Dawson's Creek: Review and Commentary part 1

How do you do.

   For this review and commentary, I will be going into one of my favorite shows: Dawson's Creek. More than just saying how I feel of the show but also look into the things of the show most might not catch upon viewing. 

   Background information on the show is that it was an idea pitched by two men: Paul Stupin and Kevin Williamson back in the Nineties. Paul Stupin was vice-president of the Tri-Star Pictures in the Eighties where he got to oversee the productions of Steel Magnolias and Short Circuit. He was eventually lured away by Fox Network where he worked with Aaron Spelling on Beverly Hills, 90210. Finally he went to Columbia TriStar Television and began overseeing projects. In 1995, he saw a script to the horror film Scream and contacted its writer, Kevin Williamson.

   The reason Stupin called up Williamson was because he felt that the man was a good enough writer for a project he had in mind. It was idea of a teen show that had the drama of James At 15, My So-Called Life, and even a touch of Little House on the Prairie. When they agreed on how it would be done, they went around the film companies and everyone said "no." Finally they came upon WB (known for their commercials that had people say "you're watchin' the dubba dubba dubba dubba WB."). I grew up seeing that channel since it shared with Fox Kids where my favorite shows were on. During the period of time that Stupin and Williamson were pitching the idea, WB was deciding to make an appeal to the teen market and that had led to the television series of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and 7th Heaven. Even with the competition, they still went away and thus Dawson's Creek came into existence. It would run for six seasons and 128 episodes.

   We that in mind, let us go through the six seasons. 

Season One (A season in an over-analyzed and hormone driven portion of New England with a Southern feel)

   If there was one way to sum up Dawson's Creek in a few sentences it would be: "Idealistic young boy who is into movies, cynic girl from the other side of the creek, and another boy full of wit and humor, all growing up in a secluded New England town. One day have a new girl comes to town and makes their trio a quartet of teens with the verbal vocabulary of post graduate individuals. Their interactions and raging hormones override these wits and verbal sayings and leads to drama filled with teen angst, complete with psychiatric babbling and some pop song singing in the background." It is also consider a "show that defined a generation" as it aired around the time Millennials came of age.
   The show opens with "Pilot" where we find Dawson Leery and Joey Potter watching E.T. in Dawson's bedroom. Joey voices what the audience is thinking, that is might not be appropriate for them to do this any more as they are teenagers now. Dawson disregards the arguments and eventually wrestles her out of leaving. Then they sleep together (no, they didn't have sex). Dawson's thing with movies is shown again the next day as he films his version of The Creature From the Black Lagoon. His best friend, Pacey Witter, plays the creature, while Joey plays the creature's victim. The filming is interrupted by the arrival of Jen Lindley from New York. The boys greet her while Joey is visibly disapproval of her.
    Within the pilot, we find out a few things of the three. Dawson is a film buff, considers becoming a film director like Steven Spielberg (he even has posters of his movies all over his bedroom), and he is looking for drama to make a movie off of. Joey is the younger of two daughters of Michael Potter, who is currently in jail for drug trafficking, and Lillie Potter, who died before the show starts, living with her older sister, Bessie, who is living with her black boyfriend, named Bodie, and they are expecting a child. A tomboy, she sees the world in a realistic format in opposite of Dawson, rows her way down the creek to visit him (climbing up the ladder to do so), while shunning the feminine activities. Pacey Witter is the side kick to Dawson, often providing wit and humor, as though to live up to his surname. He also doesn't like being told he is nothing, as noted from his look of frustration in one scene. Given that they make up the protagonists of the series, it's funny how in Season One Katie Holmes, who plays Joey, is neither second nor third to be shown in the credits. Instead, the credits show in this order, James Van Der Beek as Dawson, Michelle Williams as Jen, Joshua Jackson as Pacey, and Katie Holmes as Joey.
    It would have been just three, like in Boy Meets World, had it not been for the arrival of Jen. Jen has come from New York to see her grandfather, who has had a stroke and in a coma, while her religious grandmother is a nurse and keeps vigil over him. However, it turns out, she was driven out of New York because of her ways and her grandmother has become her legal guardian. Evelyn Ryan, Jen's grandma, is played by Mary Beth Peil and often called "Grams." Grams, to me, has been something of a modern day Marilla Cuthbert from Anne of Green Gables, an old woman that the town talks about who adopts a wounded bird and attempts to teach her how to be good. Of course, where Anne Shirley was eleven when she entered the Cuthbert house, Jen was fifteen. Where Anne is willing to adapt to Marilla's ways, Jen resists at every turn. For example, she turns down a good breakfast, insisting on coffee, and then scoffs at her grandmother praying. It turns out, somewhere in New York, Jen lost her faith. This leads to the clashes the two have during the season where Grams would try to get Jen excited in God and Jen would refuse in her own way.
   The pilot to Dawson's Creek has the four getting into plots: Dawson becoming interested in Jen, yet can't seem to make a move despite Pacey and Joey telling him to; Joey feeling threatened by Jen's arrival and trying to hold back a secret crush she has for Dawson; Jen becoming adjusted to Capeside; Pacey becoming infatuated with Tamara Jacobs, who turns out to be his English teacher. Jen's goes back with little drama while Joey's results in a blow up after being so snarky. As to the boys, Pacey gets punched in the face and then rejected when trying to kiss Tamara, while Dawson finds himself cornered by Joey into admitting he does have hormones. As the review will show, the show's appearance changes a few times and it makes the pilot seem out of place. "Pilot" and the few episodes that follow, "Dance" ,"Kiss", and "Discovery", have plenty of those. Pacey's stalking of Tamara is creepy. Of course, it's common for teenage boys to have crushes on teachers, but the way Pacey does it would have gotten him a restraining order or cause her to leave. Instead, in a few episodes, Tamara  reciprocates and they consummate their relationship by episode three. This would set up an unrealistic fantasy scenario to teenage boys (or girls) when it comes to crushes on teachers, especially as Pacey is now in a power relationship with Tamara, and that is not the sort of relationship anyone should be in. Dawson is just as stalkerish with Jen, often admiring her from afar, only becoming passionate when another guy comes onto her, while ignoring the fact that Joey is into him. Joey is very snarky and sarcastic at times, though Dawson is enough to warrant it on a few occasions. I find it odd that she is not the leading lady in this season and yet she is pretty enough to be one while going around in shorts as though she were Daisy Duke. Grams appears more reclusive in these episodes and highly judgmental (often portrayed as the standard old woman who ruins everyone's fun by calling it sinful), though it can be reasoned that she was stressed out and upset over her husband in his condition. A few other oddities show up, also. The pilot has the mascot of Capeside High School change from Wildcats to Minutemen a few times before the latter is decided as the mascot. The characters start high school in sophomore instead of freshman year, also. Also, the dialogue being heavily worded, often with words with multiple syllables, and mentions of sex, genitalia, plus "walk the dog" being meant masturbate. There is also the character named Nellie Oleson who is set up as an antagonist but disappears after three episodes and is never seen, heard, or mentioned again. My only guess with the last was they discovered her name could not be used because of copyrights to the Little House on the Prairie producers and erased the character before they got too far.
    One other thing out of place in the pilot is made known in the production notes. Before they got John Wesley Shipp to play Mitch Leery, Dawson's father, they had a different actor. Eventually, they recasted the role and it required re-shoots. However, there was a different actor in Bodie also and yet they did not recast the role until a few episodes in. As a result, we see Obi Nbefo appear in "Kiss". It gives us a different looking Bodie who we don't get much time to know and given the one that takes us years to know. It does imply this kind of typing statement: "white girl is knocked up by a black guy and then trades him for another black guy and claims him as the father of her child." At least both are cooks.
   These sort of things make the early episodes out of place but it doesn't denote the nostalgia for them. Meanwhile, a fifth plot appears at the end of "Pilot." Dawson figures that his mom might be sleeping with her co-anchor and Joey scoffs at the idea. Yet, when she rolls away after finding out who he "walk(s) the dog" to, she sees Gail Leery leave the car of Bob and kiss him, confirming Dawson's suspicions. There's an alternative ending which has both Dawson and Joey seeing it. As the commentary explains, they edited it out so that Joey knows while Dawson does not, which goes along with the continuity of the series. However, one wonders how things would have gone if Dawson had known. Instead, he doesn't know of it until "Discovery". Prior to this, he is told by Joey that he has the perfect family: a loving father and mother and he is their only child. We had not yet known of the Witters, Lindley's is said to be back in New York, while Joey's is a dead mother, incarcerated dad, and a sister living in sin. Based on that, it proves the Leery's are in the best shape and Dawson should be lucky. Yet, the revelation of Gail's infidelity shatters that. Dawson is shocked that his perfect family picture is gone but it takes until the next episode, "Hurricane" before Mitch learns and Gail confesses to the why. After this revelation, the drama is put on hold while we see Alexander being born in "Baby" and we get "Detention", the latter is an homage to The Breakfast Club. On the last, the homage is further exemplified when Dawson says "this is so Breakfast Club" and then lists the fate of the stars, to which Pacey contradicts him. If anyone doesn't know it, Joshua Jackson was in those "Ducks Movies", as Charlie Conneway. If you had seen them yet, you'd scarcely recognize Jackson in them until the third movie.  
   After "Detention", we are given "Boyfriend where Jen's ex-boyfriend, Billy, comes to town. Dawson, and the audience, sees that his arrival makes Jen confused and under pressure, and Dawson feels threatened by the ex. He has the dilemma faced by most boyfriends: he could be nice and let Jen handle it herself or he could butch up and tell the jerk to take a hike. Either way, he'll lose Jen. Which is what he does at the end of the episode as she decides she needs to be away from guys for a while. The following episode, "Road Trip", has Billy returning and he starts a road trip with Pacey and Dawson, both of who skip school. While they are away, Joey deals with a sex jock who claims they did it and she gets back at him by claiming to be pregnant. For a while, the jock's reputation is ruined as he is labeled a dead beat dad, until it's known that he can't reproduce. Then we get "Double Date" and "Scare" where Dawson tries to get Jen back. By the way, "Scare" makes homage to Williamson's Scream. This while Jen is paired up with a football player named Cliff.
    While the plot following Jen and Dawson's breakup is in the majority of the later episodes, there is also the matter of Dawson, Pacey, and Joey. Dawson and Joey share their first kiss on a dare in "Detention". Later, in "Boyfriend", Joey gets drunk and a boy nearly takes advantage of her until Pacey rescues her, though Dawson gets the credit. Pacey's GPA suffers in biology and Joey is commissioned to help him and they go wading out into the waters for snails. This leads to a moment where Pacey sees Joey naked, while claiming to power up the truck, and he asks Dawson to be her boyfriend. Dawson approves of it, at first, but then goes back on it, but not before Pacey kisses Joey. This leads up to "Beauty Contest" where we see Joey enter. The episode is a case of gender role bending as Pacey gets into a pageant consisting of girls while tomboyish Joey does the same. Both, of course, meet competition from a bitchy rich girl. Yet, to be realistic, the episode has neither of the three win. However, it is surreal to see Joey sing "On My Own" from Les Mis with Dawson watching. It somehow matches the set up as Joey is the modern Eponine pining for Dawson's Marius. The similarities stop there. Joey reminds Dawson, when he flatters her at the end, that it's all a dress and mascara while Dawson doesn't even give Jen a second look. Completing the ensemble is Pacey doing a speech a la Braveheart with blue make up and Scottish accent. The season then wraps up with "Decisions" where we finally see Michael Potter. Joey and Dawson travel to a jail to see him and we have Joey pour out her anger while Dawson sees a saddened man regretting. Joey is later brought to him by Pacey and the two talk more. Meanwhile, Gramps awakens from his coma only to die. We see a grief stricken Jen go to Dawson and spends the night with him. Of course, Joey thinks they did it and runs off, leaving Dawson go through ten minutes of running about the town looking for her. Jen, seeing that she lost to Joey, meets with Grams in a church. It's a special moment, even the music is turned off. Joey and Dawson reunite in his room, go through some verbiage, which includes Joey getting a trip to Paris, France. The cliffhanger is rather Joey will stay or she will go. Of course, the thing is decided as she and Dawson share a kiss.
    Season One of Dawson's Creek is something. At thirteen episodes, it's the shortest of the six, which explains why it sometimes feels rushed. Since so many things get contradicted in the show, there are things that seem out of place in the First Season, something common in most shows. Also, the story telling in the season features a standard plot formula: each episode starts with Dawson and Joey in Dawson's bedroom, watching a movie, comment on the theme of the movie where Dawson takes the simplistic and idealistic view while Joey has the realistic and cynical view, the credits come, we see the teens go through the plot of the episode, experience a few angst and drama, and then the two return in the bedroom and talk about the previous events. This standard is evident in all thirteen episodes, with a few variants: Jen is in the room in one episode and sometimes we see Joey being out. While each episode has its own conflict the use of the plot formula makes the episodes seem pretty much the same. There are also a few continuity goofs in the season. Besides the lack of mention of Nellie after "Kiss", we see the anguish of Dawson going over the break up with Jen for three episodes and each time he tries again without any gained experience (not even a mention of the last try). There are times I think "Double Date" and "Scare" were in reverse order, or both episodes took place between "Boyfriend" and "Road Trip" in actuality, as Pacey doesn't mention his parents being mad at the skipping school thing until "Beauty Contest." Besides the goofs mentioned, the season doesn't seem to show much change in the time. We don't see any traces of winter, or even autumn, until "Decisions", which acts as a continuity hick-up as it goes back to late summer in Season Two.
     Besides the mistakes, I do find the acting somewhat natural. James Van Der Beek has the teenage insecurities narrowed down and Michelle Williams has the wounded bird appeal on. However, Williams doesn't seem to have the right reactions until later in the season and before then it's just laughing or grinning when dealing with Grams' religion or Dawson's flirtation. Joshua Jackson is great as Pacey, even making him a different character from Charlie. Katie Holmes' Joey has the snarky personality but the constant pointing off to the side while talking to Dawson and her talking down to him is off putting. I also tend to think that Bessie was delighting in making Joey miserable as she doesn't look serious in one scene while Grams comes off as a stiff.
    I have not seen a feminist review mention of it, but there is a contrasting portrayal of women and men in the show at this point. It is a known fact that Kevin Williamson was a homosexual at the time but that is no excuse for reusing a heterosexist depiction of women. Teenage girls in this instance are either embodiments of the Madonna / Whore complex (more on that later), objects of conquest, or shallow bitches to be challenged, ignored, and discarded. Same with adult women, in form of Tamara Jacobs and Gail Leery, who are portrayed as either sex objects for the wet dreams of teenage boys or selfish people who have everything in life but are throwing it all away in a tryst. Only Grams is not sexualized, as she is old. This actually is more respectful than the way her younger counterparts get. If one could list out the stages in Women's Lib in Season One with its female characters, one could list Grams as the First Wave feminist, Tamara and Gail as Second Wave, and Bessie as the Third, in all three cases being career women with little or no help from the men in their lives. With this scale, we see Grams as someone who is satisfied at being able to vote and to have a job, abite one that conforms to gender roles (nurse), and she gave it up to be married to a man. However, the fact the man in her life is indisposed, she has to retake her role as a worker and tend to him. She does this on her own with only her faith for support, and she rears a rebellious teenage granddaughter, which is why I consider Evelyn Ryan a strong woman. Strong enough that the younger women seem weak in comparison. Tamara and Gail are the same type of woman, a product of the Sixties, where she can be a house wife and have a career at once, and yet is not completely satisfied. Gail is seen as a housewife experiencing a mid-life crisis while Tamara is younger but having her own type of unsatisfactory (we now call it quarter-life crisis). They differ, of course, with the fact that Gail has everything but longs for something beyond the perfect suburban picture (a common critique in the show) while Tamara is a career woman who is unmarried and yet has just gotten past age thirty. Thus, both see their clocks ticking as they are in an increasingly ageist society. So, they go into pre-marital, and extra-marital, affairs with guys (you'll notice Gail is concerned about Bob's safety yet not her family's). Of course, they know what they are doing and wind up paying for it -- Tamara with her job and Gail with her perfect life in the Leery family. Then, almost on par with Lifetime, the two women then rely on men to help them out (Tamara is bailed out by Pacey and Gail is forgiven by Mitch). That leaves Bessie as the unrepentant sinner in the Third Wave who believes she can do anything she wants, a right that women are denied by some boogeyman called the Patriarchal society. She never marries Bodie at any point and chides Grams for stating the obvious. Then she dumps the care of Alexander on the new aunt, Joey, while running Potter Ice House. With the way the Potters are, you'd think Bessie would have kept her legs closed, but she's in that "don't judge me" tone and refusing to take responsibility for her actions (previous generations of women were willing to take responsibility of their actions because that is the price for being treated as an equal). Bessie also goes to lengths to get Joey to be on her side in forms of sending her to visit her imprisoned dad and only allowing Joey a break at the Ice House just to be a teenager. She never asks anyone for help, not even Bodie, and doesn't even thank him for assisting her when he does (otherwise he spends many episodes as a no-show). As a result, she is the least sympathetic of the groups.
   The last above seems to sum up the portrayal of mothers: either dead like Joey's mom, irresponsible women like Gail, insensitive and embodied women like Bessie, or sheep to their husbands like the yet to be seen Jen's Mom and Pacey's. Portrayal of fathers is not made any better. Fathers in the show are either naive dreamers who are oblivious to their wife's adultery and then go berserk when they find out like Mitch, men who play favorites with older siblings while making younger ones feel bad about themselves like Pacey's dad, unseen tyrants who can't stand their daughter's budding sexuality like Jen's father, absent fathers like Bodie, or worse, a convicted felon like Mike Potter. We don't see Pacey's dad or Jen's, so Mike, Mitch, and Bodie are the men to stand in as fathers, but I'll save the dysfunctional dad part for the future.
   While Jen is brand new, the friendship of Joey, Dawson, and Pacey, is depicted in Season One as like the id, ego, and superego of Freud's psychotic whole. Pacey embodies the id as he goes by impulse and Dawson is the ego, going in back and forth on debating on acting on impulse and then jumping at it with messy result; leaving Joey in the comfortable super-ego zone. Friendship between them is shown as a theme in Season One. Joey and Dawson are shown to be close friends though we are told that Dawson is best friends with Pacey, and Pacey and Joey can hardly stand each other. But, as Joey points out, the raging hormones in them could change the dynamics.
   The theme of love and lust is carried through in Season One. Dawson treats Joey as one of the guys in the early episodes while fawning over Jen, something that Joey doesn't like. When Jen arrives, Joey feels her territory threatened simply because Dawson goes to her. This suggests that Joey does have feelings for him. Dawson, meanwhile, wants to prove that pure and chaste love exists as he pursues Jen. This while Jen is told by Grams that Dawson only wants one thing from her; and it's not her virginity as it's already lost. During the season, Dawson and Jen do nothing more than hug and kiss. Meanwhile, Joey and Pacey are telling Dawson of the fast girls of New York and how some guy might nail her. When Dawson learns of her past, he almost ignores her, thus reversing what he had previously stood for (that he was into love more than sex). Joey then confides to Jen in "Hurricane" that Dawson is living in a fantasy from all the movie watching. Once they break up, Dawson does the moves to reconcile yet Jen doesn't fall for it until Joey shines in the pageant. Ultimately, Dawson learns he has feelings for Joey and it leads to the kiss at the end.
   The show was filmed in Wilmington, North Carolina, which does detract from the whole New England setting. It does, however, give Dawson's Creek a kind of Southern feel, without the Confederate flag. Each episode has many songs playing in the background, all from the eighties and nineties, yet the title song "I Don't Wanna Wait" is what starts off the show. The song fits the show perfectly as it matches the themes of wanting a solution to the conflict right away. Having gotten the whole series on DVD, I do find the nostalgia for the 1990s in this season, however I do find the sharpness in the footage to be an eye sore.
    Due to the length of this review and commentary, other themes in the show will be covered in the next part where we get into Season Two.

