Holidaze Issue!

COO-kies!!!

Chocolate marshmallow and Nut candy

You'll need 6 oz. chocolate chips, 1-1/2 Lb. Hershey’s chocolate (use Hershey’s kisses - I use the blocks about .5 lbs.) 1 ea. of milk and dark chocolate, 1 lb. walnuts (leave whole), and 1 lb. of large marshmallows.

Melt chocolate in a double boiler slowly. Grease a cookie sheet. Cut marshmallows in half with scissors. Keep nuts whole from the package. Mix but good. Put on cookie sheet, nicely spread out. And pack together and pour melted chocolate over marshmallows and walnuts. Be sure to spread (pour) chocolate over all the areas on cookies sheet. Put in the freezer for 1 hour, or until the chocolate hardens. Cut into pieces and devour.

from Nanny's Cookbook
Copyright (c.) 2006 by Sherry Ranger.
All Rights Reserved.

Did you say...Christmas Films???

Ah, Christmas…comes but once a year, and a good thing, too, because one dementia-ridden holiday season is quite enough for this dementia-ridden society. But there are a lot of things that make Christmastime a true wonder. Decorating your abode like a crazed surrealist, for one. The rest of the year, you’re just a Dali wannabe nut-job; at Christmas, you’re keeping the spirit. And then there’s all those creepy nutcrackers. Keep a nutcracker in your bedroom or office outside December and you’ll spook your company (either that, or you simply can’t afford unshelled walnuts, which is sad). Keep a battalion of nutcrackers on point throughout the house in December, you’ve got style.

And so it goes, from chocolate-covered cherries, egg nog, candy canes, and snow globes to fussy Italian lights, pine and cinnamon scented candles, credit-spending like a Republican Congress, and full-out religious tension, you just can’t beat Christmas. But no out-of-control holiday would be complete without its’ own litany of entertainment choices, first among these, as far as we cinegeeks here at Danse Macabre are concerned, are films. So, in the event the office party punch isn’t working well enough to blot out the desultory conversation or the kids’ Paxil has simply worn off while you attempt to assemble that bicycle you should’ve never bought in the first place, here’s our Top 10 Favorite Christmas Films, for your consideration and future viewing pleasure.

10 - Everyone Says I Love You (1996)
OK, this Woody Allen classic isn’t really a proper Christmas film (the possibilities of Woody actually doing one are delicious), but this delightful musical comedy draws to a close during a Christmas holiday taken in Paris. Goldie Hawn and Woody perform a whimsical pas de deux on the banks of the Seine, and the spirit of the Marx Brothers is alive and well in this warm, witty, and thoroughly accessible tale. Ever tried Bavarian pasta?

9 - A Christmas Carol (1984)
There are a LOT of these out there, but we think this is the best in the lot. Made for television, George C. Scott holds his own among a superb British supporting cast and a sterling British production that captures the melancholic essence of Dickens while retaining its own distinctive cinematic flavour. It is always repeated on cable this time of year, but is well worth recording.

8 - Scrooged (1988)
Most big studio films from the 1980’s have aged pretty poorly, looking and feeling like products of both their technical age and rather thin zeitgeist. Director Richard Donner’s works are good examples of this. While this Bill Murray star vehicle is hopelessly ‘80’s-centric, it’s also pretty funny (especially the first time you see it) and a lot of fun to watch, mostly for the cast of familiar faces having some fun themselves on Paramount’s dime.

7 - Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas (1996)
If ever you need a break from the sickeningly sweet pabulum of your average Christmas special for the kiddies, this film is It. One wonders if the whole project began when someone, most likely Burton himself, mused, ‘What if Halloween took over Christmas?’ The answer to that question lies in this highly unique and devilishly clever animated film for kids of all ages (especially the older and more alienated ones). Oogie Boogie, babe.

6 - Elf (2003)
This is the sort of movie we never pay to see in a theater but will happily channel surf our way into during a twilight cable session. While James Caan works about as well as Will Farrell’s dad as Sean Connery did as Dustin Hoffman’s (in the remarkably inept ‘Family Business’), Farrell himself does a nice job as an overgrown elf in a sweet North Pole story made all the more memorable by Ed Asner’s Santa and fellow St. Ignatius alum Bob Newhart’s deadpan turn as a senior elf who narrates the film.

