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Silverfoxesclub-digest In this issue:
-Looking on Long Island
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Subject: Looking on Long Island arent there any men over 60 on long island looking tomeet a younger guy like me 45wm
tony Subject: Enjoy Boxing Day Today is Boxing Day, and I got a nice gift from someone who is not a member of the list but who has visited the Silverfoxes Clubhouse many times. He chose this day to write me the following:
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I really appreciate the hard work you put into
your site for all us silverfox lovers. I also wanted
you to know that my partner and I met through
your personal ads over 14 months ago, and we
are really happy..... A message like that is meaningful to me because to have been in any way instrumental in bringing people together in love is as much as I could ever hope to accomplish in these later years of my life. I have taken so much from the world, have been so fortunate in so many ways, have always been loved and cared for even in the darkest times, have survived situations both mental and physical which could easily have done me in, and have had everything I ever really wanted when I needed it most.
I want to use this Boxing Day to thank all of you
for being here and for contributing so much of
yourselves in pictures, words, thoughts and
deeds on this mailing list. Attitude is everything,
and you have given me the best.
Along with the thread of traditions I found the following which helps explain Boxing Day. Dave aka luvhog Origins: Few Americans have any inkling that there even is such a thing as Boxing Day, let alone what the reason might be for a holiday so named. However, before one concludes we're about to rag on Americentric attitudes towards other cultures, we should quickly point out that even though Boxing Day is celebrated in Australia, Britain, New Zealand, and Canada, not all that many in those countries have much of a notion as to why they get the 26 of December off. Boxing Day might well be a statutory holiday in some of those lands, but it's not a well understood one. Despite the lively images suggested by the name, it has nothing to do with pugilistic expositions between tanked-up family members who have dearly been looking forward to taking a round out of each other for the past year. Likewise, it does not gain its name from the overpowering need to rid the house of an excess of wrappings and mountains of now useless cardboard boxes the day after St. Nick arrived to turn a perfectly charming and orderly home into a maelstrom of discarded tissue paper. The name also has nothing to do with returning unwanted gifts to the stores they came from, hence its common association with hauling about boxes on the day after Christmas. The holiday's roots can be traced to Britain, where Boxing Day is also known as St. Stephen's Day. Reduced to the simplest essence, its origins are found in a long-ago practice of giving cash or durable goods to those of the lower classes. Gifts among equals were exchanged on or before Christmas Day, but beneficences to those less fortunate were bestowed the day after. And that's about as much as anyone can definitively say about its origin because once you step beyond that point, it's straight into the quagmire of debated claims and dueling folklorists. Which, by the way, is what we're about to muddy our boots with. Although there is general agreement that the holiday is of British origin and it has to do with giving presents to the less fortunate, there is still dispute as to how the name came about or precisely what unequal relationship is being recognized. At various times, the following "origins" have been loudly asserted as the correct one: Centuries ago, ordinary members of the merchant class gave boxes of food and fruit to tradespeople and servants the day after Christmas in an ancient form of Yuletide tip. These gifts were an expression of gratitude to those who worked for them, in much the same way that one now tips the paperboy an extra $20 at Christmastime or slips the building's superintendent a bottle of fine whisky. Those long-ago gifts were done up in boxes, hence the day coming to be known as "Boxing Day." Christmas celebrations in the old days entailed bringing everyone together from all over a large estate, thus creating one of the rare instances when everyone could be found in one place at one time. This gathering of his extended family, so to speak, presented the lord of the manor with a ready-made opportunity to easily hand out that year's stipend of necessities. Thus, the day after Christmas, after all the partying was over and it was almost time to go back to far-flung homesteads, serfs were presented with their annual allotment of practical goods. Who got what was determined by the status of the worker and his relative family size, with spun cloth, leather goods, durable food supplies, tools, and whatnot being handed out. Under this explanation, there was nothing voluntary about this