Thoughts on Valentine's Day

How do you do.

   It's February, the shortest month on the calendar and the only one to have an extra day during Leap Years. Half way between Christmas and the First Day of Spring, which means Winter will soon be over. In this sense, winter time depressions may come on but at one time there use to be four holidays in this month: Abraham Lincoln's Birthday (12), George Washington's Birthday (22), Ground Hog Day (2), and St. Valentine's Day (14), plus the religious feast day of Marde Gras and fast day of Ash Wednesday. Today, the number has shrunk  as the birthdays are no longer celebrated and instead we have President's Day. But if one goes to a store at any time, he'll not find something for President's Day but instead see something for St. Valentine's Day.

  When people think of St. Valentine's Day, they'll think of hearts and love: the image of some boy giving a girl candy or flowers, asking to be his valentine, as well as the increase of romantic dinners and endless chick flicks on the television. Actually, there's more to the day. This was originally a feast day for a Christian martyr, which makes the current way of celebrating sad. Here's the background:

  In the Third Century, the Roman Empire was experiencing a crisis as famines and wars with barbarians, plus humiliating defeats at the hands of the Persians. Under the rule of Emperor Claudius II, some improvements were found, though the emperor could do nothing against a plague. In this time, a man named Valentinius was a priest in, though there was a bishop also named Valentinius. Which of the two is St. Valentine is hard to determine because most of the contemporary records were destroyed a century later during Diocletian's persecutions. Thus, there is little information known of the man, regardless. The traditional year of the man's death is February 14, 269, yet we do not know how old he was when he died. We do know that he was executed, possibly for refusing to recant his allegiance to Christ. It is also believed that he was killed on orders of the Emperor, whom he attempted to get to embrace Christianity. Most people are familiar with the legend of him defying the Roman Emperor and marrying people, largely to keep husbands from going to war. Another legend says that he prayed for the healing of the jailer's daughter and signed a note to her that said "Your Valentine."
   It's possible the legends may have historic value as the Roman Empire was experiencing wars in 269. Exactly how much legends can be factual has always deluded historians, especially with the lack of verifiable sources.
  We think there was one St. Valentine yet there may have been more than two, especially as Valentinius, or Valentine, was a common name in Classical Antiquity. One of the suggested men was a priest in Rome while the other was Bishop of Iteramna. Assuming he was not at the bottom of Roman society, Valentinius would be one part of his name. The Ancient Romans practiced a naming method called the tria nomina (literally "three names") which consisted of the "Praenomen", the "Nomen Gentilicium" and the "Cognomen", the last was mostly used by aristocrats. Another saint, Augustine of Hippo, was born as Aurelius Augustinius, for example. Valentinius would have been the nomen in his name. What his praenomen is or his cognomen is a mystery. Based on that alone, it is easy to believe in the multiple persons. There are some people who do believe that the priest in Rome and the Bishop of Iteramna were the same man, which can lead him being named by historians as Valentine of Iterarmna. However, there is another St. Valentine in Africa, though not much is known of the man. Much of this is conjecture.