5 - Tales from the Crypt (1972)
Want to terrify the chilluns the hell out of the living room? This is the film to do it. We saw this at a nice suburban single screen called the Studio; there wasn’t an empty seat in the house, and the cheerful screams throughout were for real. This was Hammer Films’ arch-rival Amicus' finest hour. The Joan Collins sequence, ‘And All Through the House’, will quite simply put you off of old men in Santa Claus suits for years to come, especially if you spend a lot of time home alone.

4 - A Christmas Story (1983)
We’re not old enough to fully identify with Jean Sheppard’s uproarious take on his childhood Christmas’, but laugh our booties off we still did, connecting with enough of Sheppard’s longing, humiliation, wracked nerves, demented parents, idiotic grammar school, and sheer joy of finding wrapped presents under a decorated tree to last a lifetime. We’re told TBS is showing it 27 times this month. Maybe someone shot their eye out.

3 - Comfort and Joy (1984)
Even though the Scottish accents and vibe might be a bit much for some readers to handle, this very quiet, very dry, and very black Bill Forsyth comedy will melt your heart like, ahem, ice cream. The ‘story’, such as it is, centers on a beloved Glasgow morning drive DJ named Dickie Bird -!- who gets caught up in a typical Italian squabble between two Italian families and their competing…ice cream truck businesses. Forsyth’s mordant takes on therapy, unrequited love, loneliness, the radio biz, car ownership, and shoplifting are simply precious.

2 - Alice (1990)
A sadly overlooked yet witty adaptation of the Lewis Carroll tale, this Woody Allen gem came and went from theaters in about 3 days, but will linger with you for much longer. Mia Farrow stars as a pampered Manhattan socialite, who spends most of her day at salons, spas, restaurants, and shops (especially shops) but begins to learn how unhappy and unfulfilled her marriage - and her life - really are, after partaking of the mysterious Dr. Yang’s rare Tibetan herbs, that is. The Christmas party and spiked egg nog finale is a hoot. The customary jazz score is cleverly woven into the narrative fabric, and Carlo DiPalma's lush photography, from individual frames to the composition of his master shots, could well be his best. Joe Mantegna, William Hurt, Alec Baldwin, New York City, and Keye Luke (in his last screen role) all sparkle in support.


1 – On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969)
The only James Bond film to actually take place during Christmas (with an actual Christmas song found on the movie soundtrack), released at Christmas 1969, and an ongoing Christmas present to 007 and action film fans alike, OHMSS looms as perhaps the most perfectly realized James Bond film of the series. Ian Fleming’s novel was never more faithfully executed, and the finished product is a triumph of modern British cinema before its sharp decline in the 1970’s. Scored brilliantly, casted perfectly, shot vividly, directed precisely, and kinetically edited 25 years ahead of its time, OHMSS remains a true touchstone in the James Bond series. Its lurid integration of Christmas into the plot and shattering climax will rock your holiday viewing pleasures like few others.

1+ - Millions (2004)
It's really hard to believe this astonishingly wonderful film (Christmas and otherwise) came from Danny Boyle, director of nasty grotty 'Trainspotting' and ice-cold '28 Days Later'. Having said that, this gem works on every cinematic and storytelling level, has a sense of wonder and visual humour utterly shorn from the commercialised drek of American 'kids' films, and is just about the wisest film we've ever seen about the topsy-turvy world of Catholicism. The juxtaposition between grinding Third World poverty - and the spiritual poverty of Christmas-based Western consumerism - has a wisdom that very few recent studio product, much less, kids' product, ever come close to. The film is a marvel, the end. No hedge on that.

*** Adam's further views on cinema can be found at (Cinema Carriere) ***

Christ! Whadda Mess!

Advent (Latin for "arrival, coming") is the four-week period leading up to Christmas. In German-speaking countries and most of Europe the first Advent weekend is the traditional beginning of the Christmas season when open-air Christmas markets (Christkindlmärkte) appear in many cities, the most famous ones being those in Nuremberg and Vienna. Most stores and shops in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland are open weekends and evenings during Advent. - In Austria the 's' is often dropped in Advent-words (as in Adventzeit or Adventkalender).

The first Christmas tree to decorate the inside of the White House was put up by US President Franklin Pierce in 1856. (German immigrants brought the custom to America.) In England Queen Victoria's husband, Prince Albert (1819-1861) of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, helped popularize the Christmas tree and other German Christmas customs.

