What you didn’t know about your favourite Christmas movies

What you didn’t know about your favourite Christmas movies

1. A Christmas Story:

The movie’s writer was inspired to create the leg lamp by an illuminated Nehi Soda advertisement

2. Home Alone:

The ‘evil’ furnace McCauley Culkin’s character is scared of in the movie was lit up and animated by two people with fishing line and flashlights



 

3. Miracle on 34th Street:

The 1947 movie was released in May because the studio head, Darryl F. Zanuck, insisted more people went to the movies in the summer.

4. The Shop Around the Corner:

This 1940 holiday black-and-white film, featuring Jimmy Stewart and Margaret Sullavan, inspired another movie — 58 years later. You’ve Got Mail, ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQIjcZLLsug ) starring Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan. A big difference between the two? The original is set in Hungary, and the later one in New York.

5. A Charlie Brown Christmas:

Linus’ iconic speech about the true meaning of Christmas was almost cut when the animated movie’s producers and creator Charles Schultz clashed over the inclusion of religion. Schultz wanted the one-minute-long speech left in, but the producers thought it would limit its audience and drive away advertisers.

6. National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation:

Mae Questel, who plays Aunt Bethany ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCBvFYGwd0g ), who wraps up her cat and makes the famous Jell-O mould, was also the voice of Betty Boop and Olive Oyl. Christmas Vacation was her last movie.

7. White Christmas:

Irving Berlin, the man who wrote the song of the same title,

hated the holiday — for good reason. In the early hours of Dec. 25, 1928, his first son, Irving Jr., was discovered dead in his crib.

8. Scrooged:

David Letterman’s Canadian musical sidekick, Paul Shaffer, is leading a group of street carolers in the movie that Bill Murray’s character insults. The carolers include Miles Davis, saxophone player David Sanborn, and jazz guitarist Larry Carlton.

9. It’s a Wonderful Life:

The scene in which Jimmy Stewart’s character is considering suicide on a bridge, he’s sweating.

It might have been from acting in the moment, but it could also have been from the California summer heat wave he was working in while on a set.

10. Elf:

Ming Ming the elf from the beginning of the movie is Peter Billingsley, the actor who played Ralphie in ‘A Christmas Story.’

 

Did you know that Linus' "Meaning of Christmas" speech was lamost axed?

NORAD Santa trackers break records on social media

(Yahoo photo)

NORAD Santa trackers expected record holiday telling children about big man's location

Every year millions of children log in to http://www.noradsanta.org to track "Santa" around the world.

FILE - In this Dec. 24, 2010 file photo, Air Force Lt. Col. David Hanson, of Chicago, takes a phone call from a child in Florida at the Santa Tracking Operations Center at Peterson Air Force Base near Colorado Springs, Colo. Santa is already piling up monster numbers on social networking sites this season, so the volunteer Santa-trackers at NORAD are bracing for tens of thousands of calls and emails when their operations center goes live on Christmas Eve. (AP Photo)

DENVER - Santa's piling up more than presents this year. The big man's trackers at NORAD say Santa Claus is breaking records on social media and by old-fashioned telephone this Christmas Eve.
Volunteers NORAD Tracks Santa at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado were fielding 4,000 calls an hour Saturday morning, on pace to break a record. Santa's NORAD Facebook page exceeded 840,000 "likes" by midmorning.
The North American Aerospace Defence Command has been telling children about Santa's whereabouts every year since 1955, when a newspaper ad invited kids to call Santa on a hotline. A typo led dozens of kids to call the command.
The officers on duty played along and began sharing reports on Santa's progress. It's now a deep-rooted tradition at NORAD, a joint U.S.-Canada command.

Son discovers mother's 100-year-old Christmas letter

Dear Santa:

Son discovers mother's 100-year-old Christmas letter

 

Hannah Howard's Christmas letter lay in a chimney for years

 

The ghost of Christmas 100 years past arrived early for a County Down man when he discovered the Santa letter his late mother wrote when she was a girl.

The scorched letter, dated Christmas Eve 1911, had been up a chimney in a Dublin house for decades.

Victor Bartlem's mother, Hannah Howard, had written her Christmas wish list when she was 10 years old.

 

Mr Bartlem said he was overwhelmed at people's response to the letter

It was first discovered in 1992 when the current house owner John Byrne installed central heating.

He came upon Hannah's letter in the chimney and decided to keep it as a memento of times past.

He made it public this week in the Irish Times and it was there that Victor - living more than 100 miles away in Bangor, County Down, - read about it.

He was sitting at home when his wife read from the newspaper about the little girl from Oaklands Terrace, Terenure who put her letter up a chimney. It was then that he realised that she was his mother.

