Christmas 2022

Happy Poinsettia Day

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Today we celebrate Poinsettias!

I think we should take the time to say thank you to the Aztecs who cultivated the Poinsettias and another shout out to to the person who thought that using a plant that was wrongly labeled as being toxic to humans would make a FABULOUS Christmas decoration.

I like that kind of thinking and I think that with some hard thinking we can do the same for the Mandrake root- it’s my Christmas wish.

It truly is.

Title: Poinsettia Christmas tree ornament Date Created: ca. 1955

Study of Red Poinsettias Sophia L. Crownfield, American, 1862–1929early 20th century

Poinsettias in a church in the Philippines

( From Wikipedia )

Newspaper headline from the Honolulu Star-Bulletin (1913) wrongly alleging that poinsettia is deadly

Poinsettias are popularly, though incorrectly, said to be toxic to humans and other animals.This misconception was spread by a 1919 urban legend of a two-year-old child dying after consuming a poinsettia leaf In 1944, the plant was included in H. R. Arnold’s book Poisonous Plants of Hawaii on this premise. Though Arnold later admitted that the story was hearsay and that poinsettias were not proven to be poisonous, the plant was thus thought deadly. In 1970 the US Food and Drug Administration published a newsletter stating erroneously that “one poinsettia leaf can kill a child”, and in 1980 they were prohibited from nursing homes in a county in North Carolina due to this supposed toxicity.

An attempt to determine a poisonous dose of poinsettia to rats failed, even after reaching experimental doses equivalent to consuming 500 leaves, or nearly 1 kg (2.2 lb) of sap. Contact with any part of the plant by children or pets often has no effect, though it may cause nausea, diarrhea, or vomiting if swallowed. External exposure to the plant may result in a skin rash for some. A survey of more than 20,000 calls to the American Association of Poison Control Centers from 1985–1992 related to poinsettia exposure showed no fatalities. In 92.4% of calls, there was no effect from exposure, and in 3.4% of calls there were minor effects, defined as “minimally bothersome”. Similarly, a cat or dog’s exposure to poinsettias rarely necessitates medical treatment. If ingested, mild drooling or vomiting can occur, or rarely, diarrhea. In rare cases, exposure to the eye may result in eye irritation. Skin exposure to the sap may cause itchiness, redness, or swelling.  It can induce asthma allergic rhinitis in certain groups of people.

Photographer Unknown

Merry Caturday

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Merry Caturday everybody!

Charles Robinson (British, 1870–1937) A Black Cat Holiday

 (England, 1880- Toronto Public Library)

Photographer Uknown

My Christmas Wish List

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Inspired By The Holidailies Prompt: That gift you always wanted (and did you get it?)

Photo A.M. Moscoso

 

The Fiji Mermaid

was just a hoax, she wasn’t real so quit asking for her

for Christmas, your birthday and for Halloween my Mom used to tell me

when those times of the year rolled around and the question of gifts was called.

 

But I wanted that little Mermaid and I was so convinced that

she was real that I had a place set aside in my room near the window  for the day  that

somebody  in my family would finally see sense and give me the Princess of The Seas

for either Christmas, my birthday or Halloween.

 

One day, tired of my foolishness,  my  Dad told me  the Fiji Mermaid was part monkey,

part fish she wasn’t real she was just a bunch of dead animal parts stitched together

she was just a prop, as a joke to take money off of gullible people like me, my Dad said with disgust.

 

But one day I read that the Circus that held a Fiji Mermaid captive

and I was convinced she was a captive

and probably did not give her the respect that a Princess of The Seas deserved

burned to the ground in 1865.

 

At the same exact time, in another part of the world

there was another Fiji Mermaid held captive under glass

near the Sea, I think it was a museum but I’m not sure.

Wouldn’t you know it? That museum burned down too.

 

After I learned the stories about the Fiji Mermaids

and how they escaped from their cages

and left a forest of flames behind them, from that point forward

I no longer asked for or wanted a Fiji Mermaid.

Since then I’ve asked for two Fiji Mermaids

 

I’ve been asking for them since I was a child

for Christmas, my birthday or Halloween

there is  a place for them near a window in my home , a place of honor

set aside specially for a Princess and a Queen who really like fire

and hate being pushed around and made a mockery of

just

like

me.

Name That Tune

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Published By: : TimeLife
Victorian era illustration of carol singing in bleak midwinter setting.
1900

These are three of my favorite Christmas songs and of course I have little stories for the reason I love them just a little more then others:

The Boar’s Head is a straight up let’s make Merry and have a good time song.  I only listen to it when I’m already in a good mood because I never ever want to associate it with feeling sad:

The Christmas song that isn’t a Christmas song-It’s actually an anti-war song.

I listened to this a lot when the US went into Iraq, I listened to it a lot when Trump actually won the election  in 2017 and I listened to it a lot when Trump lost the election and  up to the time he attempted his  coup d’état.

But when we went into lockdown and my world- what there was of it at that point was gone-poof just like that this song took on a new meaning for me.

I just love it. It’s seen me through some hard times :

It’s not so much the lyrics that I love about this song- it’s the melody. The choir’s voice reminds me of the nights when I would be walking my dog and it would start to snow. The wind would be blowing a little and I could feel the snow landing on my face. Then my dog- one of many that I was lucky enough to have in my life would look up at me  and in that moment the world felt and looked still and quiet and perfect.

And a little sad.

Mark Edwards