Michael Hann: From John Fahey, the Sonics and the Waitresses to Slade, Wizzard and Mariah Carey, we count down the best festive numbers (The Guardian)
1. Mariah Carey. All I Want for Christmas Is You. The best Christmas songs should only work at Christmas. They should make you feel festive, in the same way that the 174th repeat of The Snowman does. They should work anywhere - in shopping centres, in bars, pumping out of PAs in gig venues after the band has gone off, on the radio in a cafe, in your home or on your headphones. All I Want for Christmas Is You is all of those things. It's a shameless pastiche of Phil Spector that's so brazen and joyful and simple - it took Carey and Walter Afanasieff only 15 minutes to write - that it transcends its lack of originality. It's the rare modern Christmas song that has become a standard, and deservedly so.
Elene Botella: TikTok Admits It Suppressed Videos by Disabled, Queer, and Fat Creators (Slate)
TikTok, a social network video app with more than 1 billion downloads globally, admitted Tuesday to a set of policies that had suppressed the reach of content created by users assumed to be "vulnerable to cyberbullying." As examples of users "susceptible to bullying or harassment," the policy listed people with facial disfigurement, autism, Down syndrome, and "Disabled people or people with some facial problems such as birthmark, slight squint and etc."
Fred Kaplan: The Best Jazz of 2019 (Slate)
9. Joe Pesci, Still Singing. Here's the surprise: Joe Pesci, jazz singer. Yes, the actor who's played some of Martin Scorsese's most menacing mobsters croons a dozen ballads and standards with flair and artistry. His voice is strangely sweet and gruff (inspired by Little Jimmy Scott, to whom the album is dedicated and who sings in duet on one track), but his phrasing is sure-footed, his notes (including the off-center ones) are pitch-perfect, and he taps into the essence of a song. He also hired great musicians, including, on some tracks, pianist Kenny Barron, bassist Christian McBride, and drummer Lewis Nash. … this is the real thing.
Got Milk? (stylized as got milk?) is an American advertising campaign encouraging the consumption of milk, which was created by the advertising agency Goodby Silverstein & Partners for the California Milk Processor Board in 1993, and was later licensed for use by milk processors and dairy farmers. It launched in 1993 with the now-famous "Aaron Burr" television commercial, directed by Michael Bay.
The phrase was created by the American advertising agency Goodby Silverstein & Partners. In an interview in Art & Copy, a 2009 documentary that focused on the origins of famous advertising slogans, Jeff Goodby and Rich Silverstein said that the phrase almost didn't turn into an advertising campaign. According to the New York Times, people at Goodby, Silverstein "thought it was lazy, not to mention grammatically incorrect".
The first Got Milk? advertisement aired nationwide on October 29, 1993, which featured a hapless historian (played by Sean Whalen) receiving a call to answer a radio station's $10,000 trivia question (voiced by Rob Paulsen), "Who shot Alexander Hamilton in that famous duel?" (referring to the Burr-Hamilton duel). The man is shown to have an entire museum solely for the duel itself, packed with all the artifacts. He answers the question correctly by saying "Aaron Burr", but because his mouth is full of peanut butter sandwich and he doesn't have milk to wash it down, his answer is unintelligible. The DJ promptly hangs up on him.
Source
Mark. was first, and correct, with:
Milk.
Alan J answered:
Milk.
mj said:
It's as plain as the mustache on her face
Milk.
Jon L wrote:
I assume it was milk or mustache bleach.
Dave replied:
Milk. The infamous "Got Milk?" advertising campaign. Dreamed up by an ad agency working for the California Milk Processor Board, the campaign featured celebrities with milk mustaches to convince consumers that if celebrities drank milk they should too.
Of course the reason the Milk Processors needed to promote milk is because only babies or children under 5 years should drink cow's milk at all. 60% of adults (like me) can't even properly digest dairy products. So unless cramps, bloating, gas and diarrhea are experiences that you enjoy, do yourself a favor and don't drink that shit. If you want supplemental calcium then take a pill. What you don't need is a high sugar, high fat beverage like milk. And don't feed it to cats, they can't digest it either.
