Regarding the Keebler Elves, and whether Keebler Company hires Chinese Elves: Here is a bit of perspective. Keebler Elves came on to the scene 1968. They currently live at the following:
1 Hollow Tree Lane
Elmhurst, Illinois 60126-1581
From the look of things, since these particular elves have been in the limelight, there have always been a set of elves chosen to represent all the Keebler Elves and Keebler Corp. It does appear that there are occasional changes in the ambassadorial representation. (There is some
documentation of that below.) I do not have available to me a lineage of Keebler Elf representatives, but only those currently serving.
The current representative (apostolic?) elves are: Ernie, Elwood, Elmer, Fast Eddie, Buckets, Ma, Doc, Flo, Roger, Leonardo, Sam, and Zack.
All of the above appear to be Scots-Irish Elves with the obvious exception of Zack who is black. Flo may Latina, Roger is more likely English than Scottish, and Leonardo is simply pretentious. None are Asian, let alone Chinese. Not that these creatures are mythological and thus not prone to change in corporate structure. Look to the following animated depiction of
the elves from a 1979 advertisement.
The Former director of fudge splashing operations--older elf in tracksuit from the Bronx--appears to have retired or passed on; the elf who was but a rookie in 1979 is none other than Buckets, the current director of fudge splashing operations.
Now, the Keebler elves came into the conversation because we were eating delicious CLUB Multigrain crackers, which have a tendency to break while still in the box. We wondered how that could be. Here is a statement from the company itself regarding their operations.
From the Keebler 'company perspective:
...We pair our captivating products and promotions with unparalleled hands-on service, provided by our direct-store-door (DSD) delivery system. Through our company-owned and operated DSD system, we have 3,200 sales and distribution Elves calling on 31,000 supermarkets and mass merchandisers twice weekly...
3200 elves break your Multi-Grain CLUB crackers. Twice weekly.
Finally, to sum up quickly some of the other discussion points:
The game I had been thinking about was Rampart. Mr. Morris, that is an early nineties game so i do not know if Barcade would have it. I doubt it.
Regarding Nolan Ryan's final pitch, to which I steered the conversation after mention of Brett Favre's final pass, the following information from Wikipedia may be considered trustworthy, if poorly written:
Nolan Ryan's very durable arm finally gave out in Seattle on September 22, 1993, when he tore a ligament, ending his career two starts earlier than planned. Briefly attempting to pitch past the injury, Ryan threw one further pitch after tearing his ligament; with his injured arm, his final pitch was measured at 98 miles per hour. Ryan's last start was his career worst; he allowed a single, four walks, and a grand slam in the top of the first without recording an out. It was
his record setting 10th grand slam given up of his career. (Ryan left trailing 5-0, and the fourth walk was completed by a reliever after Ryan's injury, but credited to Ryan.)
JB
Jamaica Plain
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Sunday, December 6, 2009
Regarding Elves
Hello Mr. White and Mr. Morris,
Apologies for the delay in the construction of this effort. Second, Mr. White, I received your generous gift quite some time ago of course, and I apologize for not writing in the least a thank you note. It was my intention to include the note in this document, which has taken too much time to write. I have yet to think of a sufficient gift that is in kind. In any case, the shirt is hellatite. But fits quite well.
Back to the subject:
Regarding our last meeting, during which many things were discussed and again, left open for further debate and research: Let us commence without delay. We begin with the problem of elves. It appears we are looking for something that both does and does not exist. From Wikipedia: "An elf is a creature of Germanic mythology. The elves were originally thought of as a race of minor nature and fertility gods, often pictured as youthful-seeming men and women of great beauty living in forests and underground places and caves, or in wells and springs. They have been portrayed to be long-lived or immortal and as beings of magical powers."
Our question is "Do Chinese Elves exist? If so, what do they look like?" Before we go further, the first question to be answered is indeed "Do elves exist?" If we answer in the negative then we proceed with a preliminary allowance of the following sort:
If the Chinese were to imagine elves, they would undoubtedly look like Chinese elves.
The tautology is avoided by saying that all elves look like young humans. Chinese elves therefore look like young Chinese humans. Thus we can imagine what the mysterious being in this story looks like.
But the answer remains problematic. The problem with a Chinese Elf is the problem of translating a word, magnified ten-fold. For we are asking for a referent which exists only in the collective imagination of a people. We might ask in return whether there is an American Qilin? Is the answer 'Yes, it is an Unicorn' or shall we say something different?
