No Limit Texas Dreidel

The origin of the whole "NORAD tracking Santa" thing: Military center tracking Santa's sleigh ride

NORAD's holiday tradition can by traced to 1955, when a Colorado Springs newspaper printed a Sears, Roebuck & Co. ad telling children of a phone number to talk to Santa. The number was one digit off, and the first child to get through reached the Continental Air Defense Command, NORAD's predecessor.

Col. Harry W. Shoup answered.

Shoup's daughter, Terri Van Keuren, said her dad, now 91, was surprised to hear that the little voice on the other end thought he was Santa.

"Dad thought, `What the heck? This must be some kind of code,'" said Van Keuren, 59.

Shoup, described by his daughter as "just a nut about Christmas," didn't want to break the boy's heart, so he sounded a booming "Ho, ho, ho!" and pretended to be Santa Claus.

Enough calls followed that Shoup assigned an officer to answer them while the problem was fixed. But Shoup and the staff he was directing to "locate" Santa on radar ended up embracing the idea. NORAD picked up the tradition when it was formed 50 years ago.

"If we didn't do it, truly I don't know who else would track Santa," Maj. Stacia Reddish said.

The task that began with no computers and only a 60-by-80-foot glass map of North America now includes two big screens on a wall showing the world and information on each country Santa Claus visits. It took off with the Web site's 1997 launch, Reddish said.

I've never tried No Limit Texas Dreidel, but it looks interesting. The traditional dreidel game really makes no sense -- somebody will just about always win within about six turns. I've seen a few revisions of the rules to try to make it last a bit longer.

Scottish are supposed to be cheap

We prefer to think of it as being frugal.

I just asked my mom her opinion on the Christmas specials. She said that the only one that she has to watch each year is Miracle on 34th Street, and that any Charlie Brown anything we watched was because of our dad. Which doesn't help much for figuring out any sort of rationale. She had no idea that Charlie Brown Christmas even mentioned Jesus. I think I'll ask my dad when he gets home.

(My mom grew up in a city with a pretty small Jewish population, and in her family, they didn't have a Christmas tree or anything, but they did hang up stockings for Santa. My dad grew up in NY, and didn't do any of that stuff. My sister and I never had stocking or Santa or any of that -- it was just accepted that "Jews don't do that." There was one Jewish kid in my grade whose family put up a Chanukah tree, but we all teased her about it -- like, I remember once, when we were arguing something about Jewish traditions, and she offered what her family did, another Jewish girl responded, "You don't count -- your family has a Chanukah bush.")

"You don't count -- your family has a Chanukah bush."

Heh. Love the phrase "Chanukah bush."

Oy. Why do I read comment threads? On that Christmas special article, there were quite a few comments that were various versions of "Why don't you let your kids celebrate Christmas? All other American kids celebrate it! Just don't celebrate the religious parts." Frequently justified with, "I'm an atheist, and I celebrate Christmas."

Stuff like this is why I shouldn't read comment threads. Makes my head hurt. Also, why I frequently hate December. (In real life this year, I've only had to explain to two people why I don't celebrate Christmas. Both of them were taking that same reasoning -- Christmas is an "American" holiday now, separate from the religious one, and so there's no reason why Jews shouldn't celebrate it. With one insisting that American Jews should celebrate it, since "all" other Americans do.)

Well buttercream frosting base is in the fridge and cooling down while butter comes to room temp. Smoked turkey is defrosting. I've got the iTunes set to shuffle and it's stringing together some interesting choices. Right now I'm at Take That's "Back to Good."

Yes, I have a weird thing for Brit boy bands.

I should go wrap presents but for the moment I think I'll sit here and piddle around the 'net.

Heh. Love the phrase "Chanukah bush."

That's what my FiL calls it, usually with a leer, bless his naughty little heart.

That's the thing a lot of people don't seem to get about Christmas. You can have a religious holiday or you can have a universal holiday. But you can't have both.

Both of them were taking that same reasoning -- Christmas is an "American" holiday now, separate from the religious one, and so there's no reason why Jews shouldn't celebrate it. With one insisting that American Jews should celebrate it, since "all" other Americans do.

Buzzah? Since when? And WTeffingF?

Seriously, people boggle.