I love the word — Spelacchio — and it's funny to personify and bully a tree. The tree has no feelings. I mean... wait... if this were a Christmas story Spelacchio would have feelings. The mocking would hurt, and Spelacchio would find some way to express its sadness, its compassion for the poor and the sick. Spelacchio would find a way to express the true meaning of Christmas....
But the old "Charlie Brown Christmas" got there first. It's a key plot point that the tree is low quality.
In fact, now I see that the NYT story ends with the idea of taking the tree's point of view. It quotes from a column in an Italian newspaper that imagines the tree lashing out:
“You have a dark, chaotic, dirty city, you throw everything on the ground, nothing works and tourists are supposed to think it’s all my fault. Look, I am not a metaphor of Italy. It’s you.”That's not my true-meaning-of-Christmas idea. That's just about the opposite of the true meaning of Christmas: I am not the problem; you other people are awful.
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The failure of Europe is a lesson for America. Green Power has massively failed there. Socialized medicine is a failure. Now we can see how massive Muslim immigration is working out. Maybe we should ask the rape victims of Malmo. That’s Malmo, Sweden. Not Malmo, Nebraska.
Daily Mail below. Get used to it Europe. And, I should add, the Jesuit Pope is wrong and clueless here. As a man, he doesn’t have to worry about rape and he doesn’t have any daughters.
“Three gang rapes in less than a month have taken place in Malmo, Sweden
This weekend, a 17-year-old girl was brutally gang raped in a playground
After the most recent rape, police advised that women should not go out alone
Hundreds took to the streets to protest the violence and police action”
That's just about the opposite of the true meaning of Christmas: I am not the problem; you other people are awful
It's the true meaning of Festivus. I got a lotta problems with you people!
A long time ago we brought in and decorated a tumbleweed for our Christmas tree. Didn't require any water to keep it green but the angel made it top heavy and want to roll around the room.
No tree in Festivus. Only a pole without decoration.
I’ve been to Portland and Rome this year. Rome was cleaner.
During the Holidays the Ave used to put up shooting stars that arced above the street, white lights star, white lights trail. They looked like something from the early Sixties; maybe their original appearance coincided with the 1962 World Fair, which brought the Space Needle and the Monorail. This origin is just a guess, but I like it, so have no desire to research further.
They were there last year. This year they are not there. Instead, there are a few trees wrapped with white lights. Generic. Could be anywhere. Maybe too expensive to run, maybe too expensive to maintain. Maybe they require a unique part that hasn't been made since 1972, and they don't have replacement parts anymore, and they don't have the people anymore who can even jury-rig something like that. The last of the people with those skills retired last year, maybe. Perhaps it coincides with the Last of the Television Repairmen.
So the Ave becomes a little less special. Which is pretty much the Story of the Ave. From upscale shoppers at Nordstroms fifty years ago to today's Heroin Kids down by the Seven-Eleven, begging change to buy a hot dog or a bag of Doritos.
Just something I was thinking as I stood outside the bar, having a cigarette, looking at where the stars had been. And being asked by numerous Street Urchins if I had a cigarette to give, or a dollar bill. It is no longer spare change: they want paper money. But I'll save that digression for later.
Back in the day the Shooting Stair Maintenance Guy and the Last of the Television Repairmen probably had a smoke inside a bar after work. Back then, they could have a smoke at work, inside. Times change. This time of year just makes those changes more noticeable, in that melancholy way the Holidays have when you feel melancholy during the Holidays.
- james james
Sadly the word spelaccio is not related etymologically to "splotchy".
Totally should be.
Last May Rome was doing a little better at picking up trash, but there was a G7 summit going on so perhaps the payments to whoever decides that things will or will not be done was increased for a few weeks.
TW
What's amazing about that cartoon is how religious it is.
Also the funky dances.
For those who missed it before, here is an ad for The Charlie Brown School of Dance.
It has been ruled out that the tree is not some sort of art installation or political statement, hasn't it? I mean, I could see them paying some guy in leather pants to put up a mangy tree and say it was about racism or sexual harassment or how Christianity sucks.
I can also see how they'd back away from it once the public came out about how much they hated it; especially since they don't want the public to find out about them paying Ol' Leather Pants 50,000€ to do what my cheap-ass father in law does every year for $22.50.
Personally I prefer The Grinch, but that is down to execution. Boris Karloff narrating and Chuck Jones directing the silent bits? Talk about the dream team.
@Saint Croix, Charles Schulz was a profoundly religious man so why are you surprised?
Guardian TV Reviews - Dec 21 2017:
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Judi Dench: My Passion for Trees -
"My life now is just trees, isn’t it,” says Judi Dench. “Trees and, erm, champagne.”
So Dame Judi gets the trees. Judi Dench: My Passion for Trees (BBC One) it’s called, and it’s rather lovely.
She has her own secret woodland at home in Surrey, where she has been planting trees for 30 years, initially with her husband, Michael Williams. He died in 2001 and there’s a tree here in his memory. Many of Dench’s friends are remembered in trees. “It’s something living that goes on,” she explains. “You don’t remember them and stop; you remember them and the memory goes on and gets more wonderful.”
Judi Dench has Harvey Weinstein's name tattooed on her ass.
She could cover it with a tree tattoo now, I suppose.
@Saint Croix, Charles Schulz was a profoundly religious man so why are you surprised?
Surprised that CBS let him do it.
I never thought it was such a bad little tree. It's not bad at all, really. Maybe it just needs a little love.
I had one of these in my office last year, but had to take the batteries out (some people don't like the classics):
Amazon - Charlie Brown Christmas Tree
You should use the Althouse portal to purchase one for yourself, naturally.
@Saint Croix, Charles Schulz was a profoundly religious man so why are you surprised?
I'm surprised that CBS allowed it.
It's a retelling of Dickens' "A Christmas Carol", featuring the ragged tree as "Timmy".
Tim Wolter said... Sadly the word spelaccio is not related etymologically to "splotchy".
--
But thankfully, not related to fellatio.
That would be a lot of unwanted public activity...definitely cheapening the public space.
We've always had Charlie Brown Christmas trees. When we were young that's all we could afford, and one of our current ornaments is the price tag from an early tree: $9.97. At some point the really cheap trees became unavailable in the city (the economics must not have worked), so we began cutting them ourselves in the mountains, where the young Doug Fir naturally grow tall and spindly. The ideal tree is about 12 feet tall, 2.5 feet wide, with a drooping tip.
Even if you have a 9ft. ceiling?
Ideally the ceiling deflects the tip a bit.
I suppose I should note that Charlie Brown actually picked that tree specifically. The narrative was that a loser picked a loser Christmas tree, basically out of solidarity. The tree needed love and so did Charlie Brown.
I doubt that was the thought process for Rome.
Had the same problem here in Rhode Island: the state tree at the capitol dropped all its needles. They finally took it down Monday. We Rhodies mostly shrugged: its a RI thing that our government is considered inept. Our local news industry is so bad they never told us, but I believe they never watered the tree. Because water isn't in the budget. Or buckets. Also, not my job.
502 error. Thankfully I had copied before publishing (trying to publish). Update - third 502 error in a row. Three cheers for cntl-C
@jameswhy, everybody knew it needed water, and anyone could have watered it, but nobody did and so it died. That about summarize the case?
The tragedy of the commons.
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