Openers: You know the story of the Three Wise Men of the East, and how they travelled from far away to offer gifts at the manger-cradle in Bethlehem. But have you heard the story of the Other Wise Man, who also saw the star in its rising, and set out to follow it, yet did not arrive with his brethren in the presence of the young child Jesus? Of the great desires of this fourth pilgrim, and how it was denied, yet accomplished in the denial; of his many wanderings and the probations of his soul; of the long way of his seeking, and the strange way of his finding, the One whom he sought -- I would tell the tale as I have heard fragments of in in the Hall of Dreams, in the Place of the Heart of Man.
-- "The Story of the Other Wise Man" by Henry van Dyke (Harper's New Monthly Magazine, January 1893; published in book form in 1895; reprinted many times, and available online at many of the usual sites)
The Fourth Wise Man is a priest of the Magi named Artaban. As with the other three wise men, he sees signs in the sky that a king has born among the Jews, and he sets out to visit the child, bringing gifts -- a sapphire, a ruby, and a pearl. On his way he meets a dying man and stops to help him, making him late for the caravan of the other wise men. Unable to cross the desert by himself with just a horse, he is forced to sell one of his treasures to purchase supplies for the journey. He arrives in Bethlehen too late to see the child -- the parents have fled to Egypt -- and he has to use another of his treasures to save the life of another child.
Artaban travels to Egypt and other countries seeking the child. along the way he performs many acts of charity. Thirty-three years have passed and he still has not achieved his goal. He arrives in Jerusalem in time for the Crucifixion of Jesus, when is must sacrifice his last treasure, a "pearl of great price" to save a young woman from being sold into slavery. He is then caught by a falling roof and is about to die, having failed in his quest, when a voice from the heavens speaks to him, using a verse from Matthew 25:40: "Verily I say unto thee, Insomuch as thou hast done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, thou hast done it unto me." Artaban is overcome with joy and wonder and dies peacefully knowing that he has found his King.
Harper's New Monthly Magazine stated, "So beautiful and so true to what is best in our natures, and so full of the Christmas spirit, is this story of The Other Wise Man that it ought to find its way into every sheaf of Christmas gifts in the land." And so it has. The story has become a classic and has been told and retold in many forms over the past one hundred thirty-two years.
Henry van Dyke (1852-1933) was an American author, educator, and diplomat; it will come as no surprise that he was also a Presbyterian minister. A professor of English literature at Princeton for twenty-four years, he was also on the committee that produce the first Presbyterian printed liturgy, The Book of Common Worship of 1906. At the request of his friend Woodrow Wilson, he became Minister the the Netherlands and Luxembourg in 1913; with the outbreak of the Great War, van Dyke proved to be an excellent diplomat, maintaining the right of /american an Europe and organizing for their relief. He was a good friend of Helen Keller, and officiated at Mark Twain's funeral.
On the literary front, he wrote many stories, poems, hymns, and essays. "The Story of the Other Wise Man" remains his best-known work, with "The First Christmas Tree" (1897) coming in at a close second. One of his best-known poems is "Time Is" -- portions of which were read at the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales: "Time is / Too slow for those who Wait, / Too swift for those who Fear, / Too long for those who Grieve, / Too short for those who Rejoice, / But for those who love, / Time is not."
Incoming:
- Joe Abercrombie, The Blade Itself. Epic fantasy, Book One in the First Law Trilogy. "Logan Ninefingers, infamous barbarian, has finally run out of luck. Caught up in one feud too many he's about to become a dead barbarian, leaving nothing behind but bad songs and dead friends. Jeral dan Luthar, paragon of selfishness, has nothing more dangerous in mind than winning glory in the fencing circle. But war is brewing, and on the battlefields of the frozen North they fight by altogether bloodier rules. Inquisitor Glokta, cripple turned torturer, would like little better than to see Jeral come home in a box. But then he hates everyone. Cutting treasures out of the heart of the Union one confession at a time leaves little room for friendships -- and his latest trail of corpses could lead straight to the rotten heart of government...if he can just stay alive long enough to follow it."
- Taylor Adams, No Exit. Thriller. "On her way to Utah to see her dying mother, college student Darby Thorne gets caught in a fierce blizzard in the California Rockies. With the roads impassable, she's forced to wait out the storm at a remote highway rest stop with no cell phone reception. Inside are some vending machines, a coffee maker, and four complete strangers. Desperate to find a signal to call home, the exhausted young art student goes back out into the storm...and makes a horrifying discovery. In the back of the van parked next to her car is a little girl locked in an animal crate. Who is this child? Why has she been taken? And how can Darby save her? There is no way to call for help and no way out. One of her fellow travelers is a kidnapper/ But which one? Trapped in an increasingly dangerous situation on the edge of civilization, with a child's life and her own on the line, Darby must find a way to break the girl out of the van and escape. But who can she trust...?"
