Holiday Santa: 'How Much for Just the Head?'

"Time to beheading home, Santa"
Robert Basler, Oddly Enough, Reuters blog (December 24, 2010)


(Reuters photos by Baz Ratner, via Oddly Enough blog, used w/o permission)

"Blog Guy, like many of your readers, I come here for news about other cultures. I'm curious about how Christmas is celebrated in Israel.

"Sure, I can tell you about Bethlehem and the Church of the Nativity, which…

"Not THAT Christmas! The real, commercial one. Santa Claus and reindeer and stuff.

"Oh. I'm not big on doing research, but we do have some photos from Israel this week which you may find interesting. On the left you can see the custom of 'Sleazy Santa.' They take an inflatable Santa down narrow narrow alleys in Jerusalem and pretend to peer in windows…..."

The Lemming isn't entirely convinced, regarding Mr. Basler's claim to be "not big on doing research." The "Sleasy Santa," for example, isn't a fabrication. This post includes a photograph of the phenomenon.

As for the top photo from that post, the Lemming has noted the custom of displaying Santa heads - just the head - here in central North America, too. Or, rather, mini-heads: perhaps intended to represent Santa's elves. Maybe a dozen of them in a tree, each hanging from a branch.

It's a festive sight, in its own way: perhaps the Lemming knows a bit too much of my Viking and Celtic ancestors' more colorful habits.

Anyway: That's a typical Oddly Enough blog post. Odd; informative after its own fashion; and, in the Lemming's opinion, funny. As I've said before, your experience may vary.

Almost-related posts:

• "Lemming Tracks: Christmas Cookies, Fruitcake, and Eggnog Nightmare #1"
  (December 24, 2010)
• "Vertically Challenged Persons, Four Pigs and Rudolph: Santa's a Wreck"
  (December 12, 2010)
• " '...Darling Son and That Person You Married....' "
  (December 8, 2010)
• "Not Your Usual Fluffy Christmas Rhyme"
  Loonfoot Falls Chronicle-Gazette (December 25, 2009)
• "Christmas Pudding? Certainly: Just Sign This Indemnity Form"
  (December 25, 2009)

Posts in another blog, about the Lemming and Christmas:

• "Why I Don't Go Ballistic Over Xmas"
  (December 23, 2010)
• "Three Things That Go By the Name of Christmas"
  (December 24, 2009)
• "Giving Gifts at Christmas is Good: But Get a Grip!"
  (December 22, 2009)

Lemming Tracks: Two 3D Companies Merge (Well, It Matters To Me)

"AZ 3D & Gizmoz MERGE TO BECOME LEADING PUBLISHER OF Personalized 3D Characters, Software and Accessories"
DAZ 3D/gizmoz publicity page, with links

"DAZ 3D, developers of renowned 3D software and highly supported 3D content, and Gizmoz, the leader in 3D face detection, mapping, and manipulation technology, have merged to form a new company that will deliver the highest-quality personalized 3D digital characters, accessories...."

If you're not 'into' 3D art and modeling, or are connected with those companies, you probably couldn't care less about this merger.

I've been teaching myself how to use 3D software for a little over three years now, and use quite a few DAZ products: so I am interested. And, hope that the merged entity maintains the quality that I've come to expect from DAZ 3D.

the "official" press release:

"DAZ 3D and Gizmoz Merge to Become Premier Publisher of Personalized 3D Characters, Software and Accessories"
"Fuels Growth of Virtual Goods Market for Improved Gaming, Virtual Worlds, and 3D Modeling and Animation; Benchmark Capital, Highway 12 Ventures and Columbia Capital Lead Funding"

"Draper, Utah and Tel Aviv, Israel – Dec. 16, 2009 – Seizing the opportunity to meet the increasing and diversified expectations of the virtual goods market, DAZ 3D and Gizmoz today announced a merger that will create the foremost online marketplace for high-quality and inter-compatible digital characters and accessories....

"...'We are excited to announce the formation of a company dedicated to delivering digital goods with unprecedented life-like characteristics ideal for social networks, cross-platform gaming, 3D animation and development,' said Eyal Gever, president of the merged company and CEO and founder of Gizmoz...."

With my biases, I'm worried that the merged corporation will be run by bean counters and control freaks: but I have no reason to think this will happen. DAZ 3D has a very good product line, and sane CEOs don't sabotage winning teams.

Related(?) post:

• "Flight 188, Distracted Pilots, and Dangerously Impractical Software?"
  (November 27, 2009)
  • "...From the looks of it, the new Delta-Northwest merger may be run by the sort of clueless executives and managers who infest the Dilbert comic strip. ... Granted, the pilots should not have been wrestling with some Kafkaesque 'new and improved' crew-scheduling program...."