the tiny expo art show
at our downtown library
had a wide range of artists
with beautiful work
one of the most unusual
was some of jaci riley’s work
tiny earrings
cast from her cat, Beatrix’s lost tooth.
—
“the world is a museum of passion projects.”
-john collison
for a little variety, learn these words for your next holiday gathering,
some borrowed from foreign languages and others from long ago.
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Someone doing their Christmas shopping on December 24 is the epitome of a Yuleshard – a person who waits until the last minute to finish preparations for the holidays. This Scottish word dates to at least the mid-18th century. “Yule” is a synonym for the Christmas season, and “shard” is a corruption of the word jade and has been used since the 16th century as an insult in Middle English, referring to a worn-out horse.
Italians have the perfect word for how many feel after a holiday meal. Abbiocco refers to the drowsiness that occurs after a large meal, making it distinct from simple sleepiness before bedtime. It also involves a state of pure relaxation while delaying responsibilities, something that tends to occur on holidays. The word originated in central Italy from two verbs, abbioccare and abbioccarsi, meaning “to exhaust” and “to doze off,” respectively.
It’s easy to overindulge during holiday meals, and those who do might need to take advantage of a yule-hole. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, a yule-hole is “the hole in the waist-belt to which the buckle is adjusted, to allow for repletion after the feasting at Christmas.”
A bummock is an alcoholic beverage brewed to enjoy at a “merry meeting” — aka a holiday party. This Scottish drink has been around since at least the early 19th century, but an 18th century definition of “bummock” (sometimes spelled “boumack”) is “an entertainment anciently given at Christmas by tenants to their landlords.”
Schnapsidee is a German word that translates literally as “booze idea,” something many people have during the holidays. It’s a ridiculous, ill-advised idea that sounds like it was made up during a drunken state — sledding off the roof at a holiday party, for example. (Don’t do that!) Germans tend to use the word to describe any outlandish idea, though, whether alcohol was involved or not.
—
‘action speaks louder than words but not nearly as often.’
-mark twain
—
source credits: word smarts, rachel gresh, vintage postcards, pinterest, bbc, wasau news
A boy mistakenly dressed as Elvis instead of an elf at his school’s Christmas concert after a family mix up over his costume. Oscar Wilkins, nine, had been given the role of ‘Elvis the Elf’ in the production at his primary school last week.
His bemused family said he failed to mention the ‘elf element’ and told them he had been cast as Elvis. They then sought a costume for the Graceland star, only realizing the error when he stepped out on stage. Instead of being upset, Oscar embraced his starring role and found the whole thing hilarious. His sister Jade Smith, said the audience couldn’t help falling in love with the absurdity of it all.
She said Oscar, from Aberdare in Wales, simply told his family he needed an Elvis costume for the play. ‘He came home from school and all the children had a bit of paper what they were in the concert,’ she said.
‘His letter said a sparkly Elvis costume. It did not say Elvis the Elf so we all just stupidly thought it was Elvis Presley.’Previously in another year, he had been an alien so it was not always related to Christmas and nativity, which is why we didn’t really question it.
‘We asked him if he was sure he meant Elvis and he said yes with a sparkly costume. He did not mention anything about an elf.’ Jade said the family looked online for a kid’s Elvis outfit and found one that fitted Oscar perfectly.’The only thing he was not happy with was it was not sparkly enough.”
‘We sent him to school in the wrong costume and they all saw the funny side… but did not say it was wrong.’
The two performances at Penrhiwpeier Primary School last week were in front of his parents Stephen and Sarah Wilkins. Jade said they only realized their error during the first performance of the show.
She added: ‘We had no idea what they were planning. We only found out the mistake when we were watching the show and they all walked out. ‘Out of 12 kids, they were all dressed as elves except for Oscar.
‘It was so funny. A week before they had all met up in costume for a dress rehearsal but didn’t tell us anything was wrong.
‘It was no drama though. Oscar embraced it all and loved that people were all laughing at him. He really enjoyed all the attention.
