What about Santa and how fat he is? Google wants to look up "how far is Santa Monica" and "how far is Santa". That's because this is something we don't think about - but lots of people have written about this.
From the time "A Visit From St. Nicholas" was written in 1823, Santa has been described as chubby and plump, with a round little belly that shook when he laughed "like a bowl full of jelly." Coca-Cola took this to extremes and made Santa just plain fat. Supposedly this is "part of the charm".
And besides Coca-Cola, who else to blame? Trust Hollywood. One article reported that it used to have a set of numbers – waist circumference, face shape, beard length – that Santas were supposed to adhere to. Coca-Cola’s Santa, whom many in America try to emulate, is very round: round face, round nose, round stomach. Around the world, the legendary giver comes in all shapes and sizes. The Santa imitated in Europe is a thinner man with more squared-off features.
Roy Pickler is a professional Santa who dropped 88 pounds. He's covered in CNN health HERE. He was in the television contest "The Biggest Loser". He is quoted as saying: “The world is going to have to change their acceptance of what Santa looks like,” Pickler said. “Santa is a role model, and kids don’t want to have a role model that’s fat.”
There is an update for our North American Santa. He has lost 25 pounds over the last 20 years. Compared to Roy Pickler, Santa has 50 pounds to go. I wouldn't call Roy skinny from the pictures, either. It is entertaining to search for fat Santa - the photo stock companies have lots of versions - "full length body size profile side view of handsome fat overweight cheerful Santa".
And maybe we can't be too choosy in 2021 - there is a shortage of Santas due to COVID. In one article it says that of the 8,000 Santas in the company's database, 355 have died in 2021 with COVID being the cause for the vast majority. Really! That's what the article says HERE.
Here's the latest in the Up Against the Wall Series. The background is the Bathurst Street Chess board in the park complete with graffiti. The colours are wonderful and look regal - like an archeological dig where core samples of urban life are revealed.
Existentialism was a dominant philosophy in theatre plays written from the 1940s through the 1960s. We enjoyed theatre of the absurd - there was much comedy infused in it.
The original idea of existentialism is a philosophical theory or approach which emphasizes the existence of the individual subject as a free and responsible agent determining their own development through acts of the will. The view of the existentialist, the individual's starting point has been called "the existential angst" or a sense disorientation, confusion, or anxiety in the face of an apparently meaningless or absurd world. The notion of the absurd contains the idea that there is no meaning in the world beyond what meaning we give it. This meaninglessness also encompasses the amorality or "unfairness" of the world. Because of the world's absurdity, anything can happen to anyone at any time and a tragic event could plummet someone into direct confrontation with the absurd.
Global catastrophic risk has become associated with the risks to all of human kind, and we've now named the highest risk level - existential risk - the one leading to the destruction of all humanity. e An existential risk one that either destroys humanity entirely or prevents any chance of civilization's recovery.
So the question is whether COVID-19 can destroy humanity in its entirety. The risk levels of of COVID-19 and of Climate Change are being distinguished at the most serious levels: between existential and global catastrophic risk.
The philosophical version can be found in many jokes:
After my existential crisis, I decided to take a job as a feeder at the local dolphinarium Now I’m serving a youthful porpoise
Why did the dictionary have an existential breakdown? He couldn’t find the meaning of life
Existential Java: I mixed de-caf coffee with regular coffee and they must have cancelled each other out because now I feel nothing
If I had a dollar for every time I had an existential crisis Would it even matter?