The question at this point comes down to the essence of elf: If I am imagining an elf, am I imagining a thing? If so, what sort of thing is it? If I am imagining an elf that looks like a young Chinese human am I imagining a thing? or is it again like imagining something that
glows like electrified neon but behaves like marble when wet but is perfectly moldable when dry? No such substance exists here that we know of, but it can be imagined. Shall we, as a result of such idle imagining, admit ourselves to be Humeans? What then is the condition for the possibility of knowledge?
There is a Chinese word for elf. It is: 小精灵. The Pinyin for those less knowledgeable regarding such matters is xiǎo jīng líng.
小 xiǎo: Small, tiny; few; young
精 jīng: energy; perfect; excellent; refined; very; proficient,
灵 líng: alert; departed soul; efficacious; quick; effective; intelligence
As a guess, I would say that the word is a later, indeed derivative concept, being a portmanteau of xiǎo, jīng, and líng. Certainly if the notion were ancient, there would be a single character for elf, just as there is a single character for dragon. [龍, lóng]
Using the chinese characters in a Google-China image search we get some interesting results.
It appears that there are few Chinese elves. The search has shown that when an Chinese man imagines an elf, he imagines the the creature from Germanic mythology.
If we ask the question in another form, affirming that elves do exist, then the question becomes: "Have the Chinese ever encountered an elf?"
The Chinese could only encounter an elf if 1) there actually are elves in China, and 2) the elves have allowed themselves to be known to the Chinese. There is a word for elf, so clearly they have encountered them in some way. But is this encounter direct or indirect?
With indirect contact, one race tells another about their encounters, for instance with elves or unicorns, or atoms, or germs for that matter and the latter race investigates the matter further and on their own.
JB
Roxbury
Apologies for the delay in the construction of this effort. Second, Mr. White, I received your generous gift quite some time ago of course, and I apologize for not writing in the least a thank you note. It was my intention to include the note in this document, which has taken too much time to write. I have yet to think of a sufficient gift that is in kind. In any case, the shirt is hellatite. But fits quite well.
Back to the subject:
Regarding our last meeting, during which many things were discussed and again, left open for further debate and research: Let us commence without delay. We begin with the problem of elves. It appears we are looking for something that both does and does not exist. From Wikipedia: "An elf is a creature of Germanic mythology. The elves were originally thought of as a race of minor nature and fertility gods, often pictured as youthful-seeming men and women of great beauty living in forests and underground places and caves, or in wells and springs. They have been portrayed to be long-lived or immortal and as beings of magical powers."
Our question is "Do Chinese Elves exist? If so, what do they look like?" Before we go further, the first question to be answered is indeed "Do elves exist?" If we answer in the negative then we proceed with a preliminary allowance of the following sort:
If the Chinese were to imagine elves, they would undoubtedly look like Chinese elves.
The tautology is avoided by saying that all elves look like young humans. Chinese elves therefore look like young Chinese humans. Thus we can imagine what the mysterious being in this story looks like.
But the answer remains problematic. The problem with a Chinese Elf is the problem of translating a word, magnified ten-fold. For we are asking for a referent which exists only in the collective imagination of a people. We might ask in return whether there is an American Qilin? Is the answer 'Yes, it is an Unicorn' or shall we say something different?
The question at this point comes down to the essence of elf: If I am imagining an elf, am I imagining a thing? If so, what sort of thing is it? If I am imagining an elf that looks like a young Chinese human am I imagining a thing? or is it again like imagining something that
glows like electrified neon but behaves like marble when wet but is perfectly moldable when dry? No such substance exists here that we know of, but it can be imagined. Shall we, as a result of such idle imagining, admit ourselves to be Humeans? What then is the condition for the possibility of knowledge?
There is a Chinese word for elf. It is: 小精灵. The Pinyin for those less knowledgeable regarding such matters is xiǎo jīng líng.
小 xiǎo: Small, tiny; few; young
精 jīng: energy; perfect; excellent; refined; very; proficient,
灵 líng: alert; departed soul; efficacious; quick; effective; intelligence
As a guess, I would say that the word is a later, indeed derivative concept, being a portmanteau of xiǎo, jīng, and líng. Certainly if the notion were ancient, there would be a single character for elf, just as there is a single character for dragon. [龍, lóng]
Using the chinese characters in a Google-China image search we get some interesting results.
