Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Santa



Mapquest or Garmin or Onstar or somebody is running an advert about a call from very young children trying to find out where Santa is on Christmas Eve using their miserable digital services. And, yes, it's cute. Damnably so.

And so, Children and Santa. Why does it capture the imagination so? Or, to put the matter squarely, why is it that telling whoppers to little people is so charming? I mean, I suspect they know what's going on, and they're in on it. They get the warm gooey waves of charm sweeping back and forth through them about it, too. The little people are as caught up in the cuteness of it as we are.

But what is it about a fantastic whopper that is cute? "You better get upstairs or purple meanies will snatch you away to a far away land called Massachusetts and eat all your toes." And the the little bastards just gush with glee.

Naturally, there's a phase in everyone's life where people are telling you gigantic whoppers. One tall tale after another. Fibs and fantasies. Must be a weird time.

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