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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Permalink Reply by XLFD on
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On the fourth day of Christmas, our city spent wastefully, on:
Four Friday Night Lives
Three years o'erbillings,
Two tower paintings, and
Another change for North James Street."
Back when it was originally pointed out in early 2011, the FNL is not free to the public; they cost us at least $8000 or more in supplies alone each year before it expanded to four Fridays. Worse yet, the city officials have used this public money supplied by the DDA to buy T-shirts, games, food, bottled water, pop, etc. in order to sell at the event and the money received for the sales were never heard from again, finding their way into what some would say is our city officials' favorite charity, themselves. In later years, they have begun reporting some nominal revenues, but that $8000 deficit figure still is the mark, which doesn't include the various overtime rates used for police and other city workers not volunteering their time for the event and its marketing.
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On the fifth day of Christmas, our city spent wastefully, on:
Five Golden Signs,
Four Friday Night Lives
Three years o'erbillings,
Two tower paintings, and
Another change for North James Street."
Nick Tykoski proudly served on the DDA's Signage Committee in 2009 when he/his company received a check for $15,001 signed by his wife and City Manager Shay for gold sign prototypes specially ordered as way-faring signs for the downtown area. These signs were the first installation of what was to be $150,000 spent on downtown signage. It may sound like a lot but these were golden signs and this golden couple had set aside this golden amount of money for the project without any sort of bidding coming until the next year, only after signmaker Nick had submitted a bid, and the other companies received their bids too late to do anything with.
Once their plans were exposed, they held the price down to about $50,000 and were able to claim they saved the city $100,000. Don't believe it; these signs actually are more confusing than helpful, and were created with the idea to put more money in the ethically-challenged pockets of Nick and Heather Tykoski, who violated all the rules to get this gig, which never even had a contract backing it up.
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Permalink Reply by AQUAMAN on
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Not to mention that the Tykoski's also got a foreclosed home for a pittance of it's previously assessed valuation, with back-room deals to seal that deal in a ward where Nicky boy could run for the City Council, and then also get the assessor to reduce that home valuation to about 1/3 of it's true market value. Nice deal if you can get it, and you can if the FIX is IN with the COL. Tip of the hat to Shinblind for the excellent verse and song of the season for Ludington, job well done.
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Those dozen gold signs turned into a gold ring and a gold house, flagrantly violating zoning laws by putting a high (white) golden privacy fence on the right-of-way that cost well, well under the market rate of materials. For that house, which I still have an active letter of trespass on me for, even though I have never set foot on the property or contacted the owners thereon, is a true house of mystery, until you understand the history of graft and corruption behind it.
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Permalink Reply by shinblind on
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"On the eleventh day of Christmas our Council weaved deceitfully
11 Spainolia' spinnings,
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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Yup, for the paltry sum of about $600, you can build a high white fence around the entire perimeter of a large city lot, and add the wrought iron decorations to boot, and install it all too with labor. And to think any assessor with ANY common sense would buy that song and dance? The foundation of that home was built on the integrity and honesty long ago of local Probate Judge Olmstead. It sure hasn't been true to it's ancestral beginnings as of the new owners of late, quite the contrary. Can't wait for the twelvth day of Christmas verse.
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On the twelfth day of Christmas the Council sought flagrantly,
no 12 year term limits,
11 Spainolia' spinnings,
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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On the sixth day of Christmas, our city spent wastefully, on:
Six Secret A-greements,
Five Golden Signs;
Four Friday Night Lives,
Three years o'erbillings,
Two tower paintings, and
Another change for North James Street."
Our city leaders have mastered the art of meeting secretly outside of open meetings to make decisions on what to do with public policy and how to spend your money. PM Township, Hamlin Township and the County Boards all made the decision at their meetings to spend $5000-7000 on entering into an agreement with LIAA, a master plan consultant company, this was never brought up at the Ludington City Council meetings, and effectively the City Manager and Clerk illegally entered into an agreement with LIAA using $7000 of money the city council never allowed them.
City Attorney Wilson billed the City of Ludington for his law firm's special attorney fees when he was actually hiring a cost-of-utility-service consulting firm on behalf of the city. The city council also had the necessity of making the decision to enter into such an agreement at an open meeting, much like the Village of Pentwater did. But Ludington residents wouldn't like all that money being used just to see how the City should raise their utility rates in the future, would they? They would rather have money filter through their city attorney fraudulently to a company that the City has never officially hired.
The City treasury spends nearly $100,000 on non-emergency sewer repairs on Brother Street without any authorization-- wait, the council did authorize it via E-mails and phone calls amongst themselves. The ease with which they performed it makes it look as if it happens regularly, which violates the core tenets of the Open Meetings Act.
These are just a sample of the shadow government that takes place regularly behind the backs of the citizens, depriving the majority of citizens and their lapdog newspaper of information on how the public monies are used.
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On the seventh day of Christmas, our city spent wastefully, on:
Seven Needy Counc'lors,
Six Secret A-greements,
Five Golden Signs;
Four Friday Night Lives,
Three years o'erbillings,
Two tower paintings, and
Another change for North James Street."
Spotlighted recently by illegitimate Fourth Ward Councilor Michael Krauch's illegitimate meet and greet purchases courtesy of John Shay's permissive bookkeeping skills (see Three Years Overbillings), the city council has allowed itself to receive an illegitimate salary since 1994.
The Ludington City Council's current salary is contrary to the City Charter, as the so-called raise back in 1994 (that incorporated an equally-ridiculous and unlawful transportation allowance they allotted themselves prior that totalled about $20,000) jumped their salary 7200 percent to the current amount of $3600 per year. By charter it should be $50 per annum until raised in a manner that the Charter permits. It is patently ridiculous that the councilors need over $20,000 per year to get from their homes to Ludington City Hall for the 23 times that they meet. Heck, Les Johnson, like me, is only a couple of blocks away, so all we need are some loafers and/or galoshes to make the journey.
If we were to correctly delegitimize the 1994 action, it would save the city about $25,000 per annum and make the city councilors get paid just a little more than what they have been worth over the last twenty years, where they have ceded most of their legitimate power over to the city manager.
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