Thursday, December 26, 2024

The Littlest Tahitian Dancer

Cute little belly dancer
byu/JerryJr99 infunny
She's better than the instructor!

Wednesday, December 25, 2024

Research



Carol for Another Christmas



Rod Serling wrote an updated version of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, titled Carol for Another Christmas, which aired on ABC on December 28, 1964. In this version, Scrooge is American industrialist and isolationist Daniel Grudge. The themes of the the TV movie are more concerned with foreign relations and war than with general localized poverty, so you know nuclear annihilation comes into the picture. The reviews were mixed, some objecting to the political message, others criticizing it for its heavy-handedness while at the same time trying to avoid offending anyone in particular. It was not aired again after that first broadcast until 2012. See how many stars you can recognize in the cast. (Thanks, WTM!)


Coats



Operation North Pole



Air Force Colonel Harry Shoup was the operations officer at the North American Aerospace Defense Command in 1955. It was close to Christmas when Shoup received a call on the "red phone," a dedicated line that was to be used if the Soviets were to launch an attack on the US. Back then, Americans expected that to happen any minute. But it was a false alarm of a sort, actually a wrong number. That one call led to an entire series of events that would change the way we celebrate Christmas.

Shoup later became known as "the Santa Colonel." He died in 2009. Three of Shoup's four children got together to tell the folks at StoryCorps what happened that day in 1955, and what became of it as time went on.


The Hallelujah Chorus



Always one of my favorite songs, this time a cappella. From the Roches. (via Daily of the Day)   

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Miss Cellania's Links

A NASA Spacecraft Touched the Sun on Christmas Eve, Flying Closer to the Star Than Any Probe Before.

Dogs all dressed and ready for a holiday party at doggy daycare. (via Everlasting Blort

What Scandinavia Does on Christmas Eve.

Audibaubles are "sonic seasonal decorations." (via Moss and Fog)

Throwback Toys: Classic Christmas Gifts from the Year You Were Born. (via Nag on the Lake

Let Them Eat Gingerbread

A Bunch of Heartwarming Christmas Posts.

Vintage Photographs of People Dressed Up in Christmas Tree Costumes. (via Everlasting Blort)

A blast from the past (2014): How Cats Do Christmas.


Gift Wrap

(via Fark)

What Christmas is All About



Merry Christmas to you and yours.

Merry Christmas, Everyone!

Tuesday, December 24, 2024

Selling Point

A Night in Casablanca



The Marx Brothers' 1946 movie A Night in Casablanca reportedly ran into some legal problems Warner Bros. objected to the use of the word "Casablanca" after their 1942 movie. That was mainly a publicity stunt. The real story is that A Night in Casablanca was first going to a direct parody of Casablanca, but got changed along the way. Wikipedia has the real scoop. Still, none of that matters because hey, it's a Marx brothers movie, and you know what you're getting into.  


Gamer Jello



(Thanks, Tracey!)

Christmas Back Home



Randall Munroe posted this xkcd comic in 2007. It still applies, except now I am more liable to be getting up at 3AM than staying up.

Burritos



Charlie Brown Remixed



Charlie Brown was always the perfect character to illustrate the feelings of confusion or inadequacy we all experience some time or another. In clips from the 1965 Christmas television special A Charlie Brown Christmas, that inadequacy includes not really getting the Christmas spirit like everyone else around you. That doesn't make him odd, because it happens to most of us, at least in some years. It makes him relatable. Chetreo took the relevant clips and gave them some autotune and arranged them into a song, for those who feel alone in their lack of Christmas spirit. You are far from alone.  (via Geeks Are Sexy)

Best Christmas Present



(via Fark)

A Peacock Spider Christmas



Jürgen Otto, also known as peacockspiderman, takes wonderful closeup videos of peacock spiders doing their colorful mating dances. Others use his videos as a jumping-off point for silly but entertaining remixes. By the magic of video effects, Snake Buddies took some of his footage and made a delightful Christmas video featuring spiders in the holiday spirit! (via Laughing Squid)

Merry Christmas

Merry christmas
byu/Indieriots infunny
Daniel Labelle stages a little chase scene for the occasion.