Sinterklaas or Santa Claus

Dear Bloggers,

Every year again I have to explain the story about Sinterklaas and I think everybody should know this.
It is simply part of our ancient history and Saint Nicholas is the patron of the sailors, so it is a mistery to me that my fellow sailor's have not more knowledge of the facts and that is why I am going to explain them to all of you.
Let's start with the story how Santa got invented in the new world.



The History of Santa Claus

17th century: Dutch immigrants brought with them the legend of Sinter Klaas.

1773: Santa first appeared in the media as St. A Claus.

1804: The New York Historical Society was founded with St. Nicolas as its patron saint. Its members engaged in the Dutch practice of gift-giving at Christmas.

1809: Washington Irving, writing under the pseudonym Diedrich Knickerbocker, included Saint Nicolas in his book "A History of New York." Nicolas is described as riding into town on a horse.

1812: Irving, revised his book to include Nicolas riding over the trees in a wagon.

1821: William Gilley printed a poem about "Santeclaus" who was dressed in fur and drove a sleigh drawn by a single reindeer.

1822: Dentist Clement Clarke Moore is believed by many to have written a poem "An Account of a Visit from Saint Nicolas," which became better known as "The Night before Christmas." Santa is portrayed as an elf with a miniature sleigh equipped with eight reindeer which are named in the poem as Blitzem, Comet, Cupid, Dancer, Dasher, Donder, Prancer, and Vixen. Others attribute the poem to a contemporary, Henry Livingston, Jr. Two have since been renamed Donner and Blitzen.

1841: J.W. Parkinson, a Philadelphia merchant, hired a man to dress up in a "Criscringle" outfit and climb the chimney of his store.

1863: Illustrator Thomas Nast created images of Santa for the Christmas editions of Harper's Magazine. These continued through the 1890's.

1860s: President Abraham Lincoln asked Nast to create a drawing of Santa with some Union soldiers. This image of Santa supporting the enemy had a demoralizing influence on the Confederate army -- an early example of psychological warfare.

1897: Francis P Church, Editor of the New York Sun, wrote an editorial in response to a letter from an eight year-old girl, Virginia O'Hanlon. She had written the paper asking whether there really was a Santa Claus. It has become known as the "Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus" letter.

1920's: The image of Santa had been standardized to portray a bearded, over-weight, jolly man dressed in a red suit with white trim.

1931: Haddon Sundblom, illustrator for The Coca-Cola ™ company drew a series of Santa images in their Christmas advertisements until 1964. The company holds the trademark for the Coca-Cola Santa design. Christmas ads including Santa continue to the present day.

1939 Copywriter Robert L. May of the Montgomery Ward Company created a poem about Rudolph, the ninth reindeer. May had been "often taunted as a child for being shy, small and slight." He created an ostracized reindeer with a shiny red nose who became a hero one foggy Christmas eve. Santa was part-way through deliveries when the visibility started to degenerate. Santa added Rudolph to his team of reindeer to help illuminate the path. A copy of the poem was given free to Montgomery Ward customers.



In my country he is still arriving by steamboat and brings his helpers with him, the so called black pete's.

I consider that they should all be arrested as we see the tradition slowly sliding into a commercial feast, and that was absolutely not the meaning of the Sinterklaas celebration.
It is about small gifts and surprises, and not about gifts of hundreds of euros.



Whenever a folk tradition becomes popular, you can be sure that a large company will try to appropriate it for itself.
McDonald’s is masterful at co-oping the latest street trends in music.
Disney has built its empire on claiming ownership in fairy tales and classic children’s literature.
The question of the season is whether Coca-Cola is responsible for our modern-day images of Santa Claus.
This is a common mythology in many circles.
“until 1931, the old saint was a thin, dark man dressed in drab green or brown.

