Random Thoughts – Page 21

Nashville Cats

The Ryman Auditorium in Nashville opened in 1892 as the Union Gospel Tabernacle. Thomas Ryman, saloon and steamboat entrepreneur, spearheaded the project in an attempt to bring Christianity to the masses. In its first few decades, to help pay down construction debt, non-religious entertainment was often booked into the facility. W.C. Fields, Charlie Chaplin and Harry Houdini were among the many to take the stage. Teddy Roosevelt and Helen Keller lectured there. In spite of Jim Crow laws, the Ryman sometimes hosted integrated audiences.
The Ryman became famous as the home of the Grand Ole Opry from 1943 until 1974, when it moved in 1974 to Opryland USA, a shiny new entertainment-shopping-hotel complex away from downtown.
Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge sat around the corner facing Broadway. It became famous on its own as a place where future stars paid their dues. Kris Kristofferson, Willie Nelson, Patsy Cline, Roger Miller got started at Tootsie’s. Ernest Tubb’s revered record store across the street is visible through Tootsie’s window.
When the Opry departed, the core downtown became a seedy place to avoid. Demolition of the Ryman Auditorium was proposed. The venerable hall was saved, renovated, and again became a popular venue for music. Tootsie’s also gained fame and became a tourist attraction of its own. Nashville promoted its reputation as the home of country music, and churned out formulaic recordings of what Tom Petty famously called “Bad rock, with fiddles.”
Gentrification has come to Nashville and along with it, a new type of tourist: bachelorettes. The city has become a destination for “Bach Weekends.” Young women from around the country come for their pre-wedding experience, which does not include the Country Music Hall of Fame. BuzzFeed News recently produced an in-depth report on this new phenomenon.

Just for fun…

How Christians Gave Fools Their Own Day

If you missed New Year’s Day, April Fools’ was created for you.

Some historians speculate that April Fools’ Day dates back to 1582, when France switched from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar, as called for by the Council of Trent in 1563. People who were slow to get the news or failed to recognize that the start of the new year had moved to January 1, and continued to celebrate it during the last week of March through April 1, became the butt of jokes and hoaxes.

(from history.com)

Increasingly annoyed by Martin Luther and the growing Protestant Reformation, the pope convened an ecumenical council in the northern Italian city of Trent. The Council officially declared much of the Protestant ideology as heresy. As modern-day politicians slip partisan or pork-barrel amendments into unrelated legislation, the Council of Trent added to its decrees a provision to clean up the Julian calendar and provide for a more consistent scheduling of Easter. Eventually the new Gregorian calendar became the standard in most of the world.

So how did they simplify the scheduling of Easter? The Christ’s resurrection is celebrated on the first Sunday following the first full moon that occurs on or after the day of the vernal equinox (the first day of spring).

As with Christmas, Easter is based – co-opted, if you will – on pagan celebrations related to cycles of the moon, the equinox, the seasons and resultant things in nature. Spring festivals celebrated the earth’s return to fertility and the birth of many, ahem, creatures. Christians related resurrection with rebirth and consequently, the Easter egg. So of course, in modern times, the eggs became chocolate.

Happy Holidays

Life was tough for those living in northern latitudes during prehistoric times. When the growing season ended they had to survive on what food they stored and what animals they could kill. Each day the darkness came a bit earlier and lasted longer into the next day. They feared the sun would disappear forever and leave them in permanent darkness and cold. After the solstice passed, they would begin to take heart that the sun would return, giving them reason to celebrate and to hope. Even without instruments, to measure the solstice, after a few days they could tell the sun was moving higher on its path, giving cause for celebration.

Beginning in the 3rd century BCE, the Romans honored Saturn, the god of the harvest. The Saturnalia celebration began on December 17 and lasted for a week. The festivities included giving gifts and lighting candles. Romans being Romans, over time it degenerated into a week of debauchery and revelry.

An ancient Syrian god, Sol Invictus (“The Unconquered Sun”) became the chief god of the Roman Empire in the 3rd century CE. The Roman citizens celebrated his holiday on December 25.

Theologians and religious historians estimate that Yeshua, later known as Jesus, was born in the autumn, sometime between the years 7 and 4 BCE. By the 4th century CE, western church leaders felt they needed to celebrate Christ’s birth. They chose December 25 because that date was recognized throughout the Roman Empire as the nativity of various pagan gods. There being no central church authority at the time, it took centuries for December 25 to be universally accepted. Ireland began celebrating Christmas in the 5th century. England, Austria and other European countries did not begin until the 8th century.

Christians adopted many pagan symbols, such as holly, mistletoe, decorated evergreen tree, gift giving and, yes, magical reindeer. The Romans decorated trees for their Saturnalia festivities. Vikings adorned evergreen trees with pieces of food and clothing, and small statues of the gods to persuade the spirits to return in the spring.

Santa Claus is an amalgam of a number of pre-Christian stories. German mythology includes the character Odin, a wise old man with a beard who rode an eight-legged horse. Ancient Anglo-Saxon solstice celebrations featured Father Time, King Frost or King Winter, dressed in a green hooded cloak wearing a wreath made of holly or mistletoe.

