Over the last couple of decades, American have been immersed in the phenomenon of the Christmas romance movie, which are all very much alike but people watch them like they are consuming comfort food. A similar but much older genre of Christmas entertainment can be found in the United Kingdom, where the Christmas murder mystery is a thing. Murder mystery novels rose in popularity in the early 20th century, as they put the reader into the role of detective, trying to figure out whodunnit. Anything that popular is bound to eventually have a Christmas version, and that happened in the 1930s, and again, and again.  

The Christmas mysteries are now known as "cozy crime" stories, because the elements are so familiar, and the plots follow a standard crime investigation that leads to the murderer's reveal at the end. While murder and Christmas aren't the most natural pairing, such novels have become beloved in the land that gave birth to them. Every year, mystery fans look forward to the Christmas stories they've become used to. Read how this strange but common genre of fiction came about at Atlas Obscura.

Many fantasy fans look at J.R.R. Tolkien as the grandaddy of the genre. He certainly put in the work, with years of world building and research behind each plot in his many works. His Magnum Opus was The Lord of the Rings, an epic adventure that comprised three volumes, plus the prequel book The Hobbit. Tolkien even manufactured languages for his characters. But Tolkien was not the first to use the elements of fantasy in his stories. Many ancient legends included elves, magical rings, dragons, swords, and wizards. Other parts of The Lord of the Rings incorporated historical characters and events. Although Tolkien did not invent these elements, he was a master at bringing them to life in his writing, weaving them together in a convoluted quest told in poetry and prose that enchanted millions, and continues to do so today. The author's lifetime of travel, study, experience, and keen observation all contributed to what The Lord of the Rings came to be. Weird History looks back at the sources of these elements that Tolkien used so well.

Eighteenth-century explorers in the Pacific Northwest, around the Salish Sea, observed that native people kept a certain breed of domestic dog and harvested its fur to spin and weave into cloth. The Salish woolly dog was a small and beloved pet, which produced a fibrous fur that proved to be much warmer than sheep's wool. The woolly dogs were an emblem of the Skokomish Nation and represented wealth.  

As Europeans settled in the PNW, the woolly dog went extinct in the late 1800s. We have blankets and fabric made from their fur, but only one example of the breed itself, in a pelt saved from a dog named Mutton, which was sent to a Smithsonian representative in 1859. In 2021, evolutionary molecular biologist Audrey Lin began a DNA study of Mutton's pelt. The DNA analysis revealed the woolly dog's genetic lineage, the Skokomish breeding traditions, and the fact that it had 28 genes controlling the production of its unique fur. Lin even found evidence of Mutton's diet, and how it varied from dogs raised by natives. You'll find the full science paper here. -via Metafilter

(Image credit: Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History)

We've seen how well rock songs mesh with Christmas classics, like mashing up Brenda Lee with AC/DC and mixing "Deck the Halls" with Black Sabbath's "War Pigs." It doesn't stop there. DJ Cummerbund brings us a masterful mashup for Christmas, with Jose Feliciano singing his classic "Feliz Navidad" to the bangin' tune of "Rebel Yell" by Billy Idol. He calls it "Rebel Navidad." But that's just the beginning. This song also incorporates recordings from Randy "Macho Man" Savage, Rob Zombie, Terrence Gene Bollea, Wham!, Martijn Brattinga, and Rush. The more, the merrier!

The winners of Netherlands' annual Worst Slogan of the Year contest might also be called the best slogans of the year, depending on your point of view. A slogan with a naughty pun is remembered, and that's what's most important. The top three in this year's poll are all English puns. The grand prize (a custom tile) goes to the bicycle rental company Tuut-Tuut in Castricum, North Holland, for "Put the Fun Between Your Legs." Makes plenty of sense. Second place went to sewing machine company Rijkers Naaimachinespecialist for "Have a naai’s day!" It's not naughty, just fun. You have to know that the Dutch word "naai" means "sew," but more than 90% of Netherlands residents know both languages. A pet store called 4cats took third place with "Everything for your pussy!"