Originally, most German Christmas trees were fir trees (Tannenbäume). Over the years, as the percentage of fir trees in German forests dropped, spruce trees (Fichtenbäume) became more prevalent. But today the word Tannenbaum is still synonymous with 'Christmas tree', or, in Las Vegas, a meteorologist with many homes.

Originally from the Erzgebirge region of Germany, the wood or rope pyramid was the "poor man's Christmas tree." Today it is a popular Christmas decoration in many parts of Germany, usually made with candles and bells that ring as the heat from the candles turns a wooden rotor at the top.

In the 16th century Protestants, led by Martin Luther, introduced “Father Christmas” to replace Saint Nicholas and to avoid the Catholic saints. In the Protestant parts of Germany and Switzerland, Saint Nicholas became der Weihnachtsmann (“Christmas Man”). In the U.S. he came to be known as Santa Claus, while in England children look forward to a visit from Father Christmas.

Candles, with their light and warmth, have long been used in winter celebrations as symbols of the sun in the dark of winter. The Christians later adopted candles as their own symbol of the "Light of the World." Candles also play an important role in the eight-day Jewish "Festival of Lights" Hanukkah celebration.

Caution! The German word das Gift means "poison." If you are mailing a present to German Europe, you may wish to mark it with the German word Geschenk, in addition to "gift."


In pagan times, holly was believed to have magical powers that kept evil spirits away. The Christians later made it a symbol of Christ's crown of thorns. According to legend, the holly berries were originally white, but turned red from Christ's blood.

Saint Nicholas is not Santa Claus or the American "Saint Nick." Dec. 6, the Feast of St. Nicholas, is the day upon which the original Bishop Nicholas of Myra (today in Turkey) is commemorated, and is also the date of his death in the year 343. He was later granted sainthood. The German Sankt Nikolaus, dressed as a bishop, brings gifts on that day. According to legend, it was also Bishop Nicholas who gave us the Christmas tradition of hanging stockings by the fireplace. The kindly bishop is said to have thrown bags of gold for the poor down the chimney. The bags landed in stockings that had been hung by the fire to dry. This Saint Nicholas legend may also partly explain the American custom of Santa coming down the chimney with his bag of gifts.

The word "Kris Kringle" is a corruption of Christkindl. The word came into American English via the Pennsylvania Germans, whose neighbors misunderstood the German word for the bringer of gifts. With the passage of time, Santa Claus (from Dutch "Sinterclaas") and Kris Kringle became synonymous. The Austrian town of Christkindl bei Steyr is a popular Christmas post office, an Austrian "North Pole."

KNOW YOUR RUPRECHT! A demonic figure who used to accompany St. Nicholas to punish bad children with his Rute; based on mythical winter figures going back to pagan times. Rarely seen today. Also known as: Hans Muff, Krampus, or Nickel. In some parts of Germany, Ruprecht is good — just another Weihnachtsmann, and Krampus is the bad guy.

It was the German-American Thomas Nast who gave the US its traditional image of Santa Claus.

Do You See What I See?

Although Mom always knocked herself out to give us a great Christmas, attempting to walk serene through Dad's temper tantrums, his so-called low blood sugar attacks, the Christmas I remember best is the last one we spent as a family, the one when he went bonkers.

Mom once told me that she knew by the middle of the ceremony that marrying him was a mistake, but she didn't know what to do about it. That was in l962 before she discovered the women's movement and before she'd spent years trying to recreate the Brady Bunch, handicapped by a career, an alcoholic husband and without an Alice to do the housework. It really made her mad to be told, after we were all grown, that her attempts to hold the family together and make everything right made her an "enabler." That term, she said, was invented by alcoholics to spread their guilt around, and it pissed her off no end to find that we fit the pattern of children of an alcoholic, as did she of the spouse.

When she came to Las Vegas in l962 from the University of Illinois to teach at the infant University, she had walked into a foreign country. Surrounded by nothing but sand, cactus and casinos, she went into momentary culture shock and married Dad.

A picture of her in the University's first yearbook shows a pretty, dark-haired young woman looking somewhat sadly at a pile of papers on her desk. As something of a lark, she had applied for two jobs: one in Las Vegas, the other in Ibadan, Nigeria. To her sorrow, she got the one in Vegas.

