Posted by KRICO on December 07, 2000 at 10:57:24:
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Found this excerpt in the great Cintra Wilson's most recent column in Salon.com... "To personify and encourage this lemming-like leap into massive consumer debt, we have our charming, portly mascot St. Nick, who, I discovered after perusing Alban Butler's indispensable classic "Lives of the Saints," has a biography that has suffered horribly from bastardization. St. Nicholas of Myra was a pious young man in fourth century Asia Minor who came into money following the death of his well-off parents. Upon hearing of a local man who had plans to sell his three daughters into prostitution, Nicholas threw a small sack of money through the man's window, providing the oldest girl with a dowry and thus enabling her to marry. As the other two girls came of age, he did the same charitable act to offset their future whoredom. As a result, St. Nicholas was represented in visual folklore as someone who tossed small sacks around." Is there a Holiday Lesson there, gentlemen? How many ho's will you save this year? KRICO
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