The TV series Friends ran for ten seasons and is still seen in syndication. In that time, there were plenty of episodes centered around the holidays of Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukkah, and New Years Eve, some more memorable than others. Who could ever forget the outrageous Holiday Armadillo?

It’s important for children to know and understand where they came from. Holidays aren’t just about presents, or at least that’s what parents tell their kids. During season 7, Ross wants to teach his son Ben about their Jewish heritage. But Ben, being a typical kid, is just excited for Christmas and Santa, showing no interest in much else. Ross finally gives up and decides to rent a Santa costume to make Ben happy, but it’s too late. With no Santa costumes available, he arrives dressed as the “Holiday Armadillo” – representing Santa for “all the southern states and Mexico”. Ben is unimpressed at first but soon becomes interested in Hanukah and the Festival of Lights. Everything’s going as planned until Chandler arrives dressed as Santa Claus. Ross kicks him out but not before Monica asks Chandler to keep the costume “for later.”

Relive the memories with video clips from seven of the funniest and most ridiculous holiday episodes of Friends at TVOM.

For the first time since 1936, an American will join the British royal family. The announcement came today that Prince Harry, currently fifth in line to the British throne, is engaged to American actress Meghan Markle. The two met in London in July of 2016 through mutual friends and have been dating ever since. Markle is best known for her role of lawyer Rachel Zane in the TV series Suits. She will be leaving the series now that she has completed filming her seventh season. The wedding will take place in the spring of 2018.

The Prince of Wales has announced the engagement of Prince Harry and Ms. Meghan Markle. pic.twitter.com/rtlAnFCWTf

— Kensington Palace (@KensingtonRoyal) November 27, 2017

Read more about the announcement at Buzzfeed.

(Image credit: Flickr user Graham C99)

When you go out in the wilderness, you take a gun because of the possibility of bears. In Mother Russia, bear takes gun. At least that's the story from an unnamed hunter in the Irkutsk region of Siberia. The 57-year-old man was staying at a remote cabin and went to the nearby river to fetch water. As he was returning, he saw a brown bear at the cabin. He did not approach the bear. According to the police report,

'To avoid an encounter with the animal, the hunter scurried off into the woods where he hid for several hours.'

When he returned to the remote cabin, his bag and two guns were missing.

The hunter went to look for his weapons in the taiga for several days but returned empty-handed.

This then prompted him to contact the police.

The guns in the bag were a Vepr carbine and IZH shotgun. The bear also left scratch marks around the interior of the cabin. Neither the bear nor the weapons have been seen since. The police report did not mention the possibility of human burglars during the hours that the hunter was hiding, or whether vodka may have been involved. See more pictures at the Siberian Times.  -via Dave Barry

(Image credit: Irkutsk Internal Ministry)

The workings of the human body on the cellular level is astounding. A molecule of DNA carries the genetic encoding for an entire being, so it is long and complicated. Yet it manages to split and replicate itself without becoming hopelessly entangled. It's a wonder that it ever works. And it's a wonder that humans ever figured out this much about it.   

(YouTube link)

We can only see it happening with powerful electron microscopes, and even then it's hard to tell the players apart. But Drew Berry at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research created a gorgeous animation that helps us visualize the process. Yes, we've posted it before, but even if you've seen it, the quality of internet video has vastly improved in the last ten years. We also now have an easy-to-follow narration from Veritasium. -via Digg

Despite first impressions, this is not a picture of a horribly deformed animal. Nor is it an abstract sculpture. Gatamanca posted this picture at reddit and scared a few people. Can you figure out what is? Here's a hint: tilt your head to the left. If you still can't see it, here's a copy of the picture with an outline to help you out. It's amazing how looking at something from a new angle can change your point of view.   

The new Disney/Pixar film Coco was the top movie of the 5-day Thanksgiving weekend, bringing in $71.2 million. But what people are talking about is the short that preceded it, an ad for the 2019 sequel to Frozen called Olaf's Frozen Adventure. It's 21 minutes long and contains four songs. Some people were confused, thinking they'd gone into the wrong theater, while others just became more annoyed by the minute at how long it was. 

But it shouldn’t have been a surprise if they had listened to audiences in Mexico who had similar complaints about the short. Several reports indicate that fan reactions in Mexico to the short led to its removal ahead of Coco, with Cinemex confirming theaters were now showing a version of the film without the short included.

According to animator/artist Julieta Colás, she waited until the short was removed from the film in Mexican cinemas before seeing the film and had heard many complained about the length of the featurette compared to the shorts attached to Pixar films in the past.  

It was *at least* twice as long as anyone in my theater wanted. Did they make it as a TV special, then someone said “eh, just put it in front of COCO?”

— David McGinnis (@dav_mcg) November 25, 2017

Um, yes. That's exactly what happened. Looking at the bright side, you can be very late to the theater and still catch the beginning of Coco.

(Image credit: Flickr user Diann Bayes) 

The following is an article from the book Uncle John’s Perpetually Pleasing Bathroom Reader.

Here’s a story that not many of us learned in school, not even those of us who grew up in Texas: the attempt to create a second Germany in the Republic of Texas.

HOI POLLOI

In April 1842, a group of German princes and noblemen met in the town of Biebrich am Rhein to discuss a problem vexing many countries in Europe in the 19th century: The population was booming just as the Industrial Revolution was replacing growing numbers of manual laborers with machines. The result was widespread poverty and social unrest that the largely undemocratic German states were ill-equipped to deal with. (In those days, Germany was divided into more than 30 independent kingdoms, principalities, and free cities.)