Stephen F responded:
Milk
zorch said:
High Point Coffee. Though she could sell anything.
Roy, the proud Libtard Snowflake in Tyler, TX replied:
It's Milk! Lauren got a little sloppy with her drink and now has a milk moustache!
Barbara, of Peppy Tech fame wrote:
It was an ad campaign for milk.
Dave in Tucson said:
Mrs. Bogart was pushing that gateway drug to alcohol...MILK! (h/t Jim Hightower)
Daniel in The City answered:
Milk
Deborah responded:
I looked at that picture and did a double-take: I haven't seen a milk-mustache ad in ages. Yes, Ms. Bacall was hawking milk, which does a body good, so I'm told. I prefer it steamed in my coffee as opposed to wearing it on my upper lip.
Low-hanging clouds look like rain, but it's just wet…a big storm is moving in tomorrow into the weekend. Time to put the pontoons on my bike and float around.
Michelle in AZ replied:
milk
Mac Mac said:
milk
Rosemary in Columbus wrote:
Got milk?
Cal in Vermont answered:
Got Milk.
Joe S said:
I see by the white mustache she was selling milk. I can't really drink milk, it puts my bowels in an uproar and I don't really like it. I like ice cream though, even if it puts my bowels in an uproar. I use almond milk and I use non-dairy creamer in my coffee.
tony d responded:
Condoms
John I from Hawai`i took the day off.
Micki took the day off.
Gateway Mike took the day off.
Kevin K. in Washington, DC, took the day off.
Billy in Cypress U$A took the day off.
DJ Useo took the day off.
Ed K took the day off.
Kenn B took the day off.
Harry M. took the day off.
David of Moon Valley took the day off.
Leo in Boise took the day off.
George M. took the day off.
- pgw @ nor cal. took the day off.
Paul of Seattle took the day off.
Saskplanner took the day off.
Gary took the day off.
Doug in Albuquerque took the day off.
Peter W took the day off.
MarilynofTC took the day off.
Brian S. took the day off.
Steve in Wonderful Sacramento, CA, took the day off.
Gene took the day off.
Tony K. took the day off.
Noel S. took the day off.
James of Alhambra took the day off.
BttbBob has returned to semi-retired status.
~~~~~
Song: "Merry Christmas, Baby" from the album MERRY CHRISTMAS BABY / HAPPY BIRTHDAY
Artist: Beach Brats
Artist Location: Melbourne, Australia
Info: "A fun little project playing Beach Boys hits with a Ramones vibe."
"'Tis the season to get silly!
"We recorded a fun little cover of The Beach Boys' 'Merry Christmas, baby' along with a track inspired by The Simpsons as the B-side."
Lee-Lee Wilson - Vocals, Backing vocals
Tommy Wilson - Guitars, Bass, Drum programming, Backing vocals
Mattias Westlund - Sleigh bells (via Sonatina Orchestra Module)
Recorded and Mixed in December 2018 completely D.I.Y.
• The Marx Brothers and Charlie Chaplin were, as you would expect, practical jokers. When they were in vaudeville, the Marx Brothers gave Mr. Chaplin a free ticket to their show. He showed up, but all during their act he ignored them and read a newspaper. Mr. Chaplin then gave the Marx Brothers free tickets to see him, but the Marx Brothers gave the tickets to some Hasidic Jews. Mr. Chaplin thought that the Marx Brothers had dressed up as Hasidic Jews with long beards and black hats and black clothing, and he performed magnificently, but the Hasidic Jews weren't into comedy, and they left in the middle of his performance.
• Fellow comedian Eddie Cantor once wrote Groucho Marx asking which were the two biggest laughs he ever received. Groucho replied: "Briefly (and quickly) the two biggest laughs that I can recall (other than my three marriages) were in a vaudeville act called 'Home Again.' One was when Zeppo came out from the wings and announced, 'Dad, the garbage man is here.' I replied, 'Tell him we don't want any.' The other was when Chico shook hands with me and said, 'I would like to say goodbye to your wife,' and I said, 'Who wouldn't?'"