It appears that there are few Chinese elves. The search has shown that when an Chinese man imagines an elf, he imagines the the creature from Germanic mythology.
If we ask the question in another form, affirming that elves do exist, then the question becomes: "Have the Chinese ever encountered an elf?"
The Chinese could only encounter an elf if 1) there actually are elves in China, and 2) the elves have allowed themselves to be known to the Chinese. There is a word for elf, so clearly they have encountered them in some way. But is this encounter direct or indirect?
With indirect contact, one race tells another about their encounters, for instance with elves or unicorns, or atoms, or germs for that matter and the latter race investigates the matter further and on their own.
JB
Roxbury
The Kingdom of Heaven
Hello Mr. White, Mr. Morris,
I would just like to follow up a bit on our conversation of the other day. I am certain that you can do the research here presented but I suspect that we are none too likely to do it unless prodded. And I prod. Why? For progress.
Next, let us turn to The Kingdom of Heaven. The one directed by Ridley Scott. It was released on May 6th of 2005 so naturally I didn't take notice of it. I defer to those who have seen the movie as to whether it portends the end of Western Civilization. The man I was thinking of
was King Richard I, whom the PBS program depicted as having a rivalry with Saladin. But I defer to Mr. White and those other knowers of history.
As for Damascene Steel, the Wikipedia article may need to be cleaned up. Perhaps one of you can assist them. Here is one portion of interest:
"A team of researchers based at the Technical University of Dresden that uses x-rays and electron microscopy to examine Damascus steel discovered the presence of cementite nanowires and carbon nanotubes. Peter Paufler, a member of the Dresden team, says that these nanostructures give Damascus steel its distinctive properties and are a result of the forging process."
Those "distinctive properties" are its awesomeness.
Again, the article could be cleaned up.
Continuing then. regarding Mr. EM Forster's book and the allusions therein: While visiting the Emersons Mr. Beebe contemplates the numerous books strewn about.
"I fancy they know how to read — a rare accomplishment. What have they got? Byron. Exactly. A Shropshire Lad. Never heard of it. The Way of All Flesh. Never heard of it. Gibbon. Hullo! Dear George reads German. Um — um — Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, and so we go on. Well, I suppose your generation knows its own business, Honeychurch."
All fitting allusions. The Way of All Flesh was written by Samuel Butler, published in 1903 etc etc
One might call George Emerson a bad influence. And it's no wonder that she got all mixed up in the head meeting him. Indeed.
JB
Roxbury
I would just like to follow up a bit on our conversation of the other day. I am certain that you can do the research here presented but I suspect that we are none too likely to do it unless prodded. And I prod. Why? For progress.
First, take a look at the fancy photograph and article about the Aptera 2 Series.
Next, let us turn to The Kingdom of Heaven. The one directed by Ridley Scott. It was released on May 6th of 2005 so naturally I didn't take notice of it. I defer to those who have seen the movie as to whether it portends the end of Western Civilization. The man I was thinking of
was King Richard I, whom the PBS program depicted as having a rivalry with Saladin. But I defer to Mr. White and those other knowers of history.
As for Damascene Steel, the Wikipedia article may need to be cleaned up. Perhaps one of you can assist them. Here is one portion of interest:
"A team of researchers based at the Technical University of Dresden that uses x-rays and electron microscopy to examine Damascus steel discovered the presence of cementite nanowires and carbon nanotubes. Peter Paufler, a member of the Dresden team, says that these nanostructures give Damascus steel its distinctive properties and are a result of the forging process."
Those "distinctive properties" are its awesomeness.
Again, the article could be cleaned up.
Continuing then. regarding Mr. EM Forster's book and the allusions therein: While visiting the Emersons Mr. Beebe contemplates the numerous books strewn about.
"I fancy they know how to read — a rare accomplishment. What have they got? Byron. Exactly. A Shropshire Lad. Never heard of it. The Way of All Flesh. Never heard of it. Gibbon. Hullo! Dear George reads German. Um — um — Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, and so we go on. Well, I suppose your generation knows its own business, Honeychurch."
All fitting allusions. The Way of All Flesh was written by Samuel Butler, published in 1903 etc etc
One might call George Emerson a bad influence. And it's no wonder that she got all mixed up in the head meeting him. Indeed.
JB
Roxbury
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