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About Eugene weekly. (Eugene, Oregon) 1993-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 13, 2007)
WHAT’S happening Happy Holidays — no, too generic. Happy Xmas! No, too dirty. Happy Festivus! No, that’s been cor- poratized. Happy Whatever! No, too indifferent, too Scroogey. Wait, we got it: Happy Solstice! Its nondemoninational, somewhat paganistic but not too much — it’s what Christmas used to be about before the creation of the Sears catalog — and we get to celebrate the fact that, finally, the days will soon begin to get longer as opposed to depress- ingly shorter. This year’s winter solstice isn’t until Dec. 22, but — why not? — you can celebrate it a week early at the Museum of Natural & Cultural History’s Winter Solstice Celebration at the Many Nations Longhouse on Friday. With games, crafts and storytelling on the bill, the muse- um’s celebration is sure to be an enlightening evening for families of all stripes. But for those who would like a bit more pagan in their pantyhose, there’s the WOW Hall’s Winter Solstice Goddess Celebration, which admittedly sounds as Eugenean as the S.L.U.G. Queen Coronation, happening the night before the solstice, on Dec. 21. Jeez, for a holiday that wor- ships calendars and dates and time, you’d think they could at least have something happening on the actual day. See Friday Calendar. For many U.S. citizens, the President’s impeachment is long overdue. How many more people need to die, how many more trillions of dollars need be spent, how many more civil liberties and constitu- tional rights need we do away with before one man is given this much-needed slap on the wrist? His successor, of course, would be much worse, so we’ll need to toss him, too. Hmmm, so that gets us Nancy Pelosi … but should we reward her for taking impeachment “off the table,” calling it a “waste of time”? The Dems seem to be in the grip of fear on this one. If they move to impeach, and it looks bad, they might not get re- elected. But regular citizens don’t have to be re-elected (thank gawd!) so we can put on our dancing shoes and hit the WOW Hall for a Dance for Impeachment benefit concert for the Iraq Veterans Against the War, featuring a lineup of DJs — including organizer The Audio Schizophrenic and Michael Human (pictured below) — plus speakers, musicians, artists, dancers and a community speak-out. Now here’s a bumper sticker: “Support our troops: Dance your ass off.” See Thursday, Dec. 13 Calendar. As Charles M. Schulz, creator of the beloved comic strip Peanuts, is given the royal treatment in the new biography Schulz and Peanuts, Snoopy (based on Schulz’s boyhood dog, Spike) is given his own due as a fighter pilot in Lane County Historical Society & Museum’s new exhibit, “Snoopy as the World War I Flying Ace.” The show features more than 40 digital reprints of Snoopy donning his pilot’s cap, scarf and goggles and flying over enemy territory, eluding The Red Baron, from the top of his doghouse. In addition to the exhibit, which will include Snoopy memorabilia from local Janice Ellis’ extensive collec- tion, local cartoonist Jan Eliot, cre- ator of Stone Soup, will speak on Saturday. See Art in the Galleries listings and Saturday Calendar. DECEMBER 13, 2007 29
