Pre-Ramble: Well it looks like we’re going to get some snow for Christmas … According to University of Minnesota Climatologist and Meterologist Mark Seeley, the pending holiday storm will dump between 12 and 21 inches of snow on the Twin Cities by Saturday evening.

The Take-Away:  Ho-ho-ho! Cheers to your Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Pre-Ramble:  There has been some discussion among the mommy-blog set around the trend toward sending emailed holiday greetings, posting them on Facebook walls, or (shutter) not sending them at all! 

Shut up!

Molly Millet of the Saint Paul Pioneer Press suggests that, “In the age of social networking, we now see far-flung friends and family members’ cute kid pictures and status updates all year long … plus, some annual card senders want to save money, go green, or simply avoid the stress.”  She describes the holiday card-reading experience, citing the tendency to open the envelope, check out the photo, note that, “Oh, their kids have gotten bigger” … and then “chucking it.”

Well, I guess I can see where the traditional, low-tech, snail-mail method of expressing the holiday sentiment could be construed as stressful, labor-intensive and pricy… 

• First, you’ve got to find a high quality card with just the right image — one that communicates a spirited, yet humble message about the holiday season, and at the same time, has a fun, festive, graphically worthy design. Price per card: $1.25
• Then there’s shooting a decent photo of the kids and dogs — HUGE hassle factor, even without the dog. Creative decisions must be made like, inside or outside; … flash or natural light; … infinite background options; … full-length or head-shot; … matching outfits or not; … dress up the dog or not; … props? etc. And, once you’ve settled on a shot that everybody likes (good luck with that), you need to have copies made … Price per print: $.20
• Then there’s The Letter. This is perhaps the most challenging component of the Christmas card packet … remembering what noteworthy things happened during the year; … being informative without divulging embarrassing details; … giving the year’s overview without being terminally boring; … etc.  Once written, you need to have family members sign the darn thing in their own quirky handwriting and drag it down to the copy shop (white paper stock or a festive color?) Price per copy: $.05  (Note: copies of  The Letter will need to be folded in a configuration that will fit in the envelopes.)
• And then, there are the envelope issues … to hand-address (get real) or print address labels on the computer; … getting the address labels to line up with the label template (way easier said than done); handling the return address information … again, hand-written or computer generated … only there’s a special mini label system for the return address application … making a special trip to the office supply store to get the obscure mini-return-address-label templates … Price for 2000 labels: $15.95 (or $.008 per label)
• Procuring the appropriate holiday postage … you can choose from the religious (usually creepy) illustration of the Madonna and child, or the secular snowmen/mittens option. Price per stamp: $.44  (Unless you have unknowingly selected a square-shaped card, in which case the “extra postage” will run you $500 per piece.)

Yup – seems like the cards are pretty much stacked against the preparation and sending of traditional holiday cards. The one thing that hasn’t been factored in however, is the long-standing tradition of human resistance to change. Sure, it would be light-years easier to click out a chirpy little holiday tweet embedded with a bunch of video links, ping-backs and other high-tech stuff, … but, for the steadfastly tech-challenged, plodding through the traditional uber-putsy holiday card drill is actually comforting compared to the stress of having to train in on some slick new technology.

The Take-Away:  Bring me some figgy pudding and I’ll lick and stick Christmas cards any day.

Post-Note:  Total estimated cost per card = $1.96*

* Estimate includes materials costs only — vast amounts of time required calculated separately.

Pre-Ramble:  While snooping around in the mall yesterday, I happened to wander into the children’s section of the bookstore. I really had no business being in there, my kids have been “grown-up” for years, but I still find myself drawn to the simple, playful, goofy children’s book forum … big pictures, few words, often rhyming, … fun stuff.

