Tuesday, December 25, 2012

Winnetou, Old Shatterhand and Dr. Who

We don't do television. Subject of future post.

On Christmas Eve, we went and took a few gifts to people around town, starting with the neighbors.

The family on our left had a problem. The older of the daughters, age 9, insisted that Santa and/or the German equivalent Christkind were real.

She was the lone holdout in her class at school. She wanted to leave a card on the table, to be signed by the Christkind, which would then be irrefutable proof of its existence.

So, the parents had a chat with her.

She is quite naive, said the mother to me.

No, optimistic, I said.

The younger one, age 6, is not convinced of the whole Christmas story.

The TV was on at a friend's house. I could not believe what I saw: Winnetou and Old Shatterhand.

Two iconic German Western figures, dreamt up by con man Karl May, who had never sat foot into America. German TV is now doing Karl May marathons every Christmas.

His books were so much a part of German culture for several generations that the early editions are becoming more valuable as I type.

We'll try to catch Dr. Who later on. VPN to the UK, then BBC IPlayer.

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