There are more slogans and bad puns from the contest you can read at NL Times. -via Boing Boing

(Image credit: Google Maps)

Who is tough enough to survive in the dystopian world after a disaster has fractured civilization? A few random young people are left in the city, and they cling together for safety, even though they don't know each other. We don't know what caused this apocalypse, but after only three weeks, these folks are avoiding zombie bears, radioactive rabbits, and a band of leather-clad cannibals. Some people apparently give in to their baser instincts faster than others. Two people go out foraging for food, but the pickings are slim, and all they got was a little gas station food. Thank goodness for pop-top cans! Their haul leads to conflict. What happens when physical sensitivities and ethical diet choices clash with the breakdown of society and the usual supply chain? It's no wonder these folks are skinny. They'll get even skinnier unless they learn to consume things like dog food, snakes, and ten-year-old canned pudding.

In 1920, author J.R.R. Tolkien's oldest child, John, was three years old. He asked his father about Father Christmas, and Tolkien was glad to answer his questions. When John wrote a letter to Santa, Tolkien wrote a short reply in disguised handwriting. The next year, and for 23 years afterward, Tolkien's letter from Father Christmas arrived for his children, eventually four of them. The letters got longer and more involved, with Father Christmas telling stories about what happened at the North Pole that year that involved goblins, polar bears, elves, and world events. And they were illustrated with his drawings! Tolkien seemed to be testing stories and story elements that later became incorporated into his books.

The letters from Father Christmas continued until 1943, when his youngest child Priscilla was 14, at which time he wrote a farewell letter, promising not to forget them. Read about Tolkien's years of writing in the voice of Father Christmas and the tales he spun at Mental Floss.

(Image source: Amazon)

If you are in the armed forces and decide not to obey an order from a superior, you'd better be pretty darn sure you are right, or else are willing to pay the price for insubordination. In most cases, you'd be punished and if you are lucky, no one back home would ever know about it. But some famous cases of disregarding orders made a real difference in battle, or even for the survival of the planet. Those cases where disobedience turned out to be the right decision left the soldier a hero and the story might even be made into a movie. Sometime it led to disaster. And sometimes the soldier got away with it because the person issuing the order was on his last legs anyway. Weird History tells us eleven stories of disobedient members of their nation's military forces that left a mark on the world, in one way or another.

Every year for ten years now, redditor kakalacky_guy has designed and produced a Christmas card that shows us the chaos of celebrating Christmas as a family. His 2023 card shows he and his wife and three children attempting to ski even though they don't have snow and don't have a hill, either. What could possibly go wrong? He's been bringing us these funny and creative cards since 2014, when they only had two kids, although it seemed like a half-dozen at the time, as the card implied. Most of the cards put the children in dangerous situations that children would love to get themselves into if we let them. Continue reading to see the collection of cards through the years.

On December 1, 1958, "The Chipmunk Song (Christmas Don't Be Late)" was released. It sold millions of copies and went to #1 that Christmas season, and proved to be popular every year since then. The success of the song was a triumph for Ross Bagdasarian, who not only write and produced the song, but sang all the parts, too. What's more, he owned the song, the publishing rights, and the master tapes, which was rare for musicians at the time. "The Chipmunk Song" led to more songs, and a TV series starring Bagdasarian as Dave Seville, the guardian of three talking chipmunks and their licensing rights. Bagdasarian also had three children, who inherited all that when Bagdasarian died in 1972 at only 53 years of age.

Ross Bagdasarian, Jr. also inherited his father's media instincts. He continued the legacy of the Chipmunks, and bought out his brother and sister in the 1990s. The senior Bagdasarian had relinquished the rights to the master recording of the Christmas song to his record company, but the family retained publishing and product licensing rights. Simon, Theodore, and Alvin have appeared in numerous TV series, comic books, and four live-action movies, not to mention the toys and other branded products. The Chipmunks have sold millions of records, and "The Chipmunk Song (Christmas Don't Be Late)" was streamed 10.4 million times in December of 2022 alone. This is all very lucrative for Ross Jr. and his wife Janice Karman, who run Bagdasarian Productions. But what does Ross think when he hears that song every Christmas?

Honestly, I am so thrilled every time, because it brings back my dad. I get to hear his voice.

