"Merry Andrew: MERRYMAN. The jack pudding, jester, or zany of a mountebank, usually dressed in a party-coloured coat.
--1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, by Francis Grose.

A Merry Andrew is a somewhat mysterious type of clown. The Merry Andrew was a fixture of the Bartholomew Fair for centuries, presumably being the 17th century equivalent of a stand-up comedian.

"August 29. Met my wife in a coach, and took her and Mercer and Deb. to Bartholomew Fair; and there did see a ridiculous obscene little stage-play called Marry Andrey, a foolish thing, but seen by everybody."
--Diary of Samuel Pepys, 1668

Throughout the years there are references to actors starting their careers, or sometimes building a whole career, on playing Merry Andrew. We do not, however, know what this entails.…

On adopted traditions

Even though it’s not a tradition in this country, this culture and this language, we held a Thanksgiving dinner.

Nothing really fancy, though. More like “let’s have a light lunch and cook something fancier for dinner.” The menu: Fancy sausages, mashed potatoes out of a box, a salad with spinach, goat cheese and pears. Two glasses of white wine.

Again, it’s not our…

Alexander, Who Used to Be Rich Last Sunday
by Judith Viorst
illustrated by Ray Cruz
Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 1978

Do you remember Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day? This is the second book in that series. Admittedly, series is a loose concept here, and there is no real benefit to reading the books in a particular order.

Alexander is back, and now he's complaining about not…