  The Diocletian Persecutions in the Fourth Century, like I said, destroyed a lot of records on the man. Anything information was preserved by the Church in the best way in can, though he was almost forgotten in centuries that came. It wasn't until twenty years after the Fall of Rome that Pope Gelasius I established a feast day for the recently canonized saint. He is labeled as the patron saint of bee keepers, marriage, and love, the last may explain why it's trivialized on this day.

  One thing of a fact was in the time period that Valentinius was alive, the Romans celebrated a different holiday on February 15. This festival was called Lupercalia, named after the Roman god, where they would make sacrifices consisting of goats and a dog and then have men in februa journey the streets and whip people near by (especially women as it was believed to increase the chances of pregnancy). According to americancatholic.org, the festival also featured a lottery where men would select a woman to be his concubine for a whole year (in other words, guys, for one whole year, you could have a girl in your possession for sinful loving). The festival was already falling out of favor with the Roman public by the time St. Valentine was killed, mostly done by the dregs of society, and Pope Gelasius I had it abolished forever. Rather St. Valentine's Day currently has things similar with Lupercalia or not is debatable, while there is no evidence that the Pope was replacing the festival with the Feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary. While so many old pagan traditions have been assimilated into the Christian festivals, it doesn't mean it happened all the time. For example, you note that in Lupercalia they don't have men give candy to women or cardboard hearts. The only thing the two would actually have in common would be the sex: since when lovers are in love they feel the need to express it more. Kind of sad when you think of it as the only time to have sex when it can be done at anytime of the year.

   So, how was it celebrated? During the Middle Ages, St. Valentine's Day was just another feast day on the calendar. People in Europe woke up, went to Mass, had large meals, made devotional prayers before bed and that was it. Quite frankly, that should be the way the day be celebrated, assuming it were still a religious holiday (if your Church does daily Mass, be sure to drop by, unless it's on a Saturday). Now, a few isolated acts of love would happen now and then, but not enough to make it a feast day of it. It really wasn't until English poet Geoffrey Chaucer came along that it was associated with love. In his poem, Parlement of Foules, Chaucer wrote these lines concerning the feast day: 

For this was on seynt Volantynys day
Whan euery bryd comyth there to chese his make.

  At the time of Chaucer, the calendar was getting behind the seasons and it was becoming obvious that winter holidays were happening in the spring. Thankfully, the new Gregorian Calendar was introduced, though England wouldn't adopt it until 1750. Also, the precession of equinoxes had changed between Chaucer's time and now. This explains the reason why he has birds mating in the month of February instead of May. Following Chaucer, many famous men of letters wrote sonnets on St. Valentine's Day. 

  Now, after this, I am calling it St. Valentine's Day on purpose yet the Catholic Church no longer has it on the calendar of the feasts of saints. Due to the aforementioned lack of details on St. Valentine, the Church removed the feast day in 1969. Thus, it has become a secular holiday where religion can be optional in the celebration. Fortunately, St. Valentine wasn't removed from the canon.
  By removing it from the calendar, quite frankly, it defeats the purpose of the day. Instead of being a devotional day in the month, St. Valentine's Day is now something that trivializes love and makes it to be something bought and sold.

  So how did we go from that to what we got now? Near the end of the 18th Century, a British magazine called The Young Man's Valentine Writer published sentimental poems that men who could not create a poem could use. Most were raunchy and rowdy, but they were meant to be given in secret. More chaste sayings came in during the Victorian Era. This began the start of St. Valentine's Day going corporate as card companies created cards with pre-existing sayings or blank were sold. Lace and ribbons were added also. Since the introduction of chocolate in Europe by the Spanish, sweets has also become associated (which can be frustrating after having them through Christmas and we should now fast until Easter). These sweets didn't just mean chocolate but also cake. As to the heart, that was one of the few things borrowed over from the Middle Ages, along with the Antiquity belief that the human heart is the place of emotions and intellects, as well as the center of the body. Today, we know of the heart as the muscle that pumps blood through our bodies and all the emotions we have are generated in the brain (yet the heart can effect what the brain generates). Flower stores are also capitalizing on the day, as is the jewelry shops, and now we have the e-cards on the internet. I am positive that, like St. Nicholas, who inspired Santa Claus, St. Valentine would certainly be appalled at a day celebrating his death with cards, candy, and flowers. 

   Given the way St. Valentine's Day was originally founded, I do find the way it's celebrated today in the US to be sacrilegious, even if it's not a religious holiday anymore. This day, being of a man who died for his beliefs, and yet most people are using the time just to express love is enough to make him spin in his grave. For one reason, there are plenty of times in the year to give roses, poetic cards, or candy to girls so why wait for that one particular day of the year? One can also argue on why be cautious of the earth on Arbor day when one can do the same all year long, or why honor our mothers only on Mother's Day when it can be done all year long?

   There are others who do believe that celebrating St. Valentine's Day in this fashion is not appealing and that is why Single Awareness Day was invented. People observe it for any reason and I commend them.
   As to love, it is not something to be made a profit on like anything else. Love is actually something that is given and received mutually. Best way of describing love is in Corinthians: "Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices in truth" (Corinthians 13:4-6. In our secularized and consumer based society, there is hardly any love shown in Valentine's Day. I cannot begin to list how many times there are people of both sexes who post pictures of their sweethearts or spouses, calling them the best thing and how they are glad to have them. It's a form of boasting and all that does is promote envy among other couples. Then there is the self-seeking motive in modern definition of love. How many times must we hear of women needing to follow their heart in their quest for love, which is the worst thing to do anyway. And there is also the case of guys who give love just so they can get sex, another self-seeking move, which is even done by married men with their wives. We have also used love to do dishonor to others (teenage girls dating a guy to get at their parents, for example). Through the romance novel, soap opera shows, and the chick-flick movies, we see examples of love delighting in evil as well. The reason is because each follows the same plot formula: the girl has problems finding the right guy, is often a career woman, meets a guy is either looking for a hook up or some jerk who deserves to go to jail, and they meet up, spend some time treating each other like objects, hear their friends encourage them to be together, go out a few dates, have sex, have some drama after, and then realize they are right for each other in the end. While one or two may have something good to offer, on the whole they lack one necessary element: love. Instead, we get what is described in Meet Joe Black as "an aimless infatuation that for the moment you feel like indulging."
   So, if anyone wishes to share the love on this date, have at it. It can be done on any day besides  Valentine's Day: one could exchange chocolate in Easter and Halloween, flowers on Mother's Day and Christmas, and one can have dates during the patriotic holidays like Memorial Day and Independence Days, and there is nothing like a midnight kiss on New Years. If anything, St. Valentine's Day should be a day to remember a man who died for his beliefs.

Night of the Twisters: Review and Commentary

How do you do.

Welcome to Night of the Twisters: Review and Commentary.

   Night of the Twisters is a movie made for television adaptation of Ivy Ruckman's book. Ruckman's book is told from the point of view of the young Daniel Hatch who witnesses a tornado outbreak near Grand Island, Nebraska, in 1980. In that situation, Grand Island was ravaged but up to seven tornadoes in less than three hours, leaving five dead and injuring 200. Three of the tornadoes that hit were F1s, on the old Fajita scale, and caused little damage (as they touched down on the edge of town or outside it), two were F3s, one was an F2, and one was an F4 that cut a path of destruction across the south side of Grand Island, killing four. Three of the twisters were anti-cyclonic, that is they spun the opposite direction of most tornadoes in the hemisphere (normally, tornadoes rotate counter-clockwise in the Northern and clockwise in the southern, while anti-cyclonic funnels rotate the other way in either one), an action that is very rare; about 1 out of 99. After the tornadoes left, Grand Island was a disaster zone that slowly healed. 

   Ruckman's book takes middle and high school readers into the disaster with Dan as he narrates. The character is fictional while the event is real. That's why it's called historical fiction. The book was published four years after the event and is still read today. 

  However, this review is not about the book but the adaptation. It was around the early Nineties that The Family Channel, now called ABC Family, decided to turn the book into a film. The adaptation took many liberties of the story and characters. For example, in the book, Dan Hatch is a child, practically in the 6th grade, whereas in the movie he is now a teenager. They also abandoned the actual tornado event in Grand Island and replaced it with a fictional event in a fictional town of Blainsworth, Nebraska. How did the finished product turn out?

   The film opens somewhere near Dannebrog where a truck with Kansas City Tornado Center on the sides drives along a deserted road. Its driver watches the clouds east of him and then reports to a guy named Stan. While monitoring the storm, he sees a tornado form "about a mile from [his location], heading south". Then, to his horror, he sees it head to a farm where a girl has just returned from school. He goes to warn the family there who are apparently oblivious to the storm. I always wondered how come the kids on the bus or the driver did not see the funnel. Also, shouldn't the absence of the chickens alert the farmers to danger? Or would someone who lives in tornado prone locations be more observant to storms like that? 

   Well, the family is warned and they take cover while the man in the truck narrowly avoids getting sucked in by the tornado. 

   After the titles, we are then sent to Blainsworth where Dan Hatch loses a bike race he was in during the town's fall festival. Angry at himself, he parks on a curb and he chats with Arthur and his grandma and aunt. Then his father appears who keeps pushing him to finish the race, first in a joking manner and then ordering him as Dan argues. As Dan goes across the finish line, he hears his name on the raffle ticket. 

   Oh yes, look for something of the old times where a man is listening to the radio on a boom box. It might have seemed right in the seventies and the eighties but by then most people were using ear phones. Of course, the man, and Jack, Dan's father, don't seem to be listening to the weather report. I don't know if it's common for Nebraskans to be this complacent during severe weather so I won't really comment on it. The lack of the characters commenting on how good the day felt, or how warm, is missing. I know it was filmed in Canada, but that is no excuse. In fact, Jack is more concerned of a loan being turned down by the bank as he's store was floundering. The scene does make for a good plot line: that Jack has ideas of a sports store that would help the town's economy and yet the bank is not going to give him a loan to boost that store up. Would have led to the all too familiar scenario of an unfeeling banker refusing to loan money to a struggling entrepreneur, or in this case, the scenario happening while a tornado outbreak is coming and after the same outbreak is when the banker has a change of heart, if he survived, that is.

   Dan Hatch is played by Devon Sawa in this movie and Jack is played by John Schneider, known for being Bo Duke in The Dukes of Hazard. The fact that their characters have the same first letter in the first name is not lost this viewer. So, while Dan goes off with his new bike and his best friend, Arthur, we see the storms get closer while the town doesn't give a thought to it. During the scenes leading up to the night, we see the storm's progress with notices saying how many miles northwest of Blainsworth and what time.

