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There is a Dutch guy knocking on doors to get some commemoration going for the Dutch being the first Europeans to colonise manhattan. But the doors seem to remain firmly shut - no-one in NY is interested in their past, government agencies don't want to be reminded of anything pre-USA and developers seem more interested in selling homes then allowing for heritage.. Apparently the area of interest is now fenced-off by the residents.
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^Yeah, here in the States a lot of people don't know the Dutch were there before the English, for at least a century if memory serves correctly.
I always thought the Santa Claus legend to be derived directly from Saint Nicholas, and from him earlier traditions. When I was a kid, we learned the version where he flies through the sky in a sleigh pulled by reindeer, jumping down chimneys and dropping off presents for the good children. But he leaves coal for the bad ones. We were supposed to leave a plate of milk and cookies for him when he came by.
I remember how I'd always stay up and try to catch him, then doze off. When I woke up a few minutes later, he'd already been there and grabbed the plate! We also sang a lot of hymns about him. It seems like today, the whole cycle is increasingly a cheap gimmick in malls. That's a pity, because without fairy tales and legends, how's a lad to use his imagination?
---AH Mervla, aka Joel Boynton
Legio XIIII, Gemina Martia Victrix