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Archive for December 10th, 2008

sitproperly on Dec 10th 2008 Gaudia Vaisnava, The Hing

Ho Ho Ho and where is The Hing and get out of my head!

It was easy to write for The Hing when I didn’t have all that much else to do. I started it as I was wrapping up the sale of my store. Then, when I was staying at New Vrndavana, the ideas and articles pretty much wrote themselves. I even had enough articles to cover the months when I was traveling around the country. When I returned to Pennsylvania, again, the articles came to me very easily.

But since moving to Seattle, life has been turned upsidedown. It’s a good thing in a lot of ways. I’m really really enjoying this place. But getting to a know a new city (and new coast) isn’t exactly conducive to writing.

I’ve had a few submissions and a few good ones that I’ll eventually use. But my own ideas have been few and far between. Something on the guru school would be nice, maybe on the TVP (because if you name something TVP, it deserves a good ripping), or perhaps something on the ISKCON constitution (though, you know, oh my god … boring!).

Then a couple of days ago, I started to work on a holidays “fluff” piece about a temple that got really into the Christmas spirit. The hook was going to be that they dressed their deities as Santa and Mrs. Claus.

I had some details worked out, a bit of a story line floating around in my head. And then I was sent this…

These aren't just Christmas outfits. These are full on Santa suits. The only thing missing is the beard (and, quite honestly, I'm disappointed that the cheesy, stick-on beard isn't there...).

These aren't just Christmas outfits. These are full on Santa suits. The only thing missing is the beard (and, quite honestly, I'm disappointed that the cheesy, stick-on beard isn't there...).


One of the fun things about writing satire is that you often walk the thin line between fiction and reality. For instance, look how many devotees believed that a fallen ISKCON guru used his mad guru skillz to become a very nice used car salesman. I still get emails asking for more information about Ex-ISKCON guru, John O’Brien. While it’s a fiction piece, it’s close enough to our reality to make us think it’s possible, even probable (because it is).

But sometimes, and with increasing regularity, I’m seeing things in reality that should only happen in satire. What could and should be The Hing’s pages are springing to life all around ISKCON!

This makes it very difficult to write.

So simmer down, ISKCON! Get back to being just plain old weird. These ventures into the realm of “creepy,” “really creepy” and “ew, back off please” are my territory! You are stealing my stories and ideas. Stop that.

ISKCON, get out of my head!

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