Dad was good looking in those days too. A photo shows a slim young man, standing on a cliff, leaning against his rifle, the fringes of his buckskin jacket blowing in the breeze. He'd been a paratrooper and looked romantic. Like many intellectual women, Mom always went for romantic types. He introduced her to the outdoors, which she loved, and, after he'd courted her only six weeks, she married him, probably out of some sort of displacement. She wanted to marry the wilderness.

He knew what he was doing. Even though she yearned for romance and adventure, Mom was responsible, hard working and respectable. He was a craps dealer, a gambler and an alcoholic. The latter, he had, by a tremendous effort of will, concealed until after the wedding. On the way out of town to their honeymoon at a resort in Death Valley, he stopped at a convenience store and bought a case of cold beer, which he proceeded to drink while he drove, throwing the empties out the car window. Mom went into shock. People she knew didn't throw beer cans out of car windows or drive while drinking.

The honeymoon was awful. Dad can be entertaining when he is sober, but drunk he is a loud-mouthed bore, and he stayed drunk until they returned to Vegas. Mom didn't know what to do. Nothing in her background had prepared her for this. When he came home from his big-money dealing job at the Dunes to announce that he had quit to dedicate himself to beating a craps table, Mom said "OK." For a couple of months, he shot craps, drank, lay around the house and mortified her by explaining to each of her colleagues at the few social events to which they were invited that he knew more about their academic specialties than they did. When she couldn't stand it anymore, she told him she wanted a divorce. He lit out for Tahoe.

He'd been gone for a couple of weeks when she discovered that she was pregnant. It was the early sixties. She couldn't get a legal abortion, so they decided to try to work things out. We came along, one by one. By the Christmas I'm writing about, the last one with Dad, there were three of us kids, my two brothers and myself. Whit was nine, Ted was seven and I was four.

We were living in a wonderful, big house on three quarters of an acre in Paradise Valley, with a pool and three big cottonwood trees, which Mom had somehow managed to buy over Dad's dead body, despite his miserable credit record. The living room had a huge used-brick fireplace in one end, with three giant, fake-fur upholstered bean bags in front that we would snuggle in with Mom to watch the fire and sitcoms on TV after Dad had gone to work.

On this Christmas, as always, we had a huge tree and the whole house was decorated. That afternoon Mom had let us make cookies to give everybody we knew and hadn't even yelled about the mess.

It sounds ideal doesn't it? The crackling fire, cookies, good smells, lots of presents under the tree, which didn't include those that Santa would bring. Of course, before we settled down for the evening, there was the matter of getting Dad off to work. He had to leave by six-thirty in the evening and would finish his shift about three in the morning. He usually didn't go to bed until about 7 a.m, just when we were getting up. We were supposed to be quiet all day so that he could sleep. Naturally we weren't. He would get up about four in the afternoon and rage around until he left for work.

On this particular Christmas eve, he had overslept. Mom had given us our dinner in front of the fire and TV, telling us to be quiet and stay out of the way while she tried to get him out the door. We were almost home free when he went to the drier to get his clean socks out -- the socks were always a bone of contention -- and he saw one of his screwdrivers on the top where Ted had stashed it. Ted been making little totem poles out of pieces of wood, using the screw driver and a small hammer to create the designs.

Dad had on his black work pants and a white shirt. I can still see his face as he came for us. When he went into one of these fits, it was like he was two people; he even had two voices. His face would seem to get flatter and his eyes would sort of bug out. We dropped our plates and ran for the boys' bedroom, more because it was in the other direction than anything else. I'm not sure where Mom was at this moment.

Whit, the biggest, jumped on the top bunk and rolled toward the wall where he'd be hard to get at. I slid under the bottom bunk and peered out. Dad had never really hurt me, so I was scared but not scared the way Ted was.

Dad began shaking Ted, then hitting him. "If you ever touch my tools again, I'll kill you! I'll kill you!" He kept screaming that he would kill him. By now, Mom was there, a kitchen knife in her hand. "Let him go!" she yelled, "Are you completely crazy!" He let go of Ted and shoved his face into hers. "If he ever touches my tools again, I will kill him." They stood for a moment staring at each other, then he walked out of the room to finish dressing.

