Poor Santa.
First off, let me say that if I carried a camera with me on my walks, this post would consist only of a photograph. I will, however, do the best I can to describe the picture I would have taken if I could have taken one.
The owners of one of the houses on my normal route must be very fond of those big inflatable lawn things. I have written about these inflatable things before (e.g. Santas and Ghosts). Towards the top of a small, sloped front lawn was a very tall inflatable Santa. On the lower portion of the sloped lawn (closer to the sidewalk) was an inflatable Grinch, wearing a Santa hat.
When I passed this morning, the two characters were in a state of mid-deflate (mid-inflate?) and were bent all the way forward at the “waistâ€. Santa’s nose was right up the Grinch’s ass!
A most troubling image.
Now you know why he’s such a Grinch.
Comment by rita — December 20, 2005 @ 4:34 pm
Is that what made the Grinch’s heart grow?
Comment by Randy — December 20, 2005 @ 5:09 pm
Poor Santa…
Comment by Kate — December 20, 2005 @ 5:29 pm
No need to start carrying a camera on your walks, thank you.
Comment by Sgt Hook — December 20, 2005 @ 7:52 pm
I’d pay cash money to see that!
ROFL!
Comment by DMerriman — December 20, 2005 @ 8:53 pm
Not to get all serious here, but your post touches on a subject that troubles me in my travels: how cameras cripple our powers of observation.
About 125 years ago, my grandfather was a young graduate of the University of Virginia, off to Germany to get a PhD at the University of Berlin (other than Harvard and Johns Hopkins, German universities had the only real graduate programs in those days — our system is patterned on theirs).
He wrote back long letters that ornately described Berlin of his day, sometimes with line drawings to show buildings or statues that have now been long destroyed. My father, a historian, once observed that our ancestor’s own powers of observation were astonishing for a young man of 21. My thought: perhaps cameras are a crutch, and if we did not have them, as he did not, we would actually see so much more.
Comment by TigerHawk — December 21, 2005 @ 7:34 am
I drove past a COMPLETELY deflated Santa, face down in someone’s yard, yesterday. You could have said he looked passed out, but I chose to think it had that crime scene chalk-outline look to it. Wonder what the parents were telling the wee kiddies?
Comment by dogette — December 21, 2005 @ 9:02 am
As usual, TH makes an excellent point. I have been to various places in the USA and in the world, and I’ve seen many interesting places, beautiful man-made things, and wonderous works of nature. More often than not, I did not carry a camera, and I found it somewhat strange and a bit annoying to be surrounded by a crowd of people paying more time and energy clicking away on their cameras than they did simply LOOKING AT and ENJOYING the thing in question.
I suppose it might be a trade off. Enjoying it now versus enjoying it later. I tend to opt for the now.
Comment by Jim - Parkway Rest Stop — December 21, 2005 @ 9:24 am
mid-deflate (mid-inflate?)
I suppose it just depends on how far things have progressed…
Comment by That 1 Guy — December 21, 2005 @ 12:39 pm
Jim,
I hope Santa brings you a camera for your walks. That sounds like probably the best photo-op this year. Maybe somebody will provide the two inflatables with a little blue pill or two. 😉
Comment by RedNeck — December 23, 2005 @ 8:54 am