At the heart of this colorful collection are the “children’s classics” … must-read fare. Filled with pictures and pithy messages, these books have become a kind of rite-of-passage for generations of young readers … 

You’ve got your basic A, B, C books; … Golden Books, like the darkly punitive ”Pokey Puppy“; … cute, but annoying, Curious George; … quirky and surprisingly gritty, Winnie the Pooh; … the extensive and beyond silly, Dr. Seuss series; … the finger-wagging Berenstein Bears; … newcomer and earnest do-gooder, Arthur; … the multi-generationally appealing Peanuts dynasty; … grammatically compromised, Junie B. Jones; … the painterly concept books of  Eric Carle (like “The Very Hungry Caterpillar“); … Alexandra Day’s beautifully and wordlessly illustrated, “Karl the dog” series; … Ludwig Bemelmans’ madcap “Madeline” series; … all of the children’s books that have been made into movies, like “Where the Wild Things Are,” “Stewart Little,” … “Polar Express,” etc.; … and of course, my personal seasonal favorite, “Twas the Night Before Christmas” (which we read aloud as a family every Christmas Eve, even though the kids are in their teens and twenties).

Read it again, mom – Renown children’s literature historian Leonard Marcus suggests that, like television and the Internet, children’s books are a part of our culture. They reflect the values of each generation, provide literal and aesthetic records of who we are as a people, and play an important role in forming children’s minds and imaginations at the most impressionable times in their lives. I often wonder what impression and impact the books that I have read (over and over) to my kids over the years has had or will have on their lives. What are the real messages there?  What is the value? 

For me, the personal and historically cultural value that lies in the pages of a children’s book is more than the sum of its parts. More than the lessons spelled out in the story or the feeling expressed in the style of illustration, the relative value of a children’s book is also influenced by the physical and psychological environment in which it is experienced — the big cozy story-reading chair; the modulating tones and emotion conveyed through the voice reading aloud; the patient gift of time and attention spent sharing an activity of exploration and discovery with a child. The total children’s book experience and value is a mixture of many things, some tangible, some not.

Moon Schmoon - Well, then there’s the whole question of whether a kid even LIKES a book?  Reviewer/historian Marcus, encountered an unexpected reaction while attempting to share the joys of the quintessential-classic ”Goodnight Moon” with his own young son. Much to senior Marcus’ dismay, junior was totally unimpressed. Marcus came away with the realization that not every “classic” is for every child …

“Children should feel free to dislike ‘classics’ … Why should they be burdened with an obligation of liking a book that doesn’t appeal to them? … Adults see our goal as getting to the end of the book and it’s a hard lesson to learn that this is not necessarily true for children … their goal is often to look at the most interesting and enjoyable thing.”

The Take-Away:  Here’s to being free to “dislike the classics“ … (Dicken’s “A Christmas Carol ” is a creepy downer). This holiday season, amidst all the movie releases and “specials” and hype, take a page out of the “total children’s book experience” … take a minute to consider your choices and make sure that you’re leaving time and energy to look at the most interesting and enjoyable things.

Post-Note:  I’m totally with the kid on “Goodnight Moon” … a real sleeper.

Pre-Ramble:  So, winter is finally actually here … snow, sub-zero temperatures and surprisingly beautiful sights when you’re least expecting them. Here is a shot through our kitchen window yesterday morning.

Take-Away:  Sometimes you just need to savor the silently spectacular moments that present themselves.

Pre-Ramble:  So, who would you rather be — Tiger Woods or the person who attempted to throw a tomato at Sarah Palin during a book signing appearance yesterday at the Mall of America — but hit a policeman instead?

The tomato missed Ms. Palin by about 10 feet, and instead splattered the Bloomington police commander in charge of the security detail. Another officer was also struck by pulp.”

Wow, that’s a super tough choice.  Sure, Tiger is still one of the best athletes in the world and has billions of dollars, but none of that is going to make a decent marinara sauce. 

I promised myself  I wouldn’t write about Tiger Woods’ recent incident, but that was before the Pre-Scandal Tiger (PST) started to appear  — everywhere.  Like the furry orange creatures in a PGA version of Hammer the Hedgehog, Tiger’s sorry mug just keeps popping up. 

To add insult to irony, it’s usually accompanied by some noble tagline, like the latest Swiss avant-garde watchmaker Tag Heuer advertising series that features stunning black and white portraits of Tiger and asks, “What are you made of?”  Apparently, Tiger is made of something less praiseworthy than his Official Partner signed up for. 

