• Goodman Ace was a comedian of the 1950s who had his own highly successful radio show and worked as a writer on Milton Berle’s TV show. He knew many of the famous comedians of his day. While walking with Groucho Marx in New York, the two passed a wedding. Groucho, who had been divorced twice, tapped the bride on her shoulder and said softly, “I tried it twice—it’s no good.”
• As a Valentine’s Day surprise for his wife, Nell, comedian Garry Moore hired a skywriter to create this message in the sky: “GARRY LOVES NELL.” (One of his presents to her was a belt with rivets spelling out the rather crowded words “MY NAME IS NELL I AM A MARRIED LADY BUT THANK YOU JUST THE SAME.”)
• Natalie Schafer, who played Mrs. Thurston Howell on Gilligan’s Island, kept her age strictly a secret. (When she died in 1990, she was 90 years old.) When her husband, Louis Calhern, was on his deathbed, he asked her to reveal her age to him. She looked her dying husband straight in the eyes and replied, “Never!”
• After seeing Elizabeth Taylor appear on television wearing her new, huge diamond given to her by her husband, Richard Burton, comedian Zero Mostel told his friends, “I wanted to buy that diamond for Kate [his wife], but that son-of-a-bitch Burton outbid me by $50.”
• Comedian Rita Rudner bought a massage for her husband as a birthday gift. Big mistake. The doorbell rang, Rita answered it, and a beautiful, blonde, 18-year-old woman said, “I’m here to give your husband a massage.” Ms. Rudner replied, “He’s dead.”
• When Gracie Allen was young, she had a crush on Charlie Chaplin. Once, she met him—and he even kissed her on the cheek! Whenever George Burns would ask her to say something funny, Gracie replied, “Charlie Chaplin.”
• Movie director Billy Wilder had a strange sense of humor. While he was in Paris, his wife asked him to buy a bidet. He was unable to buy one, so he wired his wife, “Unable obtain bidet. Suggest handstand in shower.”
• Redd Foxx married a beautiful but small-talented singer. After one of her concerts, she asked him, “How’d I sound tonight?” Mr. Foxx replied, “Honey, you hit a note tonight that curdled the drinks.”
• In 1954, comedian Ernie Kovacs married singer Edie Adams. The marriage vows were in Spanish—which neither the groom nor the bride understood.
Illnesses and Injuries
• While serving as a soldier in World War II, Spike Milligan knew a young soldier named Sergeant Cusak, who became the first in the group to get crabs. Sergeant Cusak went to Piccadilly to fill a prescription for blue unction—whose only function is to treat crabs. Not wanting to be embarrassed, he whispered to the pharmacist, “Can I have some blue unction?” Unfortunately, the pharmacist asked loudly, “BLUE UNCTION?” Knowing that everyone had heard the pharmacist, Sergeant Cusak replied loudly, “YES, I’VE GOT BLOODY CRABS!”
• Movie actor Christopher Reeve’s life changed on May 27, 1995. While competing in an equestrian event, he broke his neck and was totally paralyzed. In October of that year, a Russian doctor entered his room and started making insane comments. Mr. Reeve recognized the Russian doctor as an old friend—comedian Robin Williams—and he started laughing. Mr. Reeve says about the visit, “I knew I was going to be all right.” Well, maybe not totally all right—Mr. Williams was pretending to be a Russian proctologist.
• When Jack Benny was ill, he had to get shots in his backside twice a week. His nurse gave him his shots in alternate cheeks, but sometimes she had trouble remembering which cheek should receive the next shot. So finally Mr. Benny walked into the doctor’s office, dropped his pants, and on one cheek was printed “Tues” and on the other, “Thurs.”
• David Letterman gets some of his ideas for his material from such publications as the National Enquirer. For one story, the Enquirer used this headline: “How to Lose Weight Without Diet or Exercise.” Mr. Letterman thought logically and realized, “That leaves disease.”
Billed as "The Funniest Woman in the World", she tackled topics too edgy for most mainstream comics of the time, including racism. What is the name of this veteran entertainer whose career spanned over 60 years?
"White Christmas" is an Irving Berlin song reminiscing about an old-fashioned Christmas setting. The song was written by Berlin for the musical film Holiday Inn, released in 1942. The composition won the Academy Award for Best Original Song at the 15th Academy Awards.
Since its release, "White Christmas" has been covered by multiple artists, with the version sung by Bing Crosby being the world's best-selling single with estimated sales in excess of 50 million copies worldwide. When the figures for other versions of the song are added to Crosby's, sales of the song exceed 100 million.
