Tom Glenn's Blog, page 15

Christmas Day

It’s here! It’s the day children all over the world wait for impatiently. And after plunging down to the single digits yesterday, the temperature is only 9 degrees as I write and is expected to remain below freezing all day today. But no snow. Once again, we have to do without a white Christmas.

Never mind. The day is magic either way. If you’re Christian and religious, you’re celebrating the birth of Jesus. If you’re not, you’re rejoicing in the best holiday of the year—a time when people overcome their hostilities, and brotherhood reigns supreme. And if you’re Jewish, you’re observing Hanukkah, the Festival of Lights, which this year began in the evening of Sunday, December 18, and ends tomorrow evening.

I’ll be spending Christmas Day alone. I’m content with that. I’ll play hymns and carols on my Steinway, listen to glorious music on the radio, play my favorite Christmas CDs. I’ll remember my happy years when my children were growing up and look forward to seeing them and their children during the coming week. I’ll probably spend some time reading, my favorite pastime, take a nap in the middle of the day, and enjoy sweets I wouldn’t usually allow myself.

Christmas has always been a magic day for me. I’ll enjoy it to the hilt. And I wish you, my readers, all the joy of Christmas. May this be your best Christmas ever!

Christmas Music

I knew by the time I was six years old that I was born to write. Not to write would be to invite damnation. Nevertheless, I tried various routes to escape my fate. One of them was music. I taught myself to play the piano and guitar, took a BA in music from the University of California, Berkeley, and ran and arranged music for church folk groups and choirs, and conducted choruses.

As a result, I became very familiar with Christmas music. It was soon apparent to me that music for the holiday fit neatly into the musical periods I had studied in school—medieval, renaissance, baroque, classic, romantic, and modern. One of my favorites was (and still is) “What Child is This,” set to the modal melody of “Greensleeves,” which originated during fifteen hundreds in England and is sometimes attributed to Henry VIII. That would make it the oldest of the Christmas songs I love, dating from the renaissance.

The Christmas pieces I cherish the most are from the baroque period, Händel’s Messiah and Bach’s Christmas Oratorio. The classic period yielded “Stille Nacht” (Silent Night), but most of the hymns and carols we know today originated during the romantic period (1830 to 1900). A few came from the modern period. They include “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus,” “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” “Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town,” “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” and “White Christmas.” Only two that I am familiar with came from the Negro Spiritual tradition— “Go Tell It on the Mountain” and “Mary Had a Baby.”

And then there’s classical music inspired by Christmas. Probably the best known (other than the Händel and Bach cited above) is Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker, followed closely by the settings of the Ave Maria (the original Latin of “Hail Mary”) by Schubert and Gounod. And I can’t forget Haydn’s Toy Symphony.  

Suffice it to say that Christmas inspired composers throughout the centuries. I have more than fifty CDs of Christmas hymns and carols, and in December, I listen to them non-stop. They bring back memories from all periods of my long life, but they remind me most of the time my children were growing up.

Christmas Cards

The arrival of Christmas cards from friends and relatives invariably takes me by surprise. In previous years, I’ve sent none myself, and this year I only posted a half dozen. And that’s about the number I’ve received so far.

But one took me by surprise and particularly impressed me. It was from Joe and Jill Biden at the White House. It’s the only card of its type I’ve ever seen. It consists of a maroon folder the size of a normal card with “Happy Holidays” at the top and “2022” at the bottom written in shiny gold letters. The middle of the folder is filled with 28 perforations in the shape of stylized holly leaves and berries. Inside the folder is a single white card the size of the folder. At the top, printed in gold, is the presidential seal—an eagle holding arrows and an olive branch—surrounded by a circle stars. Beneath it, again written in gold and a script that looks like the one named Monsieur La Doulaise, are the words “May this holiday season bring us together in faith, hope, and love.” At the bottom left are a large and small gold pawprint labeled, respectively, “Commander” and “Willow.” At the bottom rights are two gold signatures, Joe and Jill. It is the most beautiful and imaginative card I have ever seen.

I am at a total loss to know why the White House sent me a Christmas card. And I feel uniquely honored.

Christmas Words (2)

Back to it. More Christmas words:

Next, nativity. If capitalized, the word refers to the birth of Christ. Otherwise, it means the process, fact, or circumstances of being born, according to Merriam-Webster. It dates back to the early twelfth century word, Nativite, meaning the feast day celebrating the birth of Christ, Christmas, deriving from Old French nativité—birth, origin, descent, birthday, or Christmas. The origin was Late Latin nativitatem (nominative nativitas), “birth,” from Latin nativus, “born, native.”

Santa Claus: That’s the name we give to the spirit of Christmas personified. According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, the name first appeared in English in 1773 as “St. A Claus,” in the New York Gazette. It’s from the dialectal Dutch Sante Klaas, from Middle Dutch Sinter Niklaas. That name refers to Saint Nicholas of Myra (traditionally reported to have lived from March 15, 270 to December 6, 343), also known as Nicholas of Bari. He was a bishop of Greek descent from the maritime city of Myra in Asia Minor who became the patron saint for children. The name Santa Claus is now a worldwide phenomenon (example: Japanese santakurosu) for Father Christmas, first mentioned in the 1650s.