transaction; the lord of the manor was obligated to supply these goods. The items were chucked into boxes, one box for each family, to make carrying away the results of this annual restocking easier; thus, the day came to be known as "Boxing Day." Many years ago, on the day after Christmas, servants in Britain carried boxes to their masters when they arrived for the day's work. It was a tradition that on this day all employers would put coins in the boxes, as a special end-of-the-year gift. In a closely-related version of this explanation, apprentices and servants would on that day get to smash open small earthenware boxes left for them by their masters. These boxes would house small sums of money specifically left for them. This dual-versioned theory melds the two previous ones together into a new form; namely, the employer who was obligated to hand out something on Boxing Day, but this time to recipients who were not working the land for him and thus were not dependent on him for all they wore and ate. The "box" thus becomes something beyond ordinary compensation (in a way goods to landed serfs was not), yet it's also not a gift in that there's nothing voluntary about it. Under this theory, the boxes are an early form of Christmas bonus, something employees see as their entitlement. Boxes in churches for seasonal donations to the needy were opened on Christmas Day, and the contents distributed by the clergy the following day. The contents of this alms box originated with the ordinary folks in the parish who were thus under no direct obligation to provide anything at all and were certainly not tied to the recipients by a employer/employee relationship. In this case, the "box" in "Boxing Day" comes from that one gigantic lockbox the donations were left in. Whichever theory one chooses to back, the one thread common to all is the theme of one-way provision to those not inhabiting the same social level. As mentioned previously, equals exchanged gifts on Christmas Day or before, but lessers (be they tradespeople, employees, servants, serfs, or the generic "poor") received their "boxes" on the day after. It is to be noted that the social superiors did not receive anything back from those they played Lord Bountiful to: a gift in return would have been seen as a presumptuous act of laying claim to equality, the very thing Boxing Day was an entrenched bastion against. Boxing Day was, after all, about preserving class lines. Barbara "lines of the times" Mikkelson
Sightings: Good King Wenceslas' gifts of bread, wine, and firewood to a
poor man whom he observed struggling through the snow took place "on the
Feast of Stephen."
On the Navajo Reservation and in the towns bordering it, a custom began many years ago. The Dineh (Navajo People) went to the Biligaanah (white people) with empty bags, saying, "Yaateh Keshmesh!" (Christmas greetings), and were given sweets, foodstuffs, fruit, etc. I think this is sort of a US Boxing Day.... Nils in AZ Subject: Kwanzaa candles?
----- Original Message ----- Subject: Kwanzaa candles? Ben, the Kwanzaa gif looks like a menorah--is that also a Kwanzaa symbol?
Hugs, They celebrate by lighting seven candles, each with a meaning. How are you going to design a candelabra of seven candles that isn't a menorah? You can't! Looks like a Hebrew menorah to me, too, but it isn't.
Umoja (Unity)
Each is represented by a candle shedding light into the world. They say,
"Light the Candles of Kwanzaa!"
Kwanzaa is a Kiswahili word meaning "first fruits of the harvest." It is now
celebrated by perhaps 20,000,000 people.
Subject: Re: "Goddess bless us, every one!"
Further thoughts: When I was traveling around Italy a number of years ago I saw several churches named SANCTA MARIA SUPRA MINERVA which translates to St Mary OVER Minerva. When the early church was beginning to reach out, it couldn't get anyone interested in this dead man hanging on a cross. The area of the Mediterranean was under the rule of the Goddess. So the church created St. Mary to replace Minerva. In saying that she was "mother of God" they managed to place her above the Goddess in respect and power. This pagan manipulation has continued up until the time when we have the Vatican recently placing Mary on the level of Jesus. The church has for a long time fostered the idea that the "immaculate conception" refers to Mary's birth, and NOT Jesus.
Now shall we talk about the Christmas Tree, which is specifically banned in
biblical texts?
I recall that when I was in Assisi (the home of St. Francis of A. and St. Claire) a number of years ago, one of the churches had actually been built as a Pagan temple and later converted to Christian use. It had a beautiful classical interior -- probably an 18th century "restoration" -- somewhat marred by the electric light bulbs in the BVM's halo. This may have been a case of Mary actually being built over Minerva. The theology behind the idea of the "immaculate conception" is the notion that the Blessed Mother was conceived without "original" sin, and is not meant to suggest a virgin birth in her case.