"White Christmas" is the most-recorded Christmas song; there have been more than 500 recorded versions of the song, in several different languages. The following have received some charting success.
Source
Mark. was first, and correct, with:
White Christmas.
Randall wrote:
Silent Night
Billy in Cypress said:
"Silent Night"
Alan J answered:
Silent Night.
Jacqueline responded:
White Christmas.
Roy, getting used to the Hermit Lifestyle in Tyler, TX replied:
The most recorded Christmas song is one about something we almost never see here in This part of E. Texas. That would be "White Christmas."
mj wrote
Going to make a stab at this
Rudolph the Red Nosed Rain Deer.
Dave said:
White Christmas. Jewish composer Irving Berlin wrote the secular Christmas song for the 1942 film Holiday Inn. The first public performance was by the film’s star, Bing Crosby, singing it live on the radio broadcast of the 1941 Kraft Music Hall Christmas show. Coming during the Depression and just a couple of weeks after the Pearl Harbor attack, the public responded to the song’s nostalgic longing for better times. Various Bing Crosby recordings of White Christmas total over 50 million copies, with covers bringing the total sales to over 100 million. The song’s success surprised Bing Crosby, but not Irving Berlin who considered it his best work.
Photos: Bing waiting his turn to sing on the Kraft Music Hall radio show | The song was such a hit that Irving Berlin’s name had top billing over the film’s big stars, Crosby and Fred Astaire | Bing Crosby Christmas specials were a TV tradition and his last one in 1977 featured the strange addition of David Bowie to sing a duet with Bing, who by the way spoke very highly of Bowie and thought he had a fine voice.
Cal in Vermont wrote:
Gotta be White Christmas, no?
Daniel in The City answered:
White Christmas
Deborah, the Master Gardener responded:
I’m pretty sure it’s not “The Boar’s Head” song, so my WAG is “Jingle Bells.” Which to me isn’t a Christmas song as much as a general winter song. There’s a reason I’m not in marketing.
Rosemary in Columbus replied:
White Christmas
Dave in Tucson wrote:
Season's Bleatings! The most recorded Christmas song is Santa Claus is Coming to Town. In the early '80s Howard Stern was the morning DJ on DC-101FM. His take on the tune was:
You'd better not rape
You'd better not pillage
Cause Santa Claus
Is coming to your village...
Joe said:
White Christmas. I hate snow.
Barbara, of Peppy Tech fame answered:
The answer is "White Christmas."
David of Moon Valley took the day off.
DJ Useo took the day off.
John I from Hawai`i took the day off.
Kevin K. in Washington DC took the day off.
Michelle in AZ took the day off.
Leo in Boise took the day off.
Ed K took the day off.
Jon L took the day off.
Doug in Albuquerque, New Mexico, took the day off.
Stephen F took the day off.
-pgw took the day off.
Kenn B took the day off.
Micki took the day off.
Angelo D took the day off.
Harry M. took the day off.
George M. took the day off.
Gary K took the day off.
Roy the (now retired) hoghead (aka 'hoghed') ( Without music to decorate it, time is just a bunch of boring production deadlines or dates by which bills must be paid. ~Frank Zappa ) took the day off.
Saskplanner took the day off.
Gateway Mike took the day off.
Steve in Wonderful Sacramento, CA, took the day off.
MarilynofTC took the day off.
Paul of Seattle took the day off.
Brian S. 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.
~~~~~
So in between multiple batches of 3 different kinds of cookies, last-minute stocking-stuffer purchases, and avoiding writing more Christmas cards, I found this article:
I romanticized horses for decades, until I owned one and befriended some cattle and horse people and became a Master Gardener. Things are rarely black and white; the nuances add interest and issues. Add to that marinade the last four years, and I’m more pragmatic and much less bullshit-suffering than I’ve ever been. People need to cross the aisle, talk to people of different perspectives, without judgement, with true curiosity, and that’s a thing for humanity to work out. Everyone do what you can do, where you are, with what you have. And please stay curious, even when your initial reaction is to recoil and gasp “WTF did you just say?” This applies to everyone. Good luck with that. Oh, and wear a mask.
In checking it out, found the last line from the exhibit to be sadly sardonic (and grammatically questionable):
Unlike in 1918, today governments and the health industry has emergency plans in place for all kinds of crises. “Where the conversation isn’t happening yet is at the personal level,” noted Hicks. “We don’t consider what we would do personally if something like this happens again.” He pointed out that many people are now accustomed to participating in active shooter training in their workplace, but “we don’t think about what we should do if a disease suddenly descends upon us.”
