Friday, December 06, 2019

The Feast of St Nicholas


. . . This is what we should tell children about Santa Claus," Eich said. "He was bishop of Myra, in what's eastern Turkey, then the Greek-speaking Roman Empire. He was born in 280 A.D."
The name "Claus" derived as a corruption in pronunciation of the name, "Nicholas," Eich said. Children had a lot of problem saying St. Nicholas.  St. Nicholas is a little hard to say. Children started simplifying it to Santa Claus.  . . .
In the 1860s, cartoonist Thomas Nast refined the image of Santa Claus, and in the 1930s Coca-Cola advertising cartoonist Haddon Sundblom helped complete the evolution into a jolly, oversized elf with a kindly face. Gradually, the religious image was fully transformed into a secular icon. . . .
This and more at: The True Story of St Nicholas

19 comments:

  1. Here it comes— [Click]

    Hostilities Between Buttigieg and Warren Break Out
    December 6, 2019 By Taegan Goddard

    “Long-simmering tensions between Pete Buttigieg and Elizabeth Warren, the two ascendant Democratic presidential candidates in Iowa, burst into the open this week,” Politico reports.

    “Warren and Buttigieg’s campaigns each called the other out in a flurry of back-and-forths on the candidates’ tax returns, past corporate clients, campaign bundlers and opening fundraisers to the news media.”

    I haven’t read it yet, but that selection of alleged disputes sounds like far more trouble for Buttigieg than Warren.

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    1. Seemingly so, if my inbox is any gauge.

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    2. Well, if this is the way it's going, I hope it is the downfall of Buttigieg. He seems to have bought the idea that in order to win one has to diss one's opponent(s). Never has that idea been more false than now, when the nation is so very tired of all the badmouthing going on every day. I haven't been able to trust Buttigieg's judgment since he went after others a couple of debates ago. Just not smart, or kind or what I'm looking for.

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    3. For such a smart young man, he seems pretty dumb at times--and his youth betrays itself. I think he is throwing away his chance of being VP. Opposition researchers have certainly been doing everything they can to figure out whether he was involved in anything scandalous at McKinsey & Co.

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    4. Just Break the NDA, Pete [Click] “The worst that could happen is actually a best-case scenario.” Well, maybe--or maybe not.

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    5. Buttigieg releases timeline of McKinsey work [Click] Well, this seems to be a fairly reasonable response. But I also don’t see that it is any sort of qualification for the presidency.

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  2. I have read the politico.com article now, and it sounds like the summary. Reflecting on it in the interval, it seemed to me [Warning: uncharitable thought!] that if Warren and Buttigieg carve each other up and Bernie just keeps on keepin' on, that could work out all right. And if Bernie arrives at the convention with a plurality but not enough delegates to win on the first ballot, announcing Stacey Abrams as his running mate should pull him over the line on the second ballot. That's getting way ahead of things, but that's what I'm thinking.

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    1. I don't know, Alan. Stacy Abrams is a wonderful person, but being a state representative doesn't really prepare someone to be Vice President and one step away from the Presidency.

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    2. My preference is Susan Rice, who was National Security Advisor for President Obama. She's a Rhodes Scholar and well, read her bio!

      https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/rice-susan-elizabeth-1964/

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    3. Very good idea, listener; but looking at her Wikipedia entry I see very little involvement in domestic politics. I think that makes Rice a better fit for Secretary of State than for VP.

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    4. I'd be okay with that role too.

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  3. I am no fan of boxing, but this story is flat out incredible. [Click] The Mexican-American Rocky, indeed!

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  4. Can anyone here clarify how polls work these days? Don't they phone people? And aren't many of us, who only have smart phones not land lines, difficult or impossible to reach? So isn't polling these days only reaching older Americans with land lines, versus young and fairly active people with smart phones?

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    1. It's even worse than that, listener; far fewer people these days are willing to talk with a pollster than used to be the case. The reputable ones do the best they can, contacting people several different ways, and trying to get a representative sample--which was never easy. People are contacted over the Internet, by landline, and by cell phone, with live or automated questions.

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    2. For years, no one has asked me to answer a poll or survey and I'm okay with that. Interesting, isn't it?

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    3. I don't see how anyone CAN contact me since I am off all political lists (yes, even Bernie's), do not have a land line and NEVER answer on my phone a number I don't recognise.

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