Yes, I'm thinking about Yule (and NaNoWriMo) already...

(when typing up that title, my right hand was misaligned over the home keys, so it first came out as "Yes, I'm thinking about Yike already...". If that's how you feel about the official gift-giving season, I appologize in advance).

But I do have two reasons why this is not a gratuitous jollity post, ages ahead of schedule:

1. It's almost Samhain. And Yule and Samhain are analogous holidays in the Pagan calander; Yule was celebrated by the anceint Norse, Samhain was celebrated by the anceint Celts and both are celebrated by the modern Neo-Pagans, who tend to mash traditions together if it feels good.



2. I'm planning on doing a Yule story for NaNoWriMo, and even though I'm breaking all the rules strong suggestions to avoid too much planning and thinking and meditating and interest-vesting ahead of time, I can't quite help it. This story is wrigging and tiggling and jiggling inside me, like the spider in the belly of the old woman (I'm still refraining from writing a single word of the story until 0:001 November 1st, though).

So anyway, late last night (early this morning) I decided to Google search for images of "Antique Belsnickle" ("Belsnickle" was the German folk anscestor of "Santa Claus" -- the name means "Furry Nickolas" -- nothing "saintly" about him!). Most of the pics that came back were kistchy and tame figurines on sale for those who like to collect all things Christmassy, and they all basically look the same, like this (it couldn't be that they're copying each other, could it?).

After so much bland-porridgey fare, I couldn't help giggling out loud when I clicked on a link and found this pair of papier mache Belsnickle lanterns, inspired by those made a hundred years ago, grinning back at me. I was almost equally amused by the artist's caption, explaining that the lanterns were for scaring away mean dogs (of course they weren't for scaring the children -- perish the thought).

And I was just in a mood to share my amusemt.

[ETA: This post has been edited because I just now realized that I was switching the antique and modern versions of the lanterns in my head. My appologies to the artist]

TV Stuff

First: There's a Monkees marathon on the Independent Network, right now, it's got me wondering. It's a fairly well-known secret that the guys lip-synched the songs in their show: they were actors in a sitcom about a rock & roll band; they were not really singers. So who was it who did sing the songs?

Second: Last Friday/Saturday, I think it was (around 3 am) I stumbled on an episode of the original Star Trek, and I thought: "That set is just as wobbly as anything on Doctor Who -- those space suits are made of bubblewap!" So why is it such a common idea that Star Trek was always more flash than Doctor Who? Is it the color vs. black and white thing?

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Random non-tv observations:

LJ is not saving my entry as I type it.

And for some reason, the clock has switched to Greenwhich Mean Time, instead of Eastern Standard (and I can't see where to change it back).