I received a few emails regarding my post on the 23rd of December. I figured they warranted posting.

Email 1:
Said friend has a Solstivus gift for JR that apparently came from a dead person. "Is it OK to give a Solstivus gift that once belonged to a dead person?" I refer to our by laws in which we stated that the object had to be in the donor's prior possession. Note that we specified that this did not rule out dumpster diving. My understanding of the application of the by laws to your question is that as long as your friend did not pay for the item that he is going to give to you, and as long as he had it in his prior possession, then I say that it is a valid gift.

There is nothing in our by laws that speaks to the civil laws, however. I wonder if the gift item in question was taken from the dead person without the knowledge of the grieving family. Is it a gold watch that was given to some guy as a retirement gift? Is it gold fillings that the friend or his brother pulled from the mouth of the dead guy? Is it the underwear in which he died? This whole thing is getting entirely too weird even for me. As much as I applaud the spirit of Solstivus and the propagating of it, I say that we notify the authorities that the undertaker is pilfering from the dead. Having said that, I must add that there is an extenuating circumstance. Namely, the Summer Solstivus, about which we have not spoken. The Winter Solstivus is about giving. It stands to reason that the Summer Solstivus should be about taking. If the gift from the undertaker's son had been taken on or about the Summer Solstivus, then I say "Hurrah!"

-UB

Email 2:
I would have to agree with the analysis below. Regardless of how the friend came into possession of the gift, there does not appear to be any rule violations (i.e. purchasing the gift). Therefore, it is fair game. How appropriate it is for the friend to take from the dead is another matter altogether but is outside the sphere of our influence and concern. It should be pointed out, however, how this situation speaks to the power of the spirit of Solstivus.

-Adam