Hal
All over Europe..and probably all over the world...there are churches built
on ancient prechristian holy places which have been expropriated (read
stolen) by the
followers of "the dead man hanging on a cross" refered to below, and
converted for their worship. It is an iumportant part of the cultural and
religious imperialism
by which this particular faith spread itself and exterminated everything
else in it's path..at least until it met Islam.
Look under the Vatican, St Paul's, Notre Dame, or half the village churches
in Western Europoe..you will dind a sacred site of a suppressed pagan
religion.
"Sopra Minerva" means that the church was built OVER the temple to Minerva. The church in Assisi is above the old temple to Minerva. The old Roman city can be accessed by going one street down from the main piazza, and is excavated enough to be a museum. I once attended a concert in that museum, a string quartet, delightful. In Rome, as BB will attest, the early Medieval church of San Clemente is built on an older Christian basilica, and under that level I walked with other tourists down a first century Roman street--what remains of the temple of Mithras at one end, what remains of a very tiny meeting place of Christians, etc. In Mexico one may still wander through some temples which have been excavated. On top of the hills of those pyramids are churches, often dedicated to the Virgin Mary--in the same tradition of taking over "pagan" customs, buildings, etc., and sort of "baptizing" them. An old practise not limited to Christianity, which rather excelled at the practise! I think the point is that we humans always build on the past, often literally. I don't know why anyone would use that to attack Wiccans or Jews or Christians or Muslims or Buddhists. It's just another fascinating fact of human existence and our struggle to find meaning to our existence.
Seasons greetings to all! Tomorrow is Id-al-Fitr. Nils in AZ
Yes, Nils, Mexico is a prime example of the R.C. church building its church edifices on top of "pagan" ruins. When I read your post on the subject, I thought at once of the first time I saw the great truncated Pyramid of Quetzalcoatl in the city of Cholula, near Puebla, on the road Cortez took from the capital when returning to the eastern coast at Vera Cruz ("True Cross"). The base of the pyramid covers 42 acres. There was once a temple at the top used by Aztecs for human sacrifices. The priests drugged the victims before cutting the heart from their living bodies, then rolled the corpses down the long, long stairway to the ground below. The Cholula temple was often used for the sacrifice of the "children of the rain," innocent kids whose lives were offered up to their bloodthirsty gods to ensure the arrival of the life-sustaining rains. The rains were life's blood to an agrarian people. I remember when living on the high plateau of Central Mexico planting a few seeds and some two-inch plant cuttings along a white wall outside my front window, which blinded me with the bright reflection of the afternoon sun. I planted at the beginning of the rainy season, and three months later I had a lush tropical garden outside my door -- a shady catalpa tree twelve feet high, geraniums to my knees, canna with their red and golden flowers blooming chest-high, and full sprays of bougainvillea cascading over the wall in shades of purple, pink and red. There wasn't a patch of white wall to be seen! Speaking again of Cholula, I was so impressed at sight of the Pyramid of Quetzalcoatl from afar that I took out field glasses to get a better look. There was a Roman Catholic church on top. I ventured into the area to visit it and found it filled with exquisite carvings embossed with gold and a marvelous Crucifix holding a life-size Jesus in permanent thrall, his blood running in rivulets down his legs. I must confess I felt the same sympathy for that poor man as I felt for the dear little children whose hearts had been torn from their bodies, all of them sacrificed for causes that may sound noble in the goals they were meant to achieve, but bloody savagery all the same. I have something special for you, Nils, some information you may enjoy. A Franciscan monastery in the area was built of stone stripped from the pyramid at Cholula. At some point in the years after its construction, archaeologists who had pieced together some shards scattered around the pyramid found matching engravings in the monastery. Consolidated, they comprised paintings of a small dog, the first known representation of the breed we now call the Chihuahua.
In modern times, a French line of Chihuahuas
(perhaps dating from the French occupation of
Mexico in the mid-19th century) bears the family
name "Pyramides de Cholula." And guess what,
Nils! Subject: In a lighter vein Here's a ChannuRamaKwanzaSolstiYulaMas gift of humor for you. Dave aka luvhog
ENGINEERS EXPLAINED
ENGINEER IDENTIFICATION TEST You walk into a room and notice that a picture is hanging crooked. You...
