
How Santa Claus Ended Up on U.S. Military’s Radar - davidf18
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/20/upshot/how-santa-claus-ended-up-on-us-militarys-radar.html
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ianhawes
I've always maintained that this was not an accident at all. This was an
attempt by the Soviet Union of psyops against NORAD. I would imagine they
uncovered the number through other means and created the ad as a way to launch
a "denial of service" against NORAD by having kids call them.

The official story says that the ad was placed by a Sears store. What kind of
department store would be able to handle calls "day and night"? And the ad
specifically mentions "Kiddies be sure and dial the correct number". Has
anyone bothered to figure out what the actual number for the Sears store was
back then?

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Shivetya
Really, the idea an ad could print a random number and have it be THAT number
is fascinating. I wonder if the person creating the ad had knowledge of how
phone numbers were assigned for the military and just randomly got that one? I
assume they themselves never called to see if it actually rang through.

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ck2
It is still an incredibly uncomfortable non-separation of church and state.

Unless maybe we are just going to rename it santa-mas and celebrate it on
solstice.

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TazeTSchnitzel
Santa is a Christian figure, now?

He's an amalgamation of various European Christmas myth figures.

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ck2
Which holiday does Santa represent?

A non-denominational holiday?

Stop playing coy.

If you rename Christ-mas, you can have the government endorse Santa all you
want and I won't complain.

