“to those who observe”

“to those who observe”

by | Dec 16, 2025 | Personal Log, Social Media

Reading someone end a greeting with “to those who observe” makes my ass itch.

to those who observe, star wars, menorah, hanukkah, pinterest

Lightsaber menorah seen on Pinterest. Sorry to the creator, I know I shouldn’t use stuff from that copyright infringement cesspool.

Some criticism of “to those who observe”

It’s that time of year when folks in marketing-forward careers want to wish potential customers/clients good cheer and blessings. These folks often encounter a dilemma, though. If they wish someone a happy <insert holiday or religious occasion here>. will said well-wishes backfire? To put it bluntly, will Christians get offended when you wish them, Ramadan Mubarak?

Enter the subject phrase. Let’s say it’s the first night of Hanukkah, the Jewish festival of lights. I don’t know about you, but I’ve got more than a few friends who are Jewish. While some are more religious than others (imagine that, it’s more than just Catholics who do that), most celebrate Hanukkah.

This should be so bloody easy. The years when Hanukkah and Christmas directly intersect are rarer than rare. It’s December 14th, wish your Jewish friends well on their festival. Same for Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights. Wish your Hindu friends well in October or November (Diwali is determined based on a lunar calendar).

Overthinking

There’s no need to overthink this. Christians shouldn’t get upset that your circle of friends and associates extends beyond them. “But what about the ones who might get upset” you ask? I get that you might not have the immediate, oh-fuck-that-guy reaction I would. So, let’s consider the situation.

First, just how many people are we talking about? I note with interest that one of Earl Higgins’ 100 Catholic Things To Do Before You Die is to put a “Keep Christ in Christmas” sticker on your car. A lot of Catholics just ain’t gonna do that. Same for other followers of the Prophet from Nazareth. Still, we wish them “Merry Christmas.” We might even say “Happy Holidays” if we’re unsure just what they’re happy about during the winter holiday season.  If they don’t observe another religion’s special time/celebration, their brains process it and move on.

Second, why are you worried about those who do care you recognize other religions? We’ve pretty much established that your “to those who observe” target audience is pretty small. Why do you give a shit? Is your mortgage brokerage limited to Our Lady of the Holy Bigots Catholic Church, or the First Evangelical Church of My Religion is the Only One? If so, well, you probably hit the X in the top right corner of your browser on me already.

Third, who are you looking for in terms of clients/customers? Muslims, Hindus, and Jews get in auto accidents and need PI attorneys. Their kids get into shit with cops and need representation. They buy houses and borrow money. While I admit that wishing someone, Ramadan Mubarak, isn’t all that much effort, it’s a start. The more we acknowledge the individual ingredients of the gumbo, the better it tastes.

Happy Almost Mardi Gras, to those who observe!

Restructuring Mastodon accounts

Restructuring Mastodon accounts

by | Jul 4, 2023 | Social Media

It’s time for restructuring Mastodon with new accounts.

restructuring mastodon

Restructuring Mastodon

Back when Musk was forced to actually complete the Twitter sale, the kvetching over the future of the bird app was extreme. Lots of folks ran to various alternative platforms, such as Post and Mastodon. I chose Mastodon, and set up a couple of accounts as fall-back positions.

When it became clear that Da Twittah wasn’t immediately imploding, folks disengaged from the grand exodus. Da Twittah returned to its sort-of usual self. While there were some folks, particularly prolific political users, left for Mastodon, inertia kicked in. Count me in on that. Friends stayed, the teevee and other journalists stayed, and most importantly, the weather people stayed. (And in New Orleans, those weather people are important.)

Toot neglect

So, tooting (what one does on Mastodon, as opposed to tweeting) fizzled for me. I even investigated various mobile apps, in the hopes that a cool UI would bring me around. No luck. Some of this is on me, because I followed too many political types too quickly. There’s a lot of anger out there. While I may agree with most of what someone writes, negativity can be overwhelming. The other thing that became problematic was local folks who followed my history account. I followed them back, but many of them were all-politics-all-the-time.

Fixing the toots

I knew there had to be a way to make the elephants work properly. The best approach for me was to start over. This included starting my own Mastodon instance, nolabooks.social. I set up a basic hosting account and created a few users. They are (so far):

  • @edwardbranley@nolabooks.social – no real activity yet. This will be the books/booksta/bookwyrm account
  • @nolahistoryguy@nolabooks.social – Da History Stuff. my @nolahistoryguy on Da Twittah is a hot mess. I intend for this account to be more concise.
  • @yatpundit@nolabooks.social – My @yatpundit account on the bird app was my first. I use it now for non-New Orleans political stuff and Arsenal FC banter. That continues with the toots.

Ongoing stuff

While I set nolabooks.social on a hosting site, I plan to set up an instance in my home office. I’ve got a spare PC and a Raspberry Pi 4 to play with. Weill keep you posted on that on the Linux blog.