His reincarnation as a plump, twinkling, jolly, white-bearded old chap in a red suit originated in a Coca Cola advertising campaign.
Fortunately for North American children and commercial culture, the Coca-Cola Company did not claim trademark rights or copyright in the figure.
At the beginning of the 1930s, the burgeoning Coca-Cola company was still looking for ways to increase sales of their product during winter, then a slow time of year for the soft drink market.



They turned to a talented commercial illustrator named Haddon Sundblom, who created a series of memorable drawings that associated the figure of a larger than life, red-and-white garbed Santa Claus with Coca-Cola.
Coke’s annual advertisements – featuring Sundblom-drawn Santas holding bottles of Coca-Cola, drinking Coca-Cola, receiving Coca-Cola as gifts, and especially enjoying Coca-Cola – became a perennial Christmastime feature which helped spur Coca-Cola sales throughout the winter (and produced the bonus effect of appealing quite strongly to children, an important segment of the soft drink market).

The success of this advertising campaign has helped fuel the legend that Coca-Cola actually invented the image of the modern Santa Claus, decking him out in a red-and-white suit to promote the company colors – or that at the very least, Coca-Cola chose to promote the red-and-white version of Santa Claus over a variety of competing Santa figures in order to establish it as the accepted image of Santa Claus.

Coca-Cola has happily built an ongoing public relations campaign around this mythology.
The advertisements of Coca-Cola were printed in colour, in magazines and that made the difference and turned him into what he is now.
(Everything else newspapers and television were only available in black and white).
This Christmas season the company is celebrating the 75th anniversary of the Sundblom Santa images, complete with an exhibit of past ads, at Lincoln Center in New York City.



And so it goes, that large entertainment and retail corporations falsely claim to be the proper stewards of Santa Claus folklore.
It’s all a fight over whether Santa is the Real Thing…or the real thing.
Well let them claim whatever they want but Santa was just a spin off.
He is an invention of the new commercial world, but please tell your kids the real story, behind this well known personality.
I know which Santa I believe in! Have a nice "Pakjesavond" or should I say a Merry Christmas?

The Old Sailor,

The ”romantic” wintertime

Dear Bloggers.

As I walked down to a friend of mine who lives close to the harbour, it started snowing.
Which is giving beautiful postcard scenery.
As usual we are drinking coffee and discuss and find solutions for nearly all problems and challenges of this planet, if really needed we will turn the world upside down to get it back into the right direction.
All of a sudden the heating stove was discussed.
Why is it not on?
The problem was that his little firewood shelter was not filled up yet, so there was nothing to burn
I must admit it was not that cold as well.
Of course the remark about putting on the stove was given by a woman, yes they are all stuck with these romantic ideas, the ones I am a bit short of in my latest years (in full panic I realize that I am getting closer and closer to my midlife crises, or maybe something worse.)



My mind was slipping away when I walked back to the ship and it had started snowing heavier.
Memories of my younger years came into my head.
The very cold days in winter we had, the afternoons you returned from a long ice skating tour on the lakes that were lying around the village and they were all frozen
The days we removed the snow from the path to the house where a very old lady lived as she was our neighbour. If needed people could reach her door.
After doing the hard job, you got a chocolate as payment.



Sitting with the whole family around the stove or gas heater to warm up after a cold day.
These kinds of winters are over, I am afraid and I think it is a shame.
As these winter days brought a lot of intimacy and solidarity.
In these days a lot of people are drowning in their own selfishness and it becomes a major thing.



When I go back 20 years in time: We were hanging out together either at the pub or at some friends home, playing card games and had a good time
We enjoyed on these winter days a hot chocolate with brown rum (Captain Morgan) and finished with a top of real whipped cream.



Those were the days that you wish they would return.
I guess it will be a bit of a strange picture in today’s world.
All they are sitting around the stove or fire place.
One is playing with his mobile
Two is playing with his video game.
Three is just sitting there and stares into the flames and complains that they make you so tired.
And four is keeping the stove going and tries to make conversation, but is not very successful.



