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Easter

 The secular Easter stories can't really compete with the Passion Play. Look at the Gospels. You have Judas, who is maybe sexually drawn to Jesus. Judas betrays Jesus for cash--Jesus gets murdered--Judas hangs himself. Peter--apparently a role model--nevertheless forgets "his best self." Then: the resurrection. This is Caravaggio territory.


By contrast, in the 1970s, Fred Astaire and others tried to write a "bunny story." I think, by this point, Astaire was running on the fumes of his own talent. In "The Easter Bunny Is Comin' to Town," a spirited bunny wants to expand the capitalist reach of a particular troubled village. The village has one gift--excellent eggs--so the bunny tries to take the eggs to a rival town. But in that town, a villainess queen has severely restricted everyone's diet; only beans are allowed. So a smuggling operation occurs. The eggs are dyed bright colors--to confuse the queen. I'm not making this stuff up.

My daughter is sort of interested in Fred Astaire--but mostly she wants to cuddle with bunnies. We did find an opportunity for her, but she became overly enthusiastic in her "nuzzling" gestures. The zookeeper had to keep intervening. I was reminded of Lenny, accidentally murdering woodland creatures in "Of Mice and Men."

As a family, we've performed at least the first verse of "Peter Cottontail." Before this year, it wasn't clear to me that "Peter" is an actual character. (I'd thought "Peter Cottontail" was a generic moniker--like "John Doe.") Raising children means that I'm now aware of the animated "Cottontail" film, in which Vincent Price is a fabulous (and nasty) leather-clad biker bunny; Price wants to keep the titular hero from delivering his Easter eggs.

If you *don't* have small children, you could go and visit Bellini's "Pieta" at the Morgan Library--this was a highlight of the season (at least for me).

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