The Place Where Ludington Talks
The Twelve Days of Ludington Christmas
You likely hear the "Twelve Days of Christmas" song at least once every year around this time, what you might not know is the history behind the song. Christmas Day was just the first day of a dozen of celebrations in Europe since the middle ages that occurred daily between December 25 and January 5. They were:
- Day 1 (25th December): Christmas Day - celebrating the Birth of Jesus
- Day 2 (26th December also known as Boxing Day): St Stephen’s Day. He was the first Christian martyr (someone who dies for their faith). It's also the day when the Christmas Carol 'Good King Wenceslas' takes place.
- Day 3 (27th December): St John the Apostle (One of Jesus's Disciples and friends)
- Day 4 (28th December): The Feast of the Holy Innocents - when people remember the baby boys which King Herod killed when he was trying to find an....
- Day 5 (29th December): St Thomas Becket. He was Archbishop of Canterbury in the 12th century and was murdered on 29th December 1170 for challenging the King’s authority over Church.
- Day 6 (30th December): St Egwin of Worcester.
- Day 7 (31st December): New Years Eve (known as Hogmanay in Scotland). Pope Sylvester I is traditionally celebrated on this day. He was one of the earliest popes (in the 4th Century). In many central and eastern European countries (including Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Luxembourg, Poland, Slovakia, Switzerland and Slovenia) New Years Eve is still sometimes called 'Silvester'. In the UK, New Years Eve was a traditional day for ‘games’ and sporting competitions. Archery was a very popular sport and during the middle ages it was the law that it had to be practised by all men between ages 17-60 on Sunday after Church! This was so the King had lots of very good archers ready in case he need to go to war!
- Day 8 (1st January): 1st January - Mary, the Mother of Jesus
- Day 9 (2nd January): St. Basil the Great and St. Gregory Nazianzen, two important 4th century Christians.
- Day 10 (3rd January): Feast of the Holy Name of Jesus. This remembers when Jesus was officially 'named' in the Jewish Temple. It's celebrated by different churches on a wide number of different dates!
- Day 11 (4th January): St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, the first American saint, who lived in the 18th and 19th centuries. In the past it also celebrated the feast of Saint Simon Stylites (who lives on a small platform on the top of a pillar for 37 years!).
- Day 12 (5th January also known as Epiphany Eve): St. John Neumann who was the first Bishop in American. He lived in the 19th century. Twelfth Night was a big time of celebration with people holding large parties. During these parties, often the roles in society were reversed with the servants being served by the rich people.
Thanks to Why Chrismas?
The various gifts mentioned in the song also had significance in an allegorical way. The partridge in a pear tree symbolizing Christ on the cross, the two turtle doves to peace, all given by a 'true love' who is none other than God Himself (as denoted here).
Most of the festivals, celebrations and saints have long since became a part of history, as has the actual meaning of the twelve days of Christmas, and the meaning of the multitude of gifts given in the song. Starting tomorrow. we will try to start a new tradition at the Ludington Torch. A dozen days where we go over what the City of Ludington has wasted your money on over the last year. This being the first year of this tradition, we will reach into our archives for some of the 'gifts' we have received.
As always, we encourage our audience to participate either in offering their predictions as to the next day, or suggest a better candidate than what is offered for the anti-gift the taxpayers have been given by their government. At the same time, we wish to sincerely wish you a Merry Christmas and the ability to celebrate the season through the twelfth night.
"On the first day of Christmas, our city spent wastefully..."
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by XLFD on
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"On the first day of Christmas, our city spent wastefully,
Another change for North James Street."
Remember back when the 100 block of North James Street was a through-road made of decorative bricks that made you rumble as you went over them. Back in 1988, the newly formed DDA wanted to close the road, but was summarily thwarted; they were consigned to getting it into a one way road in 1991. But they continued trying to get control over the years and were finally successful in 2008. Since 2008 when N. James Street was closed officially by the council, it has went from being the original bricks, a mélange of concrete and bricks, mostly stamped concrete and tripping bricks, and then just open land. Over this time it was decorated with gazebos, clocktowers, oversized planters, Tye signs, seasonal decorations, etc. This was either paid for by the city's general fund or from the DDA, also publicly funded by city and county dollars.
This year the City has even had LIAA prepare for them a new design for the plaza area (at a healthy design cost), to prepare them for a sustainable north James Avenue for the future, perhaps unsustainable to our pocketbooks. What they need to do is build a nice big pit where they can continue to throw money they can't spend on truly public projects.
