OK, it's now officially the Christmas season! Sure, retailers started putting up decorations and holiday sale merchandise before Halloween, and Black Friday's shopping mania is still two weeks away, but we date the season from the lighting of Racine's Monument Square Christmas tree.
Make-a-Wish participant Frankie Hernandez of Kenosha lit the tree Saturday night, pushing the "on" switch with the help of Santa himself.
The tree lighting followed a 90-minute parade viewed by thousands -- mostly children, huddled under blankets or bundled into parkas along Main and Sixth Streets. They were treated to the usual assortment of holiday spectacle: dancers, bands, a few holiday floats, princesses, reindeer and dogs in their holiday finery.
And the usual anomalies: cars promoting a driving school, radio stations and plasma; Star Wars characters; Corvettes for Christ; the mayor with a "Dickert for Mayor" sign on his car; SC Johnson "product characters." Ah, the true meaning of Christmas!
Oh, and Santa, of course.
She had the biggest candy cane along the parade route
Milwaukee's Dancing Grannies
Postal Carriers making sure kids' letters to Santa will get delivered
Rescue dogs
The Grinch rode a snowmobile
Atonement Lutheran Church's float had Santa and a Nativity scene
Frankie Hernandez and Santa lit the tree
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Caught on camera - guy steals ornament from downtown Christmas tree after lighting -
ReplyDeletehttp://heatherrayne.wordpress.com/2010/11/14/dude-steals-downtown-ornament-behind-santas-back/
it is sad that the hard work of the prople who decorated this beautiful tree is not acknowledged, shame on you Pete.....
ReplyDeletethank you Christopher James, for all the hard work that you did to make this tree absolutely fabulous!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteDear Friends, To anyone who knows about the poverty, hunger and misery presently prevalent in Racine, our Fool-tide festivities are ridiculous. Add two utterly-unjustifiable foreign wars coupled with a dysfunctional government and you'll easily understand why perceptive people aren't in the mood for Ho-Ho-Hokum. As any smart rank-and-filer will tell you, fetes and flummery are part of The Man's campaign to keep his victims dumb, down and docile. Good societies in which workers enjoy decent treatment rarely indulge in silly spectacles. Conversely, communities whose billionaire boodle-baggers grind cheap temps into the muck cram their calendars with these distractions while hoping that their toilers never wise up and rise up against The System.
ReplyDeleteVery Crass-Mess!
ReplyDelete@ 11:28. There will always, ALWAYS, be misery, corruption, poverty, hunger, etc. etc. etc in the world. It is never going to go away. To think it will is naive and you will never experience nothing but disappointment.
ReplyDeleteWe do these silly celebratory things because this is a quality of life issue - if nothing is to be celebrated or enjoyed ever because there's so much crap in the world, really: what is the point of living? You have a right to be happy and celebrate, and you also have a duty to do your part and make the world better.
Mr. Angry (11:28) why did it take you so long to comment?
ReplyDeleteWho's Mr. Angry? I'm just a guy who knows how The System works.
ReplyDeleteMr. Angry - no you know how your pathetic life works.
ReplyDeleteNo, my life isn't pathetic. However, I know a certain Dickert disciple who won't be able to dominate our Down-er-town once his mentor ceases to occupy City Hall.
ReplyDelete9:49 - Even your response is pathetic.
ReplyDeleteAfter the April election, we'll see who laughs last--and best.
ReplyDeleteMust you pathetic losers turn everything into political posturing?
ReplyDeleteThe story and photos are of a Christmas parade and Downtown tree lighting. If you can't get into the holiday spirit, then take your bile somewhere else.
