Rockwell and Santa Claus

I had the weirdest moment of synchronicity this week. During my archaeology class on Thursday Dr. Hale had mentioned his views on the Santa Claus myth and how it sets up this societal schema in the United States wherein blind belief = good and praiseworthy behaviour. I liked this thought, and was pondering it later on my way home; as I did so, I was listening to a podcast I had downloaded of last week's episode of a show on NPR called "On the Media" from WNYC radio. They were interviewing a guy called Richard Halpern who teaches English literature at Johns Hopkins University. He just published a book called Norman Rockwell: The Underside of Innocence, in which he focuses on the art of Rockwell to talk about the American Innocence mystique. He posits that Rockwell was actually subversive in his paintings, and rather than upholding the idea of innocence and Americanism, he challenges it in subtle ways. It's an interesting idea; I'm hoping to get the book.

Anyway, the oddest thing was that the interview used as a focal point this painting by Rockwell. It depicts the discovery of the
falsehood/nonexistence of Santa on the part of this little boy and shows his subsequent shock at the realization. Professor Halpern, however, had doctored the painting to reveal photos of the torture and abuse at Abu Gahreb instead of a santa suit, as in the original, in order to draw parallels to the American public as a whole.

It was a striking juxtaposition not just because of the truth of Halpern's doctored version--that Americans have such short attention spans about what is done in their name and their lack of ability to think critically about the government--but especially because we had just been using the Santa myth to discuss that very problem earlier in the day during class! What a coincidence.

If you're interested, the interview with Prof. Halpern is short and can be found online (along with a picture of the altered Rockwell painting) at: http://onthemedia.org/transcripts/2007/10/05/02

Nurse Practitioner

Today I was at my sister-in-law's house and right before I left, we were talking about nurse practitioners. Then I said my adieus, and went out to my car. I turned on the car and the radio came blaring up. And what was the first phrase that emitted from the NPR airwaves? "Nurse practitioner."

Cavit Wine

Anoche I was leisurely drinking a bottle of red wine from the vineyard Cavit in Pavia, Italia. Someone had brought it to a party I hosted a Christmastime and I thought I'd go ahead and open it tonight. I was simultaneously watching The Big Lebowski on some channel on "the cable" with my dear little husband. A commerical break interrupted, and a commercial for said wine came up. This was a striking coincidence because:
(1) the wine was a gift
(2) I had never heard of this wine before I pulled it out of the cabinet
(3) I hadn't had any wine since that party the first week in January
(4) I had never seen a wine commercial on television before
(5) We just HAPPENED to be watching The Big Lebowski (we didn't set out to see it or anything)

Pretty weird....

Coincidence 2

There is an issue of Howard the Duck, a comic, from November 1980, when Thomas (husband) was still living in Baltimore--before he had moved to Louisville. Thomas happened to write to this comic and had his letter published in the aforementioned issue. Interestingly, under Thomas' letter in the comic book's "Wise Quacks" section is a letter from Mark Steiner of Louisville, KY, who I understand is the proprietor of the Great Escape (a comic book store here in town). Although these two men didn't know each other at the time, they later came to be acquainted (after Thomas moved to Louisville) and became kind of friends. Weird how the letters page of Howard the Duck portended the friendship of Mark and Thomas, and possibly even the arrival of Thomas in Louisville.

Coincidence 1

Last semester:

I was in the car and I recited a quote from Empire Records about Atlantic City. Then, the lyrics of the next song that came on the radio talked about "not switching dice on this gamble." You know, Atlantic City, gambling...?