But what if the surplus population could be sent somewhere else? That’s what the nobles were gathering to discuss. One of them, a count named Carl of Castell-Castell, thought it might be possible to send people to the Republic of Texas, a former Mexican colony that had won its independence six years earlier. The republic was actively seeking Europeans who would settle in Texas, and had set up a system of land grants to attract them. Speculators were encouraged to buy huge tracts of land at rock-bottom prices, then recruit settlers to live on the land. Once the settlers were living on the grant, the speculators would be awarded additional tracts of land in payment. These tracts could be sold for a profit, and the money used to bring more settlers to Texas.

BRAVE NEW WELT

If a “new Germany” could be established in Texas, Castell argued, the nobles would benefit as much as the people who settled there. The colony would be a market for German goods and a source of raw materials for German manufacturers. It would also help Germany develop trade with Mexico. Whatever money the nobles invested in the German colony, Castell told them, would be repaid many times over in the years to come.

Bailey Sellers turned 21 on Friday. She received flowers from her father, who passed away four years ago, just a month before Bailey turned 17.  

Now, on her 21st birthday, her last bouquet of flowers and last note arrived. This one, different than the rest. A reminder, they’ll meet again.

“When I opened this card, I especially felt him with me. It’s a cold feeling, then a happy feeling at the same time.” said Sellers.

The note, written before his death, went along with the prepaid arrangements, setup with a flower shop without his daughter knowing.

My dad passed away when I was 16 from cancer and before he died he pre payed flowers so i could receive them every year on my birthday. Well this is my 21st birthday flowers and the last. Miss you so much daddy. pic.twitter.com/vSafKyB2uO

— Bailey Sellers (@SellersBailey) November 24, 2017

As of now, the Tweet has over a million likes, and has made the newspapers as far away as the Netherlands. And because that Tweet went viral, Chatterbot left this reply.

Happy Birthday Bailey. He's only stopped sending cards. But he'll be sending you loads more stuff now. And now that you're 21, you won't have to wait for birthdays. He'll send you friends (total strangers wishing you happy b'day on the internet- where d'ya think that came from?)

-via reddit

Here's a logic puzzle that might keep you busy the rest of the day -unless you give up. There is a link to the answer and links to solving tips at Coudal Partners. 

There are five houses in a row in different colors. In each house lives a person with a different nationality. The five owners drink a different drink, smoke a different brand of cigar and keep a different pet, one of which is a Walleye Pike.

The question is-- who owns the fish?

Hints:
1. The Brit lives in the red house.
2. The Swede keeps dogs as pets.
3. The Dane drinks tea.
4. The green house is on the left of the white house.
5. The green house owner drinks coffee.
6. The person who smokes Pall Malls keeps birds.
7. The owner of the yellow house smokes Dunhills.
8. The man living in the house right in the center drinks milk.
9. The man who smokes Blends lives next to the one who keeps cats.
10. The Norwegian lives in the first house.
11. The man who keeps horses lives next to the one who smokes Dunhills.
12. The owner who smokes Bluemasters drinks beer.
13. The German smokes Princes.
14. The Norwegian lives next to the blue house.
15. The man who smokes Blends has a neighbor who drinks water.

There are no tricks, pure logic will get you the correct answer. And yes, there is enough information to arrive at the one and only correct answer.

Good luck. You'll need it.  -via Nag on the Lake

A video from New Zealand aims to recruit new people for its police force and ends up entertaining us all. The video features 70 volunteer police officers, Police Commissioner Mike Bush, a police pipe band, dogs and cats, and Kiwi celebrity William Waiirua. They illustrate the many different things police work can involve. And they're funny, too.    

(YouTube link)

The outtakes at the end and the beginning of the credits are pretty good, too. If this has inspired you to apply for the job, be warned that you must be a New Zealand or Australian citizen or NZ permanent resident. -via reddit

What is it with the American work ethic? It seems stranger the more I learn about other countries. Elsewhere, people not only take off work when they are sick, they get paid for that day, too! And even more important, they don't risk their jobs by doing so. Here in America, even those who have full sick benefits know that taking time off means more work for everyone else. So we show up at the office and give everyone else the flu. That's okay, because we know they can't afford to take time off. This is the latest comic from Dami Lee at As Per Usual.  

The Muppets are trick-or-treating in the Snackside Down and confront the Cookiegorgon in this Sesame Street parody video of Stranger Things. "That's not strange, that's just an octopus trick-or-treating." You don't have to be a Stranger Things fan to enjoy the madness.

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As usual, the object lesson here is sharing. But don't let that stop you from laughing at Cookie Monster's lame costume, the growing worm, and the grand entrance of Eleven. -via Digg

Here's one of those stories you wouldn't believe if we didn't have the security footage. A woman in a shop lays her cash out on the scale while she waits for her purchase to be rung up. A bird lands right in front of her. Then things get weird.

(YouTube link)

Talk about feathering your nest egg! This happened just last Tuesday in Brazil. From the scant information at YouTube, I don't think she ever recovered her money. -via Tastefully Offensive

To make sure you get a full dose of Christmas movies and specials, and to make sure you don't miss that one you've looked forward to all year, Den of Geek has compiled a list. A long list, constantly updated, that you should bookmark for future reference. Using network schedules, they've fashioned an easy-to-read rundown of what's available on TV each day through December 31. Bookmark it, and check back anytime you have an evening open for some holiday cheer on TV. Even when you just want some festive background music, you'll know at glance what channel to turn to. There's also a list of Christmas movies available on the various streaming services at Den of Geek.  

A wrestling match between two puppets on a Chinese TV show is not as it appears. It's an old Manchurian folk dance called Er Gui Shuai Jiao (二贵摔跤), which translates to "Too Expensive Wrestling." This type of performance goes back to at least the 17th century.  

(YouTube link)

Here's a clip of the same type of performance filmed in Shanghai in 1927.

(YouTube link)

-via reddit