Mom put the knife on the dresser and dropped to her knees in front of Ted, holding him and soothing him, but the weird thing was how quiet we all were. Ted didn't make any noise at all. He didn't even breathe. Mom stared at him in horror. It was like he had opened his mouth to scream but nothing came out. He seemed to be holding his breath. Then the front door slammed and Dad's car started. He was gone.

Mom kept hugging Ted. "Honey cry, please cry," she begged. She was crying. Whit and I watched. We knew something horrible had happened to Ted. Then she ran to her bedroom where she had hidden the Christmas presents and came back, ripping a box open. In it was a big, blue, stuffed Cat in the Hat. She held it in front of Ted's face and pulled the string that came out its back.

"Hello, I'm the Cat in the Hat," said its robot voice.

Ted made a wheezing sound, like the air coming out of a tire, and grabbed the toy. He didn't cry. He just held onto the Cat with one hand, sucking the thumb of the other, while Mom wrapped his security blanket around his shoulders and hugged and rocked him until the expression came back into his eyes. By now Whit and I were on each side of her, staring at Ted.

"Come on guys," she said finally, standing up, "Get your coats. Let's get out of here and see what we can find."

Ted shifted the Cat in the Hat from one hand to the other as Mom stuffed him into his coat. As soon as it was on, he jammed his thumb back into his mouth. I had managed to get my coat on --it was white bunny fur -- but Mom had to button it and tie my hood. She always kissed my cheeks after the hood was tied. This time she forgot. Whit ran out ahead of us; then we all piled into Mom's old Toyota station-wagon that each of us loved passionately.

"Let's see what we can find," Mom kept saying as she drove. I think she was in some sort of shock herself.

We had just turned onto Maryland Parkway when she yelled, "Look!"

There in the back of an El Camino truck was a Santa Claus. "Let's follow it." She was more excited than we were, but then she was always more innocent than we were. She hadn't grown up with Dad.

The truck stopped at Burger King, where Santa climbed out of the back and went in. We followed and sat in a booth, waiting for him to come around. He looked about as much like Santa as Whit did, but he ho-hoed and handed out candy canes.

We took ours and tried to look pleased for her sake. It wasn't until years later that I told her that mine was broken.

by Felicia Florine Campbell

When Humanism Gets...Sucular

The following Christmas carols might have been written by the Danse Macabre legal department. Can you guess the original titles?

1. Move Hither The Entire Assembly Of Those Who Are Loyal In Their Belief (answer: "O Come All Ye Faithful!" - ok, now you're on your own! :-)

2. Embellish Interior Passageways

3. Vertically Challenged Adolescent Percussionist

4. First Person Singular Experiencing An Hallucinatory Phenomenon Of A Natal Celebration Devoid Of Color

5. Soundless Nocturnal Period

6. Majestic Triplet Referred To In The First Person Plural

7. The Yuletide Occurance Preceding All Others

8. Precious Metal Musical Devices

9. Omnipotent Supreme Being Elicit Respite To Ecstatic Distinguished Males

10. Caribou With Vermillion Olfactory Appendage

11. Allow Crystalline Formations To Descend

12. Jovial Yuletide Desired For The Second Person Singular Or Plural By The First Person Plural

13. Commence Auditory Reception The Announcing Cherubs Vocalize

14. Kris Kringle Will Be Arriving In The City In The Not Too Distant Future

15. Bipedal Traveling Through An Amazing Acreage During The Period Between December 21st And March 21st In The Northern Hemisphere

16. Its Arrival Occurred At Twelve O'Clock During A Clement Nocturnal Period

17. Exclamatory Remark Concerning A Diminutive Municipality In Judea Southwest Of Jerusalem

18. Song of Mirth About the Seat of the Intellect of an Uncastrated Porcine Male

19. Primary Color Between Green and Violet In The Visible Spectrum Annual Festival of the Christian Church Commemorating the Birth of Jesus

20. Female Ancestor Came Against With An Impact And Knocked Down By Large Deer of the Genus Rangifer, of Northern and Arctic Regions of Europe, Asia, and North America

Ten Holiday Music Ideas!

...for anyone looking for ideas for some NEW music. Here are twelve composers from WITF-Harrisburg, PA's Composing Thoughts on ten different cds. You can click on the composer's name to learn about their episode and also click on the title of the cd (next to the composer's name) to learn more about the album and purchase it.

