My Goodness, Pywacket, you are DENSE! Did you miss the part of the article at Christmas time where they talked to the neighbors? You seem to have a bigger problem with this than anyone who might actually be affected. You chose to post vapid comments when you didn't even clearly read the article. Even an "idiot" like you should be able to figure out that an FM Transmitter doesn't play any audible music. All the article stated was that the signal would be clearer this year.

I think the problem is that there aren't enough people like Gary and Mary Ann. I think that we actually need more decorated houses, that way all 100,000 people in Lawrence have more than just one musical Christmas show to go watch! As to your position of "excess," different folks different strokes. I have seen some pretty excessive things people do to celebrate holidays. How about the guy who drops thousands on fireworks that could rival a professional show out south of town? How about all the people celebrating before/during/after KU Games, What about the ridiculous extent some people go to for a Halloween costume? You're really grasping at straws to make such a blanket statement. "it's obsessive and wasteful." I think a lot of people do truly obsessive and wasteful things with their money that benefit absolutely no one as opposed to a display everyone can watch and enjoy. You are absolutely off your rocker and not worth arguing with. Go donate all your expendable income to a charity and crawl back into the hole you crawled out of. You can sit in there and feel really great about yourself.

Forget it, py. If you criticize anyone enjoying Christmas in any way, regardless of result, you're going to be a grinch or hateful in the minds of some people. You brought up a good point, that I hadn't considered. If it doesn't actually fit perfectly to this example, the problem is the wording in the article.

And the rest of you would change your tune really damned quick, I bet, if you had to live next to a house that did, as the article suggests, make people vibrate. You should just admit it to yourself.

This one's even better:

http://www.uglychristmaslights.com/

Lots of expensive environmental atrocities brought to you by OCD sufferers all over the country.

Irish~ I do not live in that neighborhood (thank god), so it won't be bothering me.

If it is true that it is not blasting from speakers and that you can only hear it from your radio, then good! Bassetlover, thanks for explaining. That was not clear to me and as there are people in different communities who DO blast that noise from speakers every year (and articles about them having the police called by neighbors), I thought that was the case here. It does happen.

zstoltenberg and jasonm~ What part of "excess" do you not understand? As I said before, I enjoy the season, the lights, the decorations MOST people put up. I just think that this kind of wretched excess has something behind it besides a disire to bring pleasure to anyone. It's obsessive. It's wasteful.

If I said that I found hot dog eating contests disgusting and that the idea of trying to down 20 dogs in 5 minutes revolting, would you tell me that I must therefore hate food and subsist on air? Do you (like the family in the article) see only in extremes? If someone isn't overjoyed at the idea of 70,000 blinking lights, including a 22-ft pole "festooned with 10,000 red, green, and white lights" plus a blinking star, do you seriously think that means the person is a total humbug?! Get real.

If you read the papers, you surely know that these over-the-top displays have caused plenty of neighborhood disputes over the years--some of which go to court.

http://www.wave3.com/Global/story.asp?S=2705573

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9506E0DD1F30F934A15751C1A9629C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all

http://www.thepittsburghchannel.com/news/18294210/detail.html

Not everyone is in love with the idea of having to wait in a slow-creeping line to get into their own driveways because some yokel has decided to spend a month's income on enough illumination to be seen from the moon.

For those who like to laugh at these crazed displays (unless they are on your own street), here are some good ones: http://tackychristmasyards.com/

“It’ll put out a little better bass,” Mary Ann says. “You’ll be able to vibrate.”

Hey, the dude's next door sometimes do that all year 'round.

There is nothing more obnoxious than having to listen to some idiot's idea of "Christmas cheer" or any other musical selection. Neighbors can draw the drapes and shut out the lights, but it's hard to escape noise--or the glut of cars blocking you from getting home every night for a month.

People who go nuts like this have something going on other than the innocent, "I just wanna spread Christmas joy..." It's a power thing, an attention thing, and it's probably filling some particular emptiness.

If they have this much expendable income, why don't they do a modest, tasteful light display and use the rest of their bounty to sponsor some families who are hurting b/c the parents have been laid off? (We just did a good-sized chunk of charitable giving--dang! We should've held on to that money and used it to blast noise and light pollution through our neighborhood. What were we thinking!?)

Answer: that would not draw reporters to their door to splash their "heartwarming" story in the Sunday paper. They would also not get gratifying streams of gawkers honking and waving.

It would also not give them control over a portion of the lives of everyone else in their neighborhood, who have no choice of having a crazy increase in traffic in their normally peaceful neighborhood. I used to live a few blocks from there and know the neighborhood. It's a "closed circuit," which was probably a big draw for many who buy there--almost all the traffic (normally) is residents, so there is very little of it.

I enjoy Christmas displays and the creativity seen in many neighborhoods--I'm not down on the idea of festivity and sharing an attractive display. But these people who turn it into an obsession have a serious problem--and very often create serious problems for their neighbors.

I'd love to hear from folks who have this forced upon them. Love it? Hate it? Feel helpless? Bet you weren't consulted on the overhauled music transmission. (“It’ll put out a little better bass,” Mary Ann says. “You’ll be able to vibrate.”) Oh, boy. Bet you neighbors will love the incessant thumping bass vibrating the dishes in their kitchens.