Getting back to the subject (Christmas ), you'd be shocked to learn that one of the reasons the Pilgrims fled England was their desire to avoid Yuletide festivities. Sad to say, Christmas exists because the Roman Emperor Constantine wanted to preserve the pagan Winter Solstice celebrations he'd enjoyed as a Mithraist and a follower of Sol Invictus. In order to keep the Solstice rites around in a realm which was rapidly converting to Christianity, Constantine decreed that Jesus was born on December 25. (Since Roman law made His Majesty the head of all legal religions, Pope Sylvester went along with Constantine's ideas. What's more, Pope Sylvester even let Constantine call himself the "Second Messiah.") Centuries later, when scholars discovered the true origins of Christmas, the Puritans and the Pilgrims refused to celebrate it. In fact, an anti-Christmas pamphlet ascribed to a Pilgrim led King James I to persecute religious dissenters galore. To avoid arrest and possible death, Pilgrims galore took refuge in The Netherlands. Eventually, some of them crossed the Atlantic and established a colony wherein they'd be free to ignore Christmas.
ReplyDeleteWe have to remember that Christmas as observed at the court of King James I was anything but a Christian holiday. From what I've been able to learn, it featured drinking, dancing and elaborate plays called masques which starred skimpily-clad noblewomen. Sometimes the titled dames became so inebriated that they forgot their lines, fell down or even threw up on King James! Other coarse Yuletide romps included baptizing swine with nonsensical names or letting a jester named "The Lord of Misrule" regale the court with dirty jokes.
ReplyDeleteIn short, the Pilgrims' opposition to Christmas wasn't mere bigotry. Even relatively tolerant modern Christians wouldn't endorse Christmas as it was celebrated by King James I and his retinue.
ReplyDeleteThis toadish town produces nonsense the way Detroit turns out tin chariots. Recently a local loco kleptoplutocrat handed Cornell eleven million bucks for a telescope in Chile! (Since Cornell has an endowment larger than the net worth of a small nation, the corporate kook should have his head examined. If Mister Junk--the name is close enough--had been smarter and kinder,he could have wiped out hunger in Racine forever!)
ReplyDelete4:27, 4:38, 4:43 - Maybe you should formulate your idea (s) and put them into one post rather than responding to your own. Oh, and by the way Merry Christmas.
ReplyDeleteSnappy Howly-Daze!
ReplyDeleteOne word to describe this guy: SCROOGE!
ReplyDeleteNo, he's just a realist who knows how The Man uses fetes and follies to stultify and stomp on ordinary people. By and large, functional countries which care for their citizens have few festivals. When everyday life is bearable, celebrations and festivals aren't necessary. On the other hand, failed states run by corrupt oligarchies overload their calendars with spectacles and ballyhoo to distract the oppressed fom overthrowing The System. (The standard examples of good, relatively-fest-free nations are Canada, Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland. As for fiesta-ridden dysfunctional countries, Spain's erstwhile colonies lead the pack. Just ask anyone who's been to Mexico lately. If you want a non-Hispanic land where corruption and carnivals prevail, India will fill the bill to perfection. Ditto Red China or North Korea.)
ReplyDeleteMr. Angry - you are not an ordinary person (not sure what that is), but as always you are a pathetic loser with nothing ever positive to say about anything.
ReplyDeleteWho's Mr. Angry? Incidentally, if you want an example of an impoverished, dysfunctional country where downtrodden serfs are crazy about festivals, just research the sorry situation in Cambodia. Recently, a silly celebration featuring dragon boats (Bon Om Touk) cost the lives of 345 stampeding participants. You can read all about it on p.5A of our "Journal Times" for 11/23/2010.
ReplyDeleteAnyone who knows what festivals are and understands their role in the oppression of the disadvantaged classes won't be fooled by our kleptoplutocracy's propaganda. Racine's obsession with foolish fetes didn't happen by accident. Follow the treasure trail to certain cushy compounds in Wind Point and you'll learn why Racine's calendar is over-supplied with special events.
ReplyDeleteMr. Angry - once again wait until someone responds to your dribble before you add another post - LOSER, May the parties, festivals, gala's continue -
ReplyDeleteWho is Mister Angry? Calling opponents madmen or accusing them of emotional instability is an age-old right-wing ploy. As for "the parties, festivals, galas," anyone who knows what they are and why they're cluttering up Racine's calendar won't be fooled into equating this town with a healthy community.
