Word: peter
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Dates: during 1930-1939
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Saint Nicholas & Black Peter. Slow in some respects, the Dutch had outspeeded other Europeans in the matter of Santa Claus last week, as they do every year. To strict Calvinistic subjects of devout Queen Wilhelmina it would smack of blasphemy to observe Dec. 25 otherwise than with solemn thanks in church for the birth of their Savior. They figure, however, that Santa Claus, or St. Nicholas, the patron saint of Generosity, was born on Dec. 6, do their giving then. Dutchmen conceive the Saint as a bishop whose ecclesiastic dignity is above lugging presents around in a sack. This...
Many Dutch villages have their St. Nicholases and Black Peters, generally two popular local characters who know all the children. By prearrangement with parents, they leave toys for good children or threaten to leave a birch switch for bad as they go from house to house. Especially naughty moppets are supposed to be terrified into good behavior when grimacing Black Peter threatens: "Unless you mend your ways, I'll carry you off in my bag to Spain!" According to one legend, Blackamoor Peter came from one of the ancient lands of the Moors...
This year Netherlands troops guarding the frontier with Germany were visited on St. Nicholas Day by the mitered Saint, bearing aloft his bishop's crook and preceded by capering Peter, who brought sugar cakes for the soldiers. Dutch cameramen snapped St. Nicholas peering through field glasses at cruising bombers outlined against the sky. Amid jollification, Saint and minion tasted the troops' pea soup, which gulping Peter pronounced "prachtig" ("swell...
...ECONOMIC MAN-Peter F. Drucker-John...
...Finland might hold Russia indefinitely. So, officially, the Scandinavian States did the only thing they felt they could do: nothing. Denmark, which is most vulnerable to a German attack, plumped hard for neutrality. Foreign Ministers Halvdan Koht of Norway and Rickard Sandier of Sweden, meeting with Denmark's Peter Munch in Oslo, agreed to pass the buck to the League of Nations. But unofficially both Norway and Sweden did all they could for Finland...