1. Fred Lerdahl: Time after Time [Bridge Records]

As we learned from the composer, this has nothing to do with Cyndi Lauper or her music, but rather with a style of variations the composer created for the piece and the 1940s jazz standard, Time After Time. Also this recent recording has the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra in Lerdahl's fantastic Waves.
2. Libby Larsen: Water Music [Koch International Classics]

If you're a fan of interesting and lush orchestra music, look no further than Libby Larsen's disc with Joel Revzen and the LSO. In her episode, Libby commented that one of her favorite compositions is the Lyric Symphony, which is featured on this disc. We love it too!
3. Jose Serebrier: Symphony No. 3 [Naxos]
Maestro Serebrier is as skillful writing music as he is conducting it! His latest disc includes the Third Symphony, a work he wrote specifically for this cd. Maestro Serebrier (hear how he says his name here) told us great stories about music and composition - his charm shows as well on this recording. This cd is also a real bargain - you might be tempted to pick one up for yourself besides someone on your holiday list.
4. John Eaton: The Music of John Eaton [Indiana University]
John Eaton is a genius - he won a MacArthur Grant that proves it - and so does this disc! Hear a wide range of music on this cd from Indiana University where Eaton taught for many years. Especially haunting is a selection for harp choir and flute, Cave of the Sybil that John discussed onWITF's Composing Thoughts.
5. Tina Davidson: It is my heart singing [Albany]
Tina Davidson spoke to us from her studio in Marietta, PA and showed us the original artwork that this cd uses for it's cover. She also discussed writing "telescope" pieces - works written for professional musicians and students like Paper, Glass, String and Wood that is recorded for the first time on this cd.
6. Ellen Taaffe Zwilich: Symphony No. 2 [First Edition Recordings] Zwilich's Cello Symphony (Symphony No. 2) is a sumptuous work, and this disc also includes her Double Concerto and Chamber Symphony. First Edition captures the excitement and passion of these works with the Louisville Orchestra. Ellen spoke to us about the Cello Symphony, you can hear the interview segment here: mp3 file
7. Kevin Puts: Inspiring Beethoven [Albany Records]This cd is a sampler from Bowling Green University and their wonderful new music festival. Fans of Beethoven and also of new music will adore Kevin's orchestral tour de force, Inspiring Beethoven. This cd includes comments from the composer before each piece is played.
8. Dominick Argento: Casa Guidi [Reference Recordings]
Not only did this recording win a Grammy, it really shows the depth of Argento's orchestral writing. Frederica von Stade is glorious in the title cut; and the beauty of Argento's skill is demonstrated by the Minnesota Orchestra.
9. George Crumb: Ancient Voices of Children (Complete Edition Volume 9) [Bridge Records]

This recent edition from Bridge is an excellent example of George's genius. You'll hear Ancient Voices of Children, Madrigals Books I-IV, and Eine Kleine Mitternachtmusik as the composer intended - Crumb attended and supervised the recording sessions. He spoke to us at his studio in Media, PA about the importance of inspiring the performer with the score. See some his scores here.
10. Jennifer Higdon/Augusta Read Thomas/Bernard Rands: Dream Journal [Albany Records]

Here is a disc with several of the composers we've interviewed onWITF's Composing Thoughts played by the Network for New Music. It's a charming disc of chamber music for the novice or experienced new music listener. Jennifer Higdon was the first composer we interviewed, and we'll be checking on her with an update this spring, including her upcoming Piano Concerto for Lang Lang. Husband and wife composers Bernard Rands and Augusta Read Thomas spoke to us for Valentine's Day 2006.

Enjoy these selections that we highly recommend, and Happy Holidays from everyone at Danse Macabre!

by John Clare

Poetry from the North (of Nevada)

A Christian Contemplates









The faithful pray, with steepled hands,
for return to light and a baby's innocence.
In this mystery the childish is
our best.
Yet youngsters don't deal
in dilemmas,
compassion.

Why tread hazzard's path if yearly
a pilgrim should struggle
back to infancy?

Becoming as a child requires
acceptance
awe
humility.

Light returns. Does it bring hope
or fundamental judgmentalists
purveying Jesus glitter?
Does this black light damn
gentiles to darkness?

Angels carol of peace on earth.
Do babies make peace?