In 2004, Forbes Magazine proclaimed Nike’s contract with Woods as one of the most shrewd in marketing history …

It’s no secret that Tiger Woods is a marketer’s dream. No company has capitalized on the appeal of the good-looking, clean-cut, articulate, scandal-free golf whiz more than Nike … “

It’s probably no secret that Tiger’s rapid decomposition is causing marketing teams around the globe to call out the Haz-Mat squads and could potentially make Nike one of the most screwed in marketing history. According to Nielsen, marketers have pulled ALL ads featuring TW from prime-time television network and cable channel broadcasts. 

If only the print media could follow suit. The January 2010 cover of Golf Digest sports a Norman Rockwell-esque photo of  TW lining up a putt with President Obama. The accompanying article is just painful to read … with subheads like, … “sharing a personal moment,” … “the art of grace,” … “at least look like you’re having fun,”… and “save some for the losers.”  According to the article,

What makes Tiger Woods the most dominant athlete in the world isn’t so much his golf swing as what he does between swings.”

Ok then.

The Take-Away:  FORE!! … … Sadly, this one’s headed for the deep rough (and it’s going to take more than a 7-iron to punch it back onto the fairway).

Pre-Ramble: Buried in the newspaper between stories about the Palin book tour and Tiger’s “bad lie” is a tiny snippet worth writing about — In an effort to show young kids “how cool science can be,” President Obama has announced that he will convene a national science fair in 2010 to honor young inventors “with the same gusto that professional athletes celebrate their victories” at the White House. Knucks to that, oh, self-proclaimed Nerd-in-Chief!

I’m fired up about this news for a couple of reasons … First, because I love science fairs!  If it involves pipe cleaners and paper Mache — I’m in!  … Adobe villages made out of popsicle sticks … the African veldt in a shoebox — bring it on! You can imagine my thrill when the kids came home with the annual science fair flyers in their backpacks. 

One year, I was able to convince my daughter to do a project on the solar system.  Designed to demonstrate the sizes of the planets relative to the sun, we called it, “What if the Sun was a Basketball?”  … The poor kid never saw it coming.  She looked on in disbelief as I raced around the kitchen in search of small round objects that could represent Mars … “Do you think it should be a marble or a pea? … Do we know anybody with a bebe gun? … What about a poppy seed for Mercury?? … How in the heck are we going to get this tennis ball to stick on the tag board???”  As I recall, we got an A on it (and nobody misses that green bocce ball).

The art of science.  The second reason I’m so charged about the White House science fest is that where there’s science, art isn’t far behind. Like art, science is the result of the inspiration of brilliant minds. From the tiniest pixel to the largest expanse of the universe, the collective scope of art and science is vast and wondrous. Whether you’re dealing with neutrinos or Neoclassicism, the same kind of inquiry and invention is at play. Designer Bruce Mau describes the symbiotic relationship between art and science:

” … My commitment to scientific knowledge in no way diminishes my belief in the mystery and power of the arts. It is art that sings to us and opens our hearts to one another. It is art that gives meaning to things that would otherwise go unnoticed … that connects us to our past … that laughs at our hubris and limitations, while speaking to us of the darkness we cannot say out loud. In the end, it is art that allows us to understand, express and share science. While science works to order the matter of the world, art orders the meaning of the world. In my practice of design these two worlds of meaning and matter, of aesthetics and scientific knowledge, of quality and quantity, of mystery and certainty, of intuition and expertise, come together to create new possibilities for shaping our world.”

The Take-Away: Put on the safety goggles and throw down some tarps – the next wave of brilliant and inspired minds is headed to Washington. In the great search for knowledge and discovery, art and science are essential elements.

Post-Note: Visions of kryptonite …  If you’re looking for an artfully scientific stocking stuffer, look no further than The Elements: A Visual Exploration of Every Known Atom in the Universe. There is also an amazing website that brings the Periodic Table of Elements to life.