Posts tagged holiday

The Code of the Elves

ohbygolly:

From the movie “Elf”:

“Let’s recite the “Code of the Elves”, shall we?

1. Treat everyday like Christmas.

2. There’s room for everybody on the nice list.

3. The best way to spread Christmas cheer is singling loud for all to hear.”

I feel it necessary, based on my elfish experience, to make some adjustments to the code.

  1. Do not treat everyday like Christmas. Can you imagine how much fatter and broker our country would be if we did? Instead, how about “Be nice to everybody even on days that aren’t Christmas.”
  2. There’s room for almost everybody on the nice list. Note that the operative word here is ‘almost’. I think we can all agree that Jerry Sandusky will not make the list this year.
  3. I agree that singing loud for all to hear probably is the best way to spread Christmas cheer. But sending Christmas cards featuring your distraught child wriggling off of Santa’s lap is a close second.

ohbygolly

Christmas Traditions

ohbygolly:

To many, the preservation of Christmas traditions is of the utmost importance. For example, one of my most-cherished family traditions is watching National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation around a box of pizza. However, I’ve learned over the years that sometimes you have to let old traditions go and start new ones (like building a miniature toy shop with your Lego-obsessed boyfriend). So in honor of starting new traditions, here is a list of new traditions at the Santa set, and a few of the oldies-but-goodies as well.

New traditions:

  • Answering to new a new Head Helper (manager) who smells like Jack Daniels and smokes like a chimney. Someone should tell her that Santa frowns upon smoking chimneys.
  • Enforcing a new personal photography policy. “Yes, ma’am, you may take your own photos but you may not stand in the red-carpeted area, you cannot use your flash, and no, I do not know how to turn the flash off on your camera.”
  • Wearing an apron without pockets. Where am I supposed to keep my Candy Cane chap stick?

Age-old classics:

  • This exchange between Santa and me: Me - “Okay now everybody say cheese!”, Santa - “She’s from Wisconsin. Can’t you tell? All she can talk about is cheese. Next time let’s say ‘cookies’!”
  • Snapping photos of toddlers who are so deathly afraid of Santa that they silently scream for a worrisome 10 to 15 seconds until they suddenly inhale sharply and then really start to let the decibels loose.
  • Feeling sorry for myself because my 4-year Philosophy degree has brought me to this. I’m a Christmas elf who can’t get a full time job to save her life or her holiday sanity.

ohbygolly

Neighborhood says “No” to plans for gas station on Totino’s site | Downtown Journal

Area residents and business owners have put the kibosh on a proposal to replace the old Totino’s Italian Kitchen site with a 12-pump gas station and car wash. 

On Feb. 22, the board of the Nicollet Island/East Bank Neighborhood Association (NIEBNA) voted 9 to 3 not to recommend a zoning change that would allow the current Holiday gas station, at 107 6th St. SE, to move across the street. 

Three-fourths of the Totino’s site — which is bounded by Central Avenue, 6th Street NE and 1st Avenue, and includes the parking lot across from Denny Kemp Salon — currently lies within a pedestrian overlay zone, which prohibits “car-oriented” businesses. Holiday had envisioned peeling back the overlay zone slightly, and representatives spent the last month meeting with both the East Bank and Marcy-Holmes neighborhoods to gauge support for the idea.

A packed crowd filled the back room of Ginger Hop to voice their opinions. Most were opposed to the plan.

Red Stag landlord John Eckley, who also owns City Salvage next door, was perhaps the most vocal critic. He called the proposal “a really disturbing thing to me,” and he feared the creation of “a suburban circus” across the street from his property. 

Some neighbors worried about noise pollution from the proposed car wash. Others speculated that the expanded station would attract commuters and cause traffic congestion in the eclectic walking neighborhood. 

Katie Greene and Gwen Engelbert, owners of Key North Boutique, submitted a letter of opposition to the board, which noted that any variance “would set a precedent for further objectionable development.”

——

As neighbors left the Feb. 22 meeting, one member of the Totino family, who had worked with Holiday on the proposal, stood up and asked the group, “What would you like to see go in there?”

I spent a significant portion of my childhood in this area of Minneapolis. I went to school at Marcy Open, and I would hang out at the Holiday after school while my mother worked there. We would sometimes go to Totino’s after she’d get off of work for dinner. 

I think the Holiday is as much a ‘part’ of this area as anything else. Their current location is woefully inadequate as anyone who has attempted to get gas or inflate their tires there can attest. I think it is a mistake so hastily turn their proposal down.

That entire block across from Holiday has largely been a blight since Totino’s left (honestly, it was blight even when Totino’s was there during the later years), save for a few businesses that have come and gone from the corner units (Robot Love most recently).

I, too, am curious as to what the neighbouring businesses would rather be put on that property? Or would they rather those buildings continue to rot? I think now is the time to either rehab them, or take them down.