Tonight, Thursday:
CBS opens the night with a RERUN'Young Sheldon', followed by a RERUN'B Positive', then a RERUN'Mom', followed by a RERUN'The Unicorn', then a RERUN'FBI'.
On a RERUNStephen Colbert (from 11/24/20) are Barack Obama and Brittany Howard.
On a RERUNJames Corden, OBE, (from 11/24/20) are Goldie Hawn, Kurt Russell, and BTS.
NBC fills the night with the movie 'It's A Wonderful Life'.
On a RERUNJimmy Fallon (from 12/1/20) are Keanu Reeves, Alex Winter, Joe Manganiello, and Smashing Pumpkins.
On a RERUNSeth Meyers (from 11/24/20) are Amy Adams and Adam Davidson.
On a RERUNLilly Singh is pre-empted.
ABC starts the night with the movie 'The Greatest Showman', followed by the infomercial 'Di$ney's Prep & Landing', then another infomercial 'Di$ney's Prep & Landing: Naughty Vs. Nice'.
On a RERUNJimmy Kimmel (from 12/3/20) are Zendaya, Diego Luna, and Paris Jackson.
The CW fills the night (& then some) with 'Yule Log'.
Faux has a RERUN'The Resident', followed by a RERUN'Prodigal Son'.
MY recycles an old 'Dateline', followed by an old 'L&O: CI'.
A&E has the movie 'Back To The Future', followed by the movie 'Back To The Future Part II'.
AMC offers the movie 'Elf', followed by the movie 'National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation', then the movie 'Four Christmases'.
BBC -
[6:00AM] MONTY PYTHON'S FLYING CIRCUS - WHITHER CANADA?
[6:15AM] DOCTOR WHO - THE CHRISTMAS INVASION
[7:20AM] DOCTOR WHO - THE RUNAWAY BRIDE
[8:25AM] DOCTOR WHO - VOYAGE OF THE DAMNED
[10:00AM] DOCTOR WHO - THE NEXT DOCTOR
[11:25AM] DOCTOR WHO - THE END OF TIME: BONUS EDITION
[2:25PM] DOCTOR WHO - LAST CHRISTMAS
[3:50PM] DOCTOR WHO - THE HUSBANDS OF RIVER SONG
[5:10PM] DOCTOR WHO - THE RETURN OF DOCTOR MYSTERIO
[6:35PM] DOCTOR WHO - TWICE UPON A TIME
[8:00PM] GHOSTBUSTERS
[10:30PM] GHOSTBUSTERS II
[1:00AM] DOCTOR WHO - TWICE UPON A TIME
[2:25AM] DOCTOR WHO - THE RUNAWAY BRIDE
[3:30AM] DOCTOR WHO - VOYAGE OF THE DAMNED
[5:05AM] DOCTOR WHO - THE NEXT DOCTOR (ALL TIMES ET)
Bravo has the movie 'Last Holiday', followed by the movie 'Last Holiday', again, then the movie 'Diary Of A Mad Black Woman'.
Comedy Central has 2 hours of old 'The Office', followed by 3 hours of 'Schitt's Creek'.
The Daily Show is pre-empted.
FX has the movie 'Despicable Me 3', followed by the movie 'Dr. Seuss' The Grinch'.
IFC -
[7:05am] Goodfellas
[10:25am] The Godfather
[2:30pm] The Godfather, Part II
[7:00pm] My Cousin Vinny
[9:30pm] My Cousin Vinny
[12:00am] Two And A Half Men
[12:30am] Two And A Half Men
[1:00am] Goodfellas
[4:20am] Reindeer Games (ALL TIMES ET)
Sundance -
[6:00am - 1:30pm] the andy griffith show
[2:00pm] white christmas
[4:45pm] white christmas
[7:30pm] white christmas
[10:15pm] white christmas
[1:00am] white christmas
[3:45am] white christmas (ALL TIMES ET)
SyFy has the movie 'Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows: Part 1', followed by the movie 'Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows: Part 2'.
Mexico has been named as the most dangerous country for journalists worldwide, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).
The number of deaths of journalists in Mexico makes up almost a third of all those killed this year.
In the past year nine journalists were killed in the country, including several of their bodyguards, with three of the killings happening in November alone. There have been at least 120 killed in Mexico since 2000 and many of the deaths remain unsolved.
