Christmas Is Over

The decorations are put away for another year. The last Christmas cards arrive with an acknowledgement that they're late, but still in time for New Years greetings. The radio has stopped playing Christmas songs and the Christmas CDs are returned to storage, replaced by classical CDs. The alleged War on Christmas, allegedly being conducted by atheists, secularists, and those persons who want their speech to be politically correct, halts for a truce, awaiting another season to renew its imagined onslaught of neutral greetings and misplaced emphasis. All Hail! The weather even turns mild, if just for an occasional day or two, mocking Winter and the fury of wind, snow, ice, and cold. Retail sales are tallied and found to be lacking, compared to previous years. Students are awaiting new school terms after the old year's calendar is replaced by the new year's. The media has switched to full year-end mode with a recap of the news stories and milestones of the past 12 months. This year, in this sense, at this time, is no different than last. I still look forward to the new year with hope, but what I'd like most would be just to leave some stuff behind.

Kansas Kristmas Karaoke

No good idea should go unreported, as no good deed should go unpunished. In Kansas business districts, large and small, mixed among the stores and offices are what Kansans politely refer to as ‘watering holes’. These watering holes are in fact beer joints, taverns or bars. In these watering holes are electronic devices called karaoke machines, which mix music and vocal tracts for entertainment. In the same business centers, street light poles bear loudspeakers that are connected to an amplifier in the chamber of commerce office, the library or the city hall, whichever unlucky place happened to be where the business district committee who proposed it decided it should be housed. These two technologies, the karaoke machine and the outdoor loudspeaker, could be combined to provide holiday music for the business district. Can’t you imagine Christmas songs like Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer and Hark the Herald Angels Sing performed by barleycorn celebrants wafting across the roof-tops and sidewalks of the shopper’s paradise? I can foresee Kristmas Karaoke festivals throughout the state with thousands in attendance brightening the fortunes of many a Kansas merchant.

Smoking Ban Pudding

After receiving a comment to a previous post (Kansas City, Kansas, Smoking Ban) that questioned the effectiveness of bans on tobacco smoking in public places, I consulted a professional with a major university cancer research program. I was told that a recent 'map' on the decrease in number of cancer deaths per 100 cancer diagnoses across the US showed that the number of deaths from cancer were dramatically decreased in those states which have instituted public smoking bans - with the lowest numbers being in those states which have had the bans the longest (i.e., CA, OR). The researcher asserted that those results are pretty good proof for the argument for a ban on public smoking. I would imagine that smoking ban opponents would say that those numbers are just more false propaganda from the anti-smokers. However, as the adage goes, the proof is in the pudding.

Angels and Elves

Christmas is a time when superstition reigns. Angels and elves, fictitious beings from ancient cultures, figure prominently in the myths of Christmas. Angels, messengers from deities, provided the link between man and the supernatural in early religions of the cradle of civilization from Greece to India. Elves were the pagan's way of interpreting events that had no apparent or comprehended cause. The allure of these mystical, inaginary creatures as a connection to the supernatural is so great even today that they persist in our imaginations. An overwhelming number of people actually believe that angels, the biblical term, are real. Many can cite an incident from their lives where they feel they encountered a angel. They have no other rational explanation why a stranger assisted them in some important and possibly life saving way. Fewer believe in elves or fairies or genies, I suspect because they are from the pagan tradition and clearly referenced as fictitious in literature, that is, they don't have the authority of scripture to bolster their reputation. The belief in messengers from god(s) is a harmless infatuation with the possibility that magic can be part of our lives. It's a relief from the drudgery of typical days, which is what holidays are all about. Enjoy.

Letter to Santa Claus

I was cleaning out some old files and came across a newspaper from Christmas 1948. Flipping through it's yellowed crackly pages, I found printed therein a letter to Santa that I had written as a 10-year old. My letter reads as follows:

Dear Santa Claus:
I would like to have a sled and a football to go along with it for Christmas. I would also like to have a flesh bulb holder and a pair of ice skates for this winter. I do not now to ice skate; that is why I want the ice skates. I want the flesh bulb holder for my Agfa camera. Your good boy.
P.S. Please stick in a 22 long riffle and some bubble gum by mistake. I'will keep it secret.

I can't remember whether I got any of the gifts requested. I may have got the sled to share with my brothers. I know I didn't get a football, a flash for my camera, ice skates, a rifle or bubblegum. Somehow, I think my brothers and I had a football at our disposal.

I bought myself ice skates when I was in my thirties. I learned to ice skate so I could clear snow from the ice so my children could skate. Thankfully, I could lean on the shovel to stay erect until I developed enough skill to manage on my own.

I have never owned a 22-caliber rifle. At 10 years old, I didn't realize that the word 'long' referred to the shell casing size rather than the rifle's barrel length. I can't imagine why I even asked for one. I guess I was just trying to push the envelope with Santa. I ended up owning two pistols, a fine shotgun and a bolt-action 30-06 rifle.

One thing I didn't ask for, but could have used was better spelling skills. Somehow I picked those up along the way.

The moral of this story is: Ask, and if you don't receive, don't loose faith. You may eventually get what you want, even if you have to pay for it yourself.