Happy ChrismaHanukwanzaakah 12/24/21
/I know, what about Kwanzaa? Listen, it’s hard to combine Christmas, Hanukkah and Kwanzaa into one happy word, so I stole ChrismaHanukwanzaakah from The Urban Dictionary and the OC. But please keep it between us that I ever watched The OC. I have an excuse. The kids were young teens and we used to watch it with them. The problem was, they got bored and we got hooked. Had to hang in there until the bitter end. But that’s our only example of such deviant behavior. Well, unless you count Dawson’s Creek. I mean, who among us didn’t shed a tear when Dawson Leary’s dad, Mitch died in a collision with a truck at night? Granted, when his ice cream fell off the cone onto the floor on the passenger side, Mitch should never have bent over to pick up the ice cream. But when he did and set his eyes back on the road, what did he see except for blinding headlights and a blaring truck horn? I can’t go on. Suffice it to say, it left an everlasting mark. So for now let’s go with ChrismaHanuKwanzaakah. Feel free to write in if you’ve got a better way to keep everyone happy.
But this comic came to John when he and his wife Linda went shopping for a Christmas tree. I must confess, my wife Joanie and I don’t have one because we’re Jewish and celebrate Chanukah. Anyway, the tree farm had a tree shaker, so the loose pine needles don’t get all over your floor. And he wondered, what would happen if the shaker shook too hard. Your answer is comic #1. One final note on Christmas trees. My daughter Ali, when she was a little girl in a car seat, used to love the pretty Christmas tree in Dobbs Ferry where we would exit the highway to go home. Every time we passed it she’d say “want a Christmas Tree, want a Christmas tree.” And we’d patiently explain, “We don’t celebrate Christmas honey, we’re Jewish.” Finally, when she became 5, she crossed her arms and defiantly responded, “Fine, then I’ll marry someone Christmas.” 25 years later, that’s exactly what she did. And tomorrow the family is going to their house to exchange presents under their beautifully decorated tree. But for our Jewish friends and readers, they celebrated Hanukkah too.
Now onto the holiday card. We immediately liked using the bare tree as the symbol for our holiday card. One reason is because it makes for a neat package this week: shake the tree bare and then use the bare tree as our card. But the other reason was it symbolized 2021 for us. We checked out our Happy New Year card from last year and it showed the cast kicking 2020 out the door. Couldn’t wait for 2020 to leave. But guess what, 2021 hasn’t proven to be much better, at least as far as Covid goes. But, it’s a new year, with new discoveries and maybe, just maybe we can kick this thing in the butt. Anything, anything, to not have to keep dancing this dance. I leave you with a funny scene from two weeks ago. My wife and I went to a Broadway show, the Lehman Trilogy. Before the curtain went up, I noticed this guy one row in front, talking and gesticulating with his mask under his nose. I gently tapped him on the shoulder and asked him to please pull his mask above his nose. After the first intermission I went to buy a bottle of water and came back to my seat and took a big sip. He turned around in his seat and said, “Excuse me, can you please pull up your mask?” Yikes.
Happy Holidays and we will see you next week with two new ones. The last two for 2021.
Andy and John