Crispy crisps posing as chips

Okay, back to the sublimely ridiculous Marty who tells tall tales or opines about the unimportant.

Among my Christmas gifts was a can of Pringles, intended to be shared with my granddogs as they and I love salty snacks. For the record, I dutifully shared them with the pups, doling them out over a few days in fact to spread the joy. I don't believe the dogs cared for such distribution. But they still gratefully took them when offered.

Pringles used to be called Pringles newfangled potato chips until the government, in its desire to protect us from all enemies foreign, domestic, and within the snack food industry, made them call their product potato crisps (as they were not slices of deep fried potato but potatoes which were pulverized into a mash then deep fried into a chip quality) lest the America consumer fail to see the importance of government protection. After all, who wants to be victimized by potato crisps posing as chips?

Anyway, the size of the can was 4.41 ounces. The can also proudly proclaimed that it was a limited time size. And that affects the quality and flavor...how? That bothers me almost as much as my over protective government ordering the folks at Pringles to relabel their snack food in a protective move which I quite frankly did not need. Nor see the point of. I mean, chips, crisps; is THAT what I pay my taxes for?

But at least Pringles offered the new can size on their own. I think.

Crissmas

I am increasingly of the opinion that we overdo Christmas. The secular world, in its drive for getting more and more things and keeping the economy afloat (as though buying trivial fluff is an obligation) has, no doubt in my mind, hijacked Christmas. But even among Christians, I believe we've become too much into the process and not nearly enough into the real point of the Holiday.

That real point is the birth of Christ. Cards and gifts are fine, but they kind of miss that point. I mean, shouldn't we be giving gifts and keeping in touch with family and friends all the time? If we're only doing that around Christmas then the whole thing strikes me as, well, shallow, even desperate. Christmas slowly becomes a backdrop; I believe that the most honest reason the Charlie Brown Christmas special had become so classic is that it puts the Nativity front and center and, properly, makes the froth the unimportant background.

I don't intend this to knock gift giving and celebration. What brings this on is an article I read this morning. You may find it here:

https://www.intellectualtakeout.org/blog/cs-lewis-lost-parable-meaning-christmas?fbclid=IwAR1JjLGWW4g8pfcUDAzxiiEe89PqIrETKzUEhxsyfRrZpNf2sB_QZyhI5y8

If we do things without meaning, then the doing, of course, becomes meaningless. I fear we are headed that way with Christmas, and I wonder if it might be better if the secular world did not celebrate it at all than to celebrate it shallowly. Christians should not do that simply as a matter of their Faith.

Christmas from Grandpa Joe

I'm actually way ahead of the Christmas curve this year. I have three of my gifts at the ready. Each of my kids will be getting a roll of black electrical tape.

Of course, there's a story behind that.

Back in the Seventies, Grandpa Joe found a deal on electrical tape. He took advantage of a very good price, something like a nickel a roll as I recall, and bought (I am not making this up) 6,000 rolls. That's a lot of electrical tape. The marked price on the rolls was 79 cents apiece by the way, so it was indeed a fantastic price.

To be fair and right by Joe, it wasn't really a bad idea. He rented arc welders, which meant he had miles of inch thick, rubber insulated welding cable which required maintenance and repair. I worked for him at the time, and believe me taping the cables where they were worn, cut, or spliced was an ongoing chore. Still, 6,000 rolls seemed an insane amount in 1975.

The welding rental part of our family business has long since ended. We used many rolls of that tape, sold some along the way to our plumbing customers, gave some away, took some home, and still use what's left for the occasional power cord repair on the drain snakes we now sell and service. After a solid forty year run, we are down to our last nine rolls.

And I am giving my kids one roll each this Christmas as one last gift from their great grandfather. I think Joe's getting a big kick out the idea too.

The gift

Mom has told on herself a few times in her life. One time it amused Dad quite succinctly.

As Dad told it, they were sitting at the kitchen table. He was doing the Sunday crossword puzzle. She was sorting out her money, laying it in piles as she counted it out. A few dollars here, a few dollars there. But she was counting it all out loud.

This for the kids: Bill's book, Marty's baseball game, Susan's doll, this and that as she mentally but aloud went through her Christmas list. She ended with, 'And this for Bill's chair'. And Dad began to laugh out loud.

Mother was buying a recliner on layaway for the old man. She had let out the secret.

It was maybe the best Christmas gift Pops had ever gotten. But only because Mom had given it away a few days before December 25th.