   Dan and Arthur meet up with Stacy and Ronnie Vae at a park, have a little talk, and then ride off, laughing at the girls for tripping the trap they set up. Stacy's reaction to it is priceless, and the fact that Dan has a crush on her shows in two instances. First, when Stacy announces their parents are going on (I know, bad timing) Dan asks who was to look after them before Stacy said she was. Later, he tries to warn the girls of the trap before Arthur cuts him off. He also offers a ride home on his bike, which she turns down because she prefers Harleys. Dan was told by Jack to walk Grandma Belle's dog after the race but he forgets. When Dan goes over, the dog has to go to the vet anyway and Jack gets reminded that he use to be a teenager who would skirt responsibilities. 

   Dan's mom, Laura, works at a diner called Salty Dawg, which is where she is after dinner. In comparison to the book, Mrs. Hatch is more caring and less stressed out. So now, Dan's problems with his dad make up the conflict besides the storms. Looking at it carefully, I can see that Dan is a little self-absorbed, even if he is young and attempting to find his own path. I do have a problem with the way his mouth is hanging open in many key scenes. He and Jack rarely exchange a kind word in the early scenes and it stems with their passions. Jack was once a football player in high school, and like any he has dreams of his son being an athlete. However, Dan is more of an artist than an athlete. The thing of the jock father and not so athletic son is a common trope for movies and tv shows in the decade, which has made it a gag and a cliche. Then there's Ryan, who is just a baby. The book brings up Dan's nostalgia for the days before he came, including the socializing dinner scenes when Arthur comes to call. This is not in the film, however. There's one additional character who is not in the original Ruckman book, Grandma Belle is a composite of many smaller characters with a bad case of rheumatism. When Jack visits her, she feels pains that she says have been felt for "a long time." Later she is shown sleeping while the phone rings, implying her to be out or dead (which suggests someone should have been in her house that night).

   So, on this night, Laura goes to work at the diner and the weather man from the prologue comes in just as a weather report arrives. One nervous patron suggests hitting the road to avoid tornadoes though the weather man suggests otherwise. "Most people killed by tornadoes are caught driving their cars," he says. He picks up some coffee and continues on. One thing to point out is how the patrons react to his statement. The man who wanted to leave just frowns at him while a female behind just rolls her eyes and walks away. We do not know what happened to the said character, however. Laura calls up Jack who also reports on the bulletins. One of these bulletins happens while Dan and Arthur get some pie and Jack is watching something on television. The latest says "a tornado has been reported fourteen miles northwest of Blainsworth and the National Weather Service has issued a Tornado Warning for St. Paul, Dannebrog, and Rural Howard County." Where I live, in recent years, that is, if any county comes under a Tornado Warning in the market viewing area of any station, all regular programming is suspended while the weatherman gets on the air to tell us what storm prompted the warning, where it's heading, and rather or not there's a tornado in it. After experiencing Texas, I can conclude that not all states do the same, so I cannot fault the movie on this when the weatherman just tells them a county is under the warning and then shuts off. This was a different time also which leads to examples of a few older preparations for severe weather.

   So, Dan and Arthur go about to unplug the appliances because they can blow up when lightning hits the house. I cannot confirm this but I know that certain things in the house shouldn't be on during a lightning storm (which is also why I don't take showers during it either). Jack leaves to check on Grandma Belle, Laura calls the house after he leaves, and Dan hears the phone go dead. Through out this evening, Dan handles things like a boy, mostly being indifferent to it. When Jack tells him to unplug things, he reacts with the teenage attitude "I know, I know, I know." He even has to be reminded to not forget Ryan. Yet, when the phone goes dead, and with all the grown ups gone, he appears scared and when he attempts to remain calm while telling Arthur not to leave, he only makes Arthur feel nervous, a normal reaction to severe weather. Arthur recites facts about tornadoes, claiming the storm will get farther away, which sounds reassuring until the siren goes off. I know of a meteorologist who is frustrated at the "siren mentality" locals have; being that people rely on them to know when to do something in this time of smart apps, continuous coverage, and Doppler radar. Of course, this film takes place in 1996 and it's in a small town in the Plains, but I cannot help but feel that Dan and Arthur's reaction to the siren's howl is an example of "siren mentality." If you don't believe me than re-watch the scene on YouTube and take note how they only jump up when it starts to blare and then stand down when it stops. Dan and Arthur should know that just because the siren is not blaring that doesn't mean it's all clear. The dead calm Dan hears means danger because that's usually when there's a tornado close. But Dan and Arthur not only stand down but they put Baby Ryan back in his crib. There's another thing in the scene that dates the movie. When the siren starts to blare, Arthur and Dan open up the windows in the house, something that was once thought to keep the house from exploding. That theory has long been exploded because it actually aggravates, rather than prevents, the destruction of the house by explosion (there's an interesting moment where when they do so, a movie they were previously watching has a man turn his back to the camera and take care of something, as though to open up his window).

  Another thing that Hollywood does is make a tornado hitting things become something like earthquakes. This film is no exception because things begin to shake as the tornado gets close. On the second time the tornado siren sounds, Dan runs up stairs for Ryan. Then the siren shuts off and he just says "can't you make up your mind?" This really makes one want to hit Dan on the head and say "grab the baby, you stupid idiot!" When Arthur tries to get the weather channel (since he didn't have it on it earlier) and only gets a screen that says "Tornado Warning" (the book has "CD" for "Civil Defense Emergency") to which Arthur doesn't know what it means. Today, the screen would have said "Tornado Emergency" but this was before the Moore Tornado of 1999. Arthur panics and tries to leave but Dan keeps him inside just as the water is sucked out of a toilet and goes up a stink pipe (not its purpose). A strange, unearthly howl sounds as the power goes out. Only then do Arthur and Dan collect Ryan and get under the basement, though as close as the funnel is in the film, it'd be too late. They get in the bathroom of the basement, instead of under the stairs or a heavy table, and cover themselves with the blanket while the house is torn up above them. If it weren't so tense and dramatic, one could just see how B-rated the effects of the house's destruction looks. Even the tornado looks fake.

   After the house is destroyed, Dan and Arthur pull themselves and Ryan out of the rubble and go look for survivors. One thing about Dan at this point is that he shows signs of maturing. He is a boy who is thrust into becoming a man as a result of the storm. Thus we have the theme of boy becoming a man. When he and Arthur encounter Stacy and Ronnie Vae, he volunteers to drive the dead man's car. When he comes to the road block, he talks with the head of the road block, who knows him enough to point out that he shouldn't be driving anyway. Dan takes a moment to get everyone else out of the car, though Stacey remains, before plowing through the road block. Then he finds his grandma's house has been hit and Grandma Belle is injured. They also find Jack trapped under his truck and injured. Dan is able to get the people at the road block to help him help his father out. When Jack comes out, he simply says to Dan "thank you, son." We have heard Jack say "thank you" but not in the way that sounds good in one's ears. For the most part, he and Dan are never exchanging a kind word. So, this moment is the first time such an exchange happens; Dan shows his is useful while Jack thanks him. 

    However, when they are at the police station, Jack decides to go look for Laura on his own, leading to another argument with Dan. It is from this that Dan reveals to Stacy, and the audience, that Jack is not his real father. His real father, Daniel, died when he was six from an airplane accident. Some time after, Laura married Jack and because they were so different, there is division between the two. Dan mentions some good points of Jack: "he works hard, he's good to my mom, he can be funny at times." I may not be a stepfather myself, or even a father at all, yet, but I'd like to think that if one had those three qualifications he'd be good for the children as well as their mother. We all know that with single moms, widows, widowers, divorced dads, any who have children old enough to speak their minds, it is not enough to have the support of children's guardian, in the way that people who don't have children would make it easy for us. With those who have children, there is now more people to get approval off which means there is more work involved in the marriage. Given something like this, it makes one believe that Jack and Dan should have a better relationship. It is also why I find the drama of the family more interesting than the tornadoes in this film. 

    Meanwhile, Laura and Aunt Jenny (who picks her up, somehow, yet parks her car at quite a distance from the diner despite the lack of other cars, in the pouring rain, and suggest taking cover inside) dodge a twister, where Laura gets hit in the face by a flying trash can lid, and head to a shelter where we see the horrors of the wounded in tornadoes. We don't see someone die but are told that three people are confirmed dead. We are also informed that the weather man from the prologue is named Bob Irisen and he is the man asked to give a report on the weather in one scene. Much of the science of tornadoes is skewed or ignored in the movie. Bob mentions the system going southeast instead of northeast (much of the last is because they are pulled by low level jets in the atmosphere prompted by a low pressure system and it combines the cold and dry air from the north with warm and moist air that is rising from the tropics). Just how a severe storm can travel south instead of north is never explained, nor are we given any details of the warm and cold fronts. A little bit of information is necessary for anyone who doesn't understand it or doesn't live in the US. Tornado spawning thunderstorms are usually created when vigorous troughs push out of the Rockies and bring out a low pressure system or two into the plains. It is pushed eastward by a 150 miles an hour jet stream. The low pressure system pulls in cold, dry air from up north and warm, moist tropical air from the Gulf of Mexico. This kind of set up creates imbalance in the atmosphere as increase in wind speeds in the higher levels of the sky mixed with rising in temperatures and humidity. This instability leads to numerous thunderstorms, normally. However, with this kind of set up with troughs, jet streams, differing weather fronts meeting, and low pressure systems bringing it together can intensify thunderstorms until they become severe, leading to frequent lightning, large hail, gusty winds, intense flooding, as well as tornadoes. Most of the intense tornadoes form in storms that form ahead of the cold front in the warm sector, which can also lead to violent and long track tornadoes that grow very large. The system then follows with a squall line of thunderstorms with spin up tornadoes, gusty winds, lightning, torrential rain, and hail, all of which are just as lethal as the storms that preceded them. Night of the Twisters ignores these facts in order to put up a ridiculous scenario of a rogue storm. "This storm is a monster," Bob confesses. "It's not behaving in predictable way."

    Bob is also given a talk with Jenny, whose car broke down. Jenny, who calls Dan "Tiger", has had series of boyfriends during her whole life yet never met the one. She tells Laura before the tornado that she would give anything to have what she has. She never married Jack, possibly because Laura got him first or she is not into jocks. Her bad luck is shown in the fact that her ex-boyfriend has been cheating on her and lied about it. After labeling all men in Blainsworth as jerks, she considers it a miracle to find a nice guy. Yet when she is with Bob, they have a genuine chat that suggests romance. This romance is not developed much. Not as much as Dan and Stacy's, which seems like normal teenage romance. It's also nice to see a teenage romance that didn't focus on sex. 

   The film goes into the night with Dan and Ryan going with Jack, who didn't like the idea, as they go looking for Laura. They learn that Laura, Jenny, and Bob were heading to home to find them. They all meet at the ruins and its a nice reunion. But, of course, the film makers decided to add a more exciting climax to the film by having three tornadoes appear suddenly beside the humans and then have a chase, though it's against Bob's better judgement. The chase scene is just something to give John Schneider fans something to be appreciated because there is no way those vehicles could out run twisters, especially on rubble choked roads. We are also treated to one reason how it's dangerous when a third car follows and is sucked in by the funnel. Then, just to add more nail biting tension, Jack gets knocked out by a tree branch hitting the windshield, leaving Dan to guide the car through town. That car is very close to the twister yet is never tossed around. Jack finally wakes up as they reach the underpass of a highway, which is not a safe place to be. The tunnel effect doesn't suck anything out but it breaks the rear windows of the car and almost sucks Dan out. Jack and Laura hold on to him but it's obvious that they are no match for the wind. 

