Jingle tills, jingle tills, jingle all the way.....(to the bank). Yes, the festering season is apon us. Be on the lookout for random acts of santarchy as well intentioned (sometimes) larrikans spread good swill. Watch the skies for, Donner, Blitzen, Schnitzel, Rudolph and the fat guy but bear in mind if you hear some one coming down your chimney it's probably a cat burglar.

Anyway, here's a bible tale for the festering season.

Early 1st millennium BC: Hostilities between the Gileadites and the Ephramites necessitated some form of test, to determine friend from foe.

Then Gilead cut Ephraim off from the fords of the Jordan, and whenever an Ephraimite fugitive said, "Let me cross", the men of Gilead  asked him, "Are you an Ephraimite?" If he answered "No", they said, "Then say Shibboleth". He would say "Sibboleth", sice he could not pronounce the word correctly. There apon they seized and slaughtered him by the fords of Jordan. There perished in this way forty-two thousand men of Ephraim

Judges 12:5-6

Shibboleth means either an ear of corn or a flowing stream. The Ephraimites were betrayed by their mispronunciation. (The Gileadites retained "s" and "sh" as distinct phonemes while the Ephraimites merged the two as a single phoneme "s".)

Shibboleth n   1. a slogan or catch phrase usually considered outworn, characteristic of a particular party or sect. 2. a custom, phrase, or use of language that reliably distinguishes a member of one group or class from another.

Collins Paperback English Dictionary

more at In Sanity We Trust