Six to Eight Black Men

Keeping in the holiday theme, I don't know how familiar you are, or are not, with David Sedaris. He does commentary sometimes on NPR (because, well you know, who would evah listen to anything else on the radio, Muffy?), and has written several books, including "Holiday on Ice" which is Christmas themed, and pretty darn funny. Anyway, last year, one of Tim's co-workers, who knows we like David (as well as his crazy "Strangers with Candy" sister Amy), loaned him a CD of him performing "Live at Carnegie Hall." Included with the other bits on it was his reading of a piece he wrote in December 2002 for Esquire magazine, called "Six to Eight Black Men." It is a story of how he learned about Dutch traditions regarding the holiday season, and it is one of the funniest things I have ever heard.

I was planning to share it with you, but realized that I do not have legal permission to do so, and there are limits to what I will download illegally, especially at Christmastime. But if you would like to read it, visit everyone's friend, Google, and type in:

"six to eight black men" sedaris

There are a couple of links (including the first one) to the entire piece. Not that I am encouraging you to violate U.S. Copryright Law and fair use or anything. It's up to you how much you want to tempt fate. But it is really funny, that's all I'll say ...

Anyhow, the reason it even entered my brain today, is because it's the eve of St. Nicholas Day, which even though I am not Dutch, has always been a favorite celebration of mine. I was poking around to see what Wikipedia and such had to say about it, and it's really very interesting, if you feel like taking a look for yourself.

One thing I learned is that on December 5, there is a celebration for the eve of St. Nicholas Day, and adults as well as children join in the festivities. Which, if you ask me, is as it should be. It seems that most adults I run into this time of year are busy complaining about the holidays, and how stressed out they are, how much money they are spending, blah, blah, blah, I could go on but won't. I absolutely love it when I run into someone who is actually enjoying the holidays, and participating too. Apparently in the Netherlands, the eve of St. Nicholas Day is nearly as big an event as the day itself.

So I say, Go Netherlands!

For some other interesting information about St. Nicholas celebrations, as well as a few really neat images, take a look at these links:

http://www.virtualvienna.net/holidays/xmas/xmasmain.html

http://savvytraveler.publicradio.org/show/features/1999/19991225/legend.shtml
(smaller so the link will fit)

I hope if/when St. Nicholas visits your house, he doesn't take you with him when he leaves!

P.S. to Carol: I'll post the pictures of Tim's vest as soon as I can take the store label out without messing up the thing ... oh, and since it's a gift for Tim, forget the Gap, I bought that baby at Nordstrom's ... and thanks for the reminder about the price tag!

Also:

20 days to go!