Dear Youngsters,
Please get out of your digital world, as we are all screwed by the super producers and they only have one goal they want to take all your money.
Take my advice please do not buy that latest game, but go out and explore the world.
Save some money and end up in a cheap and shitty hotel in a major city like London, Paris or were ever you wanted to go. Live you’re live before it is too late.

”Live life as long it is there, pray for less fights, spend your last money on a drink and fuck if your life is depending on it.”

The Old Sailor,

Myth busted that women want to have less sex.

Dear Bloggers,

We (me and my spouce) found out after many years that we are completely different and that she is thinking like a woman and I am thinking like a man.

I really start to think how it would be if we would be thinking the same way.
If it comes to the point we are the same, the only difference I can discover is that she is looking for somebody that needs to open up more to her world.
But why doesn't she guide me in the right direction?
I am an idiot if it comes to the romantic part, I must admit I was a lot better at it in my younger days.



I hope I will find my way back, otherwise I might loose the most beautiful thing in life, and of course I still love her with all my heart.
Unfortunate as I am, the men's part of my brain has taken over my female side of the body. (As a lot of men have to admit, I am afraid that we are thinking to much with our dick.)
But that is the problem if you have a women with a lovely body, could you stop thinking of anything else?



I found the follwing things by strawling through the web and foud the following issues, that I thought as a man to be worth mentioning.

Bachelors might have sex on their minds more than their single female counterparts, but once in a committed relationship, men and women have similar attitudes toward the act, a new study finds.

Past studies, the scientists pointed out, have shown that compared with women, men are more sexually permissive, endorse casual sex at higher rates and masturbate more often.
And even in dreamland, men are from Mars and women from Venus. A recent study showed men were more than twice as likely as women to report dreams about multiple sex partners.

Sexual feelings

While women placed more emphasis on the emotional aspects of sex, men focused more on the physical side of sex.
Men were much more likely to find sex personally and physically pleasurable, while women were more likely to think sex violates social taboos.
Thoughts often turn into actions. “Sexually restrictive gender roles too often become self-fulfilling prophecies because women know that they are expected to be less sexual than men, “and men know that they are expected to be more sexual than women.”



Men gave much higher ratings for risky sexual behaviors, such as “I should have sex with as many people as possible,” than women.
And women were more apt to endorse waiting longer and not engaging in premarital sex.



When Mr. Right shows up, however, women ditch society-imposed gender roles, warming up to sexual pleasures, the researchers found.
In the context of an intimate relationship, both genders expressed that sex was important as a way to bring couples closer, to help maintain healthy relationships and to increase one’s self confidence.

“People in romantic relationships give more importance to their own feelings and their partners’ than they do to social expectations about sexual behavior,”

Hmm... It is about time to change somethings in my head, maybe it is not too late yet.
But I really hate butterflies in my stomach.

The Old Sailor,

The contrasts in live.

Dear Bloggers,

It came to me, when I was at the local chinese restaurant to get some take away food for me and my family.
As I live in the country we are having quit firm types of women.



It is not that they are extremely big or fat, it is the whole picture that they not really fit in.
If you see the chinese people next to them, compared to them we are all big in length and a bit fatter if it comes to the model of the person.
And I must say they are all working hard together, but admit it looks a bit silly anyway. (for me it is just a great peace of humor, and there is not much to laugh about in this world at the moment.)
In todays cultural mix it is nothing strange anymore, if I just go back to my youth about thirty years ago.



I remember that I was kind of impressed when I saw the first dark skinned person, as we only knew them from illustrations in books and comics. (a lot of wrong impressions)



Now we are even see relationships between different cultures, and that is a good thing.
Only thing I do not understand is that some cultures are not adapting to the community were they live. It would give more peace if people had to do that as they have made the choice to leave their own country, to find a better live elsewhere.
Even people that had to escape their own country, because the regime would otherwise kill them.