"I simply couldn't believe it. I never knew about this letter. I never even knew it existed," Mr Bartlem said.

"I could not believe it, it was absolutely amazing and it is such a sweet, typical child's letter."

Mr Bartlem said he was overwhelmed at people's response to the letter.

"It is in the spirit of the time we are in at the moment which is Christmas," he said.

On her Christmas list, Hannah wrote: "I want a baby doll and a waterproof with a hood and a pair of gloves and a toffee apple and a gold penny and a silver sixpence and a long toffee."

Hannah was born on Christmas Day 1900. Mr Bartlem said his mother attended the Zion Church of Ireland in Raphoe and married Alfred Bartlem in 1931.

She had two sons, Howard and Victor. She died in 1978.

(BBC News/Yahoo)

7 Gifts to Avoid this Holiday

 

7 Gifts to Avoid this Holiday

Household Appliances - No woman wants to be reminded of household chores or think you're thinking of her as the one who does the cooking and cleaning when she opens her gift.

A Pet - With guests visiting your house, holiday decorations on display, and myriad other distractions during the week, it's the worst time to try and introduce a small animal to its new home.

Jewelry You've Seen on a TV Commercial - most women do not want a heart-shaped pendant from a chain jewelry store. If your loved one is an accessory lover, opt for something special and one-of-a-kind from an independent jewelry designer on Etsy.

Gift Baskets - The one thing there's never a lack of during the holidays is food. That's why no one needs any more food coming their way. While a nice gift basket full of cured meats, cheese spreads, fruit, and candy might be delicious, there's already more than enough to eat without giving someone more.

A Sweater - There's no denying a cashmere sweater is a nice thing, but opening a box and discovering a plain sweater is sort of dull.  Instead, add a nice cashmere scarf or pair of gloves to your loved one's stocking.

Credit Card Gift Cards - They're processed as credit cards with a limit of whatever is loaded on the card so it can be difficult to use them for purchases that exceed that amount. And most of these cards have an activation fee you'll have to pay at the point of purchase. Instead, opt for cash or a gift card to a store you're certain your recipient likes to shop in.

Lingerie - if you're a man buying a woman lingerie, the gift is as much for you as it is for her. And, if you're opening gifts in mixed company, it could be really embarrassing for the recipient. Save the sexy underthings for a Valentine's Day gift and get her something she really wants this holiday season.

Orange you glad Tangerine Tango is the colour of 2012?

 

Orange you glad Tangerine Tango is the colour of 2012

Tangerine Tango, an electric orange red, is the colour of 2012, according to the Pantone Color Institute.
It’s warm, uplifting, and energizing, and it happens to look great with almost every skin tone. The vibrant shade has already made its way onto fashion designers’ radars.
Each year the Pantone Color Institute forecasts the colour for the year ahead and the due diligence is intense.

FASHION REGRETS

FASHION REGRETS

Fashion that Makes Us Sad: Jimmy Choo’s Lizard and Raccoon Bag

This Jimmy Choo bag made of raccoon and lizard makes us very sad.

Most people associate Jimmy Choo with stunning sandals and heels, but every designer makes mistakes. There are so many horrible elements to the Whipstitched Fur Crossbody bag, we're just going to start listing them off.

1. Raccoon tails. Plural. Because the tail of one nighttime bandit is not enough, Jimmy Choo has used a whole family of raccoons to uglify your bag and pick up lint and debris wherever you go.
2. The twisted rope serving as a strap. It should be holding back fancy drapes.
3. We count six tassels. There may be more!
4. Somewhere buried beneath this mess is lizard skin. More beautiful wildlife destroyed for a useless purpose.
5. The bag is only 6" x 6" making it not only cruel and hideous but also impractical.

The bag is on sale (no surprise there) for $1,336 marked down from $1,995 at Neiman Marcus. We can't think of anyone who would carry this thing. Can you?

Fashion that Makes Us Sad: Urban Outfitters' Anti-holiday Sweater

Urban Outfitters is selling a holiday sweater adorned with drugs and booze.

Forget images of Santa, reindeer, or snowflakes on your holiday sweaters-Urban Outfitters has a different interpretation of festive attire. Your holiday vices may include egg nog and a few too many gingerbread men, but the folks at Urban are kicking it up a notch and embrace pills, marijuana, mushrooms, beer, and cigarettes. 'Tis the season to be... high and wasted?

We know Urban Outfitters loves to be "ironic" and push the envelope, but we fail to see the humor in this "Relaxed Pullover Sweater." It may be on sale for $49, but whomever wears this sweater may wind up a little more "relaxed" than we'd like to be.