   Like in The War of the Worlds, it takes an act of God to save the main characters. At the last minute, the tornado dissipates and the storm subsides. The Hatch family has a group hug, emerges from the car, and Jack tells Dan how proud he is of him and Dan smiles and thanks Jack. They then walk out into the morning glow with Jack's voice over narrating, claiming the town "had been ravaged by anywhere from ten to fifteen tornadoes, leaving five dead, dozen injured, and twelve hundred homeless." While the book is willing to give a chapter to the recovery, we are not shown it in the movie, possibly because they had to sacrifice it for the chase scene. In real life, there would be days after with people removing debris, rebuilding buildings, finding lost items, recovery bodies, and the National Guard sent to locations while charity drives were set up in locations. None of those sort of things are shown in Night of the Twisters. Instead, we have Dan narrate while a montage of photographs tells us where everyone is now. We find that Jack became a coach of a high school football team, took up new hobbies, and his store recovered, Arthur was elected class president, Dan and Stacy became a couple and had their prom date together, Bob and Jenny married and are expecting twins, and Grandma Belle died the following spring. Above all, Blainsworth, Nebraska recovered and is a thriving town now. 

   Night of the Twisters has the strongest points in the character scenes involving the family but some of them are just not good characters. At least Dan improves over the course of the film, as does Jack. Everyone else is one dimensional and hardly change, Jenny's romance with Bob is rushed, and the science of tornadoes is never followed. The special effects are dated, of course, though the films that came out the same year are not any better. At times, it looks as though there is no tornado on the set. The chase scene is pointless and stupid. There is also that annoying "pop pop tack pa pop pop" in the sound track. I believe the film makers try to make it be like in Jaws, where it would sound and a tornado appears minutes later. It doesn't really work, especially since we have sound effects for that. Above all, the film is better when there are no tornadoes involved, which is ironic. The film is secular, mostly, with almost no references to God, except for exclaiming in horror, (though Dan is seen praying when he, Arthur, and Ryan are in the basement shower during the main twister) yet a few Christian themes show up. Dan answers Cain's question that he is his brother's keeper during the tornado and always makes sure there is someone to look after him at every turn. But the greatest is with Jack and Dan in their conflict that leads to examples of Colossians 3:21 and Ephesians 6:4. In a way, the film's climax is an example of Psalms 103:13, as Jack holds tightly to Dan as the tornado tries to suck him out.

  That wraps up with Night of the Twisters. The place to find it is on the internet, especially on YouTube. I once had a copy of it on video, but gave it away after the Super Outbreak of 2011. Unfortunately, there is not a copy of it on DVD in any video stores since it was discontinued a few years ago. In fact, it's out of print. So, as long as it's online, this is the only way to view it. One thing to add, for those of you, come spring, when your region sees the peak tornado location, do not use this movie as an example to follow whenever you experience severe weather. Just use common sense and go over your safety plan and pay close attention to the reports instead. They will likely reward you with your life.

Food For Thought: St. Nicholas vs Santa Claus

How do you do.

  It's that time of year when we prepare for Christmas. As a Catholic, my celebration of Christmas is preceded by Advent, which is where we have the wreath with candles lit each Sunday. Even though Advent is seen as a fasting period, something like Lent, there is still sights and sounds of Christmas involved in the season. One can still do Advent and hang up the decorations, listen to music on the radio, and buy presents for friends and loved ones. Just remember that Christmas begins at midnight of December 25, not December 1. So, in the meantime, an average Catholic will see the celebrations of Christmas in commercialized format, which includes the appearance of Santa. 

  According to background information, Santa Claus is suppose to be based on St. Nicholas, an actual saint who lived long ago. Yet, there are plenty of things that separate the two. I am sure you may have heard of this before but I am going to present the real Saint Nick vs the "big fat man in a long white beard" who is "comin' to town" in a flying sleigh towed by reindeer. Here goes:

  Santa Claus lives in the North Pole. Saint Nicholas, was actually from the Mediterranean. Despite the Germanic looks we see in his face, the actual Saint Nick was Greek, born in what is now Turkey (Turkey did not exist then so he wasn't Turkish. If anything, he would have been Asian, since Asia Minor was originally called Asia) and he was bishop of Myra, today is called Demre. In his lifetime, Nicholas of Myra wasn't called a saint, that happened after his death (sorry, kids). Saint Nicholas was known to the Greeks as "Lord of the Seas" so it is no surprise that he is patron saint of the Greek Navy. Santa Claus, on the other hand, is Northern European in appearance. He uses the Spanish word for Saint (in the feminine form) and the common variant of Nicholas in Eastern Europe, Claus. Of course, the name came not from Spain or Poland, or even Germany, but from Holland where he was named Sinterklaas. Other variants include Father Christmas in England and Pere Noel in France. They are depicted as bishops in robes with mitres and holding staffs, basically in connection to St. Nicholas. However, there doesn't seem to be an equivalent of Santa in the Middle Ages. That is because most people believed the gift giver was Saint Nicholas in spirit, though some places replace him with Christkind (Germany and Austria). In some parts of Europe, they don't have dropping in on Christmas or Christmas Eve. Instead, he visits on St. Nicholas Day, which is December 6.

  We sometimes call Santa Claus, Kris Kringle. This naming is Germanic in origin, on par with Christopher which includes Christ as a key word. So far, Saint Nicholas wasn't given such names, though he was titled Nikolaos ho Thaumaturgos, or Nicholas the Wonderworker. 

  Thanks in part by the famous poem, we have an image of Santa as we see him: "He had a round face and a little round belly / that shook when he laughed like a bowl full of jelly" ("The Night Before Christmas", Moore). Santa is portrayed as fat, with a white beard, and with rosy cheeks and a cherry nose, in a red winter suit and black boots, plus a red cap on head.  The image presented was used by Victorian era capitalism and, thanks to Coca-Cola, is now the icon of Santa. This is different from the old world Santa who is average built and wearing the robes of a bishop with a mitre on top, and his variants are seen in green or white. We only know what St. Nicholas would have looked like through icons. He is thinner than Santa and is many shades darker in skin (either olive or brown skinned). The red robes are not worn, however, nor the suit and boots (former wasn't meant for the warmer climate and the boots weren't invented yet). St. Nicholas is depicted with a white beard, occasionally, but not in the same fashion as Santa. The icons are not historically accurate either, since he is wearing robes from the time period of the painters, yet the painting of him sparing the innocents is close. Recently, Dr. Caroline Wilkinson of the University of Manchester did a facial reconstruction of St. Nicholas and it came out this way. It is even said the man was no taller than five feet in height. 

   St. Nicholas did give gifts. He was described as a pious man who gave gifts to those badly in need in the time (given it was around the time of the Crisis of the Third Century). Most of the knowledge of this is known in legends, unfortunately. One of these was that during a famine, a butcher murdered his children and the sainted bishop saw this and prayed for their resurrection. So far, this legend doesn't appear to have been known prior to the 11th Century. Another is that a man had three daughters but no dowry for them. This meant they could not marry and would have to become prostitutes to live. Either because the man was too proud to accept charity (and may have confessed that to his confessor a few times) or the Saint was too modest to do this in daylight (it would have been seen as a proposal of marriage at the time -- something that would have gotten him deposed as bishop), the result was the unexpected gift of a dowry placed in three purses, each given to the daughter, that were put in the house during the night. This last is a basis for Santa's visits. Another was that when a famine hit in 311, St. Nicholas got a group of sailors to gather wheat from ships and feed the hungry while also keeping quota the emperor had settled. This action witnessed a miracle where not a single ounce of wheat was subtracted yet there was enough given to feed the people for two years. They could even use the wheat to plant more grain. Historians, such as Dr. Adam English, consider the last two to have historic basis while the butcher legend to be folklore. One of the variants of the poor man and his daughters legend has the Saint place the dowry into stockings, which explains how goodies get put in them by Santa Claus. One thing that is not legend is that he answered the call for the Council of Nicaea in 325, where he took part in shaping the Christian faith. A staunch anti-Arian, Saint Nicholas even signed the Nicene Creed. 

   Santa Claus maintains the gift giving, however it is now focused on treats and toys. Some critics tend to consider Santa's mission as something of the reward and punishment system which many consider barbaric (for reasons rarely explained). If you wonder why the song warns children to "be good for goodness sake" and that Santa's "gonna find out who's naughty or nice", that is because the old school Santa Claus variants did not simply give presents. Santa's visits stem from Germanic beliefs of a visitations of a holy man who drives away a demon on each Yule who would otherwise terrorize children. Through the Christianization of the region, this holy man became identified as St. Nicholas while the demons was named Krampus, and sometimes people had the Devil himself in that place. The Saint would capture the demon, put him in shackles, and force him to pay for his evil deeds by leaving gifts behind. Since you don't expect demons to do acts of good, most legends have him chose to return to Hell. Eventually, they had him reform and became a recruiter of sprites to serve the saint in his journeys. When the Dutch renamed him Sinterklaas, they replaced Krampus with a black servant they named Black Peter. Black Peter, or Zwarte Piet, is said to beat naughty children when they visit while nice children got present from the Saint in their shoes. Much of this has origins not in St. Nicholas but in Norse mythology, where the god Odin would visit each year and travel down chimneys. The tradition can be found in Santa's visits where the stockings are used for the treats and toys while the reindeer have replaced the horse Odin rides on. Today's Santa doesn't have a demon shackled now, nor does he leave rods to bad children (I could be wrong, but the Industrial Revolution seems to have introduced the lump of coal into the mix). Elves now assist Santa, who was even depicted as an elf, in making toys while the sleigh is still pulled by deer, yet is given the ability to fly. Santa has even been made more human with the introduction of Mrs. Claus.

   I have heard of some people compare Santa Claus to God, even calling God as another "Santa Claus". While there is no doubt that the real St. Nicholas was mortal and lacked the ability to do certain tricks that Santa does, Santa Claus is, during Christmas Season, only, considered to be omnipresent and immortal. The only explanation of this is "magic". It doesn't hurt to notice the white bearded man image that is often used to portray God as well. It is also noteworthy how we see Santa everywhere in Christmas more so than the real star of Christmas: Jesus Christ. Due to the secularization of our culture over the past one and a half centuries, the very meaning of Christmas is subverted by commercialism and substitution; having a jolly fat man in a red suit who perpetuates the reward and punishment system, to use the critics' term, in place of the birth of the one who gave the greatest gift of all: to free us of sin, break the power of death, and renew us in the presence of God. That sort of gift is something that Santa can never bring out of his big bag and stuff into your stocking. St. Nicholas understood that for he reportedly told the man who daughters need dowries to not thank him but Him whom he served. Santa doesn't seem to be saying the same thing, which can explain why the harsh critics call Santa Claus as God for children.

   Martin Luther once wanted St. Nicholas Day halted, and he got it done in parts of Germany, because he deemed the veneration of saints to be a distraction from God. To many Christians, the person of Santa Claus embodies what he was talking about. Our views of Christmas has gone to focusing on the secular and commercial aspects of the holiday instead of the religious, thus one will find one image or decoration of Jesus for every three or four Santas (of course, there is an irony lately that many view Santa as a religious entity and are now seeking to ban him from public). I do not doubt that Saint Nicholas would have disliked the scene, even willing to make sermons of idolatry of it if he were in a church. Saint Nicholas may have known that people knew his actions but he was said to be modest and would not want to be a merchandise item.

