The Goblins Christmas - Elizabeth Anderson

0:00Hi, this is Alex Cantrowitz. I'm the host of Big Technology Podcast, a long time reporter and an on-air contributor to CNBC. And if you're like me, you're trying to figure out how artificial intelligence is changing the business world and our lives. So each week on Big Technology, I bring on key actors from companies building AI tech and outsiders trying to influence it, asking where this is all going. They come from places like Nvidia, Microsoft, Amazon, and plenty more. So if you want to be smart with your wallet, your career choices, and meetings with your colleagues and at dinner parties, listen to Big Technology Podcast wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, I'm Josh Speagle, host of the podcast, Lunatic in the newsroom. If you enjoy journalism that drifts into mild panic, wild overthinking, and a guaranteed nervous breakdown, Lunatic in the newsroom is for you. It's news like you've never heard before, the only newsroom with a panic button. You'll laugh, you'll cry, and gasp and horror as the show spirals completely out of control. It's not just news, it's emotionally unstable.

1:00Lunatic in the newsroom, listen today. When you're ready to slow down, especially before bed, listen to Saul Good Sounds. We create calming audio, ambient soundscapes, and peaceful listening experiences designed to help you relax, unwind, and fall asleep. Search Saul Good Sounds wherever you listen to podcasts. That's S-O-L-G-O-D sounds. Saul Good Sounds, rest well. The Goblin's Christmas by Elizabeth Anderson. Once upon a time, I visited Fairyland and spent a day in Goblin town. The people there are much like ourselves, only they are very, very small and rogish. They play pranks on one another and have great fun. They are good-natured and jolly and rarely get angry. But if one does get angry, he quickly recovers his good nature and joins again in the sport. If a Goblin should continue angry,

2:01he would take on some visible form. Perhaps he would become a toe or a squirrel or some other little animal and would have to live here on the earth plane forever more. But if he keeps good natured, he can come here and have his fun and not be seen by anyone except a seer or a very wise person. Goblins are gracious to the wise people now, but they were not always so. A long, long time ago on a Christmas Eve, the fairy folk were having great sport. All the little people of the unseen world had gathered together in the earth realm. There were brownies and nooms and elves. Even some little cherubs had joined them. They were having a wild dance and a gay time when who should appear but Chris cringle. Now, the fairies did not know that he was a magician or seer. And so they tried to make sport of him. But Chris, by his wonderful magic, changed them into the most beautiful toys.

3:02They became straight little jumping jacks and dolls and bright dresses and the dearest little rabbit with white soft fur. And somewhere in the bottom of the sleigh, one was turned into a cute little teddy bear. Then old Chris tucked all these toys into his roomy sleigh and shook the reins of his waiting steed. Go on, he said, for I've many, many a chimney to reach tonight. Now this is the tale of the Goblin's Christmas that the moonbeams told as they heard it from the fairy queen who declares that every word of it is perfectly true. The big bright moon hung high and round in a densely darkened sky. The tall pines swayed and mocked and groaned. The mountains grew so high that the man in the moon came out and said, oh, spooks for a merry dance! The winds blew hard, the caverns roar, well over the earth they prance.

4:03A witch and a goblin led the sprites out from the sky they sprung and down the Milky Way they slid and over a chasm swung. The streams around ran, which is broth, the fumes were strong and rank. These elven creatures all were wroth well of the stuff they drank. The cunning moon looked on and laughed with a shrill and sneering jib. Her soul grew fat to see them chaffed this mad and elfish tribe. The big black cauldron boiled so high with food for these queer mites that it lit the world throughout the sky and down came all the sprites. Their mad career upset a star as through the air they flew. It cringed in fear and shot a far and fell where no one knew. Orion's sword was broken bits. Corona's crown was gone. Capella seemed to lose her wits

5:05while all so longed for dawn. Then from the night there came a sound of sleigh bells ringing sweet. Out of the chaos came a man. Chris cringle for his Christmas treat. Oh, Chris, they cried. We'll have some fun. We'll bind the old man down. We'll tie him up and toss him or into our goblin town. They climbed the sleigh with shout and din to bind his hands and feet. A hundred strong they clambered in our good old Chris to meet. He sat quite still with twinkling eyes. Then seized his mystic wand. He raised it up and waved it round. Stillt was this chattering band. Stiffly stark and still they stood. Cloud and elfish clothes. Some were wax and some were wood. One had crushed his nose. Play things rare, he said and smiled.

6:07For children rich and poor. Some all leave the crippled child and some at the orphan's door. He shook his reins and called his steed to bear him swiftly on. Full well it knew its master's need to hurry air the dawn. From house to house they scampered down. Their sleigh bells ringing clear. Through chimneys in the sleepy town. Good Chris and his reindeer. The windows rattled. The moonbeams battled. A tail so strange and queer. They told how at night in dire a fright. The moon had hid in fear. That he'd called in sport his elfish court of spooks and witches gay. Each elf and child by glee beguiled brought scores of others they say. Then a man appeared with flowing beard and a sled with reindeer fleet. They gathered about with din and shout to bind him hands and feet.

7:08Then the moon laughed loud at the gathering crowd. Well he held his sides in mirth to seal Chris in a plight like this, toiling more the earth. But alas for the moon he had laughed like a loon for Chris is a hero of old. Yes Chris is a seer. With his small reindeer he captured the goblin's bold. And he changed them. They say in a wonderful way to toys for his Christmas cheer. The big doll's stare with a goblin air. The small ones cringed with fear. Well the moonbeams prattle. I hear a rattle of hoofs on the chimney side. Then out on the snow I gazed below. Hurrah it's Chris cringole I cried. Then sly as a mouse he entered the house and hung up his treasure so gay. Then out with a dash he sped like a flash into the night and away.

8:10End of the goblin's Christmas by Elizabeth Anderson.