For a couple of weeks now, several people have told me that I have to see Borat (the movie). So, late yesterday afternoon, we did.

That has to be the dumbest movie I’ve ever seen.

I’ve never actually met anyone from Kazakhstan, but I did have a letter to the editor published there once several years ago — in the Almaty Globe (which used to be at www.globe.kz/eng, but it’s gone now). After that , I exchanged e-mails once or twice with the editor before the paper was shut down by the government. I guess glasnost hasn’t quite caught on there… the competing paper, the Almaty Herald, is no longer in existence either.

Waldek Kaczocha, proprietor of Razzleberry Ice Cream Lab in Jackson Square, noted that the languages spoken in the movie are Polish and Hebrew, where the predominant language in Kazakhstan is Russian (it’s one of the former Soviet republics).

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The new approach to Christmas is slowly coming together. It’s not a total abdication of gifting, but a focus on finding something meaningful for each recipient, rather than trying to outspend everyone else. At church yesterday afternoon there was an “alternative gift market,” featuring some items that were handmade by residents of third-world villages, and for which a fair price was paid. Also available were coffees, teas, and chocolates from the Equal Exchange — an organization that works with farmer-owned co-ops in such a way that removes many of the layers between farmer and consumer, providing much more of the final price to the producer.

Directly supporting the people who grow our food through our purchasing habits, not government subsidies, is not something that most of us think about, but having married into a farm family (and only one generation removed in my own family), I do. The dwindling number of small, family farms, along with the rapid increase of food imports, is a cause of concern to me.

Even though my purchases of chocolate and tea went to farmers in Central and South America, I’d much rather support them that way than through government subsidies that might well end up propping up corrupt politicos (like the Oil-for-Food fiasco) rather than actually supporting the producers in a good, wholesome capitalist way.

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Speaking of which, it’s going to be time soon to make my trek up to Jacket’s neck of the woods, where I’ll buy a Christmas tree that still has roots and dirt in a big, burlap bag. I haven’t decided exactly where I’ll plant this one after New Year’s, but it will go somewhere in the yard. The kids really enjoy stringing lights on the live trees in the front yard that were once our Christmas trees, marveling at how much they’ve grown (as I look at the kids, thinking the same about them).