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editor
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 Posted: Fri Dec 04, 2009 12:10 pm Post subject: |
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From Famous Four-Flushers:
Grace Paley
The Collected Stories
Hardcover
| Quote: | That afternoon, all over the building, children scraped and scrubbed the turkeys and the sheaves of corn off the schoolroom windows. Goodbye Thanksgiving. The next morning a monitor brought red paper and green paper from the office. We made new shapes and hung them on the walls and glued them to the doors.
The teachers became happier and happier. Their heads were ringing like the bells of childhood. My best friend, Evie, was prone to evil, but she did not get a single demerit for whispering. We learned Holy Night without an error. "How wonderful" said Miss Glace, the student teacher. "To think that some of you don't even speak the language!" We learned Deck the Halls and Hark! The Herald Angels ... They weren't ashamed and we weren't embarrassed.
Oh, but when my mother heard about it all, she said to my father: "Misha, you don't know what's going on there. Cramer is the head of the Tickets Committee."
"Who?" asked my father. "Cramer? Oh, yes, an active woman."
"Active? Active has to have a reason. Listen," she said sadly. "I'm surprised to see my neighbors making tra-la-la for Christmas." ...
Meanwhile the neighbors had to think of what to say too.
Marty's father said: "You know, he has a very important part, my boy."
"Mine also," said Mr. Sauerfeld.
"Not my boy!" said Mrs. Klieg." "I said to him no. The answer is no. When I say no! I mean no!"
The rabbi's wife said, "It's disgusting!" But no one listened to her. Under the narrow sky of God's great wisdom she wore a strawberry-blond wig. (From The Loudest Voice, pgs. 36-37) |
Listen:
| Quote: | Selected Shorts from Symphony Space
Audio Cassette Only!
An uproarious live event featuring Linda Lavin reading this Grace Paley Christmas classic, The Loudest Voice, and Jerry Stiller, whose delivery of John Sayles' The Anarchists' Convention is the stuff of comedy legend! |
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editor
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Posts: 2940
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| Posted: Fri Dec 04, 2009 1:07 pm Post subject: |
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From Omens and Lucky Charms:
A Christmas Celebration
Traditions and Customs from Around the World
Hardcover
By Pamela Kennedy
| Quote: | THE LEGEND OF THE CHRISTMAS SPIDER
Once there was a poor widow who lived with her children in a tiny cottage. Although she did not have money to buy them any gifts, she was determined to decorate a Christmas tree. She cut a tree in the forest, and, after the children were in bed on Christmas Eve, she decorated it with a few pieces of fruit, nuts, and some cookies she had baked. Then she fell into bed, exhausted, and worried that her little ones would have a poor Christmas.
There were spiders living in the nooks and corners of the little cottage, and they had watched the wodow's work. While she slept, the spiders crept from their hiding places and climbed all over the Christmas tree, leaving silken webs as they went from branch to branch. The Christ child saw both the widow's sadness and the spiders' webs, and he turned the fragile strands to silver.
When the widow and her children awoke on Christmas morning, they were amazed to see the beautiful tree sparkling in the sun. From that day on, people have hung strands of silver tinsel on their Christmas trees, and many families place a tiny glass or golden spider on one of the boughs to recall this miracle. (-- p. 31) |
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editor
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Joined: 09 Nov 2003
Posts: 2940
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| Posted: Fri Dec 04, 2009 1:11 pm Post subject: |
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From Omens and Lucky Charms:
'Tis the Season
A Classic Illustrated Christmas Treasury
Hardcover
Compiled by Cooper Edens
| Quote: | The Legend of the Christmas Rose
English legend
Legend says that a little shepherd girl of Bethlehem followed after the shepherds who had received the angel's message and were journeying to the stable. All the shepherds took along gifts for the Christ child, but the little girl had no gift to give. As she lagged behind the others, somewhat sad at heart, there suddenly appeared an angel in a glow of light, who scattered beautiful white roses in her path. Eagerly she gathered them in her arms and laid them at the manger as her gift to the little Lord Jesus. (-- p. 19) |
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