   In the end, while many believe Santa Claus to be a real person, even if he is taking the spotlight away from Jesus on each Christmas, there are certain Christian aspects on the man. This is a man who risks his life to travel the globe in a flying sleigh with almost no means of protection, visiting every house to drop off presents, and tasting milk and cookies, all in less than twenty-four hours. While doing this action, he gives away gifts without any asking for anything in return. But even if you don't believe in Santa being a real person, think of him as an entity, who comes in form of action.
   Christmas is not something bought or sold; it was actually meant to be shared and it is shared when we give something special to people. To see the Christmas spirit comes when a complete stranger is given a warm welcome or a heart broken person is given love, a struggling family that is given food, clothes, and shelter. These things are common place in Christianity. As Christians, we are tasked with giving food to the hungry, water to the thirsty, clothes to the naked, and much more, as evidenced in Matthew 25: 35-40. To those who mention of doing good for personal gain, ie to go to Heaven or escape Hell, there is no part in the Bible that commands Christians to do so (2 Corinthians 11:13-15). Santa comes in to give children an example to follow. People will not know how to give when born and will instead need to be taught it. If they didn't have a Santa Claus, then they may not have much to grow on in giving to others. Some will claim that keeping up the use of Santa Claus will eventually scar children for when they find out they are being duped, almost using the wording of Maureen O'Hara's character in The Miracle on 34th Street. Yes, a little white lie is still a lie. Yet, if one doesn't see the joy that comes with giving and learning how simply giving away without thinking of a reward in return will do, then the person might not be able to get the true meaning of Christmas. In the end, it's not about rather or not Santa Claus exists; it's really about how God was willing to give His only begotten son to redeem the world and thus we can imitate this action, in a different fashion, even if one does not believe, and feel the warmth of love in the cold winter's chill. If there is one thing Saint Nicholas and Santa Claus would have agreed on, it would be this.

Thoughts On Thanksgiving

How do you do.

  I will admit that three of my favorite holidays happen in the autumn season: Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. Thanksgiving is the middle of the three is one of the few holidays, other than Independence Day, which Americans can safely call "our holiday."

  The reason to why we call it is summed up by Linus of Peanuts: "Ours was the first country in the world to make a national holiday to give thanks" (A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving). In the history of Christianity, giving thanks is traditional, largely done during church. The idea of a holiday selected just to give thanks is completely novel.

  A few things are needed to understand with Thanksgiving. Despite the common name we have on the story of it, the first Thanksgiving wasn't really done by the Pilgrims in Plymouth. There were, in fact, acts of thanksgiving done on this continent prior to 1621. The very first was done by Spanish explorers in another part of the continent. In 1610, the settlers in Jamestown Colony, now in Virginia, had their own Thanksgiving celebration. There was also one done by English settlers at Berkeley Hundred a few years later and it celebrated it until it was destroyed by the 1622 massacre and abandoned. The one done in Plymouth in 1621 is most famous and because the Pilgrims' plight matches with the American myth of leaving the Old World for freedom in the New, people consider this to be the first. It was Alexander Young who labeled it thus in 1841.

  A second thing to bring up: I am using "Pilgrims" on purpose but the Pilgrims were in fact Puritans, though not the same sort who settled in what is now Boston. Puritans existed longer, a remnant of the Protestant Reformation in the 16th Century England. In the website, ushistoryscene.com, the basic information of the Puritans is this:

 Puritans strove to be honest and godly in every aspect of their lives, from conducting their business in the city to running their country estates. They thrived on constant community with other Puritans, with two sermons on Sunday and multiple weekday meetings where they could parse sermons, pray, debate and discuss passages from the Bible. Puritans believed in predestination, which meant that eons before the world was created, God decided the fate of every person who would ever live on Earth, whether they would be saved by his grace or damned by their sin. Nothing could be done to change this judgment.

  They are considered a product of the reign of Queen Mary, who earned the nickname "Blood Mary" for executing anyone who suspected of being Protestant or was a Protestant. The nightmares of her reign, which consisted of people being burned at stake, is responsible for the Anti-Catholic nature of the Puritans and when Queen Mary died, they rejoiced. They flocked to London and welcomed the Protestant Queen Elizabeth. However, they felt she wasn't doing enough in removing the Papal influences in the renamed Anglican Church. Thus they branched off and became the Puritans who waged a holy war on the Church which climaxed with the English Civil War and the appearance of the Commonwealth. There were disagreements within the Puritans, some who would like to purify the Church from the inside out. Others, however, decided that the Church cannot be purified and it was best to start over. That was how the Puritans we now call Pilgrims came to be.
   What they were doing was considered treason in England. During the times from when King Henry divorced Catherine of Aragon England witnessed religious persecution and oppression. Someone who dared to celebrate a certain way that the King or Queen did not approve was executed in horrible fashions. In this kind of atmosphere, religion had in what skeptics consider a tool for the powers that be and anyone who didn't fit in was destroyed. If one wasn't killed, he disappeared in the dungeons, walked the streets of London with disfigured faces, or was not allowed to walk among polite society.
   Given this kind of world, it is no wonder the Pilgrims wanted to leave England. The Pilgrims fled to Holland and then to America. They were originally going to Jamestown which had been founded twenty years prior but were diverted to Massachusetts as it was closer after the Mayflower took some beating from sea storms.

   One other thing to add on the Pilgrims, or Puritans, or whatever, is that not all of those people in black coats with tall hats who spoke like characters out of Shakespeare while seeing all things as sorcery that we see in the paints and school plays were Pilgrims. Some of the men on the Mayflower were men of fortune like Captain Myles Standish. Others included indentured servants, people who are given a free passage across the Atlantic in return for a set number of years of servitude. There were also crewmen of the ship itself, led by Captain Christopher Jones.

  We celebrate Thanksgiving on the fourth Thursday of November but history does not record the exact date that the Pilgrims did theirs. It apparently is sometime between September 21 and November 11, which coincides with the abandoned celebration of Michaelmas back in England (they were English, after all, not Americans). Since Michaelmas had not been celebrated in England since King Henry VIII severed ties from Rome, it is doubtful the Pilgrims put it there because of it. A more plausible reason to the time was due to the period of the harvest happening between those dates. Two eyewitnesses of the event recorded their words into their diaries, Governor William Bradford and Edward Winslow, both of whom are cited as primary sources in any research on the matter. You can look up "Of Plymouth Plantation" by Bradford and "Mourt's Relation" by Winslow for their testimonies. In the years prior to American independence, each individual colony had its own date of Thanksgiving. Then, in 1777, the Second Continental Congress declared two days of the year to be appointed as the Thanksgiving days, one of which was in honor of the victory at Saratoga. After the War of American Independence, Thanksgiving was mostly proclaimed by presidents, such as Washington, Adams, and Madison. These were not done in the fall but tend to happen after something grand, like with Madison's case being the end of the War of 1812. However, New Hampshire and Massachusetts set aside November 14 and November 28, respectively, as Thanksgiving day a year later. Both dates happened on a Thursday which started the tradition of it being on a Thursday. It was, however, in the middle of the Civil War that Thanksgiving was declared to be on the final Thursday, after a proclamation of President Lincoln. Apart from the time in 1939-41 when President Roosevelt moved it around to boost sales, it has been that way ever since.


  Another thing to know is it wasn't the first of a series of land grabs as commonly believed. In fact, when looking into the story of "First Thanksgiving", it actually comes out peaceful. The Pilgrims wanted to be free of religious persecution and found a spot to reside in their exile. They did get the permission to reside in the spot they set up in a land that was also claimed by England. However, the common depiction of it as a family affair is romanticized. Most of those attending were men. According to Robert Krulwich, what was going on was the celebration of the alliance between the Pilgrims and Chief Massasoit. The women who partook in this were doing the cooking (and given the number of men involved that was alot of mouths to feed). It still appears as the one time in a history of genocide and feuding that two groups of people come together and had a peaceful celebration.

  One thing people can find in the news of Thanksgiving is how it effects Native Americans, basically that it is a celebration of genocide. In reality, the only American Indian tribe involved with Thanksgiving was the Wampanoag. Everyone else had nothing to do with the event itself. One thing I learned with the celebration was that there was a tradition done by the Wampanoag that people living with them were to tribute the harvest to the main village. Since the Pilgrims were living along side them and England was far away, they had to give tribute to them. One could say the Pilgrims heeded the command: "Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesars, and unto God the things that are God's."

  So all this became connected in our culture as a massive feast, with the common expected items as turkey, mashed potatoes, pumpkin pies, and cranberry sauce. The Thanksgiving done in Plymouth didn't have any of those things: pies were hard to cook with a lack of ovens and there were records of other sorts of birds hunted and used for meats. Some places in the US will have variants. My home state has people who replace the turkey with ham, pumpkin pies for lemon, and cranberry sauce for turnip greens. So don't be like Peppermint Patty at every Thanksgiving dinner. While women still cook up the dinner, these days, the entire family will pitch in, be it the daughter who lathers the bird, the son who sets up the table, or the husband who handles the oven. The Thanksgiving in Massachusetts had men do activities with guns whereas today men are satisfied with watching football. In fact, since the early 20th Century, the Thanksgiving Parade has been added to the tradition. Yet Thanksgiving can be a different day from what is commonly expected.

  But the best thing I think about with Thanksgiving is the fascinating story of it. Once they got to America, the Pilgrims had only God to answer to and they prayed for Him to provide them during the cold winter. Many of those Pilgrims died from diseases and the cold while they stayed. Then God answered their prayers through Squanto. Squanto was a man whose people died when he was taken away. He returned to his home as an orphan and was allowed to live among Massasoit and his people. Squanto helped the Pilgrims in farming and hunting (using techniques like trapping animals with booby traps and using fish as fertilizer) and this led to a bountiful harvest. From that harvest, a community was born and, for a brief time, there was peace between two different peoples.

  Thanksgiving is more than just food, football, parades, and dog shows, and a history of bad deeds. It is about people of different backgrounds coming together at the table and break bread together. It is a fitting tribute seeing people come together and be peaceful to one another, be they European American, African American, Asian American, Hispanic, Jewish, Sikh, Hindu, Muslim, Wiccan, secularist, feminist, young, old, male, female, everyone of different skin color, different faith, different creed, different political stance, different preference, different sex, different age, all sharing in the banquet. As a Catholic, I find it comparable in minor terms to the Eucharist, where all those who followed Christ are invited to partake in the Last Supper. If we can be like the Pilgrims and the Wampanoags, and learn to put aside our differences and help each other in the worst of times and gather to feast in the best of times, then perhaps, that would be the greatest Thanksgiving feast of all, one where there is peace on earth and good will to men.

Food For Thought: Non-Christmas Music

   How do you do.

