Thermopylae

Home / Something Wise / Thermopylae
by gerryadmin

One of the my favourite poets is C.P. Cavafy, a gay Greek-Egyptian civil servant of the early 20th century. In this poem he honours the Spartan infantry who in 480 BC made a stand against an overwhelmingly superior Persian invasion force, before a treacherous local guide, Ephialtis, showed the enemy a way to attack the defenders from behind. Cavafy uses that example to praise all those who, in different ways, imitate the Spartans in their daily lives.

Honour to those who in the life they lead
define and guard a Thermopylae.
Never betraying what is right,
consistent and just in all they do
but showing pity also, and compassion;
generous when they are rich, and when they are poor,
still generous in small ways,
still helping as much as they can;
always speaking the truth,
yet without hating those who lie.
 
And even more honor is due to them
when they foresee (as many do foresee)
that in the end Ephialtis will make his appearance,
that the Medes will break through after all.

The Passions of Carol

Home / Christmas / The Passions of Carol
by gerryadmin

There have been many variations on Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol: it has been set in London, in the American Midwest, in black ghettoes and modern television studios; Scrooge has been played by men, women, Muppets, puppets and cartoon ducks. Few versions, however, have stretched the genre as much as The Passions of Carol, a 1975 pornographic movie starring Merrie Holiday. Directed by Shaun Costello, the movie examines the change of heart Christmas brings to Carol Scrooge, a cruel editor of a skin magazine.

 

The Parson Has Lost His Cloak

Home / Christmas / The Parson Has Lost His Cloak
by gerryadmin

A traditional English Christmas game whose rules are now lost to us. A passage from The Spectator of 1712 refers to it:

Mr Spectator

I desire to know in your Next, if the merry Game of the Parson has lost his Cloke, is not mightily in Vogue amongst the fine Ladies this Christmas; because I see they wear Hoods of all Colours, which I suppose is for that Purpose; if it is, and you think it proper, I will carry some of those Hoods with me to our Ladies in Yorkshire; because they injoined me to bring them something from London that was very new. If you can tell any Thing in which I can obey their Commands more agreeably, be pleas’d to inform me, and you will extreamly oblige,

Your humble Servant

Der Haus-Christ

Home / Christmas / Der Haus-Christ
by gerryadmin

Literally “The House Christ”, a sixteenth-century German term for the gift-bringer. German Protestants who wished to abolish the Catholic cult of saints needed a replacement for St. Nicholas as the traditional bearer of presents at Christmas. Clergymen then spoke of Christ himself as the bringer of good things at Christmas and his collection of gifts as the “Christ-bundle”. From this developed the belief in the “Christkindl”, a child-like figure dressed in white representing the Christ Child as bringer of Christmas gifts.

And I don’t even have a bow tie

Home / Something Wise / And I don’t even have a bow tie
by gerryadmin

My father gave me three excellent pieces of advice: 1. Never trust a man in a ready-made bow tie. A man who cannot concentrate long enough to fasten a bow tie is never going to be a well of nuanced or intriguing conversation. 2. One Vodka Martini is not enough, two is plenty and three is too many. 3. Live your life with passion, or there is no point. You might as well drink three Vodka Martinis with a man sporting clip-on neckwear.

— Sandi Toksvig