Yes, it is the day that kindly old Saint Nicholas fills the footware of good little girls and boys with treats [or his assistants beat the evil out of bad children, depending on the local customs – they didn’t just leave the sticks – in some places they use them.] Don’t forget the carrot if he rides a horse in your area.
He is the patron saint of Russian merchants and pawnbrokers.
On-line Opinion Magazine featuring annoyed rumblings from the leading edge of the Baby Boom firmly tied to a reality-based world.
Established: 21 November 2004
The opinions expressed in Comments are those of the individuals making them. Truly absurd comments and opinions are subject to being cruelly mocked, but "flame wars" will take place on someone else's dime.
Your first comment, all comments with extensive links, and random comments that the software decides it doesn't like for no discernible reason will be held for moderation.
[Be aware that for unknown reasons the software rejects comments shorter than 15 characters, so if you want to leave a short comment fill the gap with periods ........]
5 comments
Patron Saint of “pawnbrokers”…Love it. We’ve got quite a number of “retired” Russian oligarchs living here in Santa Barbara…they just might be pawning off some of their things in our “higher end” broker businesses. Might take a field trip today to see.
In that icon, Nicholas looks neither “jolly” nor “old.” Maybe it’s the medium…
In the case of the oligarchs, Jill, I think ‘fences’ would be more probable that pawn brokers.
He was a bishop and extremely wealthy, so the Santa Claus concept is not particularly applicable, Steve. He would have looked more like Aristotle Onassis than the guy quaffing a Coke or riding in a sleigh.
Well…Santa Claus IS Finnish, of course. 😉
http://www.visitrovaniemi.fi/in-english
Well, Joulupukki is Finnish and was the model of the Coca Cola Santa Claus campaign as the graphic artist was a Finn.