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It’s been almost a month that Christian Legacies went down. It looks like Donnie has taken it down for good. I haven’t heard from him, but I hope he’s doing well. It was a long run for that site and a nice place to talk in its prime.
I’ve been trying to find a few ways to implement that feature so recent replies can be highlighted. Seems like there are plugins which do similar things but not exactly what I want. I’ll keep my eyes open for something that might work.
I third Scout’s gripe. SMF was designed as forum software and was fairly solid at discussions.
The problem with SMF was that it wasn’t being developed very quickly and I wanted to be able to add newer features. Since all my other websites are WordPress-based, I decided to use that for WCF as well. Besides, since the posting on the old WCF was slowing down quite a bit, I decided that I could turn WCF into a blog/discussion forum area. Now, I can create longer blog posts on whatever my heart desires and have it featured on the front page.
Anyway, nice to see you guys. Wish you well on finishing up your Masters, Scout. Ski, there’s a chance that my wife and I might move up to your neck of the woods (she had a job interview in central Mass.). We’ll see how things play out.
Good question. Perhaps it’s because her mother was from Austria, and that “title” fell to her.
Following up what Skiguy said, and having re-read this thread, it does seem likely that it was Puritan influenced. By around this time, Christmas became something of a partytime, so it would not be surprising that certain government officials would have wanted to crack down on it. There must have been a time when it became legal once again, but I believe it wasn’t until the Victorian age that the holiday became something of the cultural festival that we experience around the world today.
I decided to try to do some further digging (get it?) for the meaning of this song, and the earliest reference was in an 1893 edition of “English County Songs”. Take a look at the music sheet and all seven verses (“There was a cow went out to plough, Chrisimas Day….”).
Unfortunately, I didn’t see anything there that discussed anything about the song itself.
Continuing my search, I came across a publication from 1894 called The Spectator – “A weekly review of politics, literature, theology, and art”, published in London. In there is a review of the aforementioned “English County Songs” book, published the prior year, which discusses how the editors gathered songs that “the country-people still sing when they are among themselves and are not showing-off to ‘gentlemen from London’.”
Funny. What came to my mind at reading this was Lark Rise to Candleford, a very light and charming TV drama that came out a few years ago that centers on rural English life.
Anyway, this review only briefly mentions the Christmas pig song, and describes it as “a very fascinating nonsense-song” as it goes down the list of animals and their rhyming activities. So, could this be it? Is that all there is to it? If there was originally a deeper meaning to the song, it could be that the editors of the book were simply in the dark about the meaning of the song and that the country folk who sang the song in 1894 didn’t know where came from, either. Or, it could be that it really was a nonsensical song, similar to the way we have our own nonsensical songs today based upon rhyming and repetitive verses.
Well, that’s about it on this song. One more Christmas mystery solved, or maybe just shelved until additional information is uncovered.
Really sorry about this, but my site was hacked, which is why it was down the last few days. I couldn’t risk using the database from after the hack since it was really nasty, and the last clean date of my backup database was from October 30. I wrote a longer explanation here.
I assume that Egyptian agriculture was productive at least in part due to the flooding of the Nile which lasted until the Aswan dam was constructed (I believe in the late 1960s).
I guess I didn’t know that the Holy Land was greener back in ancient times, although that may make explain some of the lush biblical imagery that we hear about. Still, I wonder why some of the Judean date palms weren’t grown elsewhere if they were so special. Perhaps no one appreciated what they had until they were gone.
This year I used seeds from packets that were about 3-4 years old to grow plants. The basil seeds did germinate (and the plant is doing nicely now), and I think so did the cilantro and oregano plants (but died soon thereafter), but some pepper seeds never germinated. I imagine the durability of seeds must rely on several factors, such as plant type, moisture, and other conditions.
“Judean date palms were wiped out by about A.D. 500.” I wonder what happened to cause that. It’s a really neat find, although I wonder why the seeds didn’t decay over time.
I only vaguely remember how it ended. I think the fact that the occupiers didn’t actually use violence to gain control of the property (as far as I recall) made a difference. Also, I think it took place in a more rural area. I recall telling the student that the government didn’t want another Ruby Ridge or Waco on its hands, so treading lightly was a more prudent option.
I agree that the outrage is media driven because the idea of white-on-black violence fits with “The Narrative”. You know what “The Narrative” is – the storyline that reflects the left-of-center politics and social beliefs held by editors and journalists across the country. Note how the high rate of black-on-black violence is ignored on our country. If black lives truly did matter, wouldn’t that be the larger story?
One other thing about the Oregon coverage. I teach at a college that is predominantly black (95%+), and at the time one of my students mentioned how the sheriffs just let the occupiers alone and if they were black the cops would never have done that. I think I mentioned that if the occupiers actually did violence to any person, then I’d be sure that the cops would not be patiently waiting around for the standoff to end.
I don’t think this movement is about liberalism, it is based on hatred of whites that the Obama administration has poured gasoline on.
I agree that there is an element of “getting back at the white man” inherent in the whole thing. I think when people like Obama or Minnesota governor Mark Dayton give their premature opinions on things, it’s a bit mistake.
Yes, liberals jump to conclusions that confirm their own bias, that is not an exclusively liberal problem though. If it were how do you explain the rise of Trump? Trump is famous for spouting off on policies that not only ignore objective reality but are also impossible to implement and getting cheered for it by conservatives, examples include building a border wall and expelling illegal immigrants and muslim refugees.
Trump had the advantage of celebrity which pushed him to the top. Also, he is an authoritarian, and that personality trait undoubtedly attracts people regardless of his politics. Now that he’s the Republican nominee, he’s going to be getting more and more support simply because the support has to go somewhere. Conservatives need to vote for someone, and the vast majority aren’t doing write-ins.
But I have to note that the excesses of people on the left and the right aren’t equal in terms of their damage. Generally speaking, those on the right want to be left alone, whereas those on the left require the state to get more involved in people’s lives. I don’t know about you, but I’m generally going to side with people who tell the state “leave me alone” rather than those who say “please regulate my world”.
