Holiday Affair
From a site recommended by oOMisfitOo:
In The Star of Bethlehem: The Legacy of the Magi (Rutgers University Press, 1999), Michael R. Molnar explains how the purchase of a $50 Roman coin led him to discover the real date of Jesus’s birth.
The coin that provided the clue portrayed Aries the Ram looking back at a star.
From Molnar’s own site, Star of Bethlehem:
“On April 17, 6 BC, two years before King Herod died, Jupiter emerged in the east as a morning star in the sign of the Jews, Aries the Ram.”
Therefore, according to Molnar, today is Christmas. Accordingly, let us sing a (slightly improved) carol in memory of the late Murray L. Bob (see April 15 entries):
God rest ye, merry gentleman.
Let us also voice a rousing chorus of one of my personal all-time favorites, in memory of a film director (see previous entry), who gave us a vision of Robert Mitchum (Ram) and Sarah Miles (“Lady Caroline Lamb“) united in marriage (Ding-Dong):
Who put the Ram in the
Ram-a-Lamb-a Ding-Dong?
Why, David Lean, of course.
Update of April 21, 2003:
When You Care Enough
to Send the Very Best
“Jan Scott, 88, a television art director and production designer who had won 11 Emmy Awards, died April 17 at her home in Hollywood Hills, Calif. The cause of death was not reported.
She started working in television in the 1950s and earned her first Emmy nomination in 1956 for a “Hallmark Hall of Fame” production. Her first Emmy Award came in 1968 for her work as an art director for “Kismet,” which appeared on ABC. Her last Emmy was awarded in 1989 for “I’ll Be Home for Christmas,” on NBC.”