The 2nd-most-famous reindeer of all Do you recall? No one does. Help us give him another shot at going down in history
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer is a Christmas celebrity. He has his own classic holiday TV show, his own song and a line of toys, clothing and home decor.
Then there’s Richard the Sharp-Eared Reindeer.
Never heard of him? Neither had we, until a staff member discovered a 1981 children’s record telling his story. While Rudolph has captured the attention of the masses with his freakish nose, the legend of another mutant reindeer was nearly lost to history, but now here it is.
This isn’t the story told on the record, which is fairly boring. This is our much more exciting version with a twist — we want you to write the ending.
We’re not asking for a novel, a few sentences will do. We’ll publish the best endings in our Dec. 21 edition. Maybe this is the start of a new classic and next year we’ll be selling Richard the Sharp-Eared Reindeer T-shirts.
You can send us your ending one of three ways. The author of the best entry will receive two free movie tickets:
1. Write it in the comments section below (where you can find a link to hear the actual record).
2. Email it to contests@inland360.com.
3. Mail it to Inland 360, PO Box 957, Lewiston, ID 83501 or drop entries off at the offices of the Lewiston Tribune or Moscow-Pullman Daily News.
Entries are due by 9 a.m. Tuesday, Dec. 19. Please include your name and address, and we’ll send you an Inland 360 sticker.
THE UNTOLD STORY OF RICHARD THE SHARP-EARED REINDEER
It was Christmas Eve, and Richard the Sharp-Eared Reindeer was sad. Once again he’d been left behind.
Santa did not want him on his team. His razor-like ears were as long and sharp as samurai swords, a hazard to the other flying reindeer, Santa said. The only safe place for Richard was at the front of the line, and that was Rudolph’s spot. That’s why every Dec. 24th, Richard was left behind to cut out cookies for the Christmas Eve after-party and shred wish lists for recycling, a painful chore that left him with thousands of paper cuts. Just one Christmas he wanted to see the world.
He was in the midst of shredding his 4,079th list when he heard something strange.
“What’s that I hear,” asked Richard, his candy cane-striped tie waving in the wind.
Besides having ears sharp enough to cut rocks, Richard had amazing hearing, and at this moment he heard Santa cry out somewhere over Bolivia.
Without a thought, Richard bolted into the sky, torpedoing through the night toward the southern hemisphere. He arrived just in time to see Santa disappear into the impenetrable wilderness of the Amazon. There was just one thing stopping Richard from diving into the jungle to save Santa. It was another reindeer …
What happens next? You tell us…
2 Comments
Debra Allen
It was another reindeer … and that reindeer was none other than Rudolph, with his nose not so bright because it was completely covered with spider webs. As Richard flew closer he could see that Rudolph’s whole body was stuck in a giant web. Much to Richards wondering deer eyes he saw a huge spider the size of a dinner plate heading straight for Rudolph…it was a goliath bird-eating tarantula. (Richard knew this because he had learned it in reindeer school and this species of spider is native to South America). Richard quickly used his sharp ears to cut away the spider web and free Rudolph. “Thanks, now be quick and follow me, we’ve got to save Santa and the rest of the reindeer team!” said Rudolph. The two reindeer flew deeper into the Amazon jungle, avoiding the maze of sticky spider webs and found Santa and his reindeer all stuck in giant webs, with hungry looking spiders creeping in for their dinner. Richard went straight to work flipping his sharp ears this way and that way and in the wink of an eye Santa, his sleight full of presents and all the reindeer were free from the sticky webs. The bird-eating spiders all started to cry and looked sad, not mad. “Whatever is the problem?” asked Santa, Are you sad you just lost your Christmas feast? “No, said the biggest of the giant spiders. “We are sad because we spiders never get Christmas and Santa has never came to us.” We weren’t going to eat you, we were going to help you get out of our sticky webs and hope you would give our spider children some presents.” Since we all know Santa loves to spread Christmas cheer and bring gifts to all the good girls and boys (and in this situation, good little spiders) Santa dug deep into his sack of presents and found gifts for all the spider children and their families. Now every year as Santa and his reindeer fly over South American delivering Christmas goodies, Richard the Sharp eared reindeer is sure to be in the reindeer crew so he can cut Santa out of any sticky situations.
From Debbie Allen
3227-6th St. D Lewiston, ID 83501
Wayne Gash
…, Dr. Richard Sharpe, the cross-dressing reindeer, who shot his estranged wife, Karen, to death while her brother and others looked on, allegedly, because she hid her birth control pills from him which he used in an attempt to enlarge his breasts, which failed, as did his attempt to hire a hitman to kill the prosecutor in his murder trial, and although he was acquitted of that charge, he was convicted of killing his wife because, according to said prosecutor, he was angry over the prospect of losing $3 million in their divorce, and of course her hidden birth control pills, which he never found even after he murdered her, which led to his eventual demise, allegedly at his own hand or rather hands, by tying a bedsheet to his top bunk in his cell at MCI-Norfold prison, according to a Massachusetts Department of Correction spokeswoman, but not according to his appeals attorney who declared there was no indication Richard, (the cross-dressing one), was despondent, but at that point it was neither here nor there, because he was most certainly dead, all of which Santa explained to Richard, (the sharp-eared reindeer, of course, not the dead, cross-dressing reindeer), so the live-Richard reindeer, quite mistakenly, plunged into the penetrable wilderness of the Amazon, thereby missing Santa in the impenetrable wilderness of the Amazon, which was his most serious, and last, mistake, because the impenetrable Amazon works both ways, you can’t get in, and you can’t get out, which Richard would have realized if his brain was half as sharp as his ears, but alas Santa’s cries were in vain as Santa, Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner, (aka Dunder), Blitzen, Rudolph and, never to be heard from, or of again, Richard, the sharp-eared reindeer, all died in Bolivia, as did Butch Cassidy and the Sun Dance Kid.
Source: CBS/AP, January 6, 2009 “Richard Sharpe Cross-Dressing Wife Killer Found Hanged” and Peter Pan Records, 1997, “Richard the Sharp-Eared Reindeer”h