"T'was the night before Christmas" to omit Santa smoking pipe.

[damnyak]

Just read this article stating that a Publisher/activist want to omit the section from "T'was the night before Christmas" that mentions his pipe smoking
The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth,

And the smoke it encircled his head like a wreath.
Read the article here..... Discuss

 

[dhizzy]

Good thing we have two copies of the original version to read to our girls. My daughter's are so apt to pick out any character with a pipe. They will bring books to me or even point it out in a show or cartoon when they notice it. For them, it reminds them of me and they laugh and say, "Look Daddy, he's smoking a pipe!" So the point is, teach your children what you want them to believe because if you don't instill beliefs in them, someone else will.

 

[rigmedic1]

The obvious side effect will be increased sales of the originals, lol. Does anyone know if they took the wine out of the Last Supper during Prohibition? I imagine that Huck Finn will be losing his corncob pipe as well as all his bad language too. There are far more issues that children have to face as they grow up, and editing literary classics to protect the children are one step away from burning books to stop the spread of "unacceptable" ideas. Would be interesting to see what we have left of the past in a hundred years.

 

[thesmokindragon]

This one is one of my fav carves ;-)

http://altinokmeerschaumpipes.com/detail.asp?product_id=EC102

 

[damnyak]

And like the article says the poem is 200 years old, if it hasn't increased sales of pipes and tobacco in those 200 years, well gosh darn-it hopefully this is the year.
I know when I was young, I wanted to be like Santa, and rather than grow a beard, wear red clothes, or give presents to kids I went straight to pipes smoking.

 

[numbersix]

I think this person sums it up pretty well:
Deborah Caldwell-Stone, deputy director of the American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom:

[Santa] doesn’t go around killing kids. He doesn’t leave them bombs. So much of censorship is motivated on the grounds that we’re protecting children from concepts someone finds distasteful. But there’s many assumptions behind that — that one point is the correct viewpoint, that all parents buy into the same ideas. The bottom line is we’re denying access to the author’s original voice, denying the opportunity for the author’s voice to be heard.”

People who want to tamper with works of art or literature for the sake of some "right and wrong" moral issue are the same type of people who burned books years ago.

 

[damnyak]

OH MY GOD....I need that pipe. I am a huge Christmas nerd...This needs to be mine...I wish I had the spare bones, got to start saving, just found out I am going to be a Pops for the first time. Funds will be tight!!!!
Gotta come up with a plan.

 

[numbersix]

http://altinokmeerschaumpipes.com/detail.asp?product_id=EC102
I don't usually go for carved pipes, but that is a very cool pipe!

 

[dhizzy]

I agree, Santa pipe is too cool.

 

[gnatjulio]

Thats really messed up, I noticed that the BBC has Sherlock Holmes on nic patches in "Sherlock". Are they actually going to go back and rewrite the Sherlock Holmes classics? If they do I think Sherlock will off himself without his fix......don't forget to put that in the rewrite.

 

[shaintiques]

The yellow man from the old curious george books smoked a pipe too, wonder if they changed that

 

[mrgunnar177]

I hate people like her. IMO its one step below burning or banning books. Also I have a word that I associate with people like that, over protective b*tch. Hate to be her kid

 

[fshu2]

because we have to hate anything involving tobacco....... i love dumb people. ( in case the sarcasm was missed,,,, i am being sarcastic)

 

[shaintiques]

With his corn cob pipe and his button nose....with his nicotene patch, oh wait this thing won't stick to snow, oh no frosty is getting really irratable because he can't get a amoke...and his button nose.

 

[adam12]

It will be interesting to see what specifically they do about Frosty because
1. the kids already know the song involves a pipe, it's the second line in the song

2. his smokin a pipe is central to the story

3. his pipe is very obvious in almost every scene, he has it clenched, they can CGI it out, but that will only make it appearing once-in-a-while all the more obvious

 

[numbersix]

It will be interesting to see what specifically they do about Frosty

If they did a poll, I'm sure the vast majority in this country would have no problem with Santa or Frosty smoking a pipe, etc. There will always be extremists and they make the news because their views are so ridiculous.

 

[sixmp]

This kind of thing really boils my blood. First it is literature next it will be history books...
IMO this is the start of total control by governments. They will decide what is good for us and what we should think.

In the future people will never know certain things happened or existed because there will be no trace.
It sounds far fetched but just look at China and Tiananmen Square, China removed all traces of the incident and people who were born at the time or after basically have no idea it happened.
Now don't get me wrong i am not a loony but these things start somewhere and it is easy for people in control to get carried away when egged on by an over idealistic population.

 

[logandow]

I find this paragraph hard to believe" Parents, Ms. McColl said, have been tearing the smoking-related pages out of their books or have had to console teary-eyed children who see Santa’s pipe and think he’s going to die as a result of his habit."

 

[sixmp]

I find this paragraph hard to believe" Parents, Ms. McColl said, have been tearing the smoking-related pages out of their books or have had to console teary-eyed children who see Santa’s pipe and think he’s going to die as a result of his habit."

I don't, children are growing up with SMOKING KILLS on everything. Just the act of being in the same room as a smoker will kill you. etc
It is how the world is changing due to misinformation. Those children then grow up and never question what they have been taught. The lie continues.

 

[logandow]

True, However I live in a smaller town where we don't get a whole lot of anti smoking propaganda so it's a little harder for me to fathom.