ReplyDeleteMemo to Mister Junk: Considering Cornell's obscenely-bloated endowment fund, it didn't--and doesn't--require your money. (Assuming that the Cayugan cash-cadgers actually want that telescope in Chile, they can purchase it minus your moolah.) The next time you feel the philanthropic urge, please remember the community from which you obtained your stash and invest accordingly.
ReplyDeleteMemo to The House of Wax: Your sponsorship of the ridiculous parade is notorious. What's more, the common man isn't the dull drudge his grandpa was. Unlike Hib's victims, he knows what festivals are and why his oppressors promote them. If you're smart, you'll ramp up your charity work and put a lid on your glitzy galas.
ReplyDeleteWith wars in Iraq and Afghanistan (as well as conflicts brewing in Pakistan and the Korean Peninsula), we neither need nor desire holiday hooey. Instead of blowing dough on noxious nonsense, the oligarchy should start returning its ill-gotten wealth to its victims, the rank-and-file residents of Racine.
ReplyDeleteMr. Angry - you are always looking for a handout - it's not going to happen. The obligarchy are going to spend it on themselves, parties, festivals, gala's and telescopes. You know why, because we can and we want to and we enjoy it. Too bad sucker.
ReplyDeleteWho said that I'm Mister Angry? Who said that I wanted a "handout"? Enjoy your follies and foibles why you may. Coming soon after the reactionaries bring us the mother of all depressions: The People's Government.
ReplyDeleteThe third sentence should read: Enjoy your follies and foibles while you may. Seriously, he who laughs last, laughs best.
ReplyDeleteCorporate capitalism is unsustainable. Sooner or later, it will crash and burn, brought down by the greed and corruption of its entrepreneurial criminals. The next crash--which will make '29 look like a church picnic--will pave the way for a leftist regime. I wouldn't want to be the gala guy or the amateur astronomer when the revolutionary tribunals start handing down sentences.
ReplyDeleteComing sooner than some folks care to think: the first genuine revolution in our sorry history.
ReplyDeleteAnyone who'll free us from the corporate porkers will be very welcome. Good riddance to free enterprise, the curse of this country!
ReplyDeleteSeriously speaking, most of us would be far better off under socialism. (Anyone who doubts this should compare the lifestyles and benefits enjoyed by European and Canadian workers with the endless low-wage toil and lack of social programs endured by American laborers.) Every other First World nation has chucked free enterprise in history's garbage can. The time has come for the USA to join the rest of the civilized world.
ReplyDeleteThat tarted up tree in front of the Somerset Club tells any preceptive person all he needs to know about Fool-tide Follies in Racine.
ReplyDeleteMr. Angry - as always, please provide me with a date and time this will occur so I can get it on my calendar. Also, as always, you should let people respond before you respond to yourself.
ReplyDelete10:24 - Let's stop by for a drink at Somerset!
ReplyDeleteFine--but please tell the staff to remove the dirty picture from the bar.Also, I hope that your club's name doesn't refer to Frances Carr, Countess of Somerset (d.1632). From what I've been able to learn, the Countess of Somerset was a promiscuous poisoner.
ReplyDeleteAnyone who wants information anent Frances Howard Devereux Carr, Countess of Somerset should read Miriam Allen de Ford's "The Overbury Affair: The Murder Trial That Rocked the Court of King James I" (Philadelphia: Chilton, 1960).
ReplyDeleteMr. Angry - Isn't Google great?
ReplyDeleteWho's Mister Angry? Buddy, I didn't get the title of that book from Google. Years ago, I read that volume at the University of Michigan. (Never would I recommend a book just because its title turned up on Google. Unless I've perused a book, I refrain from asking others to consult it.)
ReplyDeleteHa!
