Word: reindeers
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DIED. Johnny Marks, 75, Tin Pan Alley tunesmith whose Christmas songs include I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day (1956), Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree (1960) and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (first recorded by Gene Autry in 1949), which went on to become one of the most popular tunes of all time, with 150 million records and 8 million sheet music copies sold worldwide; in New York City...
...Ellipse, a 52-acre circular park between the White House and the Washington Monument, it included not only the elaborately decorated national Christmas tree but also 56 smaller ones representing the states, U.S. territories and the District of Columbia. In addition, the National Zoo installed nine live reindeer near by, and each day a traditional yule log is set ablaze. That feature proved less than popular during last Thursday's balmy weather. "That's what happens when you have a weatherman for Santa Claus," cracked red-suited TV Forecaster Willard Scott, the master of ceremonies...
Perhaps the court was saying that this is a ridiculous issue--that there is something wrong with a society that can't just relax about a creche surrounded by Santa Claus and reindeer. Why not find some good will in the symbols rather than governmental sponsorship of a religion? The majority opinion contends that "The display engenders a friendly community spirit of good will in keeping with the season." But good will at what price? As the dissent points out, Pawtucket may have a valid "secular reason" (good will and increased retail sales) for setting up the display...
...does the majority's implication that surrounding the creche with other, strictly secular, symbols negates the endorsement ring true. It's like saying if the city put a cross on the lawn of its City Hall and surrounded it with candy canes, reindeer and polar bears, the cross would no longer signify any real religious endorsement. What if the symbol had been a Star of David or a Koran...
...case involved Pawtucket's use of public funds ($1,365 initially, $20 a year now) to buy and then reerect annually a crèche as part of a Christmas display that also featured such secular holiday symbols as reindeer and a Santa Claus house. Chief Justice Burger, writing for the court majority, found the Nativity scene to be a "passive" symbol and its presence in the display "no more an advancement or endorsement of religion than...the exhibition of literally hundreds of religious paintings in governmentally supported museums." Said Burger: "We are unable to perceive the Archbishop...