Frankincense: an aromatic gum resin from a tree, used anciently as incense and in religious rituals. It was one of the gifts from the Magi, three wise men who, the bible reports, visited the infant Jesus. According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, the word first appeared in the late fourteenth century. It’s apparently from Old French franc encense—from franc meaning noble, true (in this case probably signifying pure or of the highest quality) and encens, incense.

Myrrh: a gum-resin extracted from a number of small, thorny tree species of the genus Commiphora. It was another Magi gift. Myrrh resin has been used throughout history as a perfume, incense, and medicine. The etymology from the Online Etymology Dictionary is long and complex: Middle English mirre, from Old French mirre (eleventh century) and also from Old English myrre. Both the Old English and Old French words are from the Latin myrrha (source also of Dutch mirre, German Myrrhe, French myrrhe, Italian and Spanish mirra), from Greek myrrha, from a Semitic source—compare Akkadian murru, Hebrew mor, and Arabic murr, from a root meaning “was bitter.” The classical spelling restoration introduced in the sixteenth century.

And finally, manger: a feeding box for horses and cattle. The Online Etymology Dictionary says that the word derives from the early fourteenth century word, maunger, from Old French mangeoire (crib, manger), from mangier—to eat (Modern French manger, to eat), from Late Latin manducare, to chew or eat, from manducus,glutton, from Latin mandere. to chew.

Whew.

Christmas Words

As regular readers of my blog know, words fascinate me. And with Christmas close at hand, I decided to look into Christmas seasonal words. I got more than I bargained for.

I’ll start with the name itself, Christmas. According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, the word “Christmas” originated from the phrase Cristes Maesse, first recorded in 1038, which means the Mass of Christ or Christ’s Mass. So let’s look at the etymology of those two words. Christ comes from the Old English Crīst, from Latin Christus, from Greek Khristos, noun use of an adjective meaning “anointed,” from khriein “to anoint.” Mass, the Catholic worship ritual, is derived from the ecclesiastical Latin formula for the dismissal of the congregation: Ite, missa est, “Go, it is the dismissal.” Missa, ultimately from Latin mittere, means to send away.

Next: Yule. Merriam-Webster defines the word as meaning Christmas.  Yule (also called Jul, jól, or joulu) was originally a festival observed by the Germanic peoples. Scholars have connected the original celebrations of Yule to the Wild Hunt, the god Odin, and the pagan Anglo-Saxon Mōdraniht (“Mothers’ Night”).

Carol: The word means a song of praise or devotion. Its etymology, according to the Online Etymology Dictionary, is unchanged since 1300. It has always meant a joyful song, also a kind of dance in a ring, from Old French carole, a word of uncertain origin that means a round dance accompanied by singers.   

Noel: It simply means Christmas or the feast of the Nativity.  It comes from the French word Noël, Christmas. It has been in the language since the late fourteenth century and has a long and complex etymology. Alternate forms of the word in the past were nowel and nouel, meaning Christmas, the Feast of the Nativity, deriving from the Old French noel, the Christmas season, a variant of nael, from Latin natalis (dies) “birth (day),” used in Church Latin in reference to the birthday of Christ, from natus, past participle of nasci, to be born (Old Latin gnasci), from the root gene- meaning to give birth, beget.

Wassail: an early English toast to someone’s health. It is most likely from Old Norse ves heill, a beverage made from hot mulled cider, ale, or wine and spices, drunk traditionally as an integral part of “wassailing,” an ancient English Yuletide drinking ritual and salutation either involved in door-to-door charity-giving or used to ensure a good harvest the following year.

More next time.

Christmases in Vietnam (2)

My children were with me for two Christmases in Vietnam, thanks to the two accompanied (family) tours I had there. Their mother and I went out of our way to decorate and celebrate so that they wouldn’t feel that Christmas had lost its meaning in a foreign land with sunny weather in the 70s and 80s rather than snow. We were marginally successful.

The most memorable Christmas in Vietnam for me was the last one, in 1974. In its foolishness, the U.S. government declared the war over with the signing of the peace accords of 1973. We had a big Christmas tree—never mind that it wasn’t the right kind of pine. The house was dripping with decorations. I read “’Twas the Night Before Christmas” to the children on Christmas eve. We had all the men from the office who were there alone in for Christmas dinner. But under the veneer of celebration loomed the knowledge that the North Vietnamese grew ever closer. I already knew that the country would fall within months and was quietly arranging for my family to be evacuated before the North Vietnamese seized Saigon.

And yet, for all that, Christmas remained a magical time. I know that there is nothing inherent in the calendar to make the 25th of December the most special day of the year. I know that the magic comes from the human heart.

May that magic always prevail.