The freedom of what we believe in or choice of religion is no problem at all, although we should not abuse the fact that we are different then the native community.
I will not say that the natives know best, but at least it could be studied by the religic leaders instead of kicking against the other religions. It is not a championship between the gods as the Greeks have believed for ages, after a while they figured out that this was not the right way.



We can do what we want and we can get a relationship with anyone we want.
If of course it is ethically accepted by the majority of the community.
I think every person has the right to make their own choices and mistakes and that it should be possible to learn from your mistakes as well. As every one has the free choice to believe in something that is fullfilling your personal wishes.

Old Sailor has also gone to space

Dear Bloggers,

From today my blog is also readable on Msn Space

Here is the address:http://oldsailor2007.spaces.live.com/

Of course I will keep producing on this blog

The Old Sailor,

Ilussions of love (in words)

Dear Bloggers,

Love is meaningless or....

Love is an Illusion

Just a while ago, I had observed that older couples are less loving towards each other compared to younger couples.
Naturally, I asked myself .. why so?
I could have settled for a simpler answer like - the feeling has faded or they no longer love each other or whatsoever.
However, I refused to take this for granted.



I remembered myself absurdly asking my female friends about this (to get some female perspectives) during our casual conversations.
But I wasn’t satisfied with the answers… and soon, I gave up.
It was only in recent years, I finally found the answer for this old little puzzle of mine.
I found all my answers on the web, nothing has to stay unknown if you know where to look for.(Google and Wikipedia are great tools.)



The ultimate purpose of human being is to breed and have children and continuing the next generation.
Everything in our life is geared towards that goal.
The survival of species is the ultimate quest in all living creatures.
It’s biological, it’s instinctive, it’s in our Will, something which is beyond our conscious control.
Not surprisingly, that these parts were rediscovered by the next generations again, such as the study of subconscious mind by Sigmund Freud and Evolution by Charles Darwin.

Although they produced their thoughts on paper years ago, they are based on the human being, the species was more important to them than any other matter.
Falling in love is a ‘blind biological urge’ in us - love is basically an illusion which pull men and women together.
Love in our mind is magical, sweet, sensational and is a symbol of happiness.
But little did we know that these emotions come together with Love as a whole ‘package’.
When human are able to get positive emotions out of something, we gain satisfaction.
The brain is giving a special treat if we are satisfied.
And this satisfaction is what keeps our desire alive.

It’s instinctive, and we are basically slaves to our own instinct and desire.
I believe that the truth is ugly.
Marriage is a trap to confine couples together.
Living as a husband and wife means halve both of their rights and double the duties. Having children will require the couples to put in more effort and resources to maintain the family.



It is not easy to satisfy your partner when there are children and she is scared that they might walk in.
Furthermore, one of the two is too tired to take the time to make really love to eachother, and to get a woman started that has known you for such a long time is not that easy.
As she knows all the things that you are not that good at, and she knows how to turn you down.
As a man you feel really hurt, and think that she does not like you anymore.
You are not able to seduce her with only a smile or a little joke.(men can be real insecure about their sexlive.)

She is not busy anymore with reproducing herself and is not worried that her husband will run away from her and their kids.
Maybe is this the key that so many couples are splitting up now a days.
As it is not easy to adjust your feelings all the time.



We got focussed on what was between us in past times, but the Love has changed into Liking you.
That is what we simply forget, eventhough you enjoy the softness of her skin, and the deepness of her kisses when she is aroused.
But making love is different, as reproduction is not the drive anymore.
And why men are parading with a young girl after they got divorced, as these girls bodies and minds are still being fully focussed on reproduction.
Men overall have much higher sexdrive and they regain their hunting skills if they are being turned down to often.
They start doubting themselves between there fourties and fifties.
The so called midlife crisis, were the time comes that the children have grown up and she is not paying enough attention to her partner. At this moment he will start reconsidering if he is not a good enough for her. All men will be a hunter forever it is just the comments of his surroundings or religic backgrounds that might hold him back from doing these things.(If you want to keep him happy, give him enough to live for.)



