GOOSE

Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat.
Won’t you please put a penny in the old man’s hat.

Actually, it’s the people selling the goose that are getting fat. It’s costing a pretty penny for a goose this year, 499 pennies a pound to be exact. My slightly over 8 pound goose cost $41.43. The lady behind me at the grocery store let out a “wow,” when the clerk rang up the total. It makes me feel a little guilty when you can buy turkey at 69 cents a pound, but nowadays you can have turkey year round. Besides, I don’t like turkey all that much. I use it ground to make meat load and stuff, but as for just roasting it, I’m not all that enthused. I don’t like white meat. It’s too dry. Geese have no white meat. It’s all dark and very fatty. That’s why I always make side dishes like cranberry orange relish and red cabbage. It cuts through the grease. So does the Korbel Brut Rose.

It still seems a lot to pay for much for one bird. People who know me can vouch that I do not part with my money easily. I expect change when I spend a nickel. I save up during the year so I’ll have enough money for my Christmas Dinner. It is one of my few extravagances.

I first ate goose at the Berghoff Restaurant in Chicago on a New Years Eve. The Berghoff always had a huge menu with several “special dishes” prepared each day. At the holidays goose was one of the special dishes. Since I had never tried goose, but was fond of duck, I decided to order the goose. It was wonderful. And for dessert I tried my first slice of mince pie. Delicious! Since then goose and mince pie have been on my Christmas menu every year. I won’t go anywhere for Christmas dinner because I don’t want to miss the goose. Only one year have I done with out. It was when on Christmas day I cut the plastic bag the goose was packaged in to be met by the stench of a spoiled goose. Yuck! I had to cook some pieces of frozen chicken for dinner.

My first encounter with a goose, however, was in a literary sense. Who can forget the  goose the Cratchit family had on Christmas Day in A Christmas Carol? Eeked out by applesauce and potatoes it fed Bob’s entire family. The second literary mention of a goose in my experience was in the Sherlock Holmes Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle. The whole solution to the stolen gem has to do with geese.

Interestingly, the price of the goose Holmes pursued is given as 12 shillings.  Now, 12 shillings in1890 is worth about $73.56 in 2010 dollars. For how big a goose? Let’s say a really big goose, about 15 pounds. At 15 pounds that works out to $4.90 a pound, almost exactly what I paid for my goose. Turns out I’m not being so extravagant at all, just traditional.

The most important tradition is what has been handed on to us in the Scriptures. 

In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin's name was Mary. And he came to her and said, "Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you." But she was much perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. The angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David. He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end." Mary said to the angel, "How can this be, since I am a virgin?" The angel said to her, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God. And now, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son; and this is the sixth month for her who was said to be barren. For nothing will be impossible with God." Then Mary said, "Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word." Then the angel departed from her.   (Luke 1:26-38)

May the Lord, begotten of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, bless you on your journey and greet you on your arrival.

Wayne



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