when I went to ChatGPT:

Admittedly, I clicked "Try it," so I suspect that there was no profile of me until I asked for it. That black oval is like the "Eat me" cookie in "Alice in Wonderland." I didn't have to click on it.

First, I got a poem supposedly about me, but skip that. The next screen was my "3 big themes." These are just for my use of ChatGPT in a browser on my desktop, mostly while I was involved in blogging. I got a different report on my iPhone ChatGPT app, where I never blog. I work through various off-blog problems and fancies. And even on the desktop, I use Grok more that ChatGPT. So there are other "me"s. Anyway, here's this thing purporting to know me:

I was given an award that reflects the me that I am when immersed in blogging:

Am I the only one who remembers Willie the Worm?

That is a puppet show — on WCAU Philadelphia — that got started in 1950. I myself got started in 1950, in Texas, of all places, but I emerged in January 1951, in the Philadelphia television market, so I had the great good fortune to encounter this simple worm character when I was young enough to get the sense that he was important and well-loved.

It must have been more than a half century since Willie the Worm crossed my mind, but my memory was jogged yesterday as I was walking through the neighborhood with Meade, and we stopped to look at an elaborate yard display that had a sign with the lyric "Whisper words of wisdom" from the Beatles' song "Let It Be." The painted letters were a bit blobby and misshapen, and Meade read it as "Whisper worms of wisdom." My memory whispered the name of that worm of wisdom: "Willie."

I'm so touched to find video of my long-lost childhood friend, the puppet Willie the Worm. But let me acknowledge 2 other Willies the Worm:

"Nigeria’s foreign minister, Yusuf Maitama Tuggar, said the strike was a 'joint operation' targeting 'terrorist,' and it 'has nothing to do with a particular religion.'"

"Without naming Isis specifically, Tuggar said the operation had been planned 'for quite some time' and had used intelligence information provided by the Nigerians. He did not rule out further strikes, adding that this depended on 'decisions to be taken by the leadership of the two countries'.... The strike comes after Trump in late October threatened to send his military intervention in to Nigeria 'guns a-blazing' over what he said was a failure to stop violence targeting Christian communities. In a diplomatic turnaround earlier this week, Trump handed Nigeria a $1.6 billion aid package in exchange for the protection of Christians...."

From "US strikes Isis in Nigeria to protect ‘innocent Christians’, says Trump/The attacks on Islamic State were conducted with the co-operation of Nigeria after the US president threatened to go into the country ‘guns a-blazing'" (London Times).

Sunrise — 6:58, 7:05, 7:09, 7:32, 7:40.

Merry Christmas to everyone! Hope you had a great day.

Write about anything you want in the comments.

ADDED: Can you see the pale disc of the sun to the right of the capitol dome? You have to look quite closely to see what was nicely visible "in person." Meade's video, one post down, shows what was there to be seen and what my photo barely records.

Christmas sun.

"All these kinds of winter traditions are tied very intricately into small communities. You develop between yourselves a folklore about this winter time and this period of darkness."

Said Nordic studies professor Maren Johnson, quoted in "How cozy Yuletide traditions got their start with raging parties and animal sacrifice" (NPR).

For example, in Iceland, instead of Santa Claus, "there's the 'Christmas Men,' also known as the Yule lads. As the stories have told it, the mystic men – with names like 'Window Peeper,' 'Sausage Swiper,' 'Bowl Licker' and 'Meat Hook' — come one by one down from the mountains by your community, play pranks and steal things from homes. (To be fair to them, they'll also leave presents in windows for children.) On top of that, they have an ogress mother, Grýla, who eats misbehaving children 'like sushi for Christmas'...."

Trump's Christmas message: "Don't ever leave Oklahoma!"

Trump explaining to children why we track Santa is pure comedy:

“We want to make sure that Santa is being good—that Santa is a very good person. We want to make sure that we're not infiltrating into our country a bad Santa.”

He’s so good at this. 🤣pic.twitter.com/CgQe8bY40f

— johnny maga (@_johnnymaga) December 24, 2025

Sunrise — 7:01, 7:08, 7:08, 7:09.

It's Christmas Eve. What are you up to?

"As their seventh month at sea begins, the sailors will get a rare treat of prime rib and lobster tails on Christmas Day."

"But neither the Navy nor the Pentagon has said when this deployment will end, nor whether there is another carrier being readied to take their place. At stake is whether Mr. Hegseth further extends the deployment to keep his military options open. If so, that decision will probably increase costs down the road by delaying crucial maintenance for the Ford and putting strain on the crew's morale."

From "Long Carrier Deployment Projects U.S. Strength, and Carries Costs/The U.S.S. Ford has been deployed for six months, now in the Caribbean as part of President Trump’s pressure campaign on Venezuela. Maintenance woes and strains on sailors will likely mount" (NYT).

The article quotes Senator Mark Kelly, who was deployed beyond 6 months during the 1991 Gulf War: "It kind of wears on you. And you start to see accidents start to happen — not just pilots crashing planes, necessarily, but accidents on the flight deck.... All kinds of stuff starts to happen when you’re out there for an extended period of time."

"The State Department is taking decisive action against five individuals who have led organized efforts to coerce American platforms to censor, demonetize, and suppress American viewpoints they oppose."

Said Marco Rubio, quoted in "'Witch hunt': Ex-EU commissioner Breton denounces U.S. visa ban targeting ‘censorship'" (CNBC). 

The Trump administration imposed visa bans on Thierry Breton, a former European Union commissioner behind the Digital Services Act (DSA), and four anti-disinformation campaigners, accusing them of censoring U.S. social media platforms.... The DSA forces tech giants like Google and Meta to police illegal content more aggressively, or face hefty fines.... 

Breton... wrote on X: “Is McCarthy’s witch hunt back?” He added: “As a reminder: 90% of the European Parliament — our democratically elected body — and all 27 Member States unanimously voted the DSA. To our American friends: Censorship isn’t where you think it is."

I can't find anything by Breton explaining his idea of "where" censorship really is. Try to persuade us, Thierry. Give us a chance to argue with you. If you've got a good idea put it up for sale in the marketplace of ideas. Prove us wrong.

ADDED: Breton seems to be giving priority to whatever the majority decides to do. We Americans have traditionally put individual rights above majoritarian choice. I suspect that when he says "Censorship isn’t where you think it is," he means it's never censorship when it's done democratically. Believe that, and you don't believe in individual rights.