We all know Cupid, Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Comet, Blitzen, Vixen, (and Rudolph) ...

[TahitiNut]

... but was the eighth (ninth?) reindeer named Donner or Donder??

In the movie "Miracle on 34th Street," the employment card for Kris Kringle (who's as old as his tongue and a little older than his teeth) lists "Donder" as one of his Next Of Kin.

Did Kris Kringle list the names correctly??

[QuestionAll...]

1. you into the fruitcake rum recipe already?

lol.
this has got to be the silliest poll ever. but knowing you, there's a punchline coming soon.

punch, did someone say punch?

[TahitiNut]

4. Well, the answer involves (of course) the Corporate Media.

:evilgrin: ... which makes this a GD-related topic.

[QuestionAll...]

5. yes, I do sometime want to punch their lights out. Very On Topic.

[bananas]

20. Four more votes needed to put this on the greatest page

and the morning crowd will wish they had more of the punch.

[TahitiNut]

26. (lol!)

:thumbsup:

[Captain Hilts]

2. I thought the last two were Agnew and Nixon. nt

[MADem]

10. And doesn't Wolf Blitzer grow antlers and pull the sleigh on Xmas eve?

[TahitiNut]

18. I thought he grew horns and fell asleep after talking about the sleighing.

While his mother called "Wolf! Wolf!" ... and the neighbors ignored her. :evilgrin:

(Lot's of sleighing in Baghdad, even in those days.)

[hootinholler]

3. Ralph

No wait E's a llama.

-Hoot

- I like Donder

[TahitiNut]

17. I thought Dolly was the llama.

And I thought Ralph was a woodchuck (or upchuck?). :silly:

[hootinholler]

24. Obscure Monty Python reference

E stared in the credits of "The Quest for the Holy Grail" as Ralph, the Wonder Llama.

Dolly is good :D

-Hoot

[LibertyLover]

25. Ralph also appears in the movie Troy

Yes, Ralph the Wonder Llama, and his lesser-known cousin, Fred the Fabulous, make an appearance in the market scene at the beginning of the movie "Troy". At least that's what my husband told our daughter when she pointed out the 2 llamas to us while watching the movie on television a month or two ago.

[TahitiNut]

27. Wi nøt trei a høliday in Sweden this yër ?

Well, Ralph was only one of the Llamas ...

The Producers would like to thank The Forestry Commission Doune Admissions Ltd, Keir and Cowdor Estates, Stirling University, and the people of Doune for their help in the making of this film.
The Characters and incidents portrayed and the names used are fictitious and any similarity to the names, characters, or history of any person is entirely accidental and unintentional.
Signed RICHARD M. NIXON
JOHN GOLDSTONE & "RALPH" The Wonder Llama
EARL J. LLAMA
MIKE Q. LLAMA III
SY LLAMA
MERLE Z. LLAMA IX
Directed By
40 SPECIALLY TRAINED
ECUADORIAN MOUNTAIN LLAMAS
6 VENEZUELAN RED LLAMAS
142 MEXICAN WHOOPING LLAMAS
14 NORTH CHILEAN GUANACOS
(CLOSELY RELATED TO THE LLAMA)
REG LLAMA OF BRIXTON
76000 BATTERY LLAMAS
FROM "LLAMA-FRESH" FARMS NEARE PARAGUAY
and
TERRY GILLIAM AND TERRY JONES

:rofl:

I love those credits and giggle every time I see them - to the confusion of others in the room paying less attention.

http://www.mwscomp.com/movies/grail/g-titles.htm

[Ron Green]

6. Of course it's Donner. "Thunder" to Blitzen's "Lightning."

:-)

[TahitiNut]

8. Hint: Visit the Netherlands.

:silly:

[Stu DeBeouf]

11. Genau so!

Donner = Thunder auf Deutsch. Blitzen is lightning....WTF is this Donder horseshit?

[TahitiNut]

7. *** SPOILER ALERT! ***

(Be careful of Snopes, folks.) :evilgrin:

Is it Donner? Or Donder? Here we are more than two weeks (before) Christmas, and doubts linger about the identity of Santa's seventh reindeer. But responding to irate reader demands and aided by sources at the highest levels of government, The Washington Post decided to get some answers.

