The weekly news update featuring Alice In Wonderland
To all North Pole City Elves, those in Santa's Village, in the Lower 48 and all around the world, this is your weekly update for the week of July 4, 2022. I'm your host Walter "Mistletoe" Livingstone and I'm your co-host, Becky "Marshmallow" Livingstone, Let's go to press.
For the week of July 4, 2022 your sponsor will be Suzie Markle’s Cafe. Located at 195 Evergreen Lane, Suzie Markle’s Cafe features 25 different syrup flavors including everyone’s favorite Elfinn Berry. When you are looking for a great breakfast, make sure to stop by Suzie Markle’s Cafe.
Santa reports that the workshops and factories are going back to a limited crew for the summer break starting today, July 4. All of those workers who have not been granted make-up time due to illness or have approved overtime are to check out at the end of the day and enjoy your summer break. Santa plans on visiting with everyone out at Polar Bear Camp this year and wants anyone to come out to camp if you can.
Edward Hinklemyer has put out a memo stating that all executive offices for Santa's Village will be working one more day past the shut down of the factories and warehouses in order to secure all paperwork and data for the summer break. No overtime has been granted to any of the executive offices this year.
The Division of WWW/PR has posted the newly updated Reindeer Games booklet on the NPC Sports League Page. If you plan on attending and participating in the games this year out at Polar Bear Lake, it is highly recommended that you download and review the new booklet as there are some new games this year, and some of the rules of the older games have changed.
Temperatures will be in the low forties this week with a rain storm expected on Wednesday and into Thursday. High winds will also be expected with the storm. Be extra careful as you move about the city during the storm.
Special update: Information from an anonymous source in the security division, indicated that they have identified hidden cameras. They also indicate that the cameras transmissions point south towards Antarctica and the South Pole. This coupled with the discussion that many pieces of evidence point to a former Legendary Figure, seems to indicate that they would have zeroed in on the just one Legendary Figure who lives at the South Pole. Without verification though, we hesitate to name names just yet. Stay tuned for more updates and anything else we can find out.
On July 4, 1862 Reverend Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, who wrote children's stories under the pen name of Lewis Carroll first told the story later to be known as "Alice in Wonderland", to the three young daughters of Henry Liddell, Dean of Christ Church, Oxford, on a boat trip with picnic lunch. On the anniversary of this, July 4, 1865, the first edition of the book was published.
On 4 July 1862 the Reverend Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, who was a professor of mathematics at Christ Church College, Oxford, set out on a rowing expedition up the Thames River. With him on this trip were the three young daughters of the University’s dean, Lorina, Alice, and Edith, and Dodgson's friend Robinson Duckworth. On this trip, Dodgson told a story that he called "Alice's Adventures Under Ground" about a bored child called Alice who follows a white rabbit and ends up having a series of odd adventures.
We know this is the actual date as Dodgson wrote about the day in his diary, and then went back in later and added the following information on the page opposite the entry which explains it and the progression to the name change we know it as today:
"On which occasion I told them the fairy-tale of “Alice's Adventures Under Ground," which I undertook to write out for Alice, & which is now finished (as to the text) though the pictures are
not yet nearly done - Feb. 10. 1863
nor yet - Mar. 12. 1864.
“Alice's Hour in Elfland� June 9/64.
“Alice's Adventures in Wonderland� June 28."
Alice who was the middle child and age 10 at the time, quite enjoyed adored the story and begged Dodgson to write it down.
He succumbed to Alice's request and wrote in neat ‘manuscript print’, designed for the young Alice to read. Which again due to his diary we know it took him until February 1863 to write out the whole text.
Then Dodgson began to add the illustrations of Wonderland and its inhabitants. He eventually presented the manuscript to Alice Liddell herself, on November 26, 1864 with the dedication: ‘A Christmas Gift to a Dear Child in Memory of a Summer’s Day’.
Now where did he come up with all the characters in the story? Well, Alice’s father is thought to be the original White Rabbit. As head of both the college and the cathedral he was a busy man, always in a hurry and often late and he frequently left his place at High Table (a table in a dining hall, typically on a platform, for the most important people, such as the fellows of a college) by a small private door known to the rest of the college as the rabbit hole.
He also included other characters based on others present on the boat trip. He included Robinson Duckworth as the Duck based on a play on his name, Alice’s sisters, Lorina and Edith, who appear in the story as the Lory, a parrot, and an Eaglet.
