Political & Elections

romanigypsyeyes · Guru

RE: Santa Claus is a gay couple living in Chelsea

BigG · Guru

This is how "traditions" get started.

Perhaps some sociologist will eveluate the effect of the internet on the formation, promulgation or proclamation, and maintenance of "tradition".

Characteristics of a tradition;

It is an activity or group of activities that people will spend time and money re-enacting at regular or somewhat irregular intervals.

Everybody, or at least a large number of people, are aware of it. Christmas, Ramadan, and Hanukkah qualify here. Groundhog Day and Arbor Day are secular traditions. Of course there can be "private" traditions unique to a family or small group.

In a civilized society, there is a degree of respect or at least tolerance of the observance. I tolerate Civil War re-enactors. Not very graciously...

In a civilized society, any more primative genesis of the tradition is generally muted or ignored. My family doesn't sacrifice small mammals to our Christmas tree, or God forfend, neighbors we don't like.

The tradition is presented to new generations as well, a "tradition". So a tradition has to have an element of self-definition.

There has to be an element of uniqueness. If everything is a tradition then nothing is a tradition. Note this does not mean a large number of people cannot celebrate the tradition, merely that we cannot really have every day as a holy day (though the Catholics try!).

-- Edited by BigG on Saturday 25th of December 2010 07:38:14 AM

-- Edited by BigG on Saturday 25th of December 2010 07:38:58 AM

DonnaL · Senior Member

Thanks, BigG. Although that's on East 22nd Street, and this couple lives on West 22nd Street. Maybe it has something to do with Clement Moore Park, which is on 22nd Street and 10th Avenue, on land that used to belong to him:

http://www.nycgovparks.org/parks/M257/

Clement Clarke Moore Park

W. 22 St. And 10 Ave.

Manhattan

Acres: 0.49

This text is part of Parks’ Historical Signs Project and can be found posted within the park.

Scholar and poet Clement Clarke Moore (1779-1863) is the namesake of two New York City parks, each located on land previously owned by his family. The first is a playground in Newtown, Queens, known as the Clement Clarke Moore Homestead, because it was the site of the estate acquired by Clement’s great-great-grandfather, Captain Samuel Moore, in 1652. The second is this playground, located on a former farm purchased by Clement’s grandfather, Captain Thomas Clarke, in 1750. A retired officer of the British Army, Captain Clarke named his property "Chelsea" in reference to London’s Royal Chelsea Hospital for old soldiers. His daughter and son-in-law extended the acreage to what is now 19th Street, Eighth Avenue, 24th Street, and the Hudson River.

************

There's a blog in the Times with a little more about the story, including the reporter's unsuccessful efforts (so far) to figure out where the address came from:

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/12/24/did-he-leave-a-forwarding-address-yes-the-north-pole/?apage=8#comments

. . .

So Jim and Dylan came up with their own solution, one I sought to capture in our video.

They lost interest in finding out just why they were getting all these letters. But I didn’t. I did a bit of sleuthing. I reached out to three people who had sent letters. The first person I called said that she got the address, along with a few others, from a teacher in an English as a Second Language class in the Bronx. The teacher said that if they wrote the address, Santa might write them back. The woman on the phone would not give the teacher’s name or the location of the school. The second phone call led me to a mother who said she got the address on the post office Web site when she typed in Santa. I had her wait on the phone while I tried it and found nothing. I asked her to send me a link and did not hear back from her after a couple of attempts. The third woman said that her daughter got the address at her school, but when I called the school they claimed to know nothing about an address in Chelsea.

And so the reason remains a mystery. And Jim and Dylan are gearing up for next year.

************

I can just see the movie they make out of this, in which it turns out that everyone mysteriously forgets exactly where they got the address, and of course it turns out that it came from Santa Claus himself.

Donna

PS: I'd post the story on CC as well, but of course links to blogs and videos are forbidden! Another rule I've never completely understood, given the extremely shadowy distinction between new sites (allowed) and blogs (prohibited).

-- Edited by DonnaL on Friday 24th of December 2010 06:49:46 PM

-- Edited by DonnaL on Friday 24th of December 2010 06:52:28 PM

BigG · Guru

My family has been running through Google and coming up empty.

"Miracle on 42nd Street" is the closest we have come.

It has just got to be some popular cultural allusion/reference.

OR Maybe Not;
http://www.nytimes.com/1998/11/29/nyregion/the-neediest-cases-children-write-letters-to-santa-asking-for-help-not-toys.html

A tip of the hat to youngest daughter, an aspiring bichemistry researcher.

-- Edited by BigG on Friday 24th of December 2010 01:41:09 PM

-- Edited by BigG on Friday 24th of December 2010 01:44:11 PM

DonnaL · Senior Member

What I don't get, and have seen no explanation of, is where all those children got that address as the place to write to Santa Claus.

BigG · Guru

Touching story

Hummm, perhaps a small check to partially subsidize next years effort can find its way to that address in a few days....

My cousin, a New Yorker, told me Halloween is the gay holiday.

DonnaL · Senior Member

http://gawker.com/5717621/santa-claus-is-a-gay-couple-living-in-chelsea

I think you'd have to have a heart of stone to watch this video without being touched.