Yes, Virginia There is a Santa Claus
Good Morning –
Wishes for a bright and cheerful Wednesday filled with positivity and joy!
Only 2 weeks from today will be Christmas Day.
Countdown!
Hard to believe but ’tis true.
Hope you’re enjoying what this week has and will have to offer for all of us who believe in the magic of the season.
Great line-up today –
BEGINNING WITH:
SANTA CHRISTMAS ART ILLUSTRATIONS
Which absolutely coincides with Yes, Virginia, There is a Santa Claus. Timeless column from way back in 1897 that still speaks to hearts whatever age they happen to be.
LESLIE ELMAN’S TRIVIA and FASCINATING FACTS
Always leave me with feeling that I’m more interesting than I was before reading what she brings forth.
QUICK QUESTION
Which of the 5 senses is my strongest?
Without a doubt, hearing.
I can totally hear teeny-tiny sounds inside and outside.
You?
YES, VIRGINIA, THERE IS A SANTA CLAUS
Story remains one of my Christmas favorites.
I never tire of the message and the heart/wisdom response from editor, Francis P. Church.
RECIPE (!)
GRAPE AND BLUE CHEESE CROSTINI
Classy simple + unique + delish
TRACY BECKERMAN’S
Column on Sleeping in C Minor absolutely had me giggling.
I can only imagine!
AS ALWAYS
We are so thankful to you, Readers, for being part of the Daymaker Readable Art Community!
Ready?
Set.
Here we go!
POP QUIZ
- LIKE COWS, SHEEP ARE RUMINANTS WHOSE STOMACHS HAVE HOW MANY CHAMBERS?
a) 2
b) 4
c) 5
d) 6 - HANUKKAH, THE FESTIVAL OF LIGHTS IS CELEBRATED FOR HOW MANY NIGHTS?
a) 3
b) 8
c) 12
d) 30 - FRANK SINATRA WON AN ACADEMY AWARD FOR THE 1946 FILM, “THE HOUSE I LIVE IN,” WHICH WAS OPPOSED TO WHAT?
a) Antisemitism
b) Child abuse
c) Fascism
d) Nuclear Weapons
QUICK QUESTION
WHICH ONE OF YOUR 5 SENSES IS
THE STRONGEST?
sight – hearing – smell – taste – touch
POP QUIZ ANSWERS
- Like cows, sheep are ruminants whose stomachs have four chambers.
- Hanukkah is celebrated for eight nights.
- Frank Sinatra starred in “The House I Live In,” a film that condemned antisemitism.
~ COPYRIGHT 2024 LESLIE ELMAN
DISTRIBUTED BY CREATORS.COM
YES, VIRGINIA, THERE IS A SANTA CLAUS
This heartfelt query was first printed in the New York Sun in 1897, along with a response from editor, Francis P. Church. It was so popular that it was reprinted every year until the Sun went out of business in 1949.
Dear Editor:
I am 8 years old.
Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus.
Papa says, “If you see it in The Sun, it’s so.”
Please tell me the truth: is there a Santa Claus?
~ Virginia O’Hanlon
AND EDITOR, FRANCIS P. CHURCH’S RESPONSE:
Virginia –
Your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except what they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds.
All minds, Virginia, whether they be men’s or children’s are little.
In this great universe of ours, man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.
Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy.
Alas, how dreary would be the world if there was no Santa Claus! It would be as dreary as if there were no Virginias! There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills this world would be extinguished.
Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies!
You might get your papa to to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if they did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus.
The most real things in the world are those that neither men nor children can see.
Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn?
Of course not. But that’s no proof that they aren’t there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders that are unseen and unseeable.
You may tear apart the baby’s rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart.
Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance can push aside that curtain and view and picture supernatural beauty and glory beyond.
Is it real? Ah, Virginia, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.
No Santa Claus!
Thank God! He lives forever.
A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, 10,000 years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.
A CHILD CAN TEACH AN ADULT THREE THINGS:
1. TO BE HAPPY FOR NO REASON.
2. TO ALWAYS BE BUSY WITH SOMETHING
3. TO KNOW HOW TO DEMAND WITH ALL HIS MIGHT THAT WHICH HE DESIRES.
SATISFACTION GUARANTEED:
WHEN YOU SEE/HEAR THE SALVATION ARMY BELL RINGERS
OUTSIDE STORES, COLLECTING MONEY – DROP A BUCK OR TWO
OR SOME LOOSE CHANGE IN THE RED KETTLE POT + THANK
THEM FOR DOING WHAT THEY’RE DOING.
RIDDLE ME THIS
WHAT KIND OF BAND NEVER PLAYS MUSIC?
GRAPE & BLUE CHEESE CROSTINI
Sweet and savory with a fantastic blend of flavors and textures, these quick and easy appetizers are an easy way to amp up any occasion.
INGREDIENTS
+ 2 cups green grapes, quartered
+ 3 TBSP honey
+ 2 tsp fresh thyme, roughly chopped
+ 4 ounces blue cheese
+ 2 TBSP heavy cream
+ 1/4 cup toasted walnuts, chopped
+ 15 crostini slices
PREPARATION
+ Combine grapes, honey and 1 tsp thyme in a small sauce pot.
+ Place on high heat and bring to a boil.
