Who would hang a stocking by the chimney with care if they didn't want treats stuffed in it? That's not teh story here. Craig Groeschel posted this picture of his wife Amy showing off the new Christmas stocking that just arrived. The caption says,
Guess what @amygroeschel typed in the box that said, “Would you like a name to personalize your stocking?”
We come across the command that "all fields must be filled" so often that we forget that there are some fields that truly do not need to be filled in. This one's funny enough to become a family heirloom. -via reddit
If you've been a Star Wars fan for any length of time, you are probably familiar with the 1978 fan film Hardware Wars, which was a recreation of the first Star Wars movie made on a budget of about $20 using whatever was lying around. We posted it here at least once. It set the standard for all Sweded fan films to follow.
Released in 1978, filmmaker Ernie Fosselius released a crude-but-endearing 13-minute short film that recreated the original Star Wars, only with appliances. Characters Fluke Starbucker (with his flashlight lightsaber) and Augie “Ben” Doggie meet an ace pilot named Ham Salad who flies them all around in a giant iron that battles flying toasters.
I went to see The Last Jedi Saturday evening. Without giving away any spoilers, there is a moment where my brain went haywire when I saw a spaceship that looked just like a vintage steam iron. Wait, what? Yes, it was a deliberate reference to Hardware Wars. Director Rian Johnson admits to it, and was delighted that some fans knew what they were seeing. He talked to Mike Ryan about the easter egg he slipped in just for older hardcore fans at Uproxx. The post there contains no major spoilers.
Matt McCorkle and Sam Reider built an interactive soundboard that plays "Auld Lang Syne" in four-part harmony. The fun comes when you change which instrument plays which part, so you can design or own quartet! Or press the button in the middle to hear the full orchestra. An all-accordion quartet brings up the image of a completely different party than a string quartet. You can even add ambient sounds like people talking or a fireplace. Try it out the New Year's Music Box yourself. -via Laughing Squid
Chili Klaus (previously at Neatorama) is a musician and hot pepper vendor. He went back to visit the Herning Boys Choir, the choir he once belonged to, to sing some Christmas music. Here they perform "Oh, Come All Ye Faithful."
But Chili Klaus always has a hot pepper up his sleeve. I don't know how he convinced the entire choir to eat a ghost pepper and sing, but he did, and the resulting music will being tears to your eyes. It certainly brought tears to their eyes! -via reddit
Chris and Jess Poole decided it was asking for too much trouble to put up a Christmas tree this year, because Cole and Marmalade (previously at Neatorama) would just trash it again. Instead, they built a cat-friendly gingerbread house out of cardboard! They decorated it so festively that they don't miss having a tree. And the cats love it.
The overall winner of the Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards for 2017 is Tibor Kercz, for this amazing sequence of four pictures of a trio of young owls. One of them is a little clumsy, and his brothers look at him like they aren't at all surprised. The sequence, titled "Help," also won the category of Amazing Internet Portfolio. Kercz will receive a photo safari in Kenya, along with other prizes, for his entry. See the enlargeable photos of these and all the winners and honorable mentions in the various categories at the competition website.
Saint Nicholas, the bishop in Asia Minor who is considered to be the inspiration for Santa Claus, died over 1700 years ago. There are many stories of his generosity and selflessness, and the miracles he performed, even after his death, which were spread by sailors to other parts of the world. That's how Nicholas became a saint, and his earthly remains were venerated as other saints' remains were.
Sometimes, the miracles concerned the saints' own bodies. Their corpses would refuse to decay, exude an inexplicable ooze, or start to drip blood that mysteriously solidified and then reliquefied. So it was with Nicholas: at some point after his death, his bones began to secrete a liquid called manna or myrrh, which was said to smell like roses and possess potent healing powers.
The appearance of the manna was taken as a sign that Nicholas’s corpse was especially holy, and pilgrims began flocking by the thousands to his tomb in the port city of Myra (now called Demre). By the eleventh century, other cities started getting jealous. At the time, cities and churches often competed for relics, which brought power and prestige to their hometowns the way a successful sports team might today. Originally, the relics trade had been nourished by the catacombs in Rome, but when demand outstripped supply, merchants—and even monks—weren't above sneaking down into the crypts of churches to steal some holy bones. Such thefts weren't seen as a sin; the sanctity of the remains trumped any ethical concerns. The relics were also thought to have their own personalities—if they didn't want to be stolen, they wouldn't allow it. Like King Arthur's sword in the stone, they could only be removed by the right person.
Masuleh, Iran, is an ancient town that grew up around the iron mining industry. Its buildings are set against a mountainside with a 60 degree angle! Look closely, and you'll see that the roads and public spaces are the roofs of houses. This saves space and allows for a gradual ascent to the higher levels of the multi-level village. One man's front yard is another man's roof.
