[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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