Greta Christina has been writing professionally since 1989, on topics including atheism, sexuality and sex-positivity, LGBT issues, politics, culture, and whatever crosses her mind. She is author of
The Way of the Heathen: Practicing Atheism in Everyday Life, of
Comforting Thoughts About Death That Have Nothing to Do with God, of
Coming Out Atheist: How to Do It, How to Help Each Other, and Why, of
Why Are You Atheists So Angry? 99 Things That Piss Off the Godless, and of
Bending: Dirty Kinky Stories About Pain, Power, Religion, Unicorns, & More, and is editor of
Paying For It: A Guide by Sex Workers for Their Clients. She has been a public speaker for many years, and many of her talks can be seen on YouTube. Her writing has appeared in multiple magazines and newspapers, including Ms., Penthouse, Chicago Sun-Times, On Our Backs, and Skeptical Inquirer, and numerous anthologies, including
Everything You Know About God Is Wrong and three volumes of
Best American Erotica. (Any views she expresses in this blog are solely hers, and do not necessarily represent this organizations.) She lives in San Francisco with her wife, Ingrid. You can email her at gretachristina (at) gmail (dot) com, or follow her on
Facebook.
I always think about my late mother on the solstice. She was somewhat obsessed with the length of the days and would, were she still alive, have called me by now telliing me “The days will be getting longer!”
She died four years ago of myelodisplastic syndrome, a blood condition akin to Leukemia. So, in her honor, I’ve made another contribution to the Light The Night campaign.
Enjoy your broccoli, Greta.
Happy Solstice to you too, Greta!
Happy solstice, Greta! I hope you have a great week with Ingrid and friends and family and cats and cake and wine and ALL THE GOOD THINGS.
I’m dreaming of a real Solstice
Just like the Druids used to know.
It would be so pleasin’
To stand there, freezin’
At Stonehenge, in the sleet and snow.
I’m dreaming of a real Solstice
With no eclectic modern feel.
If your blade is silver, not steel
Then may all your Solstices be real.
Bah humbug to all and sundry!
Sorry Greta Christina I love your work but I think you owe the Bad Astronomer, Phil Plait, some credit for that one don’t you? :
http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2013/12/21/winter_solstice_2013_the_shortest_day_of_the_year.html
Y’know the day – like every other day is what ya make of it.
I hope y’all enjoy it and have fun whatever meaning (or no meaning) you choose t’give it.
Me? I’m going to have some good food and drink with family and get drunk and be happy. Again.
I recommend that.
Is there a credit for that image missing, or is it your original, Greta? I want it on a shirt, and I would rather get it from the designer /artist.
Myk @ #8: It’s not my original, but I don’t know where it originally came from. I’ve been seeing it around the Internet, unattributed, in several different forms and versions, for years.
Myk @ #8: P.S. If you find out who created it, please let me know — I’d like to give credit where credit is due.
Well, a Skeptic’s Play blog post from 2007 sourced it from a now-defunct blog at slumbering.lungfish.com. Phil Plait also linked to the Slumbering Lungfish URL in 2007. That blog belonged to Brunching Shuttelcock’s co-founder, Lore Sjöberg, who seems to be active on Twitter at https://twitter.com/loresjoberg. Let’s see if a tweet directed at him gives us an answer.
Myk @ #11: You were right. I contacted Lore Sjöberg, who says that while they didn’t originated the phrase “Axial Tilt is the Reason for the Season” (it was a convergent evolution thing, they came up with it but then found that someone else had already coined the phrase), he did come up with the image. I’ve now credited him with it. Thanks for helping me track that down.