Therefore, only a force as strong as Love can ‘blind’ us, bringing men and women together under the same roof.
When we are finding our potential partners, we do not think of making babies with them, rather, we think of Love.
It seems that we have no choice but to fall in love and the illusion of love (which gives extreme positive emotions) will conveniently wipe away all the misery of a married life and having babies.

Buddha’s magic word - Emotions arise from Desire, hence an Illusion.

This perfectly answered the question I had and I think it is safe to conclude the reason why older couples are still together is due to respect and responsibility rather than still genuinely loving each other.
They simply got used to eachother with all the ups and downs in their relationship.

I always believe human are polygamous by nature.
But due to the development of human culture (of the different role between men and women), and more importantly the influence of religion such as Christianity, the nature rule has been replaced by human rule, championing the monogamous way.



Hmm...we simply can not afford an extra girlfriend in this expensive luxury lifestyle we are living, that is in at least 90% of the cases.
The ones that can, lead normally a double life as the wife should not find out.
(As poligamy is not accepted in our modern western culture.)
In certain cultures that are less developped than ours, polygamy is not that strange and having more wifes is accepted.
This is of course more natural, even I don't believe in the fact that women have to depend fully on a man.
If one of them complains about having a headache, you simply have a lot more options to have sex.



I whole heartily agree that biological drives are stronger then a reasoning on love. However, I am sure I will never follow his way of remaining single and living in solitude life till the end of my day.
I do want to have a life-long companion (wife) and a family.
This is my reasoning - if human are biologically a social animal and hardwired to fall in love, then why should we go against the nature? Biological is stronger than Reasoning, hence if we insist on following the literal Reasonings, wouldn’t it be a challenging difficulty for human to adapt to this deprived-of-instinct-fulfillment-life?
Wouldn’t it be a distress to live in a life where at one hand, we can’t take love seriously as we know it is just an illusion and on the other hand, we persistently being pestered by our biological instincts to fall in love.
We would be trapped in a no-man’s land.

That to me, is a miserable lose-lose situation.

I had a wicked thought while I was writing this blog.
I questioned, why do parents are willing to put their lives at stake in order to protect their children?

In many circumstances, the parent may even trade life to make sure the survival of their children.
It seems divine and noble in the first glance.
But it is not logical.

If the parents are willing to sacrifice themselves, despite saving their children, they lose their lives.
Not only that, they will have absolutely no control over the fate of their children once they are dead.
(if later on the children faced danger again and die, then the sacrifice of the parents will be futile.)

More logical would be:

If the parents are not willing to sacrifice themselves, their children will die but the parents are able to retain their lives. If they are healthy enough, they could breed again and replace the dead children with new children. They could oversee the growth of these new children and will able to drive their fate to a certain direction.

Many parents will choose the first option, much to the influence of our instinct.
I may sound a little sadist and not politically correct, but I am only treating this just as a daily thought-exercise, nothing more.

This gave me a little idea that human are not 100% rational and logical as we would like to believe in ourselves.
I have to admit that nothing in this world ruled by humans is rational, but this might change some peoples minds.

That we are all living in a bubble, I figured out that I write the best stories when I feel miserable and my relationship knows some troubles at the moment.

I know that it is a lot of wishfull thinking but Old Sailor’s magic words are:”Live life as long it is there, pray for less fights, spend your last money on a drink and fuck if your life is depending on it.”

The Old Sailor,

Computertrouble

Dear Bloggers,

My computer is troubling at the moment.
I am getting the funniest messages and errors



It is not that bad, but I have been losing my patience every now and then.




I had to ask for help



And get my computer serviced



And all my files were cleaned up.



They even got my Word program fixed.



As soon as I Can I will come with a blog again.

The Old Sailor,