Read about the empire that one Christmas song started at Billboard. -via Metafilter
 

Tattoos have been around for thousands of years, and are more popular today than ever. Tattoos done under standard sanitary conditions don't seem all that dangerous. But have you ever once thought about how your body reacts to the trauma of high speed needles and tattoo ink invading your dermis? Your immune system immediately rushes in to protect you from such foreign substances, but while the system works pretty well against biological invasions such as bacteria and viruses, it's a bit stumped by ink, which can't be killed because it was never alive. The macrophages that normally kill bacteria do the best they can, which ends up actually stabilizing the tattoo! Of course, nothing lasts forever, and that includes macrophages and tattoo ink, which will eventually succumb to your body's ever-renewing systems. But that takes so long that you should still consider a tattoo as permanent. This video from Kurzgesagt is only 7:20; the rest is an ad.

Just a couple of months ago, astronaut Frank Rubio returned from the International Space Station after setting an American record of 371 consecutive days in orbit. Now we find out that Rubio's time on the ISS was not without controversy. There was the case of the missing tomato.

The ISS has been growing a vegetable garden to see if space travelers could grow their own food. Rubio ceremoniously plucked the first dwarf tomato from the garden and used it to demonstrate the agricultural experiment to school children. Then the tomato went missing. On the ISS, it's difficult to keep track of things that aren't tied down (usually with Velcro) and it's also important to know where everything is, lest random objects interfere with equipment. Rubio spent between eight and 20 hours of his own free time searching for it. He mainly wanted to prove that he didn't eat the historic tomato. But it was not to be found.

Until now! Eight months after the incident, astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli notified NASA that something that might have once been a small tomato has been found on the space station. Rubio has been exonerated for the sin of eating a space tomato. -via Boing Boing

(Image credit:Koichi Wakata/Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency/NASA)

Eleven years ago yesterday, a monkey in a fluffy winter coat was seen walking around alone in an IKEA parking lot in Toronto, after he escaped from his cage and opened the door of the car it was in. The six-month-old Japanese macaque, named Darwin, instantly became one of the biggest memes of 2012. Keeping a macaque as a pet was illegal, though, and Darwin was taken from his owner.  

You will be happy to learn that Darwin is alive and well and thriving at Story Book Farm Primate Sanctuary in Ontario. The macaques and lemurs who live there enjoy relative freedom and privacy compared to the homes, zoos, and research facilities they were taken from. It's not as good as being free in their native habitats, but for monkeys who did not grow up learning to live in the wild, it's the best life they could ask for. Japanese macaques normally live in a cold climate, so Darwin is not out of his element in Ontario. This species can live to be around 30 years old.  -via Boing Boing

Pantone Color of the Year 2024: PANTONE 13-1023 Peach Fuzz.

A velvety gentle peach whose all-embracing spirit enriches mind, body, and heart.

Learn more about PANTONE 13-1023 Peach Fuzz:https://t.co/323jbOLiTA#pantone #pantonecoloroftheyear #pantone2024 #peachfuzz pic.twitter.com/9cjGBY9bsY

— PANTONE (@pantone) December 7, 2023

The Pantone Color Institute has announced that their Color of the Year for 2024 is PANTONE 13-1023, also called Peach Fuzz. They describe it as "a velvety gentle peach whose all-embracing spirit enriches heart, mind, and body." While it is "enriching and nurturing," the color is also "quietly sophisticated and contemporary." The color is soft and gentle, unobtrusive enough to be considered a neutral color, yet more interesting than most true neutrals. It's too pink to be orange, and too orange to be pink, and much more pastel than either color.

Some companies are already offering products in conjunction with Pantone like wallpaper, fabric, and rugs. This is a color I could get behind, but I'd rather taste it than use it to paint the walls. This is the institute's 25th Color of the Year, which they have presented as a forecast for the coming year since 1999. You can see many of them in our previous posts. I guess that makes them the grandaddy of "influencers." Smithsonian has a roundup of reactions from various sources.

One of the concerns people have about electric vehicles is charging the battery. In some places, charging stations are still few and far between. The ability to plug in a car at your home is not yet universal. And even if there were plenty of charging stations everywhere, it takes some time to get a car fully charged. Wouldn't it be quicker and more convenient to just swap out a low battery for a charged one? That technology already exists, in China and a few places in Europe. From the license plate and text on the walls, it appears that Tom Scott is in the Netherlands, checking out a battery-swap from the Chinese automaker Nio. What's even more amazing is that the swap station is completely automated! Nio cars will self-park, and the station itself lines up the car precisely so that a robot can take out the old battery and install a new one. Neat, huh? Only time will tell if this infrastructure will ever be cost-efficient enough to equip that vast United States with Nio charging stations.