These new figures make Mexico more dangerous for journalists than war zones.
Worldwide at least 30 journalists have been killed in 2020 according to the CPJ. This is 20 more reporters than in 2019. Of these, 21 were targeted in retaliation for their reporting, although the number could be much higher since 15 deaths remain under investigation.
Fox Business anchor Maria Bartiromo (R-Lumpy Fluffer) issued an apology at the end of her Wednesday morning show after she was duped into interviewing an animal rights activist posing as the CEO of a major food processing company.
"We have an important correction to make. It appears we have been punked," the "Mornings With Maria" host said, following an interview with Matt Johnson, an activist with the grassroots network Direct Action Everywhere.
The journalist thought she had been interviewing Smithfield Foods' CEO Dennis Organ.
"Earlier in the program, I interviewed someone claiming to be the CEO of Smithfield Foods, Dennis Organ. We’ve since learned that that was not Dennis Organ, but an imposter making false claims about the company. He is someone who has absolutely no relation to Smithfield Foods, we want to apologize to Dennis Organ, Smithfield Foods, and to our audience for making this mistake. We will of course be more vigilant."
Smithfield's Chief Administrative Officer, Keira Lombardo, called the segment a "complete hoax" and said a simple Google search of its CEO would have prevented Fox from airing "false information."
The French government is fast-tracking almost 700 citizenship applications from foreign frontline workers who have distinguished themselves in the battle against COVID-19.
"Health care workers, cleaning professionals, childcare workers and store clerks ... They have proved their commitment to the nation. It is now up to the Republic to take a step toward them," said a statement released on Tuesday by French Junior Minister for Citizenship Marlene Schiappa's office.
As of Wednesday, France has nearly 2.5 million confirmed cases of coronavirus and 61,702 people had died, according to the French government.
French citizenship applications can take years to complete, and the global pandemic has caused further delays in paperwork processing. In September, as France was bracing for a second wave of the pandemic, the government requested regional officials "facilitate" and "accelerate" the naturalization process for foreign workers who actively participated in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.
In three months, more than 70 applicants have gained citizenship through their service and nearly 700 are in the final stages of receiving it, Schiappa's office said. A total of 2,890 people have applied so far.
Onetime Growing Pains star Kirk Cameron (R-Privileged) hosted yet another Christmas caroling protest with unmasked singers in close proximity. Local news reports pin the number of attendees at about 100. The event was held in the parking lot of The Oaks Mall in Thousand Oaks. It’s the third such event the Fireproof actor has held this December.
Meanwhile, Covid-19 is hitting Ventura County — where the mall is located — hard. The county recently reported its highest-ever number of daily new Covid-19 infections, and the test positivity rate on Tuesday was 12.6%, which is higher than that of adjacent L.A. County.
Cameron has promoted each event on social media as part of a movement called Sing It Louder USA, which claims to be “Singing Christmas carols in communities across the US…in response to govt tyrants telling us how to celebrate Christmas.”
The Oaks posted a statement calling the event “irresponsible yet constitutionally protected” and maintained it asked the protesters not to gather in its parking lot.
“To be clear,” wrote one person on Twitter, “there is no constitutional right to protest on PRIVATE PROPERTY. You can kick them out if you choose too. Threatening the public’s health is a 100% valid reason to protect your employees and mask-donning patrons.”
The 15 people President Trump (R-Corrupt) pardoned Tuesday evening include the first two congressmen who endorsed him for president — former Reps. Chris Collins (R-N.Y.) and Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.), both convicted of financial crimes — two people jailed in Special Counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation, and four private guards working for Blackwater who were serving long sentences for an unprovoked and unnecessary 2007 massacre of civilians in Baghdad's Nisour Square that left 17 Iraqis dead, including two boys, ages 8 and 11.
Blackwater, since sold and renamed Academi, is a private military contractor mercenary outfit headed at the time by Erik Prince, brother to Trump's education secretary, Betsy DeVos. The Nisour Square massacre marked a low point in U.S.-Iraqi relations after the 2003 U.S. invasion, and federal prosecutors spent years bringing the four Blackwater guards mercs — Nicholas Slatten, Paul Slough, Evan Liberty, and Dustin Heard — to justice.