   By this time, you may be turning on the radio and hearing Christmas music playing on the radio. It does seem early but it could be worse. But what this blog entry is about is the songs that I've seen Feminist critics list as creepiest and the ones that people like to think of during the holiday season as Christmas music. Of course, these critics have failed to address the bigger issue on the fact that some of the songs they attack cannot be considered Christmas songs. Wikipedia would list these as "Adopted Christmas music", though a more accurate name for them would be "Winter songs" or "Holiday songs" (the terms most people use for Christmas music in general for the sake of political correctness). There are also other songs that are listed as Christmas music despite the fact they are of different topics.

  Before we explore, there are three things required of a song to be considered "Christmas music." 

1. Song has center on the Birth of Christ (Nativity), or at least make reference to it.
2. Have the original intent for Christmas and not for anything else (Yule, Advent, etc).
3. Song needs at least one mention of the word "Christmas" and have a character associated with Christmas.

  Any song may lack a requirement and still be called Christmas music but to lack two or more, especially both the first two requirements, will render it as simply a "Winter Song." For this post, I have listed about 25 songs that you may have heard on the radio, seen a feminist critique of, or are just plain familiar with and show how they are not Christmas music as they would fail to meet all three requirements, or even just two.

1. Jingle Bells.

  I start with the most popular of the songs done in Christmas, the American song "Jingle Bells." The song was written by Massachusetts song writer, James Lord Pierpont, who is said to have become a church organist in a church in Savannah, Georgia at the time he wrote the song (this sounds like the genesis of the song "Dixie" which also has a Northern born author). Most people are familiar with the chorus of the song, plus the first verse. In neither case do we hear of the word Christmas. In fact, Pierpont did not really intend it to be a Christmas song. According to common belief, his song was mostly for Thanksgiving (which technically makes this an Autumn song instead of Winter). The reason why it is done for Christmas is the wintery image it presents: the snow. 

   If you take the lyrics aside and read them, you see that not a single instance does anything of Christmas show up. No mention of the Nativity, no word of Christmas, and don't bother looking for it in your church hymn books because it ain't there. From the looks of it, the song is more about a guy who takes a ride his one horse open sleigh in the first verse, took his sweetheart for a ride in the second verse which ended in badly, then got mocked by a rival, and tells men to try his luck with a faster horse (would make a plot for a Christmas movie, maybe). 

   At the time of the song's composition, it was common for Northerners to dust off the sleigh and ride in them during the snowy days of winter -- between December and March when it snows the most (Indeed, it is foreign to me as it rarely snows in the same time frame where I come from, and when it does it is never deep enough for sleigh rides). In a time before cars were around, a horse drawn sleigh was the only way one could take a ride, if you didn't want to "walk fifteen miles through the snow", to quote Grandpa Lou of Rugrats. It was also one way of taking a girl out for courting, fellas. The jingling of bells is the sound little bells make on the bridle, which is perfect is letting people know you are coming; sometimes, that white snow can blind you.

  The horse was described as "lean and lank" which both have the same meaning. The horse is skin and bones at this point. I wouldn't say malnourished as Going Rampant did but I am willing to say whoever owned that horse needed to feed him more. Unless, of course, the horse is product of a famine. This theory can be contestable since the 1850s were a prosperous time for the US. That fact alone can explain why people call it a case of animal abuse, especially since they still use the poor animal to pull a sleigh. This last can be explained by the fact that not all horse owners could afford to feed the horse on oats and grains. Instead, the horse was grass fed, which doesn't provide enough nourishment for the animal in the winter. In that same time period, food tends to be hard to come by during winters (there are plenty of stories of people starving between Christmas and the Vernal Equinox), thus that fat the animal built up during the harvest season has burned of by that point. Also, in this time when people needed horses for transport, the horse would still be employed even if he were skinny. What's worse, the horse appears to have stumbled somewhere, possibly breaking some bones while getting his passengers in the snow. If the horse was badly hurt in the accident, the only solution would be to put the animal out of his misery, which we don't hear in the song. Instead, the singer advises young men to get a faster horse and "go it while your young." 

   So, for "Jingle Bells", the verdict is it is not a Christmas song, even if it has a catchy tune.

2. Winter Wonderland

   "Over the ground lies a mantle of white 
   "A heaven of diamonds shines through the night

   "Two hearts are thrillin' in spite of the chillin' weather.

   "Love knows no season, love knows no clime 
   "Romance can blossom any old time.

   "Here, in the open, we are walking and hopin' together."

   Thus opens the delightful song "Winter Wonderland." When you look at the song's lyrics, it fails to be a Christmas song because it lacks the mention of it. Instead, we are given an image of a young couple in love strolling through the center of town, or somewhere out in the countryside, in an old fashioned courtship ritual. In the days when even calling it a date was never an option, a stroll through the lanes was a method of courting for men and women, where they would talk on a few topics (filled with wit though always G-rated). On a good day, such couples would walk a few miles in this fashion, stop by the pharmacy for a coke or even eat in a restaurant, sit for a tit-a-tat on a park bench, and pick some flowers. During winter, making snowmen replaces flower picking.
   The idea of using the child's game of make believe in romance was not unheard of at the time. It is fun to be a little boy and a little girl again. This explains the line "In the meadow we can build a snowman / And pretend that he is (insert what they want him to be)." The most well known verse with the line has the couple pretend that he is Parson Brown. There's an interesting thing that happens in the northern states, where parsons would travel around (almost never finding a spot to settle) and would be in town for a day. One of the things a parson would do is marry a couple. Parsons are protestant ministers (I am sure if Dick Smith were Catholic, the couple would have pretended he was Father Brown instead). This bridge concludes with a kind of honeymoon by the fire.
   During the 1950's people actually thought the line wasn't appropriate for children so another set of lyrics added as an alternative. This time, the people walking pretend the snowman is a circus clown. They have "lot's of fun with Mr. Snowman / Until the other kiddies knock him down." While Bing Crosby's take doesn't include them, this one will often precede this coda: "When it snows, ain't it thrillin' / Though your nose gets a chillin' / We'll frolic and play the Eskimo way / Walking in a winter wonderland." Of course, recent political correctness either wants to replace Eskimo with Inuit or just remove the lyrics all together.
  "Winter Wonderland" is a delightful song to be sung from December to March but it is not a Christmas song. It's just a winter song. Now it can be sung on St. Valentine's Day as well as Christmas, due to the romantic image of the people strolling down the lane during winter and all.

3. Let It Snow

  Another song played in Christmas with hints of romance. The song is highly suggestive: who knows what the couple will do since "there's no place to go" and "the lights are turned way down low." However, the male singer, I'll use male in this instance, could be singing about how he'll miss the warmth of his lover's love, and the fire, as he goes outside to clear away the snow or some other action. However way you describe it, it's a fine song to sing in the winter. In fact, my mother told me a few times that it was on the radio, starting in the Christmas season and it kept airing on the radio all through St. Valentine's Day. The word Christmas is not uttered, there is nothing about Christmas of any manner or form, nor is there anything about the Nativity. "Let It Snow", even if it's popular in Christmas, is not a Christmas song. 

4. Baby, It's Cold Outside

   Each November and December, I turn on the radio for the Christmas station and hear Dean Martin sing this with his Ding-a-lings, sometimes with Martina McBride. There are times I do dream of being able to sing it in a duet with a lady. However, it is not a Christmas song because it fails to meet any of the qualifications. Like "Winter Wonderland" and "Let It Snow", the song is only played in December because of its winter theme, which is not really a good reason.
   One thing that is pointed out by websites and videos is that there is a dark side to the song, which can be summed up as a man wanting his girl to stay home to wade out the storm and yet the girl wants to leave, prompting the man to tell her how cold it is, that the weather is bad, and finally that she is hurting his pride. Critics of today have considered "Baby, It's Cold Outside" to be a date rape scenario. At one point, the woman asks "Say, what's in this drink?" Of course, in the second verse, she does say "the answer is no", yet she gradually decides to stay the night in the house. What happens next depends on the man, who is called the Wolf in the lyrics. If he's ethical, he'll just provide the woman a place to sleep, even have her sleep in his bed while he takes the couch. He may even find a way to call up her family and let them know she's safe, assuming the phones are working. However, if he is unethical, and most people make him out to be, he'll take advantage of her.
   At the same time, the fact it was written by Mister Loessner with his wife suggests it was originally just be a playful thing between them. Not only that, a few values dissonance are brought to mind. People actually expected girls to be chaste and modest, thus would always be ready to turn down any offer the man throws her way or play hard to get if she is interested in him. The men, on the other hand, were encouraged to be persistent. If a man backed off, that implied he didn't see her as good enough for him. However, this didn't mean there were no stalkers around, who could just hear the word no so much that they start disregarding it. Today, in this casual hook up culture, men are expected to be eager for sex and yet respect a woman for saying "no", and if the woman didn't like the sex she could call it rape.
   For these reasons, "Baby, It's Cold Outside" shouldn't be labeled a Christmas song. Even if, in this current culture where people have condoms in their pockets, ready to sleep with someone at the drop of the hat, unless the girl says no, the song is still a good song to sing now and then. Besides, the wolf doesn't have to be the guy. There are some performances where the roles are reversed. I'm sure since everyone wants same-sex marriage there could be a same-sex performance of this song as well.

5. Deck the Halls

   I know what you are thinking. You are thinking, "whoa whoa, slow down! Wait just a minute! This is a Christmas freaking carol, sir knight! Why is it on the list?" I'll explain by the fact the song fails on the third qualification (lack of the word Christmas mentioned) and it fails on the second as well as the first. "Deck the Halls" actually centers on the pagan holiday called Yule.

6. Sleigh Ride

   This song is "Jingle Bells" moved into the 20th Century. Leroy Anderson never stated this to be a Christmas song, yet it is played frequently during the season. Apart from the The Carpenter version, there is not a single time the word Christmas gets uttered, nor does the song mention any Christmas tradition. The party that the singer mentions is actually a birthday party, though one wonders why would anyone want to stop at a birthday party when he is not invited. 

7. What Are You Doing In New Years Eve

  Good question. Unfortunately, I do not have an answer yet. Now if the question was "is this a Christmas song" then the answer is rightly forthcoming: "no." This is brought into the mix due to The Carpenters singing it in their Christmas album. The song is more about the singer who talks with someone (a friend or lover, I don't know), and asking what is he / she doing on this night. Because it covers New Years, it is not a Christmas song.

8. Auld Lang Syne

   This is a Scottish song that is often sung on New Years. Here in the United States, we sing it in Christmas as well as New Years (which explains why it is sung at the end of It's a Wonderful Life). Because of that usage, it has become listed as a Christmas song. In actuality, it belongs in New Years, even if the whole phrase is "Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Years."

9. The Messiah

  There are parts of this composition of George Handel that fit one of the qualifications. That is mostly in the early parts of it. However, Handel didn't actually write The Messiah for Christmas. It was actually for Easter. You should also look at the libretto and you will notice most of the performance centers on the Passion, Death, and Resurrection of Jesus. The only part of the Nativity that is included is the Annunciation to the Shepherds. The famous "Hallelujah Chorus" doesn't even happen in this part, but at the end of the Second Part, which features the Passion.