- Linwood Barclay, The Accident. Thriller. "Glen Garber, a contractor, has seen his business shaken by the housing crisis, and now his wife, Sheila, is taking a business course at night to increase her chances of landing a good-paying job. But she should have been home by now. With their eight-year-old daughter sleeping soundly. Glen soon finds his worst fears confirmed. Sheila and two other have been killed in a car accident. Grieving and in denial, Glen resolves to investigate the accident himself -- and begins to uncover layers of of lawlessness beneath the placid surface of their Connecticut suburb, secret after dangerous secret behind closed doors. Propelled into a vortex of corruption and illegal activity, pursued by mysterious killers, and confronted wit threats from neighbors he thought he knew, Glen must take his own desperate measures and go to terrifying new places in himself to avenge his wife and protect his child."
- Burl Barr, Murder in the Family. True crime. "On March 15, 1987, police in Anchorage, Alaska arrived at a horrific scene of carnage. In a modest downtown apartment, they found Nancy Newman's brutally beaten corpse sprawled across her bed. In another room were the bodies of her eight-year-old daughter, Melissa, and her three-year-old, Angie, whose throat was slit from ear to ear. Both Nancy and Melissa had been sexually assaulted. 23-year-old Kirby Anthoney was a troubled drifter who had turned to his uncle, John Newman, Nancy's husband. But little did John know that the nephew he took in was a murderous sociopath capable of slaughtering his beloved wife and children while he was away on business. But while police built their case, Kirby bolted for the Canadian border. First they hunted him down, Then, authorities began their long, bitter battle to convict him. but the police would not be done until Kirby Anthoney took took the stand in his own defense -- and showed the world the monster he truly was." Barer is the author of a number of acclaimed true crime nonfiction books, as well as a major study of the Leslie charteris character The Saint. He is the uncle of crime writers Lee Goldberg and Tod goldberg, and a distant relative of his composed the Mighty Mouse theme song.
- Arthur C. Clarke & Stephen Baxter, The Light of Other Days. Science fiction. "...the tale of what happens when a brilliant, driven industrialist harnesses quantum physics to enable people everywhere to see one another at all times: around every corners, through every wall, into everyone's most private, hidden, and even intimate moments. This new technology amounts to the sudden and complete abolition of human privacy -- forever. Then, as men and women scramble to absorb the shock, the same technology proves able look backwards in time as well. Nothing can prepare us for what follows -- the wholesale discovery of the truth about thousands of years of human history. . Governments topple, religions fall, the entire edifice of human society is shaken to its roots. It is a fundamental change in in the terms of the human condition -- cause for despair, provocation for chaos, and -- just maybe -- opportunity for transcendence."
- Alan Dean Foster, The Tar-Aiym Krang. Science fiction novel in the author's Pip & Flinx series. "Here was a wide-open world for any venture a man might scheme. The planet attracted unwary travelers hardened space-sailors, and merchant buccaneers -- a teeming constantly shifting horde that provided a comfortable income for certain quick-witted fellows like Flinx and his per mini-dragon Pip. With his old talents the pickings were easy enough so that Flinx did not have to be dishonest...most of the time. In fact, it hardly seemed dishonest at all to steal a starmap from a dead body that didn't really need it anymore. But Flinx forgot one crucial point. He should have wondered why the body was dead in the first place,"
- Robert E. Howard, Bran Mak Morn: The Last King. In which the last king of a doomed race learns the true meaning of Christmas. Well, not really -- it's just that I noticed there are no holiday themes on this week's list of Incoming. Actually, this is a large compendium of all things Bran Mac Morn, the fierce Pictish king of a number of stories by Howard. The book is an expansion of 1969's Bran Mac Morn, adding previously uncollected poems, fragments, and drafts, as well as nearly fifty pages of background material. The book is great for Howard completists, or those who, like me, as OCD. As such, it is a perfect Christmas gift to myself, which actually alows me to mention Christmas in this holiday edition of Incoming.
- Richard Peck, The Dreadful future of Blossom Culp and Ghosts I Have Been. Two YA fantasies about Blossom Culp, a psychic girl living in a small town along the Mississippi in the early 1900s. She and her friend Alexander (also a psychic) investigate matters concerning ghosts that Blossom sees. In Dreadful Future, Blossom is cast into the 1980s, befriending a boy there and getting answers to problems she faces in her own time. In Ghosts, blossom seeks justice for a young boy who has died on the Titanic. Richard Peck (1934-2018) was an Edgar Allan Poe Award, Newbery Medal, Scott O'Dell Award winning author, and Boston Globe-Horn Book Award-winning author of young adult novels. Many of his books, including the Blossom Culp series, have become standard reading.
- John Peel, Dances with Wolves. YA werewolf novel in the Tombstones series. "Holly Brand is a heroine! She stopped a mad killer in the act. Only holly, her friend Zakiya, and police chief Dorn know the truth: the killer was a werewolf. Suddenly everyone wants to know Holly. A football hunk has even nominated her to be Midwinter Dance queen. But Gina, who would have been queen is mad enough to kill... Holly is having the time of her life... until she sees the note, written in blood: "It's not over yet." The werewolves are here and they're coming to the dance. This time she'll have to save the last one for them." Peel (b. 1954) is a prolific British author, mainly of television tie-in novels and novelizations (including Dr. Who, The Patrick Macnee Avengers and not the Marvel Avengers, Star Trek, James Bond Jr., Carmen Sandiego, Shelby Woo, Alex Mack, and Eerie Indiana) . He also has published a number of young adult horror novels under his own name and pseudonyms. His books tend to be quick reads and unlikely to win any awards.