‘He just played the role of a standard elf, although he was dressed a little funny.’We thought Elvis might come into it somewhere in the storyline but there was no relation to him at all.
‘There was no encore of any of Elvis hits – I thought they might have done some sort of Christmas Elvis song – but it turned out he was just a very extravagantly dressed elf.’
Jade said Oscar’s reaction meant everyone was able to see the funny side. ‘It was very funny and we are all laughing a lot about it now. In the moment when he first walked on stage it was a bit mortifying. Within seconds we realised what had happened.’You never want your child to feel awkward but Oscar totally embraced it and that helped us all see the funny side of it.
‘He’s still got the outfit and has now been introduced to Elvis’ music. He loves older music anyway so we can see him becoming a bit of a fan.’
—
‘you only pass through this life once, you don’t come back for an encore.’
-elvis presley
—
Source credits: Katherine Lawton, Daily Mail, Jade Smith, SWNS
when it’s late in the season
the elves have to go to santa
he doesn’t have time to be flying back and forth
looks like I just missed their weekly board meeting.
—
‘never schedule a board meeting on Wednesday because it kills two weekends.’
-kurt vonnegut
who wants to play ‘wine box jenga?’
—
that was the question on the listing.
once again
I love my local ‘next door’ website
for its creative and fun content
you never know what you’ll find .
even these
which you didn’t know
you had to have
until you saw them there.
—
‘enthusiasm is the great hill-climber’
-elbert hubbard
*Elbert Hubbard ( 1856- 1915) was an American writer, publisher, artist, and philosopher. Hubbard is known best as the founder of the Roycroft artisan community, an influential exponent of the Arts and Crafts Movement. He and his wife, Alice Moore Hubbard, died aboard the RMS Lusitania when it was torpedoed and sunk by a German submarine off the coast of Ireland in 1915.
1936, John Steinbeck’s dog Toby, an Irish Setter, turned the first draft of Of Mice and Men into a snack. In a letter dated May 27 of that year, the future Pulitzer and Nobel Prize winner wrote that he “was pretty mad, but the poor little fellow may have been acting critically.”
Steinbeck estimated that Toby making “confetti” of the manuscript would set him back by about two months, but it may have been worth it: Steinbeck’s short, tragic tale of two migrant workers eking out a humble existence in California during the Depression is among the author’s most moving and accomplished works, which is saying something for the man responsible for both East of Eden and The Grapes of Wrath. Steinbeck, a lifelong dog-lover, later wrote a travelogue featuring his poodle called Travels With Charley.
—
‘a critic can only review the book he has read, not the one which the writer wrote.’
-mignon mclaughlin
when you realize just bit too late…
—
image credit gary larson, the far side
teen girls at the mall seek out santa
where teen girls are
teen boys can’t be far behind
“kids believe in Santa; adults believe in childhood.”
-cate kennedy
british/australian author, poet, writing professor, editor
—
The phrase “kids believe in Santa, adults believe in childhood” means children naturally accept magical figures like Santa as real, embodying wonder, while adults see Santa as a symbol of generosity, family, tradition, and the magical innocence of youth, realizing the idea of Santa (giving) is more important than the literal person, often transferring that spirit to their own acts of giving and preserving that joy for the next generation. It highlights the shift from literal belief to understanding symbolic meaning as we grow, with adults becoming the keepers of the “magic” for kids.
teens are somewhere in the middle,
still wanting to believe in the magic
but knowing the truth.
it was the other cat’s fault.
suspect #1: olive, loves to loll around, take things slow, enjoy the day
suspect #2: pete the cat, loves to stand up tall, climb on things, pull them down,
deconstruct them, carry them around, hide them, reuse, recycle, repurpose
i’m still investigating to see who might be behind this caper.
one will end up on santa’s naughty list
one will not.
—
‘crime takes no holiday.’
-thomas h. louis
I didn't have my glasses on.... 