Reset Password
If you've forgotten your password, you can enter your email address below. An email will then be sent with a link to set up a new password.
Cancel
Reset Link Sent
If the email is registered with our site, you will receive an email with instructions to reset your password. Password reset link sent to:
Check your email and enter the confirmation code:
Don't see the email?
  • Resend Confirmation Link
  • Start Over
Close
If you have any questions, please contact Customer Service

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus  

couldbewoodbe 67M  
215 posts
12/21/2019 3:45 pm
Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus

This post is only viewable by FriendFinder-x members.
Join FriendFinder-x now!

couldbewoodbe 67M  
267 posts
12/21/2019 3:52 pm

In 1897, Dr. Philip O'Hanlon, a coroner's assistant on Manhattan's Upper West Side, was asked by his then eight-year-old daughter, Virginia O'Hanlon (1889–1971), whether Santa Claus really existed. O'Hanlon suggested she write to The Sun, a prominent New York City newspaper at the time, assuring her that "If you see it in The Sun, it's so." In so doing, Dr. O'Hanlon had unwittingly given one of the paper's editors, Francis Pharcellus Church, an opportunity to rise above the simple question and address the philosophical issues behind it.

Church was a war correspondent during the American Civil War, a time that saw great suffering and a corresponding lack of hope and faith in much of society. Although the paper ran the editorial in the seventh place on the page, below even one on the newly invented "chainless bicycle", it was both noticed and well received by readers. According to an anecdote on the radio program The Rest of the Story, Church was a hardened cynic and an atheist who had little patience for superstitious beliefs, did not want to write the editorial, and refused to allow his name to be attached to the piece.

Every year, Virginia's letter and Church's response are read at the Yule Log ceremony at at Church's alma mater, Columbia College of Columbia University.


thickd6982 35M
11 posts
12/21/2019 4:16 pm

Fascinating!


Mainer19721 52M

12/21/2019 4:43 pm

Awesome


nsafuninelkton 63M

12/21/2019 4:53 pm

Sit on my lap and tell me what you want!


Become a member to create a blog