• In 1956, the Olympics came to Australia - so did satirist Stan Freberg. He opened his comedy concerts by parodying the carrying of the Olympic torch, which was then making its way from town to town in Australia. Mr. Freberg, wearing a blue suit, would arrive at the comedy concert venue carrying the Olympic torch and make his way to the stage - where he allowed a confederate to use the torch to light his cigar.
• Ben Blue did a bit in his act as Chandu the Magician that George Burns considered hysterically funny. Mr. Blue put a man into a big basket, raised the basket about 15 feet above the stage, then he shot through the basket. "Blood" began dripping onto the stage, but Mr. Blue ignored the blood. As Mr. Burns wrote, "For the rest of the act, it kept dripping down. It was a riot."
• At his first rehearsal at Glyndebourne, noted conductor Fritz Busch raised his baton, then he lowered his arm before even a note had been played, and joked to the orchestra, "Already is too loud."
Letters
• In 2007 and in some previous years, Gabe Kaplan, former star of Welcome Back, Kotter, considered himself a D-list celebrity. No problem. No one needs to be an A-list celebrity to lead a life of wit and intelligence. When Mr. Kaplan received an e-mail asking him to fight another D-list celebrity in Celebrity Boxing, he knew that he would reject the invitation, but he wanted to do so in a funny way. Therefore, he e-mailed back a list of silly demands that would have to be met before he would fight. For example, he claimed that he had become a Hasidic Jew; therefore, when he fought, he would have to wear a skullcap and a tzitzit, which Mr. Kaplan explains is "a body prayer shawl worn under a shirt so that only the fringes are visible." To his surprise, his silly demands were taken seriously. This gave him the idea to see what a D-list celebrity could get away with. He contacted a reputable book publisher, claiming that he had broken Wilt Chamberlain's record of sleeping with 20,000 women. The book publisher took his claim seriously. He contacted the Postmaster General's office, saying that he was a good candidate to be the first living person whose image would appear on a U.S. postage stamp. The Postmaster General's office thought he was serious. He contacted Sioux City, Iowa, to see if they would be willing to throw him a gala birthday parade, complete with floats. The good people of Sioux City, Iowa, were willing. Eventually, he got the idea of putting his e-mails and their responses into a book. Most people were good sports and gave him permission - and the good people of Sioux City, Iowa, let Mr. Kaplan know that they were still willing to throw him a gala birthday parade, complete with floats. Therefore, in 2007 Mr. Kaplan celebrated his birthday with a gala parade in Sioux City, Iowa. (By the way, Mr. Kaplan's book is titled Kotter's Back: E-mails From a Faded Celebrity to a Bewildered World.)
Gas is 'down' to $3.45/gal at the no-name, cash-only station.
Tonight, Friday:
CBS begins the night with a FRESH'Hawaii Five-0', followed by a FRESH'Magnum PU', then a FRESH'Blue Bloods'.
Scheduled on a FRESHStephen Colbert are Pharrell Williams, Chris Parnell, and the Weeknd.
On a RERUNJames Corden, OBE, (from 10/1/19) are Michelle Pfeiffer, Chiwetel Ejiofor, George Salazar, and Mj Rodriguez.
NBC starts the night with a FRESH'The Blacklist', followed by 'Dateline'.
On a RERUNJimmy Fallon (from 11/21/19) are Will Ferrell, Alan Cumming, and Jessica Kirson.
On a RERUNSeth Meyers (from 10/23/19) are Jessica Biel, Jesse Plemons, and Brooks Wheelan.
On a RERUNLilly Singh (from 11/28/19) is Snoop Dogg.
ABC fills the night with LIVE'College Football', then pads the left coast with local crap and maybe '20/20'.
Jimmy Kimmel is TBA.
The CW offers a FRESH'Charmed', followed by a FRESH'Dynasty'.
Faux fills the night with FRESH'WWE Friday Nght SmackDown'.
MY here fills the night with LIVE'NHL Hockey'.
A&E has 'Live PD', followed by a FRESH'Live PD: Rewind', then a FRESH'Live PD'.