A. Straighten it. (The correct answer is "C" but partial credit can be given to anybody who writes "It depends" in the margin of the test or simply blames the whole stupid thing on "Marketing.")
SOCIAL SKILLS "Normal" people expect to accomplish several unrealistic things from social interaction:
* Stimulating and thought-provoking conversation In contrast to "normal" people, engineers have rational objectives for social interactions:
* Get it over with as soon as possible.
FASCINATION WITH GADGETS No engineer looks at a television remote control without wondering what it would take to turn it into a stun gun. No engineer can take a shower without wondering if some sort of Teflon coating would make showering unnecessary. To the engineer, the world is a toy box full of sub-optimized and feature-poor toys.
FASHION AND APPEARANCE
LOVE OF "STAR TREK"
DATING AND SOCIAL LIFE Fortunately, engineers have an ace in the hole. They are widely recognized as superior marriage material: intelligent, dependable, employed, honest, and handy around the house. While it's true that many normal people would prefer not to date an engineer, most normal people harbor an intense desire to mate with them, thus producing engineer-like children who will have high-paying jobs long before losing their virginity. Male engineers reach their peak of sexual attractiveness later than normal men, becoming irresistible erotic dynamos in their mid thirties to late forties. Just look at these examples of sexually irresistible men in technical professions:
* Bill Gates. Female engineers become irresistible at the age of consent and remain that way until about thirty minutes after their clinical death. Longer if it's a warm day.
HONESTY Engineers sometimes bend the truth to avoid work. They say things that sound like lies but technically are not because nobody could be expected to believe them. The complete list of engineer lies is listed below.
"I won't change anything without asking you first."
FRUGALITY
POWERS OF CONCENTRATION
RISK
EXAMPLES OF BAD PRESS FOR ENGINEERS
The risk/reward calculation for engineers looks something like this:
RISK: Public humiliation and the death of thousands of innocent people. Being practical people, engineers evaluate this balance of risks and rewards and decide that risk is not a good thing. The best way to avoid risk is by advising that any activity is technically impossible for reasons that are far too complicated to explain. If that approach is not sufficient to halt project, then the engineer will fall back to a second line of defense: "It's technically possible but it will cost too much."
EGO
* How smart they are. The fastest way to get an engineer to solve a problem is to declare that the problem is unsolvable. No engineer can walk away from an unsolvable problem until it's solved. No illness or distraction is sufficient to get the engineer off the case. These types of challenges quickly become personal -- a battle between the engineer and the laws of nature. Engineers will go without food and hygiene for days to solve a problem. (Other times it's just because they forgot.) And when they succeed in solving the problem they will experience an ego rush that is better than sex--and I'm including the kind of sex where other people are involved. Nothing is more threatening to the engineer than the suggestion that somebody has more technical skill. Normal people sometimes use that knowledge as a lever to extract more work from the engineer. When an engineer says that something can't be done (a code phrase that means it's not fun to do), some clever normal people have learned to glance at the engineer with a look of compassion and pity and say something along these lines: "I'll ask Bob to figure it out. He knows how to solve difficult technical problems." At that point it is a good idea for the normal person to not stand between the engineer and the problem. The engineer will set upon the problem like a starved Chihuahua on a pork chop. ------------------------------ End of silverfoxesclub-digest V1 #89
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Kwanzaa was founded by Dr. Maulana Karenga,
now Professor & Chair, Department of Black Studies California State
University, Long Beach, who also holds other important national positions,
when he was a graduate student at the time of the Watts riots of 1965 in Los
Angeles. Sitting on the Executive Committee of the Black Power Conferences
of the 1960s, he perceived the need to bring his people together with a
sense of black identity. He developed seven unifying principles which are
geared to the social and spiritual needs of African-Americans:
One of their present-day champs is a cute
little tyke called "Nils des Pyramides de
Cholula"! This is NOT a joke! He's on the
Internet! I have attached his photo here. =20
There are pix of his mom, Lorrie, and his
dad, Maubray White, but no pic, unfortunately,
of his maternal granny who must have been a
really hot bitch. Her name is in Nils's genealogy --
in translation from the French, "Peanut
Bimbo"!