In many respects, it’s a city planner’s paradise — a place where roof surfaces are fully used and integrated, and no space is wasted. Another appealing prospect to many urbanists: no cars are allowed, as these would strain the structural limits of supporting architecture.
The struggle is real. They say you shouldn't compare yourself to other people, and that the only one you should complete against is yourself. That's not so easy when the forces of the world are working against you in different ways, changing from one moment to the next. This comic is from Ryan and Laura Harby of the webcomic Honey Dill. There are additional updates to this comic here and here that you're sure to relate to. -via Geeks Are Sexy
If you're trying to avoid spoilers from The Last Jedi, rest easy because I'm not going to give away any important plot details by letting you know who to look out for. You may have heard that both Prince William and Prince Harry are in the film. They are playing stormtroopers, so you'll never know where they are. There are conflicting accounts of whether their scenes were cut from the film, but who knows, since they are wearing masks. Other celebrities that appear in The Last Jedi include Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Justin Theroux, Warwick Davis, and several other folks you may know. Find out where to spot them in The Last Jedi at The Daily Dot.
If your package didn't arrive today as it should have, the reasons why may be stranger than you can imagine. Home security cameras in Oklahoma City caught a mishap between a postal carrier and his truck on Thursday. He manages to fall out of the truck, which possibly runs over him. He doesn't appear injured, though, because he's up quickly trying to catch the truck. The truck, however, keeps on going until the forces of inertia show up in the form of a brick house.
Petra the African grey parrot has learned to get what she wants, just by asking. A human can say no, but Google's Alexa is programmed to carry out your wishes. This video is essentially over at two minutes.
Petra made a shopping list on the Amazon Echo. We are having Alexa tell us what the list contains then when we ask Petra WHY she made a list, All she can say is "I want a Peanut"
Yeah, voice recognition in a household assistant is a wonderful thing, but you have to remember that parrots learn your voice and use it. Making a shopping list is not the only thing Petra uses Alexa for.
Cori is determined to leave the interpretation of each Christmas wordplay up to you, while Kyle knows that sometimes you have to spell it out. Maybe they both need a refill on the wine. Where is the missile toe? And the peas on earth? -via Tastefully Offensive
The Washington Post's food critic Tom Sietsema is used to testing the food and services of the trendiest restauranteurs around. But he put food snobbery aside completely for his latest project- nationwide chain restaurants. Sietsema spent quite a bit of time trying the ten biggest-selling chain restaurants out, going to each more than once, usually at more than one location, and trying different menu items each time.
Over the past several months, Post food critic Tom Sietsema dined at America’s 10 highest-grossing, full-service, casual restaurants, reviewing them as he would independent establishments: two or more times each, sometimes at multiple branches, and sampling a cross-section of the menus. Given the unique nature of the corporate enterprises, broadly popular letter grades rather than the Post’s usual stars were assigned to each brand.
Knowing that you can wake up to the same fluffy pancakes from Denny’s whether you’re in Miami or Minneapolis, or sit down to the identical warm breadsticks at Olive Garden, no matter which of its 800-plus branches you find yourself in, speaks to the chains’ charm offensive: no-surprise comfort.
Find out which chains are on the top ten, and how they rank against each other, here. You might be surprised at the findings. He even took home a doggy bag once, something he says he never does.
One of the peculiarities of modern life is how we sort activities into their proper slot, and doing it any differently is "wrong." But it was not always so. For example, kids use to dress up and demand candy on Thanksgiving. People told ghost stories at Christmas. After all, the most famous Christmas story outside of the Bible is Charles Dicken's A Christmas Carol, which is full of ghosts.
“Whenever five or six English-speaking people meet round a fire on Christmas Eve, they start telling each other ghost stories,” humorist Jerome K. Jerome wrote in his 1891 collection, Told After Supper. “Nothing satisfies us on Christmas Eve but to hear each other tell authentic anecdotes about spectres. It is a genial, festive season, and we love to muse upon graves, and dead bodies, and murders, and blood.”
Telling ghost stories during winter is a hallowed tradition, a folk custom stretches back centuries, when families would wile away the winter nights with tales of spooks and monsters. “A sad tale’s best for winter,” Mamillius proclaims in Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale, “I have one. Of sprites and goblins.” And the titular Jew of Malta in Christopher Marlowe’s play at one point muses, “Now I remember those old women’s words, Who in my wealth would tell me winter’s tales, And speak of spirits and ghosts by night.”
It's possible we've done away with the scarier traditions of Christmas because we overdid it in October. Pity. Read more about the tradition of Christmas ghost stories at Smithsonian.
