There’s sending a Christmas card and then there’s sending a Christmas card.
U.S. Ambassador to Finland Bruce Oreck knows how to send a Christmas card.
Get a load of his holiday greeting:
Oreck posted a special edition of the embassy’s 2012 holiday card, featuring his bulging bicep, to his official Facebook account Tuesday and reportedly also mailed copies of it to friends.
The image comes from a photo shoot Oreck did last month for the Finnish fitness magazine “ProBody.” A similar shot donned the cover of the Dec. 4 issue, which included an interview with the ambassador.
“I say 60 is the new 40. My wife says, in my case, 60 is the new 58,” Oreck said on Facebook. “One way or the other, fitness is important.”
He would know, given he’s a former professional bodybuilder.
The Washington Post checked with the embassy and confirmed the arm is not Photoshopped. The Post also found out, however, that the card was not the officially embassy-sanctioned one. Rather, the muscle card was a personal one sent to some friends and posted on Facebook.
The Official one is below:
And if the name sounds familiar, that’s because Oreck is that Oreck: his father is the famous David Oreck, the man behind the vacuum cleaners.
So how did a former bodybuilder get an ambassadorship?
ABC explains that it pays to be a an Obama supporter: “Bruce Oreck, whose father is vacuum-maker David Oreck, was appointed ambassador by President Obama in 2009. He was one of Obama’s top campaign financiers four years ago, bundling more than $500,000 in donations for the 2008 election.”