AMC offers the movie 'Four Christmases', followed by the movie 'Christmas With The Kranks', then the movie 'Fred Claus'.
BBC -
[6:00AM] THE X-FILES - SEASON 2 - EPISODE 10-Red Museum
[7:00AM] THE X-FILES - SEASON 2 - EPISODE 11-Excelsis Dei
[:00AM] PULP FICTION (1994)
[11:00AM] GHOST (1990)
[2:00PM] THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS (1991)
[4:30PM] PULP FICTION (1994)
[7:30PM] GOODFELLAS (1990)
[11:00PM] THE GRAHAM NORTON SHOW - SEASON 26 - EPISODE 9
[12:00AM] GOODFELLAS (1990)
[3:30AM] THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS (1991) (ALL TIMES EST)
Bravo has the movie 'Twilight', followed by the movie 'The Twilight Saga: New Moon'.
FX has the movie 'How To Train Your Dragon 2', followed by the movie 'The Secret Life Of Pets'.
History has 'Ancient Aliens', 'UFOs: Dangerous Encounters Exposed', followed by the FRESH'UFOs: The White House Files'.
IFC -
[6:00A] Ernest Saves Christmas
[8:00A] Snow Day
[10:00A] Planes, Trains and Automobiles
[12:00P] Knocked Up
[3:00P] That '70s Show - Oh Baby (We Got a Good Thing Goin')
[3:30P] That '70s Show - Who's Been Sleeping Here
[4:00P] That '70s Show - Gimme Shelter
[4:30P] That '70s Show - 2120 So. Michigan Avenue
[5:00P] That '70s Show - 2000 Light Years From Home
[5:30P] That '70s Show - Take It or Leave It
[6:00P] Two and a Half Men - Crude and Uncalled For
[6:30P] Two and a Half Men - Aye, Aye, Captain
[7:00P] Two and a Half Men - Tinkle Like a Princess
[7:30P] Two and a Half Men - I Found Your Mustache
[8:00P] Two and a Half Men - Ixnay on the Oggie Day
[8:30P] Two and a Half Men - Keith Moon Is Vomiting in His Grave
[9:00P] Two and a Half Men - I Called Him Magoo
[9:30P] Two and a Half Men - Gumby With a Pokey
[10:00P] Two and a Half Men - This Is Not Gonna End Well
[10:30P] Two and a Half Men - Three Girls and a Guy Named Bud
[11:00P] Two and a Half Men - A Bottle of Wine and a Jackhammer
[11:30P] Two and a Half Men - A Pudding-Filled Cactus
[12:00A] Two and a Half Men - Lan Mao Shi Zai Wuding Shang
[12:30A] Two and a Half Men - Lotta Delis in Little Armenia
[1:00A] That '70s Show - Oh Baby (We Got a Good Thing Goin')
[1:30A] That '70s Show - Who's Been Sleeping Here
[2:00A] That '70s Show - Gimme Shelter
[2:30A] Braveheart (ALL TIMES EST)
Sundance -
[6:05am] The Andy Griffith Show
[6:40am] The Andy Griffith Show
[7:15am] The Andy Griffith Show
[7:50am] The Andy Griffith Show
[8:25am] The Andy Griffith Show
[9:00am] The Andy Griffith Show
[9:30am] The Andy Griffith Show
[10:00am] The Andy Griffith Show
[10:30am] The Sum of All Fears
[1:00pm] Face/Off
[4:00pm] Law & Order
[5:00pm] Law & Order
[6:00pm] Law & Order
[7:00pm] Law & Order
[8:00pm] Law & Order
[9:00pm] Law & Order
[10:00pm] Law & Order
[11:00pm] Law & Order
[12:00am] Law & Order
[1:00am] Law & Order
[2:00am] Law & Order
[3:00am] Face/Off (ALL TIMES EST)
SyFy has the movie 'Ghost In The Shell', followed by the movie 'RIPD', then a FRESH'Van Helsing'.
In her debut appearance on popular radio program The Howard Stern Show, Hillary Clinton said she stunned Donald Trump into silence when she offered to help him in his presidency.
