homer nods while Loden plays the fool

[LBernier at tribune.com]

Heikki writes:

>What grip says frightens and delights me at the same time. You see:
>if one writes a letter or post card to Santa Claus, the official postal 
>system will carry it to the Finnish Lapland, no matter where in Tellus 
>one sends it from. To be precise, to the Arctic Circle Center that is 
>situated a few kilometers north of Rovaniemi, the capital of Finnish 
>Lapland. There is the Santa Claus' Cabin, a yackily commercial and
>pompous thing, where Santa and his auxiliaries have been yoked to serve 
>Their icy purposes.
>
>But...could it really be that Santa has only sent a proxy to Lapland,
>and keeps his real toy shop at the North Pole? However, in that case he 
>(she? when you listen to Phil Spector's Christmas album, you find
>yourself dreaming of a world where Santa was a woman, & non-white...)
>would have to use some -- sounds crazy, I know -- *alternative* postal 
>system, eh?

Obviously what you've got there is some deranged overgrown tomte with
delusions of being Kris Kringle and who has forced the world's postal 
organizations into diverting Santa's mail, because EVERY little amurrican kid
knows that Santa lives at the North Pole.  We know 'cause that's what they
told us in "Santa Claus is Coming to Town," and if it was on TV it must be
true.  

Damnit, where's the CIA when you need them?

Joyeux Noel and God Yul, everyone.

Jean Bernier.