We were successful. In fact, Library of Congress reference librarian David Kresh described Donner/Donder as "a fairly open-and-shut case." As we marshaled the evidence near Alcove 7 in the Library's Main Reading Room a few days ago, it quickly became clear that Clement Clarke Moore, author of "A Visit from St. Nicholas," wanted to call him (or her?) "Donder." Never mind that editors didn't always cooperate.

The Donder affair began with a controversial column that appeared in this space Dec. 21, in which The Post and the U.S. Geological Survey tried to decide whether Moore had meant to name his seventh reindeer "Donner" or "Donder" (to refresh your memory, the others are Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid and Blitzen).

Because the referees were looking for geographical places named after the reindeer, they decreed that Moore had written it "Donner" (25 places) and not "Donder" (zippo). "Donder" was boring, and, The Post decided, the word itself "doesn't mean anything." "Donner" means "Thunder" in German.

No sooner had this heresy appeared in print than a somewhat vexed Ms. H.J. Zegers-ten Horn, of Bethesda, dashed off a letter that blitzed through the mails like a comet, pranced into the building, danced through the newsroom and landed like a fat Cupid on the editor's desk. Donder, asserted Zegers-ten Horn with the deflating assurance of someone born in The Netherlands, does mean something: "It is the Dutch, not German, writing and pronounciation of the word 'thunder.' " The Post, red-faced and provincial, called Geological Survey spokesman Donovan Kelly, who disclosed that Moore "of course used code names. The real names of the flying reindeer remain classified cartographers' secrets." Sen. Robert J. Dole (R-Kan.) immediately called for a special prosecutor to conduct an investigation.

Still reeling from these developments, The Post was next broadsided by Mr. John A. Dodds, of Arlington, who maintained that his two sources identified the seventh reindeer not as "Donner," not as "Donder," but as "Dunder," as in "dunderhead." But where Zegers-ten Horn was gently chiding, Dodds was combative:

"By what right or authority does the Post have to change an original piece of literature?" he thundered. "Let's not leave it up to unidentified poetry anthologies, unnamed 'referees,' or may I be so bold, the Post. Why don't we ask the Library of Congress?"

So we did.

<...more...>

Get in Dutch! Join the Friends of Donder at The Donder Home Page

[Sydnie]

9. Studio 60 tonight said it was Dunder

They were debating the whole Christmas story, the virgin birth, the star (was it a comet or a star?), the number of wise men, etc.

[TahitiNut]

12. So, the Dunder-head contingent was on, was it?

:rofl: This is a hotly-contested issue. Everyone has their preferred authorities on the matter.

(I'm actually glad people can give attention to the more seminal issues such as this.)

[Sydnie]

16. It was indeed.

:rofl: There are only so many Wars one can participate in at Christmas time, we must pick our battles. ;)

[Berry Cool]

23. Yeah, and they were misled about half of it.

For example, they spoke of the Immaculate Conception as if it were a reference to Jesus' virgin birth, rather than to the belief that Mary was born without original sin (and that having nothing to do with HOW she was conceived, but with what "state" she was in WHEN she was conceived--i.e., the belief that she was not "born a sinner" like everyone else, inheriting "the sin of Adam").

Heck, even I know that, and I wasn't raised Catholic.

[Bluebear]

13. Miracle on Third or Fourth Street? nt

[TahitiNut]

14. Make thee not jest at a Holy Movy of Xmas.

:silly: Between 'Miracle on 34th Street' and 'It's a Wonderful Life' we essentially have a video catechism. :dunce:

[John Gauger]

15. Donder und Blitzen

German for thunder and lightning. I've heard this debate before and that's the answer they came up with.

[bananas]

19. A lot is lost in the translation from Reindeer to English

so I voted "other".

[countryjake]

21. My Little Golden Book says...

"Donder"!

When I was little, we used to laugh and make fun of the dumb red-nosed kids who thought his name was Donner.

[Hubert Flottz]

22. Did the wise men bring that freaking Old Spice shit to JC?

And socks that didn't fit?

[gollygee]

28. My daughter has a book of The Night before Xmas

and it says Donder too.

But I know the reindeer as Donner and I'm sticking with that.