Word: reindeers
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Santas, or snowmen, or reindeer, or stars...
...Pittsburgh dispute invites the high bench to revisit one of its most controversial and opaque rulings. In a 1984 case from Pawtucket, R.I., the Justices upheld the constitutionality of a town-supported creche in a display that included reindeer, Santa's house and candy-striped poles, saying the overall tableau had a "secular purpose" and "effect." Ever since, lower courts have struggled to apply what has come to be ridiculed as the "reindeer rule." At issue: how much secular camouflage is required to sneak a publicly sponsored Nativity scene past the First Amendment bar on an "establishment of religion...
...beliefs publicly with the accommodation of the government," asserts Rabbi Yehuda Krinsky of Chabad. "Putting up menorahs is a sharing of values with others." Beyond Pittsburgh, his 100,000-member organization has been building menorahs from Washington's Ellipse to San Francisco's Union Square, almost anywhere a reindeer might be lurking. But most Jewish groups oppose the displays. Says Sam Rabinove, legal director of the American Jewish Committee: "We're all in favor of menorahs and creches, but not in public buildings." Mainstream Christian groups agree. "We consider the display of a Christian religious symbol by a municipality...
...unbreakable union of free republics, joined together forever by great Russia . . ." At 6 a.m. each day, the opening lines of the Soviet state anthem ring out in Russian from radios across the vast country. They are heard by reindeer-herding Chukchi tribesmen in Siberia, Buryat farmers near the Mongolian border and Estonian fishermen by the Baltic Sea. The words project an illusion of homogeneity that Moscow finds increasingly difficult to maintain...
...sleaze-hearted TV executive played with conniving brio by Bill Murray in Scrooged. Frank has even planned a Christmas Eve broadcast of A Christmas Carol, with an all-star cast (Buddy Hackett as Ebenezer, Mary Lou Retton as Tiny Tim). He is bursting with creative ingenuity: he wants tiny reindeer antlers stapled on the forehead of a Christmas mouse. But Frank is about to get scrooged by the ghost of his old boss (John Forsythe), and three Christmas spirits want to teach him a lesson in generosity. He will hallucinate an eyeball in his highball and be told that "garden...