{"id":979,"date":"2004-12-09T10:20:30","date_gmt":"2004-12-09T18:20:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp\/2004\/12\/tis_the_season\/"},"modified":"2004-12-09T10:20:30","modified_gmt":"2004-12-09T18:20:30","slug":"tis_the_season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/2004\/12\/tis_the_season.html","title":{"rendered":"‘TIS THE SEASON"},"content":{"rendered":"

Now meet the elf overseer<\/FONT><\/B><\/A> at Macy’s
\nworld-famous store on 34th Street, where this former actor’s job is “to promote the annual rite of
\ngood cheer.” No matter that he used to play “monsters, murderers, even Dracula.” Or that in his
\noffice eight floors above Santaland, where he leafs through “The Elfin Manual,” he keeps “a
\nscowling photo of himself” looking “like a cross between Charles Manson and Rasputin.”
\n

<\/P>
\n

Which brings us to the truth of the season in verse:<\/P>
\n

REASON’S GREETING<\/B><\/P>
\n

Religious fervor’s taking off,
And half the land’s unstrung;
But superstition’s
\nnothing new —
This too shall pass, like dung.
<\/I>
— Leon Freilich<\/FONT><\/EM><\/B><\/A><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Now meet the elf overseer at Macy’s world-famous store on 34th Street, where this former actor’s job is “to promote the annual rite of good cheer.” No matter that he used to play “monsters, murderers, even Dracula.” Or that in his office eight floors above Santaland, where he leafs through “The Elfin Manual,” he keeps […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-979","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-main","7":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbvgEs-fN","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/979","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=979"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/979\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=979"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}