Cheshire Cat is not so easy to discern though. There are varied ideas about this one. One is that Cheshire pubs often had smiling cats on their signs and thus the cat represents Dean Stanley, a member of a prestigious Cheshire family and an Oxford clergyman who prided himself on seeing both sides of an argument which is seen in the Cheshire Cat’s answers. Others believe it to actually be Dodgson himself who was a photographer and was also born in Cheshire who may have wanted to remind Alice (who used to watch him develop negatives on plates in his darkroom) that he could produce the exciting phenomenon of a photograph gradually taking shape like the cat in the story would gradually fade in and out.
At the urging of friends to publish the manuscript, Dodgson expanded the tale by about 10,000 words added new scenes including the Mad Hatter Tea Party and had it published under his pen name Lewis Carroll, including illustrations by John Tenniel.
During June 1865, the first edition was printed with the intention to have Macmillan & Co. of London publish it (printed by the Clarendon Press) on 4 July 1865. Lewis Carroll requested 50 advance copies of 2000 printed to give away. A short time later Carroll heard from Tenniel that he was ‘entirely dissatisfied with the printing of the pictures.’ Carroll withdrew the entire edition of 2000 copies and asked for the advance copies he had sent to be returned. There are only 23 known surviving 1865 copies.
Macmillan examined one of the unbound copies of the book and agreed to fully reprint the book using a more commercial printer from London, Richard Clay. The dissatisfactory printing was then sold to David Appleton & Co., to distribute copies of the book in America. The title-pages were redone with a New York imprint dated 1866, the sheets were machine-folded and put into cloth bindings with Appleton's name on the lower spine and the new title-page substituted on a stub for the earlier one. Macmillan completed its new edition in November 1865, but post-dated the printing 1866.
What happened to the original handwritten manuscript of the story known as "Alice's Adventures Under Ground"? Alice Liddell maintained possession of the manuscript until 1928 when she was forced to sell it to pay death duties after the death of her husband. The manuscript was then sold at auction at Sotheby’s for £15,000 to an American dealer, Dr Rosenbach. He sold it to Eldridge Johnson when he returned to America. After Johnson’s death in 1946, it was sold at auction to a wealthy group of American benefactors, who donated the manuscript to the British Museum in 1948. The return of this important work to the British people was a token of gratitude for Britain's stand against Adolf Hitler during World War Two. It is held today by the British Museum who has now provided digital scans that can be viewed online. Links to this and the full expanded "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" will be in this week's edition of "The Peppermint Post".
The NPC commerce association is still seeking donations for the NPC Sports League's Reindeer Games and the Campout basket raffle. Bring any donations to the NPC Commerce Association meeting this week if you can. This week's meeting will be at the North Pole City Hotel again, commencing at 7 a.m. sharp.
City workers are asked to begin hauling firewood to Polar Bear Lake campgrounds and to begin checking all the campsite firepits etc. to make sure we are prepared for the upcoming campout and Reindeer Games week. The council has already authorized any repairs that may be needed out at camp and all is to be ready to go as soon as possible.
Limited spots remain for the campout. As expected, we are close to 200,000 camp sites reserved for the event. If you have not reserved your spot yet, contact the NPC Sports league today! Offices are open daily until 6 pm. Please be sure to get your reservations in sooner than later.
In celebration of "Take your webmaster to Lunch Day" on July 6, express your gratitude to them in some way for their tireless contributions. Lunch will be provided for all members of the WWW/PR division on Wednesday in the North Pole City Hotel. For Sugar Cookie Day on July 9, there will be a sugar cookie exchange in town center. This is a great means to share recipes and garner new ideas for future batches of these sweet delicacies. Bring a batch of your sugar cookies and the recipe to share out!
WELF-NPC North Pole City Radio would like to wish a very happy 600th birthday to Jane "Sweet Tooth" Appleton. She has been working with Dancer in the reindeer stables for nearly 500 years and reports that she just loves her position with Santa's Reindeer. We wish her many more happy years!
This is Walter "Mistletoe" Livingstone and Becky "Marshmallow" Livingstone with the reminder: It is fine to celebrate success, but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure..
Have a good evening, and be sure to tune in next week for another WELF-NPC North Pole Radio News Update.
