“Bush for Bush”--friend of mine (one of my Russian friends, btw, but as an Old Believer he is pro-Latvian) saw a bumper sticker in 2004: “Practice Abstinence: No Bush, No ####.”

Stephen

>>Reality tends to be what people believe
>it is. How many people know that an ad
>agency for Coca Cola created the now
>iconic red-suited, white-bearded Santa
>Claus? Does it matter? Did Shakespeare
>really write those plays? Who cares? The
>legend of the first Riga Christmas Tree
>has been activated and let loose on the
>world. So be it. We are what we
>believe.
>
>
Sorry Ojar,reality is objective and not merely relative as the bureaucrats would have us believe.Truth has intrinsic value despite the cavalier rejection of it by the politicians.

Truth and honor may be foreign to politicians,but “we are what we believe” is more prevelant in the residents of an insane asylum.

No personal slam intended ,merely an observation on present politics.

Sveiki Stephen!

So nice to see you here again!  And I have to tell you that I am somewhat surprised, dismayed about the dispelling of yet another myth, Martin Luther, Away in a Manger.

In my piano big book of Christmas Songs there are two versions of Away in a Manger. In one, the words are by Martin Luther, music by Jonathan E. Spillman; the other, words by Martin Luther, music by Carl Mueller.  I take this to mean that Luther wrote the words, but did not compose the music or in reality, neither?!  Never did know why we have two versions of Away in a Manger (both to be played, sung sweetly). I imagine the two together make for a good counterpoint, though I have never heard it done that way before.

Irena

PS My mom enjoyed reading the Russian version of the article in the Russian Satire thread and we both thank you.

Ofcourse the christmas tree originated in Riga.
Who wrote the words to “away in a manger”? Martin Luther, who else..

From Ogresdels

>Sorry Ojar,reality is objective and not
>merely relative as the bureaucrats would
>have us believe.Truth has intrinsic
>value despite the cavalier rejection of
>it by the politicians.
>

I was thinking philosophically, and not politically. Even if reality is objective, we subjective human beings can never see it as such. There’s that old tale of the blind men who touch different parts of the elephant, each coming away with a different impression of what it ‘objectively’ may be. I think Bergson touches upon this.

Kierkegaard approached it in a different way. Although he was a Christian, he claimed that one could never ‘prove’ that Christ or God existed. But to Kierkegaard this didn’t matter. If a person lived one’s life as if they did exist, to that person they were indeed real, regardless of what science says.

The same applies to history. None of us knows what Alexander the Great was really like (objectively) but we rely on bits and pieces of information passed down over time and ultimately interpret it into some kind of image we believe to be true. Our impressions of him change based on books or movies. 

I have always been amused by a phrase I often hear in Latvia. Someone starts a statement, ‘Speaking objectively....’ But we are subjective beings and our take on reality is limited to our senses, which often are enhanced by intuition or emotion. Yes, there may be an objective, ‘real’ world out there. But our understanding of it will always be based on a shifting collection of perceptions, impressions and conclusions. Writers, artists, politicians, ad men and many others use their wit and wiles to present their take on reality, in hopes that others will agree. 

Even if all five blind men were to get sight, they would no doubt still each ‘see’ that elephant differently.

They say that politics is the art of persuasion. Unlike animals, who don’t worry about ‘what is real and what is not’, human beings have a need to search for Truth. As they say, getting there is half the fun....

Objektīvi runājot, I recommend Roberts Mūks, writing under his less real name --

http://tinyurl.com/y4egsp

Vysu lobu,
/P

>Sveiki Stephen!
>
>So nice to see you here again!  And I
>have to tell you that I am somewhat
>surprised, dismayed about the dispelling
>of yet another myth, Martin Luther, Away
>in a Manger.
>
>In my piano big book of Christmas Songs
>there are two versions of Away in a
>Manger. In one, the words are by Martin
>Luther, music by Jonathan E. Spillman;
>the other, words by Martin Luther, music
>by Carl Mueller.  I take this to mean
>that Luther wrote the words, but did not
>compose the music or in reality,
>neither?!  Never did know why we have
>two versions of Away in a Manger (both
>to be played, sung sweetly). I imagine
>the two together make for a good
>counterpoint, though I have never heard
>it done that way before.
>
>Irena
>
>PS My mom enjoyed reading the Russian
>version of the article in the Russian
>Satire thread and we both thank you.

So arm in der Krippe, kein Wiege zum Bett, / der kleine Herr Jesu, da schlief er so nett . . . .

