Ah yes Christmas in Europe, complete with Boxing Day in the U.K. (no it has nothing to do with pugilism) and the pope’s Urbi et Orbi speech, and Christmas crackers (no you don’t eat them). My ever jovial sister sent me this Christmas card from Rail Europe— Be sure to click on the bit that says choose a destination– and then choose them all, one by one.

Here’s the link— http://downloads.raileurope.com/holidayCard/06_christmas_card.html

And this brings me to another point– about the origin of the word turkey. We owe this of course to the British who mistook the guinea hens which they saw in the country of Turkey (and labeled them accordingly turkeys) for the sort of fowl they came across in America that seemed similar. Of course they were actually different birds. Our fowl did not come from Turkey, nor are they really related to the critters from near Izmir, but there you have it. Our Christmas dinner is mislabeled thanks to the Brits.

While I am at it, they also mislabeled the ottoman. The empire was actually the Osmanli Empire, not the Ottoman empire, and so the furniture should also be called osmanli by rights, but of course the Turks are by now used to the British mangling their language.

So if you celebrate the twelve days of Christmas (and indeed we are coming up on the proper Orthodox Christmas day), you will enjoy the greeting card appended above. Just sit down on your osmanli and have a guinea hen sandwich whilst watching the little charade provided by the train folks of Europe.