And, (4), we’re not really even seeing “characters” at all: it’s not Major Frank Burns, pathetic self-important putz from Fort Wayne, Indiana; it’s Larry Linville of Ojai, California, actor stoic enough to endure thousands of letters (still coming in, even in syndication) from pseudo-voyeurs berating him for being a putz from Indiana.

The American custom of erecting a putz seems to have originated with the Moravians but the custom long ago spread to non-Moravian households. Essentially, the putz is a landscape, built on the floor or on a table or portable platform.

Once all good Moravians in Bethlehem went putzing between Christmas and Twelfth Night to take a look at their friends' cribs.

Everyone in the Moravian settlements goes putzing, visiting others' works of art.

One Christmas custom that was very much the rage in the last years of the nineteenth century and the early decades of the twentieth, was the putzing party. In the days when there were many putzes built in Bethlehem private homes, it was the practice to organize groups to wander around and visit the families who had erected these wonderful Christmas displays.

Putz

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