Bilbo Gobbler and The Christmas Creep

Hi Carolyn,



Just spent an unabashedly bucolic but most enjoyable evening taking in the local little theatre production of Brigadoon. My LSBH was one of the set design and creation crew and part of the fun was to see just how those  artificially created trees and rocks and rustic village props and all looked once they were onstage and in the spotlight.  They looked pretty cool, to be sure.

 Up until now I hadn't been familiar with the story, but I sure recognized a lot of the music, probably because  my mom, ( who was always either humming or singing something - usually theatrical in origin ) made it part of the soundtrack of my youngest years.

It does have a wee sci-fi twist to it, lassies and laddies. A village out in the rural wilds of Scotland, appears for a day once every century. Our heroes just happen to be there and one of them falls in love with a fair maiden etc. etc. The catch is that after 24 hours the whole place simply disappears for another century ( although to the inhabitants its just like waking up the next day ) There's none of this complicated space-time continuum or other scientific stuff used to explain it. It's all God's doing - back in 1946 this kind of explanation still registered strongly on the plausibility meter.




Actually, it makes me chuckle just a bit to even think of someone, with a Scottish brogue as thick as toffee, wrapping their tongue around the phrase " space time continuum "   Although, I guess if Scotty could handle " di-lithium crystals " then this term wouldn't be daunting.






Had another historically fuelled moment this week too. Let's call it a " Pilgrim Moment ".  It's been a dismal, dull, damp and drizzly last few days, but I've been out putting the place to bed for the winter none-the-less. The snowblower is ready, the eavestroughs/gutters are all emptied, the most egregious blankets of leaves are cleaned up and moved  to the forest out back  ( they weigh a lot more when wet, so progress has been fairly slow ) and all of those others things have been, or are in the process of being tackled to get ready for the you-know-what stuff that will soon start falling. We've seen it in the air already.








Later last week, while I was involved in this depressing task, I turned around while working in the middle of the backyard because I had that something is watching me feeling. There, not ten feet away were four very bold and very husky wild turkeys. They had crossed the little gully that separates our yard from the forest proper and were making their way past me, through the yard to wherever it is wild turkeys go at this time of year. These weren't little gobblers, either. A couple of them were Hobbit sized. They glomped right past me as if I wasn't there at all. It made me  think that if this is how they acted way back when, in the presence of a musket bearing pilgrim, no wonder they became the centerpiece in that quintessential  Thanksgiving chow-down.

While we're on the topic of encroaching seasons, I guess you folk down there may be shielded a bit from this phenomenon simply because you've got Thanksgiving bearing down on you as we speak/blog. Up here, however, Thanksgiving has passed and now comes the beginning of what I recently heard referred to as - The Christmas Creep. It's a most fitting term, too.  That creeping, ever expanding space of time during which the marketers of all things Christmas, inundate, and overpower us with yuletide hype.  C'mon, it's still early November..!






Yes, this is my yearly mini-rant about how we are bombarded relentlessly for almost two months from all media sources and in all ways imaginable about the absolute necessity of buying this and using that and doing the other, in the name of the season. It's stress-inducement to the power of one-million for the hapless and helpless shopper. Make no mistake, with the powers of digital information gathering, statistical analysis and behavioural science working in their corner, the marketers and manufacturers have us outflanked, outgunned, outmanoeuvered and  outnumbered to a quantum degree. 


 What alarms me. though, is that I've never had to roll out the  rapacious commercialism rant  this early.

 

 

' Tis true that there will always be people who will start Christmas shopping just after the end of the summer.   My LSBH has a very good friend who brags and boasts about how she always has her shopping done before Labor Day.   These people are at the one end of that sensible  yuletide shopping yardstick. Somebody has to be there, I guess. I'm close to the last minute, wait for spontaneity and wacky inspiration to swoop in and save me end of the stick.





Now, if this was King Don's Kingdom, things would be handled differently. There would be no mention in any national/regional/local media, of Christmas  before December the first. November would be the final denouement of summer and autumn. We'd have more time to reflect on just how great the spring, summer and autumn months have been. People could still shop, but they would have to go into the dens of thieves of their own free will.   Anyone looking for presents for folks on other continents could do so through Amazon or any other online means that require you to at least exercise your free will as to whether or not you choose to  step through their digital door before being pelted with offers.



Okay, we are now back in the RANT FREE ZONE.



 

 

 Had a couple of chats with our daughter recently that were reaffirmations of human nature in a manner of speaking. She's dealing with the wonderful world of office politics. It's lethal just about anywhere but especially toxic in academia. Mind you, this could have a beneficial corollary effect.   She's starting to feel, I hope, that she doesn't have to stay in Canada to follow her academic dreams.

 

Back to the riddles for a bit. You were right. It was baseball. Whatever you're up to there at your educational institution lately has made you sharp as the sharpest tack. I'm gonna leave things off here riddle-wise and let you toss the next ball.


We are starting to think about our Mexico bout for 2014. An airline offer that we couldn't refuse was time sensitive and we ended up booking for almost two months in Merida this year. Can we be turning into bona-fide snowbirds??


Catch ya later,

Don





All images sourced from Google Images

Fig. 1 - www.Owensoundsuntimes.com

Fig. 2 - www.longislandpress.com

Fig. 3 - www.youtube.com

Fig. 4 - www.globalresearch.ca

Fig. 5 - aqwwiki.com

Fig. 6 - sgjobsdb.com