I\u2019ve seen not a trace of snow here in Virginia this time around and, based on the weather forecasts, I don\u2019t expect to see any.\u00a0 But the days have been fairly nice.\u00a0 Very much like a pleasant early autumn.
(Wikimedia Commons public domain photograph)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
***<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Now that Christmas is securely behind us, I can share a cynical poem by an American academic, poet, and translator about the extreme commercialism that, in some cases, genuinely does mar the holiday:<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Corporate Christmas Carol<\/strong><\/em><\/span>
\nby\u00a0Joseph S. Salemi<\/span><\/p>\nGod rest ye merry businessmen,<\/span>
\nStart markups on your trash!<\/span>
\nRemember that this holiday<\/span>
\nIs when you rake in cash!<\/span>
\nIt saves you from those creditors<\/span>
\nYou owe from that last crash\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Oh, tidings of bottom-lines grown fat, ever so fat!
\nOh, tidings of bottom-lines grown fat!
\n<\/em><\/span>
\nFrom commerce wonks in Washington<\/span>
\nThere comes this press release:<\/span>
\n\u201cJust keep the boobs in spending-mode<\/span>
\nSo cash flow doesn\u2019t cease!<\/span>
\nA Christmas without splurging means<\/span>
\nThat profits won\u2019t increase\u2026\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Oh, tidings of credit lines gone wild, ever so wild!
\nOh, tidings of credit lines gone wild!
\n<\/em><\/span>
\nThe euro\u2019s going down the tubes;<\/span>
\nThe E.U. too,\u00a0en masse<\/em>\u2014<\/span>
\nWe owe some fifteen trillion bucks<\/span>
\nThat we don\u2019t have, alas!<\/span>
\nIf China calls our paper debt,<\/span>
\nWe might as well take gas\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Oh, tidings of bankruptcy and loss, ever such loss!
\nOh, tidings of bankruptcy and loss!
\n<\/em><\/span>
\nThat\u2019s why we need this frenzied rush<\/span>
\nOf buying gone berserk!<\/span>
\nAt Christmas you must drum into<\/span>
\nThe head of every jerk<\/span>
\nThat he should spend and spend and spend<\/span>
\nTo keep us all in work\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Oh, tidings of avarice unrestrained, unrestrained!<\/span>
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Oh, tidings of avarice unrestrained!<\/span>
\n<\/em><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
***<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
When I was a little kid, I always found the day after Christmas \u2014 actually, even Christmas afternoon and Christmas night \u2014 remarkably depressing. \u00a0I had so looked forward to the magic of Christmas Eve and to the wonders of Christmas morning, and now they were past. \u00a0For a full year! \u00a0My anticipation of Christmas began around Halloween, the beginning of the \u201choliday season,\u201d and it ramped into high gear with the conclusion of Thanksgiving dinner. \u00a0From my perspective, neither Halloween nor Thanksgiving counted for much as a holiday in and of itself. \u00a0Candy was good, of course, and gathering it with my friends was fun. \u00a0But that was all. \u00a0And Thanksgiving? \u00a0Well, we didn\u2019t eat turkey and stuffing and pumpkin pie much during the rest of the year, but we ate well, and just about anything we wanted, every other day. \u00a0And my grandparents were all gone, our extended family was widely scattered and didn\u2019t gather together, and our nuclear family (now all gone except for me) was tiny. \u00a0So Thanksgiving wasn\u2019t all that outstandingly different from any other nice meal. \u00a0But Christmas! \u00a0And then it was over.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
For this particular southern California boy, there is still something of that post-Christmas letdown in Utah. \u00a0Winter is fun when it points forward to Christmas. \u00a0After Christmas, though, I quickly tire of gray skies, dead trees, dirty snow, cold, and inversions, and I\u2019m not sad when it goes. \u00a0(New Year\u2019s Eve isn\u2019t all that special, either. \u00a0I never<\/em> go to bed before midnight.) \u00a0I think of Narnia under the White Witch in C. S. Lewis\u2019s The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe<\/em>, where it was always winter but never Christmas.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Winter should be a time of palm trees and blue skies \u2014 the way it was on the original<\/em> Christmas Day.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Posted from Richmond, Virginia<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0 \u00a0 *** \u00a0 Now that Christmas is securely behind us, I can share a cynical poem by an American academic, poet, and translator about the extreme commercialism that, in some cases, genuinely does mar the holiday: \u00a0 The Corporate Christmas Carol by\u00a0Joseph S. Salemi God rest ye merry businessmen, Start markups on your trash! […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[7078,2517,8421,7341,27215,27218,27209,1540,27212,7707,27221,7338],"class_list":["post-93708","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-carol","tag-christmas","tag-commercial","tag-commercialism","tag-corporate-christmas-carol","tag-joseph-s-salemi","tag-joseph-salemi","tag-narnia","tag-salemi","tag-snow","tag-white-witch","tag-winter"],"yoast_head":"\n
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<\/a>