What of shepherds?
Do we worship their abiding poverty,
stink of shit and lanolin,
to canonize our superiority?

What of parents---surrogate
father determined to hang
on to his soiled fiancee?
mother jar stores miracles in her heart
valued for silence, receptivity.

And the Magi,
delivering forcasts of death?
What leaders now gift helplessness?

Perhaps we need to reinvent light's return
to value shades of gray,
pray the gray binds us,
leads us, holding hands,
out of the dark.

Metamorphoses
Holly pricks stay green
yet raise
blood
droplets of scarlet.
Packages hold
status barbs
we don't intend---
the sweater, color of remembered
hatred for a sadistic teacher.
Icicle lights sway,
push warm molecules
into snow that only
needs to freeze.
Manger crosspieces intersect
with the cross.

Season's Schizophrenia









Icicle lights dance on my deck.
Yet inside my house the holiday
wreck piles high in confusion.
This year whirls more and more dreary.
I'm through seasonal shopping
have wrapped most of the stuff
topping my short list now, beat sugar to fluff
for hard sauce. Delicious.
Plum pudding with spices
I fear's too ambitious to whip up this year,
for deep in my heart an angry sore festers,
leaving my spirit with a swollen
blister. I'd like to chuck trappings
into the garbage,
clean up my act, to child Jesus pay
homage; relive Mary's story
of delivery and joy, but age
has reduced those memories to toys,
of candied fantasy. I need to forsake gee gaws
material, keep twelve days of simplicity
with prayer and more spiritual
things of this season, revel in Northern
Lights, cold crackling snow underfoot, rise
to new life in cosmic regard, for nature's
treasures given us by the Lord.

by Elizabeth I. Riseden

O Come All Ye Faithful!

If one of your Christmas wishes is to help bring peace on Earth but you want to do the least amount of work possible to bring it about, you'll probably want to join the First Annual Solstice Synchronized Global Orgasm for World Peace, which takes place on December 22. This experiment will be an attempt to join the world's citizens in a simultaneous orgasm combined with thoughts of peace and love for all humankind. According to their website, "The mission of the Global Orgasm is to effect change in the energy field of the Earth through input of the largest possible surge of human energy". Their hope is that this concentrated positive energy will affect the Earth's energy field enough to reduce the current dangerous levels of aggression and violence throughout the world. While the simple promise of an orgasm is a good enough excuse for Danse Macabre to lend a hand (so to speak) to this project, there might even be a chance to be involved in one of the world's largest experiments in thought energy, as the creators of this event promise that Princeton University's Global Consciousness Project will be monitoring the output of human energy on that day with the hope of seeing a measurable change in the results as have occurred during the 9/11 attack and the Indian Ocean tsunami. Join the positive holiday thought energy at GlobalOrgasm.org.

Christmas Carols from the DSM-V of the American Psychiatric Association

* Schizophrenia --- Do You Hear What I Hear?

* Multiple Personality Disorder --- We Three Kings Disoriented Are

* Dementia --- I Think I'll be Home for Christmas

* Narcissistic --- Hark the Herald Angels Sing About Me

* Manic --- Deck the Halls and Walls and House and Lawn and Streets and Stores and Office and Town and Cars and Buses and Trucks and Trees and...

* Paranoid --- Santa Claus is Coming to Town to Get Me

* Borderline Personality Disorder --- Thoughts of Roasting on an Open Fire

* Personality Disorder --- You Better Watch Out, I'm Gonna Cry, I'm Gonna Pout, Maybe I'll Tell You Why

* Attention Deficit Disorder --- Silent night, Holy oooh look at the Froggy! I have a gig tonight, can I have a chocolate, why is France so far away?

* Obsessive Compulsive Disorder --- Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle,Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells

Links You Cannot Criss-Miss!

Here's some good work & musicianship from the Las Vegas Brass Band on an arrangement by Tom Wright of "Baby, It's Cold Outside". Pete Cooper and Kellie Ballard are the vocalists. Chuck Jackson conducts and the ubiquitous John Clare recorded it. NB - your default music player will engage to play the selection upon pressing groovy tune here.

Need a vacation? Danse Macabre recommends Lufthansa for all your holiday escapist needs.






In the event you find yourself without a personal Weihnachten Kalender for your computer rig, here's a great one, direct from Das Vaterland. Frohliches Weihnachten!