Fashion Regret

Trend worthiness = please don't touch these

                                                                     Trend worthiness: file under G (for garbage) 





            

                  Photo by Keystone Press                                                                    Photo by Anthea Simms

 

 BOYCOTT!!!

Remembering the Montreal Massacre (Dec.6,1989)

Remembering 

Credit Image: © The Toronto Star/ZUMApress.com/

 The Montréal Massacre

The Montréal Massacre of December 6, 1989, in which 14 women students at the École Polytechnique were systematically killed and 13 other students wounded by a lone gunman, is indelibly imprinted on the minds of Quebeckers and others who struggled to comprehend the worst single-day massacre in Canadian history.

The act of gendercide

On the evening of December 6, 1989, shortly after 5 o'clock on the penultimate day of classes before the Christmas holidays, Lépine carried a concealed Sturm Ruger Mini-14 semi-automatic rifle into the École Polytechnique. His first female victim, Maryse Laganiere, was killed in a corridor. He then proceeded to Room 303, a classroom which held 10 women students and 48 men, along with a male professor. Firing two shots into the ceiling and shouting, "I want the women. I hate feminists!," Lépine enacted a gendercidal ritual that will be familiar to readers of other case-studies on this site (Kosovo, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Colombia) -- only this time, the victims were female. Separating the men from the women, he expelled the men at gunpoint, lined up the remaining women students against the wall, and began to fire. Six women died; the others were injured, but survived.
"Then, Lépine went down to the first floor," wrote Maclean's (December 18, 1989). "Firing at diving, ducking students as he went, he entered the cafeteria, where he killed [Anne-Marie] Edward and two of her classmates. Still on the hunt, Lépine climbed back up to the third floor, where he strode into Room 311. Students, unaware of the unfolding tragedy, were delivering end-of-semester oral presentations. 'At first, nobody did anything,' recalled Eric Forget, 21. Then, the gunman opened fire, sending two professors and 26 students scrambling for cover beneath their desks. 'We were trapped like rats,' said Forget. 'He was shooting all over the place.' Other witnesses said that Lépine leaped onto several desks and shot at women cowering beneath them. Four more women were killed. Then, roughly 20 minutes after embarking on his rampage, Lépine took his own life." By the time he blew off the back of his own head, fourteen women lay dead, and thirteen other students were injured (nine women, four men).

The murdered women were:

Geneviève Bergeron, aged 21;
Hélène Colgan, 23;
Nathalie Croteau, 23;
Barbara Daigneault, 22;
Anne-Marie Edward, 21;
Maud Haviernick, 29;
Barbara Maria Klucznik, 31;
Maryse Leclair, 23;
Annie St.-Arneault, 23;
Michèle Richard, 21;
Maryse Laganière, 25;
Anne-Marie Lemay, 22;
Sonia Pelletier, 28; and
Annie Turcotte, aged 21.

Gendercide is gender-selective mass killing 

Stick insects that have lived a million years without sex

A Timema walking stick.

Stick insects that have lived a million years without sex

 

Stick insects not so excited about sex, apparently

A species of stick insect has been living for a million years without having sex, according to a new study.

The stick insect reproduces without the need for a male – and studies suggest they have been doing so for hundreds of thousands of years.
The findings also reveal that life without sexual intercourse can continue.
The species – Timema stick insects, which live in shrubland in the west coast of the US – are already known to produce clones of themselves through asexual ‘virgin births’.
Five insects had ‘ancient’ lineage, dating back more than 500,000 years, and two were even older.
Researcher Dr Tanja Schwander said ‘all the evidence’ points to the species having survived for more than a million years without sex.
‘Why Timema asexuals have been able to persist for so long, despite all the predicted negative consequences of asexuality, is the focus of ongoing studies.’
The findings of the Canadian study, published in Current Biology, could overturn theories that asexuality is an evolutionary ‘dead end’.
Asexuality has benefits, including rapid population growth. However, the cloning of young creatures means that species are less able to adapt to changing environments through ‘shuffling’ genes.

Read more: http://www.metro.co.uk/news/869808-stick-insects-that-have-lived-a-million-years-without-sex#ixzz1fQoHcgE6

'Bugs Bunny' weta insect is world's biggest

'Bugs Bunny' weta insect is world's biggest

This giant weta is the world's biggest insect (Picture: Solent)
It looks a bit like an alien, but this carrot-eating weta has now been declared the world's biggest insect.