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Permalink Reply by shinblind on
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"On the first day of Christmas our Council spent wastefully,
over billed city attorney fees."
"On the second day of Christmas our Council spent wastefully,
2 blight ordinances and over billed city attorney fees."
"On the third day of Christmas our Council spent wastefully,
3 high bid contracts, 2 blight ordinances,
and over billed city attorney fees.
"On the fourth day of Christmas our Council spent wastefully,
a 4th ward phony gig, 3 high bid contracts, 2 blight ordinances
and over billed city attorney fees."
"On the fifth day of Christmas our Council spent wastefully,
a Golden West End Scheme, a 4th ward phony gig,
3 high bid contracts, 2 blight ordinances, and over billed city
attorney fees."
On the sixth day of Christmas our Council spent wastefully,
6 over priced banners. a Golden West End Scheme,
a 4th ward phony gig, 3 high bid contracts, 2 blight ordinances, and over billed city
attorney fees."
On the seventh day of Christmas our Council spent wastefully
7 kooky amendments, 6 over priced banners. a Golden West End Scheme,
a 4th ward phony gig, 3 high bid contracts, 2 blight ordinances, and over billed city
attorney fees."
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Bravo, that's the spirit, shinblind.
Some of those are already found in my prepared list, but some aren't and worthy to include. But there's only twelve days, while the corruption is almost unbound.
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It almost writes itself...
"On the eight day of Christmas our Council became gleefully,
8 Shay butt kissers*, 7 kooky amendments, 6 over priced banners,
a Golden West End Scheme, a 4th ward phony gig, 3 high bid contracts,
2 blight ordinances, and over billed city
attorney fees."
*(7 councilors and da mayor for you folks keeping score at home )
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On the second day of Christmas, our city spent wastefully, on:
Two tower paintings, and
Another change for North James Street."
That's water tower paintings. Originally detailed in this thread, it was revealed that the city was to spend what would amount to about $1.2 million on painting the city's two water towers. This was at least ten years before the job should have been done, and far exceeded the paintings of the towers in the year 2000 which cost around $300,000. So not only was nearly $1 million of pure Ludington taxpayer money wasted on a venture that wasn't needed and saw no competitive bids, but City Manager Shay assured us that the towers would be painted at the end of the contract too, which the contract never envisions.
Not content with that waste, a few years later they contracted with the same company to paint the Brye Tank at over five times it's previous painting job, without using the competitive bidding process-- though they did feign it that time.
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Thanks and feel free to predict, suggest, or add any of your own creative content.
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"On the ninth day of Christmas our Council examined carefully,
9 toilet cam tapes,
8 Shay butt kissers,
7 kooky amendments,
6 over priced banners,
a Golden West End Scheme,
a 4th ward phony gig,
3 high bid contracts,
2 blight ordinances,
and over billed city
attorney fees."
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You're going to be done by New Year's Day at the rate you're going, shinblind. Nothing like toiletcam tapes to make you feel like it's summer again.
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On the third day of Christmas, our city spent wastefully, on:
Three years o'erbillings,
Two tower paintings, and
Another change for North James Street."
You would think that over a period of three years with over three dozen invoices for services given from our city attorney law firm to the city, that they might accidentally botch the proper billing rate one of those times, and that it would have been noticed and corrected. But this happened every single time in those 38 invoices, sometimes with the rate being $145/hour higher than what they had contracted, and every single time those invoices made it through the process and were paid.
Between the years 2011 and 2013 inclusive, City Attorney Richard Wilson presented these 38 paper invoices to John Shay, who applied his rubber stamp of approval on each of those 38 overbilled rates and costs, then signed his initials; any other check and balance totally failed each of those three years and the invoices were paid. In most cities, if a situation like this was pointed out repeatedly to the council with no admission by either attorney or manager either way, you would have other officials being upset by the utter waste of tax money in what could be easily called an embezzlement scheme.
In Ludington, it doesn't raise a mention, other than the city attorney recognizing there had been some problem with new billing mechanisms when they merged into a larger firm-- even when many of those invoices were before that merger was even contemplated. The attorney and manager did some figuring, found out how much was overbilled and are going to pay it back with a credit on the next bill. You just got to trust them that they did it right.
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"On the tenth day of Christmas our Council ignored shockingly,
10 taser'd twitchings,
9 toilet cam tapes,
8 Shay butt kissers*,
7 kooky amendments,
6 over priced banners,
a Golden West End Scheme,
a 4th ward phony gig,
3 high bid contracts,
2 blight ordinances,
and over billed city
attorney fees."
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