10. Frosty the Snowman

   The Littlest Angel, the Little Drummer Boy, Ebenezer Scrooge, Santa Claus, Old Man Winter, Jack Frost, Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, Saint Lucy, Yule Cat, and the Nutcracker Prince. All these characters are associated with Christmas in our society and in the 1950s, they were added by a walking, talking snowman named Frosty. However, the song cannot be considered a Christmas song because it fails on all qualifications (the animated special produced by Rankin / Bass changes the final line to "I'll be back on Christmas day", but that does not count).
  The song is instead about Frosty, being made by a group of kids, who are provided a magical hat, but the song doesn't say where it came from, and it made him come to life. The children love the living snowman but Frosty sees it's a warm day and decides to have some fun with them. The song ends a vague manner but from what we know, he may have walked out into the street, stopped on command of the traffic cop, and was hit by a car, just as he was melting (and this is why they tell you to look both ways before crossing, kids). The song doesn't tell us so, largely to not scare anyone or traumatize kids that their favorite snowman dies on the road. Instead, he may have made it to the other side only to melt away and before doing so, "he waved good bye saying 'don't you cry, I'll be again someday.'" Some singers make more by adding "because" as a bridge between the final verse and the cop saying "stop."
   If anything, it's a good song about something coming to life and a reminder to people, in the gentlest ways, that life is short and should be enjoyed. Of course, with Frosty being a snowman, one can ignore what could be interpreted as an implied reincarnation event in the last line. One last thing to add: the special titled Frosty the Snowman is Christmas, the song on which it is based on is not.

11. Good King Wenceslas

   For the eleventh entry, this was tough as it is a Christmas Carol, which means it should be added to the canon. However, because it doesn't center on the Nativity, nor does the word Christmas get uttered, the song has to be listed. As a Catholic, I view Christmas not as a day but as a season, starting on Christmas Eve and lasting until the Epiphany (January 6). The story of the song takes place on the Feast of St. Stephen, which is the day after Christmas Day (a fitting location on the calendar for Christianity's first martyr). However, the United States is not a Catholic country, thus Americans will always see Christmas as just one day. Not only that, because it doesn't take place in the Nativity, nor on Christmas day, it is erroneous to call it a "Christmas song."

12. The Bells of St. Mary's

   I will say that I enjoy the movie, as it is a classic, and, so far, the only time I have seen Bing Crosby with Igrid Bergman. The movie is considered a Christmas classic for only one scene, which is when Father O'Malley (Bing) and Sister Benedict (Bergman) over see a pageant by first graders. Apart from that, the movie is just a melodrama of a priest and a nun overseeing a school that is in need of a new building yet a stingy business man owns that new building.
  In the same token, there is no mention of Christmas in the song. Instead, "The Bells of St. Mary's" is more like a school song. It is sung by Father O'Malley with the nuns in one scene after Sister Benedict and the others have learned that they are going to have new school building. Despite the reference to Mary, the song doesn't belong in Christmas, just as the Ave Maria can be played or sung at any time of year and not just December.

13. I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm

   I'll admit I haven't heard this one yet but I can tell it fails to meet the qualifications. The song is apparently about the singer saying that he doesn't need much to keep warm, just love. It kind of goes on par with "All You Need Is Love". At no point is Christmas mentioned nor is it about it, though the word December is mentioned in one line. Once again, the winter setting is what confused many people and make them think of it as a Christmas song.

14. Linus and Lucy

  This ought to be the theme song to "Peanuts". Of course, we don't seem to have the lyrics to it which explains why it is hard to list it as Christmas. The only reason why they list it is because it was played in "A Charlie Brown Christmas", and like "Bells of Saint Mary's", the one scene is why people treat as such. "Linus and Lucy" can be heard in other "Peanuts" specials, especially Halloween and Thanksgiving. By popular logic, that should make it Halloween music or Thanksgiving as well.

15. Little Altar Boy

  Altar boy is an old school name for altar servers (with girls taking role in it, the Church got a little PC in one spot). If you attend Mass -- should a church actually have altar servers -- you would see them by the white robes they wear, they would be as young as seven and as old as sixteen, one of them would be holding the cross. They lead the procession to the altar at the start, then take their place at a different spot of the altar. They would hold the book for the priest as he reads, bring up the gifts, wave the incense, (in more traditional churches, they would ring bells as the priest consecrates the Host and the Chalice). Taking that aside, the song is actually consisting of the singer asking the Altar boy to pray for him / her. My guess, the singer has just taken Confession, or has some problem with sin, and with no one else to ask, the singer asks the altar boy. At no point is there any mention of Christmas or anything on Christmas.

16. Count Your Blessings

  Since White Christmas is a Christmas themed romance, the rule is that any song sung in it has to be Christmas. However, the only song that fits in that category is "White Christmas." The rest are just entertainment songs. This is one of them. By that logic, that makes "Tropical Heat Wave", "Blue Skies", "Mandy", and "Snow" as Christmas songs. If anything, "Count Your Blessings" is a better lullaby than a Christmas song.

17. Suzy Snowflake

  "Suzy Snowflake" uses the same key as "Frosty the Snowman", to a point that the notes sound the same. As with "Frosty the Snowman", "Suzy Snowflake" has no reference to Christmas. It's basically a feminine element like Jack Frost who drops by for the winter and doesn't stay long. Of course, Suzy proves to be creative in the few lines: "If you want to build a snowman / I can make one, two, three / If you want to go for a sleight ride / The ride's on me." What would be a creative idea for a Christmas song would be a meeting of Frosty the Snowman and Suzy Snowflake on Christmas.

18. Jingle Bell Rock

  With the film, Mean Girls now ten years old, I must bring this up, since it appears in the film, during the politically correct version of a Christmas show scene. Watch this if you want to see how the Plastics translate that song.

   A rock 'n roll version of "Jingle Bells", which uses the same themes but updated tones. Like most rock 'n roll songs, "Jingle Bell Rock" contains nonsensical lines and the use of the word rock. It even contains a reference to another song called "Rock Around the Clock." Would be useful in a 1950's themed winter party but it still doesn't make it a Christmas song. So the radio can still play it after Christmas.

19. Walking In the Air

   In the 1980's, the children's book The Snowman is made into an animated movie, which lasts only twenty-seven minutes, with almost no dialogue, save for the introduction, yet features this song sung by Peter Auty while the Snowman and the boy fly to the North Pole. Despite the song happening in a Christmas film, it has none of the qualifications of a Christmas song (I have noticed Chloe Agnew opened the first Celtic Woman concert with it but not the Christmas concerts).
   The story The Snowman is something like "Frosty the Snowman", minus Frosty. A boy makes a snowman on a winter's night, which implies to be Christmas Eve, and he comes to life without the use of a magic hat. They explore various things until the Snowman decides to fly to the North Pole with the boy and they encounter a land of snowmen and Santa Claus. The song is played as the two fly. At no point is Christmas mentioned. Like "The Windmills of Your Mind", the song feels more like a flying song and the singer reacting, or rather expressing the boy's reaction, to the flight. The only way it would be a Christmas song would be if it had some kind of intro verse.

20. A Spaceman Came Traveling

  An artistic reinterpretation of the Nativity in which a space alien visits Bethlehem and his visit causes a stir. That, and that it fails on the other two qualifications, is why I have it on this list.
   The Divinity of the Nativity is non-existent in the song. In "Silent Night" we know who the "mother and child" are which is something that this song does not. One would have to look into the notes to see. In some way, it implies the spaceman visited a different mother and child and everyone mistook it for Christ. The child is not even given much in the song but the use of baby is symbolic in  the song for other purposes. The visitor then announces that he must leave and will return in two thousand years, Earth time.
   As a Christian, I am reserved about the idea of shepherds and townspeople mistaking an alien spaceship for the Star of Bethlehem and the music of his space ship for the choir of angels, and thinking it to be a sign from God. Say what you will about primitive people reacting to the sight of a technologically advanced visitor but the idea that ET (and I like the movie about him, too) dropped by to see Christ and people used his visit to inspire the Nativity story undermines the beauty of the story and it denies the Divinity of Christ.
   The song can be good to sing on any other time of the year, and Lisa Lambe's take gives it a bounce, just don't sing it in a church.

21. Home For the Holidays

  Again, a song that is played during the Christmas season. When you look at the lyrics, you note there is no reference to Christmas. Instead, it's "the holidays." It's a vague term because the song can mean home for anything: Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, Memorial Day, Independence Day, or Labor Day. Since the words mention pumpkin pies, the holidays are in the winter and fall category, since most people tend to eat it in that time frame. If there is anything remotely Christmas of "Home For the Holidays" it would be the image of warmth of family and friends you know in a siege of an icy winter's chill. With travel costs, most will prefer to stay home, but that is often why people buy tickets weeks or months in advance. 

22. Over the River and Through the Woods

  This song was played in an episode of Shining Time Station, courtesy of the Jukebox Band. This, along with "Jingle Bells", was heard as most people expected it to be played on Christmas, though I cannot find any reason why. The song was originally a poem by Lynda Maria Child, where she was going to her grandfather's house for Thanksgiving. Evidence of this is the lines "We would not stop for doll or top / For 'tis Thanksgiving Day" and "Hurrah for Thanksgiving Day!" The word Christmas is not in the original poem. Even though some people put it in in lines mentioned, it still doesn't make it a Christmas song because of its original intent. The only reason people would include it is the reference to snow. Historically, New England at the time was experience the Little Ice Age which made snowfalls earlier then than now. It does make a symbolic journey of hardships that we face, as evidenced by the river and the woods the singer goes through, until we come upon our home and are greeted with warmth and a banquet. In short, a journey into Heaven.

23. A Marshmallow World

  Hearing this song used in a Target commercial where a little girl pretends she's a modern day Alice going through Target Wonderland encouraged me to add this. The song is lovely, the kind that can really melt in your mouth the way actual marshmallows do. However, to call it a Christmas song is like calling a coke with high fructose corn syrup a sugary drink. It doesn't meet any of the qualifications of a Christmas song. It mostly is just the singer commenting on the snow filled landscape, how it resembles that soft white sweet that one toasts over fire at camp, often to make s'mores with. Never once is Christmas mentioned in the song.

24. Happy Holidays

  Yeah, I know. People are going to greet me with "Happy Holidays" anyway. In fact, long before I was born, Irving Berlin wrote a song with it. However, the song is not Christmas. Happy Holidays is a vague greeting that, by any respect, can be said on any holiday. However, most people don't wish it on Independence Day, Thanksgiving, Martin Luther King Jr Day, or Easter. So why should Christmas be an exception? I don't know. That can be on another blog entry. As to the song, the song is short: though Andy Williams turned it into medley with "It's a Holiday Season" which mentions Santa on a few occasions. When looking over the lyrics of the song from the film Holiday Inn, the song is actually an advertising song for the inn that the film's plot centers on. Of course, advertising is common now in Christmas but that still doesn't make "Happy Holidays" a Christmas song.

25. My Favorite Things

  I'll end with "My Favorite Things". I do not know how this became a Christmas song since the song did not come from a Christmas play. The Sound of Music doesn't even take place on Christmas, but in the summer. The only reason "My Favorite Things" is associated with Christmas might be because of this lines, "Snowflakes that stay on my nose and eye lashes / Silver white winters that melt into springs..." For the most part, the song is about Maria listing a few things that make her happy in times of trouble, none of which include Christmas. Instead, it's treated as a folk song sung to the Mother Abbess, who joins in, and then Maria sings as she goes to the chateau to meet the Van Trapps. In the movie, she sings this to calm the children down in the thunderstorm. As delightful as the song is, "My Favorite Things" is not and will never be a Christmas song.