The Russian Orthodox Nativity icon

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Today being Christmas for many Orthodox Christians, I am fondly remembering my visit a year ago to the beautiful St. Nikolas Russian Orthodox Cathedral in Vienna.

If you enlarge my photo with a few clicks, a strange (to the Western eye) Nativity scene will open to you.
The fresco on the wall of St. Nikolas church shows a baby Jesus in swaddling clothes and another young Jesus being bathed by Mary's, shall we say, personal assistant.
Joseph is off to the side, looking worried.
And who is that guy in the black hairy coat?

There are some surprising answers in this rather "un-orthodox" post in a museum researcher's blog.
His post is titled "Have yourself a gloomy little Christmas: The traditional Nativity icon." 

If you prefer a more religious interpretation, see the blog "A Reader's Guide to Orthodox Icons."

By the way, some say the ox and ass stand close to the manger to warm the baby with their breath.
That I quite like!
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(Linking to inSPIREd Sunday.)
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Outta Here

There are some well-known people in the arts from The Lou who checked out as soon as the opportunity presented itself (although I went in the opposite direction). There are busts of two of them on the corners of Euclid and McPherson in the Central West End.

Above, Tennessee Williams. This one, I think, is more successful. Williams was born in Mississippi and got his nickname from the origins of his father's family. He arrived in STL at age 8 when dad got a job at International Shoe Company, still headquartered here. 

T. S. Elliott, below, looks rather frumpy by comparison. I suppose he was. He left STL at 16 and eventually became a British subject, renouncing his American citizenship. He was very High Anglican. And, I hear, he ended not with a bang but a whimper.

But, hey, Chuck Berry has stayed here his whole life.

"We three kings of Orient are ..."

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The three magi or wise men have arrived, perhaps as in this old manger scene in Grandchamp.
Happy Epiphany to all the Western Christians who celebrate it today.

And it is the Feast of Nativity (Christmas) for many Eastern Christians, including the Orthodox in Israel.

For more about Epiphany, please see my other posts.
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A Chilly Evening

Brrrr, do you feel that cold breeze.  Maybe I'm imagining it but it seems to feel much colder at high tide.
The Thames is a tidal river, that rises and falls around 7 metres.  The incoming tide comes in at nearly twice the speed of the outgoing tide which takes between 6 and 9 hours.  A bit of trivia that has nothing to do with me feeling cold, but it might help you win a pub quiz contest.

Haute Couture

An outfit that would fit in better in Miami than St. Louis, in sun, not cold fog. And what's with the monumental plinth, something more likely to hold a bronze effigy of a dead general or politician? It's just part of what makes us a little different. In Citygarden, of course.