+ cook about 2 minutes, stirring frequently.
+ Strain liquid from grapes and reserve both.
+ Chill grapes.
+ Return liquid to pan and reduce to a syrup.
+ Chill syrup.
+ Place blue cheese in a work bowl and mix with enough cream to make a spread.
ASSEMBLE
+ Spread a thin layer of blue cheese mix on crostini.
+ Top with grapes and walnuts.
+ Drizzle with reduced syrup and garnish with minced fresh thyme.
~ Hippie Cowboy recipe box
RIDDLE ANSWER
A RUBBER BAND
LOST IN SUBURBIA
Sleeping in C Minor
By Tracy Beckerman
“Ow!”
I woke up with a start when my husband’s left arm whacked me in the head. I rolled over to yell at him and saw that he was sound asleep. His hands, however, were wide awake and keeping a perfect 3/4 time to some mystery concerto.
Sadly, this was not the first time this had happened. My husband works in the music industry, and like most husbands, he tends to take his work to bed with him. For us, this means he goes to sleep dreaming of music.
Sometimes I wake up to the sound of him humming in his sleep, which, truthfully, cn be kind of cute if not for the fact that he wakes me out of a dead sleep humming.
But the other, less cute thing he does in his sleep is conduct.
And things can get dicey when he is working on a big orchestral piece and I happen to be sleeping in the string section.
After my husband whacked me, I rubbed my forehead and wondered if I should interrupt the symphony and tell the players to take five, or roll over and go back to sleep.
I watched for a minute and saw his hands start to slow down. I wasn’t sure if the piece he was conducting had become more allegro or if one of the horn players had screwed up and they were trying it again more slowly.
Deciding the conducting coast was clear, I closed my eyes and tried to go back to sleep. But just as I dropped off, I got another blow to the head.
“OK, maestro, concert’s over!” I barked at my husband, shaking his shoulder.
His eyes popped open.
“What?”
“You’re conducting in your sleep again!” I exclaimed.
He snorted. “I was not.”
“You were, and you whacked me in the head twice!” I responded. “Could you switch to a more sedate piece of music?”
He laughed.
“It’s not funny. I didn’t know orchestral music was a contact sport. Couldn’t you just snore like other husbands?”
While I was clearly not a fan of being whacked in the head by my husband in his sleep, I suddenly realized there might actually be an untapped resource in his sleep conducting. If he could conduct in his sleep, why couldn’t he do some other things that be infinitely more productive?
Maybe we could get him to dream about home repairs and have him fix the broken garage door in his sleep. Or change the lightbulbs in the bathroom. Or even take out the garbage.
He could sleep-chore his way through all the things he complained about doing when he was awake. It was genius.
“I’m going back to sleep,” he said groggily.
A few minutes passed, then I heard my husband’s breathing get more rhythmic, and I knew he was asleep. I leaned in close to him and began to chant softly into his ear:
“Garage door. Garage door. Garage door.”
“Garage door,” he murmured.
“Yes, garage door. Fix the garage door,” I said softly.
“Good plan,” he said loudly. “And if you’re going down to the garage, you might want to grab a bike helmet in case I whack you again.”
~ Tracy Beckerman is the author of the Amazon Bestseller, “Barking at the Moon: A Story of Life, Love, and Kibble.
COPYRIGHT 2024 CREATORS.COM
Fascinating Stuff
+ Because grazing land is inaccessible, sheep that live on North Ronaldsay, northernmost of Scotland’s Orkeney Islands, dine almost exclusively on dabberlocks (Alaria esculenta) and dulse (Palmaria palmatea). That’s seaweed to you and me. Small, dark and rugged, North Ronaldsay sheep are known to produce superb wool., although some people claim their mutton has a fishy taste.
+ The first Russian-language edition of Boris Pasternak’s novel “Doctor Zhivago” was published by an American publishing company funded by the CIA. Soviet publishers in the mid-1950’s refused the book because it was critical of communism. The CIA figured anything the Soviets objected to so strongly was bound to be in the interest of democracy, so it arranged for copies to be printed in Russian and smuggled into the Soviet Union.
+ The story of Hanukkah centers on a rebellion led by Judah the Maccabee in 166 B.C. to overthrow the Greek ruler Antiochus IV Epiphanes and reclaim the Temple for the Jewish people. It’s one of history’s early examples of guerrilla warfare. In 2015, archaeologists unearthed a fortress in Jerusalem where they believe some of the fighting occurred.
And 2 More Fascinatings
+ Throughout history, presidents of the United States have received some well-meant but odd gifts. King Menelik of Abyssinia sent President Theodore Roosevelt a Grevy’s zebra and a caseload of baboons. (Roosevelt gave them to a National Zoo). Richard Nixon received a tapestry portrait of himself from the Shah of Iran. Warren G. Harding received no fewer than 150 cornets. (He blew a mean horn apparently.) And a thoughtful wigmaker gave John Quincy Adams a toupee.
+ When Frank Sinatra died in 1998, he was buried with a flask of Jack Daniel’s Tennessee whiskey. It’s said that Jackie Gleason introduced Frank to the drink, but Sinatra made it his signature, famously sipping it onstage between numbers.
COPYRIGHT 2024 LESLIE ELMAN
DISTRIBUTED BY CREATORS.COM
