{"id":787,"date":"2010-12-24T06:15:39","date_gmt":"2010-12-24T13:15:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/?p=787"},"modified":"2010-12-22T09:27:33","modified_gmt":"2010-12-22T16:27:33","slug":"christmas-story-merry-christmas-princess-peach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/787\/christmas-story-merry-christmas-princess-peach\/","title":{"rendered":"Merry Christmas, Princess Peach"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Ramblin’ Gamblin’ Willie story<\/i><\/p>\n

“Luigi!” The beautiful blonde girlchild tore her way across the packed airport corridor.<\/p>\n

“Oh,” said her mother, a beautiful blonde womanchild. “Great…”<\/p>\n

There is only one Christmas, isn’t there? Holly and mistletoe. A golden retriever by the fire. Mom bastes the bird while dad carols with the choir. Icicles cling to the branches of birch trees and fat, wet snowflakes tumble down, lit by the yellow glow of gaslights. Horses nicker and children giggle and lovers nestle and sigh. We’re all dreaming of a white Christmas — and we’re all dreaming.<\/p>\n

And why not? Over the ghetto and through the industrial park doesn’t sound like a very nice way to get to Grandmother’s house, even though the highway really does go that way. There are no trails of tail-lights at Christmas, glinting and glowing in the drops of muddy drizzle on the windshield. The snow is white and windblown into drifts, not plow-piled and gray with soot. The children don’t squabble, the drunkards don’t wobble and the lovers don’t quarrel or cry.<\/p>\n

Even at the airport there is only one Christmas, the Christmas-card Christmas of a world without airports.<\/p>\n

Luigi was sitting across from me and he leapt up to meet the little girl as she crashed into him. She was seven or maybe eight, really too old to be picked up, but he picked her up anyway. She hugged him tightly and they both had a sudden wetness in their eyes.<\/p>\n

He set the girl down as her mother approached. She nodded to him in a way that might have been curt, except the honey gold ringlets of her hair fell forward and robbed her of her haughtiness. She said, simply, “Brendan.”<\/p>\n

He answered with a smile that was good-humored at the mouth and mocking in the eyes. “Best of the season to you, Chloe.”<\/p>\n

The little girl shook her head furiously, her own white gold ringlets redeeming her mother’s haughtiness with an imperiousness of her own devising. “He’s not Brendan, he’s Luigi. And she’s not Chloe, she’s Princess Daisy. And I’m not Jennifer, I’m — ”<\/p>\n

Luigi said, “This announcement wants herald trumpets, I Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Ramblin’ Gamblin’ Willie story “Luigi!” The beautiful blonde girlchild tore her way across the packed airport corridor. “Oh,” said her mother, a beautiful blonde womanchild. “Great…” There is only one Christmas, isn’t there? Holly and mistletoe. A golden retriever by the fire. Mom bastes the bird while dad carols with the choir. Icicles cling […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,24],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-787","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"hentry","6":"category-casual-friday","7":"category-egoism-in-action","9":"no-featured-image"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2249,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/2249\/click-the-button-one-more-time-as-an-expression-of-thanksgiving\/","url_meta":{"origin":787,"position":0},"title":"Click the button one more time as an expression of Thanksgiving","author":"Greg Swann","date":"November 21, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"It's Thanksgiving, a fact of the calendar that sneaks up on me every year. By Friday, the Salvation Army Santas will be setting up their buckets outside stores, since no one has told the Salvation Army that Americans switched to debit cards in 1995. It's all one to me. Cathy\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Egoism in Action"","block_context":{"text":"Egoism in Action","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/egoism-in-action\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.paypal.com\/en_US\/i\/scr\/pixel.gif?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":18549,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/18549\/overnight-news-best-of-the-season-its-going-to-be-a-facebook-christmas\/","url_meta":{"origin":787,"position":1},"title":"Overnight News: Best of the season: It\u2019s going to be a Facebook\u00a0Christmas!","author":"Greg Swann","date":"October 13, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"A Christmas carol in celebration of all the festivities so far: It's going to be a Facebook Christmas! Nothing will be under the tree! You didn't vote for Biden because he's always hidin' but the only name that counts starts with a Z! So it's going\u00a0to be a Facebook Christmas!\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Group Therapy"","block_context":{"text":"Group Therapy","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/group-therapy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Ya think it's easy?","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/BHBNewTopImage-300x225.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1433,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1433\/the-stockdale-paradox-i-never-lost-faith-in-the-end-of-the-story\/","url_meta":{"origin":787,"position":2},"title":"The Stockdale Paradox: “I never lost faith in the end of the story”","author":"Greg Swann","date":"May 15, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"My friend Richard Nikoley dug this up, Admiral Jim Stockdale talking about his experience in a Vietnamese POW camp:\"I never lost faith in the end of the story. I never doubted not only that I would get out, but also that I would prevail in the end and turn the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Egoism in Action"","block_context":{"text":"Egoism in Action","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/egoism-in-action\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":780,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/780\/christmas-story-a-costco-family-christmas\/","url_meta":{"origin":787,"position":3},"title":"A Costco family Christmas","author":"Greg Swann","date":"December 20, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"A Ramblin' Gamblin' Willie story \"Okay, so one day we're driving, and we're just about to get on the freeway, and I look up and the sign says, 'Squaw Peak Freeway.'\" The Kid said that. Maybe eleven years old, tall and thin. Tousled brown hair and the most beautiful gray\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Casual Friday"","block_context":{"text":"Casual Friday","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/casual-friday\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6213,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/6213\/peace-on-earth-goodwill-to-men\/","url_meta":{"origin":787,"position":4},"title":"Peace on Earth, Goodwill to men…","author":"Eric Blackwell","date":"December 22, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"One of the things you may not know about me is that I have two passions that most of my online friends do not see. I love to cook. I also love to sing (in a choir, where my mediocrity has a hiding place-grin). I particularly get a thrill out\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Casual Friday"","block_context":{"text":"Casual Friday","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/casual-friday\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/12\/200px-henrywlongfellow1868.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":183,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/183\/christmas-in-august-for-some-three-years-of-excuses-for-most\/","url_meta":{"origin":787,"position":5},"title":"Christmas in August for some, three years of excuses for most . . .","author":"Greg Swann","date":"August 7, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Apple's World Wide Developer Conference commences today. Steve Jobs' keynote speech will feature announcements for a rash of products that Mac users will find under their Christmas trees and Windows users will get in buggy, stripped-down, Yugo-like versions three years from now. This is off-topic (and mean, albeit true), but\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Marketing"","block_context":{"text":"Marketing","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/marketing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=gregswann-20&l=as2&o=1&a=1401302378","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/787","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=787"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/787\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13826,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/787\/revisions\/13826"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=787"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=787"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=787"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}