Consider the Box

Boxing Day, yes, but we're not going to talk about Boxing Day sales, scenes of significant mayhem, or the origins of Boxing Day, which stretch back to 1690; we are instead going to talk about the box itself, and its place in legend and literature.

But first, the word: Box--derived from the Late Latin "buxis."

In 1936, Rex Stout published a Nero Wolfe mystery he called "The Red Box"--not the most memorable in the Wolfe-Archie Goodwin series, but entertaining. The jacket copy tells us that the gargantuan New York sleuth was "in line for the supreme insult of his career--a murder in his own home. The only clue was an odd red box--and that had disappeared!"

The phrase "in the wrong box" means being out of one's element or in the wrong position. In 1889, Robert Louis Stevenson, in collaboration with Lloyd Osbourne, wrote "The Wrong Box." Rudyard Kipling said he "laughed dementedly over it." Seventy-seven years later, "The Wrong Box" was filmed, with a cast including Peter Sellers, Tony Hancock, Peter Cook and Dudley Moore. If you can find a copy, prepare to laugh dementedly. (As we often do, for no reason at all.)

Finally, the most famous box in legend and literature: Pandora's. Pandora, first woman on earth, was given a beautiful sealed box (actually an urn) by Zeus, but warned to never open it. But curiosity won, as it so often does. Pan pried open the lid and released all the evils that would afflict the world. She was, as one might expect, distressed, and tried to stuff the nasty things back in. But to no avail. However, one item remained in the box: the spirit of hope.

And so we hope for a good 2014. Pope Francis, fix it.