Cartoon : Stuff It!

Political cartoon by Drew Sheneman of The Star-Ledger in New Jersey.

“Stuff it!” is a vulgar response given in extreme anger, frustration or disgust. It is presumably short  for “stuff it up you’re a___!”

Christmas in America - "Yes, Viriginia, there is a Santa Claus"

Thanks to Raphael from my Monday evening class of reminding me about this famous holiday story. It's popularity has led the expression, "Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus" into the vernacular.

To read the history of this story, go to the Wikipedia article HERE.

This is taken from Newseum. If you wish to print out the article from their site, go HERE.

Eight-year-old Virginia O'Hanlon wrote a letter to the editor of New York's Sun, and the quick response was printed as an unsigned editorial Sept. 21, 1897. The work of veteran newsman Francis Pharcellus Church has since become history's most reprinted newspaper editorial, appearing in part or whole in dozens of languages in books, movies, and other editorials, and on posters and stamps.

"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."115 WEST NINETY-FIFTH STREET."

VIRGINIA, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the 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 were 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 the world would be extinguished.

Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies! You might get your papa 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 children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that's no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.

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 the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, VIRGINIA, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.

No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives, and he lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.

VOCABULARY mind - esprit mere - simple boundless - débordant to grasp - saisir, comprendre knowledge - connaissance devotion - dévouement, attachement to abound - abonder, regorger dreary - morne, maussade, triste childlike - enfantin enjoyment - plaisir, délectation, jouissance extinguished - éteint fairy - fée lawn - pelouse, gazon to tear apart - mettre en pièces, déchirer rattle - hochet veil - voile fancy - imagination supernal - céleste, divin abiding - durable, continuel nay - nenni

Christmas in America - A Visit from Saint Nicholas by Clement Clarke Moore

This 1823 poem is also know as T'was the Night Before Christmas and is the poem that largely created the American conception of Santa Claus. This poem created many of the myths surrounding Santa Claus: his flying sleigh and reindeer (all named!), his appearance, the nightly Christmas Eve visit and the placing of toys in stockings.

The poem was published anonymously in the New York Sentinal in December of 1823 and was frequently republished in the following years with an author's name. Though most scholars today attribute the poem to Clement Clarke Moore, the contraversy still continues on the true authorship. The family of Henry Livingston, Jr. also claimed that he was the author.

A Visit from Saint Nicholas by Clement Clarke Moore

’Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house

Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,

In hopes that Saint Nicholas soon would be there.

The children were nestled all snug in their beds,

While visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads;

And mamma in her ’kerchief, and I in my cap,

Had just settled down for a long winter’s nap;

When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter,

I sprang from the bed to see what was the matter.

Away to the window I flew like a flash,

Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash.

The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow

Gave the lustre of mid-day to objects below,

When, what to my wondering eyes should appear,

But a miniature sleigh, and eight tiny reindeer,

With a little old driver, so lively and quick,

I knew in a moment it must be Saint Nick.

More rapid than eagles his coursers they came,

And he whistled, and shouted, and called them by name:

"Now, Dasher! now, Dancer! now, Prancer and Vixen!

On, Comet! on Cupid! on, Donder and Blitzen!

To the top of the porch! to the top of the wall!

Now dash away! dash away! dash away all!”

As dry leaves that before the wild hurricane fly,

When they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky,

So up to the house-top the coursers they flew,

With the sleigh full of toys, and Saint Nicholas too.

And then, in a twinkling, I heard on the roof

The prancing and pawing of each little hoof.

As I drew in my head, and was turning around,

Down the chimney Saint Nicholas came with a bound.

He was dressed all in fur, from his head to his foot,

And his clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot.

A bundle of toys he had flung on his back,

And he looked like a peddler just opening his pack.

His eyes — how they twinkled! his dimples how merry!

His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry!

His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow,

And the beard of his chin was as white as the snow.

The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth,

And the smoke it encircled his head like a wreath

He had a broad face and a little round belly,

That shook, when he laughed, like a bowlful of jelly.

He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf,

And I laughed when I saw him, in spite of myself.

A wink of his eye and a twist of his head,

Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread.

He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,

And filled all the stockings; then turned with a jerk,

And laying his finger aside of his nose,

And giving a nod, up the chimney he rose.

He sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle,

And away they all flew like the down of a thistle.

But I heard him exclaim, ere he drove out of sight,

“Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good-night!”

For a side-by-side translation of the poem in French, go to http://www.lexilogos.com/saint_nicolas_conte.htm

For an explanation of some of the difficult terms in English, go to http://esl.about.com/library/weekly/aa121497.htm

Christmas in America - Santa Claus

In America, Santa Claus is also known as Saint Nicholas, Saint Nick, Father Christmas, Kris Kringle or simply Santa. However, the name Santa Claus is an Americanization of the Dutch Sinterklaas who was brought to the New World in the 17th century. The American version is in fact a blending of the British and Dutch versions. The Americanize named, Santa Claus, first appeared in Washington Irving's History of New York in which he lost his bishop's apparel. The first Santa Claus was dressed as fat-bellied Dutch sailor in a green coat.

Santa Claus's Americanized version really came in an 1823 poem by Clement Clark Moore A Visit From St. Nicholas (also known as The Night Before Christmas). It is in this poem that America's first conception of Santa Claus really took shape. In that poem his flying sleigh is led by 8 tiny reindeer, each of them named. On Christmas Eve he flies around landing on the roofs of houses and enters them by sliding down the chimney. Once inside, he fills the stockings with presents.

Even though in that poem Santa Claus is a small round elf, today's version depicts him as more human in appearance. The modern look for Santa came from cartoonist Thomas Nast, an illistrator for Harper's Magazine from the 1860s to 1880s. Nast aslo created the myth that Santa lives at the North Pole and keeps a list of children who are naughty or nice!

This image was made even more popular by Haddon Sundblom for the Coca-Cola Company's advertising campaign in the 1930s. This has led many to falsly believe that the modern look for Santa Claus was their creation since he is dressed in red and white just like Coke's colors.

VOCABULARY blending - mélange bishop - évêque apparel - habillement, vêtements sleigh - traîneau reindeer - renne roof - toit slide - glisser stocking - bas naughty - espiègle, désobéissant, vilain

Note: Keep an eye out for the poem A Visit From St. Nicholas. I will post it soon!