Wednesday, November 9
Dumbest PR flack, 2005: we have a winner!
A woman who recently complained to Wal-Mart that the store was replacing Merry Christmas' with 'Happy Holidays' "received an e-mail response from Customer Service. It appears below in its exact form:
Walmart is a world wide organization and must remain conscious of this. The majority of the world still has different practices other than 'christmas' which is an ancient tradition that has its roots in Siberian shamanism. The colors associated with 'christmas' red and white are actually a representation of of the aminita mascera mushroom. Santa is also borrowed from the Caucuses, mistletoe from the Celts, yule log from the Goths, the time from the Visigoth and the tree from the worship of Baal. It is a wide wide world.
"To which Catholic League president Bill Donohue says:
This statement was signed by someone called Kirby. When I read it, I thought he might be drunk...."
No, Bill. Just a typical college grad-u-ate.
UPDATE via Andrea:
UPDATE: good comments at millionaire world traveller Mark Shea's blog, including, "...the more retailers make dough over Our Lord's Birthday, the more ashamed they are of the event's origins."
And yeah, I'd like to see the original correspondence too, scanned onto the League's site a la SmokingGun.com. Just so we know Brother Bill isn't spreading an urban legend.
***
Pope Benedict XVI's US publisher -- free book with $50 purchase:
Walmart is a world wide organization and must remain conscious of this. The majority of the world still has different practices other than 'christmas' which is an ancient tradition that has its roots in Siberian shamanism. The colors associated with 'christmas' red and white are actually a representation of of the aminita mascera mushroom. Santa is also borrowed from the Caucuses, mistletoe from the Celts, yule log from the Goths, the time from the Visigoth and the tree from the worship of Baal. It is a wide wide world.
"To which Catholic League president Bill Donohue says:
This statement was signed by someone called Kirby. When I read it, I thought he might be drunk...."
No, Bill. Just a typical college grad-u-ate.
UPDATE via Andrea:
"Rather than boycott them, I think we should encourage them to release more such witticisms, perhaps as regular press releases or maybe even in the form of a biweekly newsletter in which they enlighten the lumpish red-state Americans in such things as the Quechua origins of that custom of putting lace doilies on the backs of couches, how the Inuit practice of lacing their mukluks with deer sinew was the forerunner of those little sweaters for dogs, and so on."PS: Andrea's having a fundraiser to buy herself a new computer. Hint hint...
UPDATE: good comments at millionaire world traveller Mark Shea's blog, including, "...the more retailers make dough over Our Lord's Birthday, the more ashamed they are of the event's origins."
And yeah, I'd like to see the original correspondence too, scanned onto the League's site a la SmokingGun.com. Just so we know Brother Bill isn't spreading an urban legend.
***
Pope Benedict XVI's US publisher -- free book with $50 purchase:
