I wonder if "Father Spankings" is some variation on "Schwartze Peter" (Black Peter)?

My own ethnic group of origin (Dutch) includes one of Santa's friends who comes to take away bad children in a sack. He's generally represented as dark complected as I think he's supposed to be from Spain (the Dutch were once conquered by Spain and well... hated Spain as a result).

The Dutch in New York managed to hold on to the Dutch language even into the 1800's so it seems possible that Black Peter survived in some form or another.

pk on Dec 10, 2004 7:01 AM |

That sounds like him. Though the drawing I have doesn't really show him as dark-complected. Sooty, maybe, and certainly black-hearted.

I'm certainly Googling "Schwartze Peter."

Jim Zoetewey on Dec 25, 2004 6:59 PM |

An actual representation of Black Peter (though not by that name) in a webcomic. Admittedly, reading said comic probably doesn't improve anyone's life.

Ed Heil on Dec 27, 2004 7:22 AM |

The absolute best take on Black Peter ever has to be David Sedaris's "Six to Eight Black Men." There's a version of it you can get as part of a "free trial" for some service here but to get the real experience you need to go into the archives of the public radio show "This American Life" and hear David's live retelling of the story.

http://www.thislife.org/pages/archives/archivemain.html

It's the Dec 7, 2001 episode, and the David Sedaris bit is about 24 minutes into the episode.

Worth the effort.

As a recently converted gun/hunting type I am not buying the "we asked him politely to move" explanation either! A lot of hunters who have access to a piece of land will spend weeks, maybe even months, scouting for that big trophy. To have another person encroach upon this area can be extremely frustrating. I've never had any angry confrontations while hunting. One time while hunting turkey I walked through a piece of timber in which I did not have permission to hunt. The owner who ordinarily was never to be seen happened to be out that day bumbling around on his atv. We saw each other at the same time and I knew I was "busted". After an apology and a polite conversation I left. Since the turkeys were lousy ("lousy" as in "plentiful") in that area I went back the next day. The land owner had placed "no hunting" signs every 50 feet along his property line! Of course, I kept off, but it made me laugh. That's about as ugly as it has ever gotten for me. The situation in WI is puzzling and tragic. A real smudge on hunting's reputation.

thp on Nov 29, 2004 10:15 PM |

btw, great entry on sharpshooting. blogging at its best.

thp on Dec 21, 2004 12:10 PM |

Hey Mph,

a post deer season update... bagged one little buck with absolutely no confrontations with any H'mong.

And is this all for Keyhole? (smile)

mph on Dec 5, 2004 12:38 AM |

No... It's for work. But keyhole will certainly make it more worthwhile. :-)

gl. on Dec 11, 2004 12:37 AM |

um, what's keyhole? why's work moving you clones?

mph on Dec 11, 2004 9:50 AM |

Keyhole is a nifty tool that uses satellite images and nice OpenGL effects to create a really, really neat magic-carpet-like mapping effect. It's like Nat'l Geographic's Topo!, Mapquest, and that "Genesis Effect" video from Star Trek's II-IV all rolled into one. Win only, sadly.

And I note that National Geographic has just trotted out a $19.95 3d flyover tool to go with Topo!. That's pretty cool. Also Win only, alas.

The work thing is a matter of being able to evaluate software I write about from time to time, mainly IM clients. And there appear to be differences in the way Word for Mac and Word for Windows render pages (strange but true, having experienced it personally). That's snarling me up in other ways. So now I bathe in the light of two monitors on the desk. The Win machine pretty much lives in Konfabulator.

Every movie in every cinimar is about menacing! Menacing sells!

Cristina on Dec 3, 2004 5:00 PM |

Maybe "Cloaca Maximus" is available.

mph on Dec 3, 2004 5:02 PM |

Nice (?) idea, but I'd bet someone on Ars Technica already owns it.

um.... a particular temptation for clergy...

How did we get by without the convenience of tools that could convert themselves into content-deleting buzzsaws of death?

That made me giggle, which is impressive today...

If it doesn't get resolved, I'm not sure what I'll do.

Well, that one is easy: Don't delete any weblogs... :-) Seriously, though, I'll get it resolved soon.