I believe it was written in Pennsylvania on the occasion of the tricentennial of the Reformation, thus the connection with ML. I’m uncertain as to whether the English or the German is the original, & don’t have time to check it now. The tune has never been fixed: I know at least three for it (one of them being that of “Flow gently, sweet Afton”, and another the one usually sung in the UK) I can’t comment on Spillman or Mueller; all I have to look in is the 1958 LCA hymnal, which regards the single melody it provides as anonymous. The text is also anonymous, but designated as “19th century, American.” That is, the first two stanzas are so described; the third is by John Thomas McTalzeme--oops, make that McFarland.

Yes, I loved the parody; I will be saddened if Kommersant suffers the fate that now appears to be in store for it. It was purchased by A. Usmanov, the plutocrat of Metalloinvest and a honcho in Gazprom. Gazprom has been used before to silence media critical of the Kremlin. After 1991, I happily retired from the thankless, gruelling task of keeping up with Soviet affairs. Now it begins to appear that I will have to go through all that hassle of hunting up reliable sources of information a second time. The mass media were pretty worthless during the Soviet period, and have not improved since. I don’t expect to find the sort of comic relief Kommersant gave us--the recommendations for policies to counter the sinister influence of the foreign tiomnye sily are marvellous (how frustrating that I couldn’t share them with my Anglo friends, who would not have understood any of it, not even the English translation).

I check in on LOL, even when I don’t post; it’s a good source of information--George Twigg is a good source of information when he is not obsessing, and Peteris C. is excellent as a commentator on current events. It’s a bit more serious than back in the days of Natalie agitating everyone with her passive-aggressive pose of innocence, and the era of two ladies feuding, vai ne?

Prieciigus ziemsveetkus!

S.

. It’s a bit more serious than back in the days of Natalie agitating everyone with her passive-aggressive pose of innocence, and the era of two ladies feuding, vai ne?

Prieciigus ziemsveetkus!

S.

It wasn’t two ladies feuding.....
It was Lilita versus the dog pack.
I sure miss her a lot.

pete

Thanks for the tip. Didn’t know Muks went under the name of Avens. Looks like I owe myself a Christmas gift.

... and now it’s trademarked.  Take that, you mythbusters. 

Santa Claus Visits Home of the First Christmas Tree - Riga Latvia

When searching for the historical beginning of the first Christmas tree, one must go very deep into the past. Just like Santa Claus, one finds that the first Christmas tree was combination of many different facts, legends and customs all starting in the Baltic countries and what is now Northern Germany. The first documented use of a tree in a Christmas celebration was in Riga, Latvia, in the year 1510 according to many sources. References to Martin Luther’s Christmas Tree were actually two decades later than the Riga Tree. Visit Riga this Christmas and experience a medieval holiday celebration.

(PRWeb) December 13, 2006—Patricia Tourist Office recently hosted Santa Claus who paid a visit to check the preparations for this years holiday activities in Riga Latvia.

On November 8, 2006, Patricia Tourist Office was granted a European Union Community Mark: “Home of the First Christmas Tree” (tm)

For the full version see:

http://www.emediawire.com/releases/2006/12/emw489775.htm

Speaking of disinformation......
by virtue of my misplaced vote,
O.J.Collins is tied 13:13 with
Sandra Mountainwoman in the
unofficial poll on LOL front
page. I’m assuming that LOL
stands for Latvians on the leash.

pete not totally unleashed

ps. the poll is for picking a prospective
prez of Latvia, the home of the first
burning yule log getting chased across
the city square, back in the yeyhunnert.....

The manure referred to in a previous post has certainly been piled around the origins of the words to “away in a manger”.
An old English saying sums it up nicely..."enough bullshit to nurture taters, enough honesty to starve faith,
We know that americans lack any noteable culture but to try and pilfer a Martin Luther hymn is plagiarism by proxy, breath taking in its arrogance..

“The tune has never been fixed{Away in a Manger}:  I know at least three for it...”

Speaking of which, you’re right.  There is a third version of this song, which I just happened to hear a few nights back.  It’s done by the Academny and Chorus of St. Martin in the Field/Sir Neville Marriner.  A friend of mine burned this CD for me and unfortunately, I don’t have any more info about this particular version and/or any of the other songs.  BTW, it’s really quite lovely Christmas music, if you have or haven’t heard it before.

Re: the state of this forum, I think many people are just plain weeeery, call it ‘burn out’...’nebeidzamie stridi’.

Svetigus Ziemsvetkus to you Stephen!

Irena