Ms Clinton has been on a promotional tour for a book she wrote with her daughter, Chelsea Clinton, called 'The Book of Gutsy Women' and sat down with Mr Stern on Wednesday.
During the interview, she said she called Mr Trump to concede in the 2016 US presidential election and told him: "Look, Donald, I want you to be a good president. I will do whatever I can to help you."
According to the former secretary of state, Mr Trump was "so shocked" that he could not find the words to respond to her offer.
Ms Clinton also spoke about the impact of Mr Trump's infamous 'Lock her up' chant, which became a fixture at the president's campaign rallies.
Bill Nye is now allowed to take limited claims against The Walt Disney Company to trial. On Wednesday, a Los Angeles Superior Court entered an order that sets up the trial, now scheduled for May 2020.
In Nye's fourth amended complaint, he estimates $28 million in damages from the way that Disney allegedly shortchanged him on profits from his 1990s television show Bill Nye the Science Guy. He's also seeking punitive damages arising from how Disney has "a long and consistent pattern of under-reporting revenue and improperly applying deductions."
Disney moved to get the case down to an accounting spectacle and an interpretation of the contract. In a motion for summary adjudication, the defendant raised the incontestability provision of the deal and argued that Nye had suspicions early on and waited too long to object to participation statements. Nye responded that the quarterly profit statements that he received from a Disney subsidiary lacked detail and that he was unable to decipher whether they were complete and accurate. Nye also contended that Disney induced him to spend time, money and other resources on an audit under the false promise he'd be provided with access to the necessary records.
L.A Superior Court Judge Dalila Lyons has granted summary judgment to Disney with respect to participation statements issued before January 8, 2011.
Although the order lacks detail, that's exactly three years before Nye formally requested an audit. Due to a purported backlog of audits, Disney told Nye he'd have to wait in line for three or four years before the audit began.
'Snubbed' By Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree Lighting
Darlene Love
Singer Darlene Love, the voice behind the iconic song "Christmas (Baby, Please Come Home)," says she's been snubbed repeatedly by producers of the Christmas tree lighting extravaganza at Rockefeller Center in New York City.
Love, now 78, described her unhappiness in a lengthy Facebook post Wednesday night, as the annual event was broadcast live on NBC. She pointed out that, although she's still alive and performing, younger artists who "can't even hit the notes properly and are off key" are regularly brought in to perform her 1963 track. This year, the song went to Pitch Perfect alum Skylar Astin and former Glee actress Alex Newell, stars of the upcoming NBC show Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist.
Love said her publicist has been trying to book her on the show for more than a decade.
"They keep saying that I'm not their demo or big enough and would only book me if Bette Midler or Bruce Springsteen would do it with me," Love wrote. "I would NEVER ask my friends to do that."
TV viewers can still catch Love performing her signature song. Gone are the days when she sang it every year on the Late Show With David Letterman, since Letterman retired in 2015, but she's now made a tradition of singing it on ABC's The View. She's booked for the Dec. 20 show in 2019.
Karen McDougal, the woman who claims that she had an affair with Donald Trump (R-Mushroom) after they met in 2006, filed a defamation lawsuit against Fox News on Thursday over a Tucker Carlson Tonight segment in which he inferred that she engaged in extortion.
It was McDougal, a former Playboy model, who sold her story to the National Enquirer just before the 2016 election, but did not publish it, in a practice known as "catch and kill." Federal prosecutors later said that American Media CEO David Pecker coordinated with Trump's then-attorney, Michael Cohen, to pay McDougal and later be reimbursed.
In December of last year, Carlson said that the "facts are undisputed" that McDougal and another woman who claimed to have had an affair with Trump, Stormy Daniels, "approached Donald Trump and threatened to ruin his career and humiliate his family if he doesn't give them money."
In her lawsuit, McDougal's attorney Eric Bernstein wrote, "Carlson asserted several 'facts' regarding McDougal which are demonstrably false," the lawsuit stated. "Indeed, every individual involved in the payment that Trump caused to be made to McDougal never once stated that she extorted Trump or otherwise committed any crime or unlawful act whatsoever."