Our pilgrim antecedents were not enthusiasts of Christmas. In the mid 17th century, Christmas was actually outlawed in the city of Boston. The first Congress under our new Constitution was in session on December 25, 1789. It was not until the years after the Civil War that Christmas started to gain popularity in the U.S.

The religious – “Christ’s Mass” – and the profane – St. Nicholas – both gained recognition. Washington Irving (The Sketchbook of Geoffrey Crayon, gent), Charles Dickens (A Christmas Carol), Clement Clarke Moore (A Visit From St. Nicholas) and Thomas Nast (Santa Claus illustrations) helped popularize the celebration. Christmas finally became an official U.S. Holiday in 1885. Now we celebrate Black Friday.

A final thought: what does this have to do with Starbucks and the war on Christmas? Historically, the war on Christmas has been waged mostly by Christians.

Special fun bonus link: The story of the Starbucks mermaid.

Muddling Through Somehow

It’s the Christmas season but Esther Smith’s heart is not filled with joy. Her father has announced that he’s being relocated to New York for his job and the family will be moving there. The move will separate Esther from John, the boy she loves.

Esther, played by Judy Garland in the 1944 film Meet Me in St. Louis, is the second of four daughters in the Smith family. The year is 1903. Esther’s brother and three sisters are unhappy about leaving behind their school friends and romantic partners. To make things worse, they will miss the greatly-anticipated world’s fair the following year.

On Christmas Eve, Esther soothes her little sister Tootie (Margaret O’Brien), singing to her Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas. The song has since become an inescapable part of the holiday background. The music-licensing company, ASCAP, once named it the third most-performed Christmas tune.

Judy Garland, her co-star Tom Drake and director Vincente Minnelli all thought the song as originally written was too depressing and so asked the lyricist Hugh Martin to make some changes. He came back with a more upbeat version. The line “It may be your last / Next year we may all be living in the past” became “Let your heart be light / Next year all our troubles will be out of sight.”

Thirteen years later, Frank Sinatra was recording a Christmas album, A Jolly Christmas. He went back to Martin asking him to “jolly up” the line “Until then we’ll have to muddle through somehow.” The composer changed it to “Hang a shining star upon the highest bough.” This became the standard version. Later, Ms. Garland sang these revised lyrics on The Judy Garland Show Christmas Special.

The list of artists who have recorded this song is almost endless, usually with the “shining star” lyric. One, Chris Isaak, recorded both versions of that verse.

And the Smith family? When Mr. Smith realized how unhappy his family was, he changed his plans, cancelling the move to New York. They all got to go to the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair.

Thanksgiving Reflection

“I celebrated Thanksgiving in an old-fashioned way. I invited everyone in my neighborhood to my house, we had an enormous feast, and then I killed them and took their land.”

Jon Stewart

Plus ça change*… plus c’est la Dick’s Drive-In

Wendy’s is promoting its “Baconator” high-calorie, high-fat sandwich… and salt, lots of salt. Jack in the Box is advertising a “Ribeye” burger. McDonald’s features “Buttermilk Crispy Tenders.” (And don’t forget their occasional McRibs.”) At Burger King, you can get a “Farmhouse King.” (1,220 calories) In-N-Out has its “secret” menu. Going against the trend, Dick’s Drive-In has pretty much the same menu as when Dick Spady opened his Seattle restaurant in 1954: Hamburgers and Cheeseburgers – Regular and “Deluxe” – French Fries and made-with-real-ice-cream shakes. No breakfast, no fancy stuff. Dick’s doesn’t do special orders or accommodate requests for substitutions.

Mr. Spady died in January 2016 at the age of 92. The business, still owned by the family, has grown to six restaurants, including the newest in Edmonds, on the northern edge of Seattle. Dick’s patrons chose that locale; more than100,000 voted their preferences for the new location. A seventh restaurant is in the works, after 177,000 ballots cast, in the city of Kent, near SeaTac airport. The Queen Anne, Seattle, location is the only one with indoor seating. All the others are order-at-the-window takeout. The older buildings have been remodeled, adding customer rest rooms. Dick’s owns them all; none are franchised.

Dick’s is known in the Seattle area for paying higher than the prevailing fast-food wage, as well as medical and dental benefits. Employees can take advantage of child-care assistance and scholarship opportunities. According to the web site, Dick Spady founded Dick’s Drive-In with the following business philosophy:

Make a profit
Invest in your employees
Invest in your community

You have probably noticed asterisks on restaurant menus warning you of the danger of food-borne illness from undercooked food are a legacy of the Jack-in-the-Box E. coli outbreak in 1993. Undercooked hamburgers served at fast-food outlets in California, Nevada, Idaho and Washington put 171 people in hospitals and killed four children. Jack in the Box had decided that cooking their burgers to the recommended 155 degrees made them too tough; they served their ground-beef patties at 145 degrees. The resultant law suits cost them $50 million.

Dick’s no-substitution policy served them well. During the Jack-in-the-Box fiasco, the local newspaper surveyed area restaurants about how they handled customer requests for burgers cooked rare or medium. Dick’s did not equivocate. They cook all theirs well-done. Period.

* Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose (The more things change, the more they stay the same)