ReplyDeleteHa!Remember, he who laughs last, laughs best.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, not every historian condemns the Countess of Somerset. Back in 1996, Routledge of London published David Lindley's "The Trials of Frances Howard." To hear Lindley tell it, the Countess of Somerset was more sinned against than sinning during her sad life. Indeed, she might have been unjustly convicted of poisoning Sir Thomas Overbury.
ReplyDeleteIf anyone can tell me why the guys who founded the Somerset Club back in 1904 gave it that name,I'll be very grateful. Here on the Near Northside, many folks maintain that there's something secretive, sinister or even Satanic about the Somerset Club and its members. Rumors claim that the organization dotes on and collects pornography, including a picture of a masturbating redhead displayed in its bar. (Reportedly, the offensive painting and other nasty items go into hiding before members' wives and progeny are allowed to attend the Somerset Club's annual Christmas party.)
ReplyDeleteLet's hope that the stories about the filthy picture are nothing but baseless ballyhoo. Considering Racine's already-raunchy reputation, we don't need a scandal at the Some-Are-Set-For-Life Club.
ReplyDeleteSome-Are-Set-For-Life - too bad you're not loser.
ReplyDeleteHow do you know, Buddy? Meanwhile, he who laughs last, laughs best.
ReplyDeleteHe who laughs last, laughs best - that's the best you can do. No one as depressing as you could qualify as Some-Are-Set-For-Life.
ReplyDeleteYour Buddy!
Who said that I was "depressing"? Who said that I'm not economically-secure? As for laughing last or best, let's see what happens after the collapse of corporate capitalism.
ReplyDeleteI said you were depressing - didn't you read my post? You are dumber than I thought - and keep dreaming about the collapse of capitalism. We're back - and we are stronger than ever - you liberals have f'd things about enough - How's that Hope and Change working for you now?
ReplyDeleteI am not--and never have been--your Mister Angry. As for your clout, you capitalist clowns will wish you'd lost the midterm elections once your failure to fix the broken economic system recoils on you. When the economy heads further south under your political puppets, the public will swing left. Coming sooner than you and your crass class brothers care to think: the first progressive regime in the sorry history of this land. We've got men who'll make Obama look like Ronald Reagan.
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile, we know how to hate--and wait.
ReplyDeleteMr. Angry - I'm done with you. You are DISMISSED!
ReplyDeleteWho's Mr. Angry? For your sake, I hope that you'll never meet a genuinely angry man endowed with the power and authority to crush the corporate class.
ReplyDeleteWho are you to dismiss anyone? Coming sooner than the oligarchy cares to think: Etiquette lessons for elitists. After we elect leftist officials, money-mutts will learn to mind their manners a.s.a.p.
ReplyDeleteIn the meantime (and it IS a mean time for the impoverished majority), we know what festivals are and why the oppressor class inflicts them on us. Good societies in developed, post-industrial nations rarely puch fetes at the populace. Conversely, cultures cursed with extreme wealth disparities and the countries wherein social inequality prevails promote silly spectacles early and often. (Don't take my word for it. Ask anyone who travels. By and large, dictatorships and banana republics fund fiestas galore while progressive regimes eschew them. Whenever and wherever daily life is bearable, people neither want nor need diversions.)
ReplyDeleteTo anyone who knows what he's looking at, our "City of Festivals" is SICK.
ReplyDeleteIF you doubt the above statement, drive around our down-er town and observe the plethora of "For Sale," "For Lease" and "For Rent" signs. Take a gander at the foreclosure notices in the "Journal Times." Research our atrocious minority infant mortality, unemployment and high school drop out rates. Then ponder the fact that our civic Poobahs feel free to blow dough on garbage like the Winterfest Snow Sculpting Competition and Festival. Trust me, the Marie Antoinette Fan Club is alive and SICK in Racine.
ReplyDeleteSee you all on Monument Square this weekend!