A Few Songs for the Season:
"Dance, Little Wren"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pNSgaCYG2SA
"I Wonder as I Wander" (my favorite song of the season)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCjER0_aKjE
"O Come, O Come, Emmanuel" (this was Kitty's favorite)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zshzkkD-NYA
"Silent Night"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z15FHAVrv7A
"What Child Is This?"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJ731qXWEho
"The Holly's Whisper"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhDSkBKHZII
"Santa Bloody Claus"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xx5_MBXjED4
"Silent Night All Day Long"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kwDh_7tSpag
"Huron Carol"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zJwOPeIn_s
"Cool Yule"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ms7-6vN69nY
"Little Drummer Boy" (bagpipe version)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Cdq72l8uGU
"Boogie Woogie Santa Claus"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6cqqzp4ZN_c
"The Little Swallow" ("The Carol of the Bells")
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwHHxbuxgg0
Santa Claus Funnies #1: From December 1942, this comic book features some of the earliest work by Walt Kelly, later to gain fame as the creator of Pogo.
In "Santa Claus in Trouble," Santa upsets Belinda the Ice Queen when he criticizes the toy ice trains that Belinda has been having her Snow Men make for the children; Santa rightly mentions that the ice toys will melt when then get into the warm hands of children. In retaliation, Belinda steals Santa's sleigh and kidnaps his reindeer, while also sending a huge blizzard over the North Pole. Will Santa rescue his reindeer and sleigh in time to deliver toys to all the boys and girls in the land? If there were any toys under your tree on Christmas Day 1942, you'd know he did.
There are also a bunch of illustrated poems and songs, including "Jingle Bells," Clement Moore's "The Night before Christmas" (yeah, I know Moore did not write it -- Henry Livingston, Jr. did -- but folks back then did not know that), "O Christmas Tree," "Silent Night," Stella Mead's "Lord Octopus Went to the Christmas Fair" (illustrated by Kelly), "The First Noel," and Emile Poulsson's "Santa Claus and the Mouse."
Walt Kelly also shows up with a brilliant eight-page adaptation of Hans Christian Anderson's "The Fir Tree"; and a fifteen-page adaptation of A Christmas Carol (artist unknown); followed by a six-page legend of "The First Christmas Tree, drawn by Arthur E. Jameson. The issue ends with a page of games and puzzles, "Santa's Pencil Fun."
If this issue had come out five years later, my sister would have been upset that there were no cut-out paper dolls -- she went ga-ga over them when she was very young. Luckily for Dell comics, she had not been born yet so they managed to avoid her wrath.
The big draw here for me is Walt Kelly. Enjoy this issue, even if there are no cut-out dolls:
https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=29465
Dad Joke, Christmas Edition: How much does Santa pay for parking?
Nothing, it's on the house.
The Short Answer to Your Question is "No":
https://archive.org/details/youtube-b01gSE4ySZY
Speaking of the Above:
https://archive.org/details/Fire_Safety_-_Christmas_Tree
Toy Tinkers: My father loved Donald Duck and hard a hard time stopping laughing once the cartoon was over. This Christmas cartoon from 1949 has the added presence of Chip and Dale:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l49a9z8xBL0
Today's Poem:
How Rudolph's Nose Got Its Glow
Gene Autry sang of Rudolph
His nose so red and bright
And how he'd guide Santa's sleigh
On those foggy nights
Yes, Rudolph was now a hero
The way the story goes
But have you ever stopped to think
How Rudolph got that nose
It all started years ago
That's what the reindeer say
No matter what the reindeer did
Rudolph was always in their way
He was in the middle of their work
And in their way at play
When he got in the middle of their football game
An accident happened that day
The score was tied six to six
With just seconds left to go
When Prancer decided to try and kick
A thirty yard field goal
Donner was ready with the ball
Prancer's foot was back to kick
Then all of a sudden from nowhere
In Rudolph's nose did stick
Prancer's foot came flying
As the story goes
But instead of kicking the football
He kicked Rudolph on the nose
Rudolph's nose began to swell
The it began to glow
The sky was lit for miles and miles
From Rudolph's bright red nose
Many years have now gone past
Since that awful day
Although the swelling has long been gone
His nose still glows today
So now you know the whole story
It wasn't Rudolph who saved the night
For if it hadn't been for Prancer's foot
Santa would never have made the flight
-- Woody Woodruff (December 1996)
[hat tip to Miss Cellania]
I know we have all been going through some pretty tough times this year. But the solstice has passed us and the days are getting longer and the darkness is retreating. And this is a time for celebrating for many of the world's religions. No mater what your belief, the hope of a new year is upon us. May we take that hope and hold it close to our hearts as we venture forward. We may be muddling through, but we are all muddling through together and, as one, our light is strong enough to face and overcome many of the travails that may await us.
May each of you enjoy peace and joy this holiday season.
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