Jetpacks

 NEPHEW: They say Mary-Poppins people fly with umbrellas, but this is a myth.

ME: Is that so?

NEPHEW: Yes. They use jetpacks.

Evening Notes Index 2025

November 6: Tractatus Coislinianus

September 23: Convertibility of Signs and Principles

September 9: Titles in Tradition

August 23: Plurative Modalities

January 4: Rough-and-Ready Ethical Tests for Practical Decision-Making

Evening Notes Index 2024

Evening Notes Index 2023
Evening Notes Index 2022
Evening Notes Index 2021
Evening Notes Index 2020
Evening Notes Index 2019
Evening Notes Index 2018
Evening Notes Index 2017b
Evening Notes Index 2017a

Links of Note

 * Who Are We Without the Tao?, at the Athenaeum Book Club

* James Chastek, Kingdom of God, at "Just Thomism"

* Mathis Koschel, Formal Necessity -- Kant's Hylomorphic Account of Laws of Nature (PDF)

* Dirk Greimann, What is the Task of Frege's Criteria of Referentiality?

* Kyle King, J. R. R. Tolkien's Lost Christmas Poem, at "Barrel Aged Faith"

* John B. DeBrota & Christian List, A Heptalemma for Quantum Mechanics (PDF)

* The Name Age Calculator estimates your age on the basis of the statistics of your first name. 

* Daniel D. De Haan, Linguistic Apprehension as Incidental Sensation in Thomas Aquinas (PDF)

* Virginia Weaver, start trying to be a good person

* Gregory Marks, Why Is Hegel So Bad at Illustrating His Point?, at "The Wasted World"

HighRoad, "I Wonder As I Wander"

 

HighRoad, "I Wonder As I Wander".

Farya Faraji, "Staffan Var En Stalledräng"

 

Farya Faraji, "Staffan Var En Stalledräng"

The PNC Christmas Price Index for 2025

 The PNC Christmas Price Index for this year:

Total Christmas Price Index (CPI) 

Even with its small basket of goods and services, the PNC Christmas Price Index is not immune to the rising costs in the broader U.S. economy, as measured by the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Consumer Price Index. 

$51,476.12 (+4.5%)

*****

True Cost of Christmas in Song 

$218,542.98 (+4.4%) 

 This represents the total cost of all the gifts bestowed by True Love when you count each repetition of the song, totaling 364 presents. Spreading cheer throughout the year in 2025 costs 4.4% more than in 2024.

****

"Core" Index (Excluding Swans) 

$38,351.12 (+6.1%) 

 This version of the CPI removes the most volatile gift from the index - the Swans-a-Swimming.

The most expensive gift in "The Twelve Days of Christmas" is the Ten Lords A-Leaping, at $16,836.14. The sharpest rise in cost this year, percentagewise, was the Five Golden Rings, at a ringing 32.5%. 

Since 1984, the U. S. Consumer Price Index has increased 223%, while the PNC Christmas Price Index has increased 157%. The two have tended to rise together, more or less, but, of course, the Christmas Price Index is weighted very heavily toward entertainment services, and also birds.

Clamavi De Profundis, "See Amid the Winter's Snow"

 

Clamavi De Profundis, "See Amid the Winter's Snow".