This is a real life Bugs Bunny - a huge insect that eats carrots.
A former park ranger discovered the giant weta up a tree and his find has now been declared the world's biggest insect.
Mark Moffett found the cricket-like creature, which weighs a staggering 71 grams, after two days of searching on a tiny island.
The big bug, with a wing span of over seven inches, is only found on Little Barrier Island, in New Zealand.
Earlier this year, the water boatman was declared the loudest creature in the world by scientists thanks to the insect's noisy 'singing penis'.
A team of biologists and engineers told the Society for Experimental Biology Annual Conference in Glasgow that they had found the 2mm long insect is capable of making a din measuring 99.2 decibels - the same level as a full orchestra playing at its loudest.

That makes the bug, or Micronecta scholtzi, the noisiest animal on the planet relative to its body size.

Read more: http://www.metro.co.uk/weird/883547-bugs-bunny-insect-is-biggest-in-the-world#ixzz1fQmNzMGu

'Noisy penis that sings' makes water boatman world’s loudest animal

The water boatman has a noisy way of attracting a mate (Getty Images)

The lesser water boatman is the loudest creature in the world thanks to the insect's noisy 'singing penis', scientists have discovered.

A team of biologists and engineers told the Society for Experimental Biology Annual Conference in Glasgow that they had found the 2mm long insect is capable of making a din measuring 99.2 decibels - the same level as a full orchestra playing at its loudest.

That makes the bug, or Micronecta scholtzi, the noisiest animal on the planet relative to its body size,.
The male water boatman generates the sound by rubbing its penis against its abdomen while underwater, as it attempts to attract mates.
Although 99 per cent of the noise is lost as it is transferred from the bottom of the river to the surface, the singing is still loud enough for humans walking on the banks to hear.

Dr James Windmill, of the University of Strathclyde's Centre for Ultrasonic Engineering, said: 'We were very surprised. We first thought that the sound was coming from larger aquatic species.
'When we identified without any doubt the sound source, we spent a lot of time making absolutely sure that our recordings of the sounds were calibrated correctly.
'If you scale the sound level they produce against their body size, they are without doubt the loudest animals on Earth.'
The noisiest creature in absolute terms is the blue whale, which has a song that can reach 188 decibels.

Read more: http://www.metro.co.uk/weird/868086-noisy-penis-that-sings-makes-water-boatman-world-s-loudest-animal#ixzz1fQnNuF46

Beetle 'world's strongest insect'

Beetle 'world's strongest insect'

A dung beetle has been named 'world's strongest insect'

After months of trials, a contender for the title of World's Strongest Insect has been named by scientists

The dung beetle species Onthophagus taurus can pull a load 1,141 times its own body weight - the equivalent of an average person pulling six fully laden double decker buses.

Dr Rob Knell, one of the researchers from Queen Mary, University of London, said: "Insects are well known for being able to perform amazing feats of strength, and it's all on account of their curious sex lives.
"Female beetles of this species dig tunnels under a dung pat, where males mate with them. If a male enters a tunnel that is already occupied by a rival, they fight by locking horns and try to push each other out."
Dr Knell's team tested the ability of beetles to resist a rival by measuring how much force was needed to pull them from their holes.
Dr Knell said: "Interestingly, some male dung beetles don't fight over females. They are smaller, weaker and don't have horns like the larger males. Even when we fed them up they didn't grow stronger, so we know it's not because they have a poorer diet.
"They did, however, develop substantially bigger testicles for their body size.
"This suggests they sneak behind the back of the other male, waiting until he's looking the other way for a chance to mate with the female.
"Instead of growing super-strength to fight for a female, they grow lots more sperm to increase their chances of fertilising her eggs and fathering the next generation.Read more: http://www.metro.co.uk/news/818833-beetle-worlds-strongest-insect#ixzz1fQeLDMTM

Pig born without back legs learns to walk upright

Pig born without back legs learns to walk upright on his front legs in China
A dedicated farmer has taught his prized pig, which was born without back legs, to walk upright on his front legs.

Proud Ge Xinping, from Mengcheng in eastern China's Anhui Province, says he thought the deformed piglet would die after he was born in July.
However, after lots of time and devotion the pig has learnt how to walk on its forelegs and is now the talk of the town.
'Villagers all love it as it walks like an upside down gymnast,' Ge said.
Elsewhere in China, pig breeders are not having such luck.
More than 100 people in the Henan province have been sentenced for planning to contaminate pork with the drug, Clenbuterol, which makes the meat leaner but can have adverse affects on humans.
Known in China as 'lean meat powder', Clenbuterol continues to be laced into animal feed by farmers desperate to get their meat to market even though it is banned in the country.
A subsidiary of Shuanghui Group, China’s largest meat processor, was also found to be selling the tainted pork.
Ringleader, Liu Xiang, was sentenced to death.

Read more: http://www.metro.co.uk/weird/883029-pig-born-without-back-legs-learns-to-walk-upright-on-his-front-legs-in-china#ixzz1fQaZv0Um