Christmases in Vietnam

Some years ago, I posted a blog about what it was like to celebrate Christmas in Vietnam during the war. A reader recently went back and dug out that post. I reread it and decided that it would be worth reposting. Here it is:

Between 1962 when I first arrived in Vietnam and 1975 when I escaped under fire as Saigon fell to the North Vietnamese, I celebrated far more Christmases in Vietnam with the troops than I did in the U.S. with my family. I remember especially the brief recognition of the day on the battlefield when guys would wish each other a Merry Christmas between skirmishes. It was a day like any other, except for the unspoken yearning for family, so strong among the troops that I could feel it even though no one mentioned it—and, toward the end of U.S. troop deployments to Vietnam, disgust that led to the oft-repeated “Merry Fucking Christmas.”

I knew those feelings, too. As the war dragged on, I saw that the U.S. had no clue on how to fight the North Vietnamese. And I had children at home who would once again do without a father on Christmas. That deprivation is the factor I most regret about my years in Vietnam. My children have all grown into responsible, functioning, even admirable adults despite being forced spend so much time fatherless. That they have done so well is a tribute to their excellence as people, not to me.

More next time.

NSA Birthday

Larry Foster, an Army Security Agency (ASA) veteran, sent me the URL of a video on the 70th birthday of the National Security Agency (NSA), my employer before I retired more than 30 years ago. I was working for NSA when I was on the battlefield with U.S. and friendly forces supporting them with signals intelligence (SIGINT) resulting from the intercept and exploitation of enemy communications.

When I first went to work for NSA in 1961, the agency was much more secretive than it is today. We weren’t allowed to tell people that we worked for NSA; the most we could say was that we were employed by the Department of Defense (DOD). But now my years of service for the agency as a civilian undercover as an enlisted man in whatever unit I was supporting in Vietnam between 1962 and 1975 have been partly declassified, so that I can write about my experience. Where I went and what I did after 1975 is still classified.

I note with some irony that NSA is not as old as I am. I was a teenager when it was created. I spent several years there as an army enlisted man (in ASA) and 32 years as a civilian employee. And the agency invited me back twice after I retired to do my presentation on the fall of Saigon, from which, as an NSA employee operating under cover, I escaped under fire after the North Vietnamese were already in the streets of the city.

I was astonished to see the 70th birthday video because of the openness about what NSA does. I invite my readers to view the video so you can get a better idea of what I did in my secret years in SIGINT. It’s at https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=Cj-b7JEHyDk

One More Time: Words (2)

More intriguing words:

Booby: The word has two different meanings. The first is a seabird in the genus Sula, part of the family Sulidae. The second is an awkward foolish person, a dope. Its origin, according to Merriam-Webster, is the Spanish bobo, from Latin balbus­—stammering—probably of imitative origin.

Next, wench. According to Oxford Languages, “wench” is a girl or young woman. The term also means a lewd woman or prostitute. It’s origin is Middle English wenche, short for wenchel meaning child, from Old English wencel; akin to Old High German wankōn,to totter, waver and probably to Old High German winchan, to stagger.

Dope: The word has a variety of meanings. Primary among them are a thick sticky material (as one used to make pipe joints tight); an illegal, habit-forming, or narcotic drug; a stupid person; and information. Merriam-Webster says that the etymology of dope is Dutch doop, sauce, from dopen, to dip; akin to Old English dyppan, to dip.

Palpable: capable of being touched or felt. The word originated in late Middle English and is still with us. It derives from late Latin palpabilis, from Latin palpare, to feel, to touch gently.

Mug: Once again, here is a word with multiple definitions. As a noun, it means a cylindrical drinking cup, the face or mouth of a person, fool or blockhead, a punk or thug, or a person easily deceived. As a verb, it means to pose or make faces, especially to attract attention or for a camera; or to assault usually with intent to rob. The word has been with us since the early 16th century. It originated in Scotland and northern England, denoting an earthenware bowl. It is apparently related to Dutch mok, Low German muck, mukke, Swedish mugg, and to Norwegian mugge, meaning to open can or jug.

More when the spirit moves me.

One More Time: Words

I remind the reader that I am a writer by trade and vocation and am, therefore, vitally concerned with words. So from time to time, I devote blog posts to words that intrigue me. It’s that time again.

I’ll start with zilch. According to Merriam-Webster, it means zero or nil. No source I checked was able to provide an etymology for the word. I found lots of guesses, like this one from Oxford Languages: perhaps from a Mr. Zilch, a character in the 1930s U.S. humorous magazine Ballyhoo.

Next: imbroglio. According to Oxford Languages, it means an extremely confused, complicated, or embarrassing situation. The word comes from the mid-18th century Italian word imbrogliare, which means to confuse. The word is related to embroil, which means to cause to fall into confusion.

Hobnob: Merriam-Webster says that the word means to associate familiarly, to chum around. It is derived from habnab, a very old English word that means in one way or another, by hook or by crook. According to Oxford Languages, hobnob originated in the early 19th century and means to drink together.

Grinch: According to Wikipedia, the Grinch is a fictional character created by Dr. Seuss. He is best known as the main character of the 1957 children’s book How the Grinch Stole Christmas! Here’s what he looks like:

And last for today: kowtow. The word literally means to kneel and touch the ground with the forehead in worship or submission. By extension, it means to act in an excessively subservient manner. It is derived from the Chinese k’o-t’ou (叩 頭), which means “knock the head.”

That’s enough for today.