After a federal judge in 2009 dismissed the first murder and manslaughter convictions of the Blackwater contractors mercenaries, ruling the evidence was tainted, then-Vice President Joe Biden said at a press conference in Baghdad that the men had not been acquitted and the U.S. would appeal the decision. "In subsequent years, as the case continued, the contractors mercenaries became known in conservative media as the 'Biden Four,'" The Washington Post reports. Slatten was eventually sentenced to life in prison for first-degree murder, while the other three were convicted of manslaughter and given sentences of 12 to 15 years.
"Campaigns urging that the four receive presidential pardons began in earnest last year, most arguing that the men were veterans still in engaged in quasi military duties," the Post reports, noting that Trump has already pardoned two Army officers convicted or awaiting trial on murder charges for shooting Afghan civilians. In a 2009 column at Fox News, Duncan Hunter — still in Congress — called "the Biden Four" brave "political pawns" who were "sent to prison for doing their jobs."
New data revealed that Americans have bought an estimated 21 million guns so far in 2020 as an unprecedented political and social climate sends gun retail rocketing.
ABC News reports the figures from an FBI background check by The Trace, noting they mark a 73 per cent increase on the same period last year.
The surge comes as the nation faced a year of unprecedented social and political unrest in the form of the coronavirus pandemic, economic recession, civil unrest, and a divisive presidential election.
"When Covid initially hit the streets in the United States of America, business really started to take off," said Brandon Wexler, owner of Wex Gunworks in Delray Beach, Florida told the outlet.
Across the year, the US saw 42,067 gun deaths as of 21 December, with 38,327 people injured, according to the Gun Violence Archive.
The scientists prepped for their descent into the maw of the Greenland ice sheet by drilling deep into the ice. They created two intersecting holes into the bed of a now frozen-over ice river, running a rope through them in the shape of a V to anchor their lines. It would be more than strong enough to carry their weight, but they drilled a second anchor as well - just in case.
Then Matt Covington, a geologist and cave explorer who has spent more than a year of his life beneath the ground, was ready. He began to lower himself into the vertical cavern that, in the summer, fills with the chaos of a waterfall - a moulin. The sharp crampons on his boots gripped the ice. The fact that it was October now made the moulin a little safer, but Covington could still hear running water somewhere.
Below him, as he backed over the edge and looked down the shaft, he saw white ice, then bluer ice, then darkness. The hole, scientists believe, ultimately penetrates more than half a kilometer into the ice, joining a network of channels extending all the way to the base of the ice sheet.
As the climate warms - with the Arctic warming fastest of all - more and more of Greenland’s surface is melting in the summer. More lakes are forming and at higher, colder elevations on the ice sheet. The ice sheet has lost some 4 trillion tons of mass just since 1992, and scientists estimate that surface melting makes up about half of those losses, with the rest being driven by huge icebergs calving into the sea.
Scientists have long known that Greenland’s meltwater uses thousands of moulins to escape, and inferred that these holes must be the surface entrance points to an enormous sub-ice network of drainage channels. And they may be destabilizing Greenland in the process.
Above water, they sound like bellowing Wookies. Below the ice, they sound like chirping, chattering robots. Either way, the Weddell seals of Antarctica should have no trouble finding work in an upcoming "Star Wars" project.
"The Weddell seals' calls create an almost unbelievable, otherworldly soundscape under the ice," Paul Cziko, a visiting professor at the University of Oregon and lead author of a new study describing the bizarre seal sounds, said in a statement. "It really sounds like you're in the middle of a space battle in 'Star Wars,' laser beams and all."
The catch: You'd have to be an alien (or droid) to hear them; all of those sci-fi sounds are totally inaudible to human ears. Cziko and his colleagues were able to detect the otherworldly noises after two years of listening to Weddell seals (Leptonychotes weddellii) with a special hydrophone (an underwater microphone) installed in Antarctica's McMurdo Sound in 2017.
Before the researchers started recording, scientists knew about the 34 seal calls audible to human ears. Now, the team's research — published online Dec. 18 in The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America — adds nine new types of ultrasonic calls to the seals' repertoire. Those sounds include trills, whistles and alien-sounding chirps, sometimes composed of multiple harmonized tones.
Humans hear in the sonic range of 20 to 20,000 hertz (or 20 kilohertz), the researchers noted. Most of the newfound seal sounds exceeded 21 kHz, with some consistently rising to 30 kHz. One high-pitched whistle reached a shrieking 49.8 kHz, the team wrote — and when seals harmonized multiple tones, the resulting noise could exceed 200 kHz. (That's well beyond the hearing range of cats, dogs and even some bats.)
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said:
has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
