This Merman Christmas ornament like thing has hung on a nail in my hallway for years. As I recall the details, I bought it at the same shop where I bought my tacky Inflatable Christmas Tree.

The shop was called “Dom” – I believe – located in a shopping mall near my office. It was a branch of a shop I first encountered in Amsterdam, selling expensive kitschy things that nobody could rationally justify. I don’t know how much I paid for the Merman. However, I do know that I waited until the inflatable Christmas Tree was 50% off before buying it; maybe I had the same (good) sense with respect to Merman.

The Merman is quite heavy for a Christmas tree ornament – there’s no way I could hang it from my inflatable Christmas tree, and were I to hang it on a traditionally expressed tree (whether plastic or natural), I would have to hang it fairly near the center trunk, lest it bend the branch to the point the branch breaks or the ornament falls to the floor.

Merman has had a good run – but it lacks any deeper meaning for me. There are no treasured memories evoked. It also doesn’t fit into any particular theme of my apartment except maybe naked men in my bedroom – but all of those are tasteful, (in)decent forms of legitimate art.

Merman is kitschy and tacky in a way that does not match anything else in my home.

Kind of sad, when you think about it that way.

During the Covid-19 crisis, I am going to try and make a point of writing a blog post about an object in my home.

We’ll see how long this lasts.