Her lawsuit claims that "every individual involved in this transaction never once mentioned, implied or otherwise indicated that McDougal extorted Trump." Carlson, the lawsuit claims, apparently failed to speak with Trump, Pecker, Cohen, AMI, or McDougal as to why or under what circumstances Trump caused McDougal to be paid $150,000 prior to making the aforementioned statements on the show."
Three men say they drove across the country in just over a day--setting an interesting (and illegal) record.
Arne Toman, Douglas Tabbutt and Berkeley Chadwick started their drive in New York just before 1 a.m. on Nov. 11. They pulled into a hotel in Los Angeles 27 hours and 25 minutes later. The previous record for the trip was 28 hours and 50 minutes.
The drive from New York to Los Angeles is known as the Cannonball Run. It's not an official race and there are no official records for it; that's because it requires anyone doing it to break multiple traffic laws.
Toman, Tabbutt and Chadwick said they averaged 103 miles per hour, hitting a top speed of 193. The highest speed limit on the roads they took was 80 miles per hour. To avoid law enforcement, they trusted 18 people to help scout their route.
They made the run in a turbocharged Mercedes-Benz that had been heavily modified for speed, efficiency and police detection.
A university student recently solved a question that's puzzled physicists for over half a century: Why do gas bubbles appear to get stuck inside narrow vertical tubes? The answer may help explain the behavior of natural gases that are trapped in porous rocks.
Years ago, physicists noticed that gas bubbles in a sufficiently narrow tube filled with liquid did not move. But that's "kind of a paradox," said senior author John Kolinski, an assistant professor in the department of mechanical engineering at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL).
That's because the gas bubble is less dense than the liquid surrounding it, so it should rise to the top of the tube (just as air bubbles in a glass of sparkling water will rise to the top). What's more, the only resistance to flow in a liquid comes when that liquid is moving, but in this case the fluid is standing still.
To solve the case of the stubborn bubble, Kolinski and Wassim Dhaouadi, who was an undergraduate engineering student working in Kolinski's lab at the time and is now completing a master's degree at ETH Zurich, decided to probe it using a method called "interference microscopy." This method is the same one that's used by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) detector to find gravitational waves, Kolinski said.
But in this case, the researchers used a custom-made microscope that shines a light onto the sample and measures the intensity of the light that bounces back. Because light bounces back differently based on what it hits, measurements of the light bouncing back can help researchers figure out how "thick" a material is. In this way, they probed a buoyant bubble trapped inside a thin tube filled with an alcohol called isopropanol. The alcohol allowed them to have a "self-cleaning experiment," which was necessary because the results would have been messed up by any kind of contamination or dirt, Kolinski said.
The Top 20 Global Concert Tours ranks artists by average box office gross per city and includes the average ticket price for shows Worldwide. The list is based on data provided to the trade publication Pollstar by concert promoters and venue managers. Week of December 4, 2019:
1. Elton John; $2,870,863; $130.86.
2. Sandy & Junior; $2,260,403; $54.38.
3. Phil Collins; $2,145,965; $144.69.
4. Guns N' Roses; $2,003,111; $127.13.
5. Muse; $1,921,982; $85.11.
6. Post Malone; $1,913,809; $116.49.
7. Ariana Grande; $1,869,662; $93.54.
8. Jonas Brothers; $1,700,530; $104.72.
9. Hugh Jackman; $1,691,200; $83.50.
10. Tool; $1,528,054; $103.77.
11. Cher; $1,485,624; $127.42.
12. Eric Church; $1,471,468; $85.74.
13. John Mayer; $1,427,545; $95.41.
14. Iron Maiden; $1,302,161; $63.86.
15. Michael Bublé; $1,297,724; $111.91.
16. Little Mix; $1,274,903; $58.85.
17. Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band; $1,250,039; $117.47.
18. Zac Brown Band; $1,241,128; $60.24.
19. Backstreet Boys; $1,234,347; $98.73.
20. Florida Georgia Line; $1,219,752; $68.38.
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said:
has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
