[Sca-cooks] Half an outcast! St. Nick?

Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius adamantius1 at verizon.net
Wed Dec 27 11:44:16 PST 2006


On Dec 24, 2006, at 1:47 AM, Suey wrote:

> When he moved to the North Pole and acquired rosy cheeks, a big belly,
> an impotent wife

That's an interesting choice of words. I'm not sure what you mean by  
"impotent"; based on my own experience with wives, very little in  
this world would actually get done without them. I'm assuming Mrs.  
Claus has a key, pivotal role, and is as far from being a trophy wife  
as it gets.

> and a sleigh guided by reindeer is beyond me. Certainly
> as per late 19th Century American literature was him living there. Was
> he married by then? I don't remember great grandmother commenting on
> that or the role of Orthodox bishops for that matter. I do remember  
> from
> pictures in books of her era around the house. His "broken nose" seems
> to have become swollen during the beginning of the 20th century or was
> that because of the jiggers of whiskey traditionally left out for  
> him at
> the family homestead?

Well, clearly there was a move to separate Saint-Nicholas-the-Saint  
from Saint-Nicholas-as-Non-Sectarian-Commercial-Icon. Obviously  
there's been an attempt to portray him as less... Turkic... in  
appearance, but then that, while strange, is no more strange than the  
Non-Semitic, vaguely Nordic Jesus imagery we've been all been exposed  
to all over the Northern hemisphere. The same people are probably  
responsible for both phenomena.

> As far as I know he did not practice prohibition
> in the late 1920's along with grandfather, so why should they now?

Prohibition starts in 1919. Ten years of mild, but cumulative boozing  
is not insignificant... ;-)

> According to mother Rudolph, Santa's reindeer captain, did not arrive
> until the late 1940's no thanks to Bing Crosby.

Gene Autry is The Official, Canonical Singer. No others need apply.

> She hated that song!

Well, if I had to be stranded on a desert island with either it, or  
"Frosty the Snowman", Rudolph wins every single time! Fairy tale,  
_INDEED_!!!

Of course, I could always melt Frosty and drink him, and use his eyes  
and buttons for fuel...

Adamantius




"S'ils n'ont pas de pain, vous fait-on dire, qu'ils  mangent de la  
brioche!" / "If there's no bread to be had, one has to say, let them  
eat cake!"
     -- attributed to an unnamed noblewoman by Jean-Jacques Rousseau,  
"Confessions", 1782

"Why don't they get new jobs if they're unhappy -- or go on Prozac?"
     -- Susan Sheybani, assistant to Bush campaign spokesman Terry  
Holt, 07/29/04





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