X-Message-Number: 27439
From: 
Subject: Christmas and cryonics ? 
Date: Sun, 18 Dec 2005 12:21:47 US/Eastern

     Christmas is thrusting itself into our lives again, and again I 
make use of the occasion for a bit of shameless self-promotion as
I did a year ago on CryoNet: 
          
     http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/dsp.cgi?msg=25373

   This year my web page on the History of Christmas is getting over 
12,000 hits per week, a big jump over last year.

    http://www.benbest.com/history/xmas.html

  It is on the first page of all of the search engines I have checked 
for the query "history of christmas".  

   I have made many revisions to the text since last year, so those
who have read it before and enjoyed it will be pleased to find that
it has more new material along the same vein as the previous 
edition. But even if it did not, I think reading it annually would 
be a good tradition, like Christmas carols, "Yes, Virginia...", 
mistletoe and the rest.  The ideas are seen afresh each  time. 

    I believe that the astute reader of my essay will notice how
much my point of view on Christmas makes one re-examine
old beliefs that have been accepted unquestioningly. I think that
my essay would have that effect on almost any reader, and that is
what I seek to do. I believe that this essay is a  transforming
piece of writing that can change the way most people look at the 
world -- the kind of thing that must happen to people before they 
can seriously consider cryonics. Habits and traditions must be 
questioned, and by gently raising contractions and rarely-mentioned
facts, I believe that I force almost anyone who reads this essay
to re-think many things. And I do believe this is of benefit to cryonics. 

                         -- Ben Best  

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