ReplyDeleteDon't forget to bring Marie Antoinette's ghost. Inasmuch as she enjoyed sleigh rides while her subjects froze and starved to death, she'd appreciate our thoroughly-wasteful Winterfest.
ReplyDeleteDear Sir (or is it "Sewer"?), Did Marie Antoinette arrive with her head tucked underneath her arm? When I reflect on her sleigh rides--shared with Lesbian ladies-in-waiting clad in white fur and diamonds--I'm sure that Winterfest would suit Marie Antoinette to perfection. (No disrespect is intended to our Gay community. By the way, Marie Antoinette wasn't a very good boss to one of these gender-bending gals, Madame de Lamballe. Although she yammered about her love for Lamballe, Marie Antoinette did zilch to prevent a mob from decapitating her and parading the severed head plus the eviscerated nude corpse through the streets of Paris.)
ReplyDeleteUntil poverty is eradicated from Racine, this town has no business splurging on Winterfest and other follies.
ReplyDeleteNeeded urgently--an end to useless festivals which render Racine ridiculous. Until unemployment dips below 5%, there should be a moratorium on foolish fetes.
ReplyDeleteMr. Angry - I hope you enjoyed the snow sculptures - they were wonderful weren't they. You have a wonderful holiday, enjoy all the festivities of food, drink, and grander. And wishing you another horrible year in 2011 - you deserve it.
ReplyDeleteSay hello ato Marie and her gay friends. It's too bad you are homophobic.
Dear Sewer, Please hire somebody to check your orthography. "Grandeur" is NOT spelled g-r-a-n-d-e-r. Furthermore, my name isn't "Mr. Angry." For your sake, I hope you never meet an irate man with the authority to crush your class and its evil little system.
ReplyDeleteMr. Angry - good catch on the spelling - Sounds like a threat to me.You'd better be careful who this gets sent to.
ReplyDeleteNobody is threatening you. The rage of the common man is aimed at the evil capitalist system. Once the government builds a social safety net for all citizens and caps individual fortunes at $10.000,000.00, the toilers won't hate solvent people.
ReplyDeleteWhen you pay high taxes to fund redistribution programs, please think of them as premiums on your social stability insurance policy.
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile, Marie Antoinette says "Joyeux Noel."
ReplyDeleteDitto Madame de Lamballe.
ReplyDeleteMr. Angry - The word joyous is not in your vocabulary, you miserable old soul. I am done with you - you are dismissed!
ReplyDeleteWho's Mr. Angry? I'm neither miserable nor old--just a realist. As for dismissing and dissing others, wise men never do so. After all, they may need relatively-insignificant individuals' help somewhere down the line. (Remember Aesop's fable about the lion and the mouse...) Enjoy a Very Merry Christmas!
ReplyDeleteBe nice to mice. Don't forget that we reside in Rat-Scene, The Rodent City, aka the Mickey Mouse Scum-poo-ny Town.
ReplyDelete6:35 - No you live in the Rodent neighborhood and you are the biggest Rodent of all!
ReplyDeleteWith you as its protagonist, Aesop's "The Lion and the Mouse" should be retitled "The Lyin' Corporate Louse." As for big rats (and fat cats), you'll find plenty of them in Wind Point.
ReplyDelete8:50 - I'm done with you - You are dismissed.
ReplyDeleteDear Sir, Please don't dismiss anybody! Everyone is a child of God and should be treated accordingly. Thank you very much. Enjoy a wonderful Christmas and a super New Year!
ReplyDelete11:25 - I am sir and have the authority to dismiss anyone,so I am done with you also - You are dismissed. By the way, I happen to be the child of my parents.
ReplyDeleteAlthough your parents gave you your body, God gave you your immortal soul. Hence, you are His child. Please show respect to others. Dissing and dismissing people is morally wrong. Merry Christmas!
ReplyDeleteThe morally wrong sir is signing off - Adios losers.
ReplyDeleteWe'll see who wins and who loses. Happy New Year!
ReplyDelete