December 2022: The Strange Files Newsletter
December 2022: The Strange Files Newsletter
December is a holiday-filled month. How to greet people?
Christmas is the headline act for the vast majority of Americans in December, but it's not the only holiday celebrated in the last month of the year.
Which leads to a question that's been asked frequently: Is it okay to greet people with a cheery "Merry Christmas?" Or is "Happy Holidays" a better choice? Or does that constitute a "war on Christmas" as some would like us to believe?
And what are the other holidays in December that prompt this debate?
Here's your guide to these vital questions, based on my research and, I hope, a dash of common sense:
First off, December's major holidays.
As noted, the 800 pound elf in the room is Christmas (Dec. 25). According to the Pew Research Center, 90 percent of Americans (and 95 percent of Christians) say they celebrate Christmas.
However, the role of religion in the holiday is declining with only 46 percent of Americans saying they celebrate Christmas primarily as a religious holiday. (After all, what's Santa Claus and flying reindeer got to do with the birth of Jesus?)
Other holidays falling in December this year include:
Hanukkah (Dec. 18 -- 26). It is an eight-day "festival of lights" commemorating the rededication of the Second Temple in Jerusalem after Jewish warriors defeated an occupying Greek army.
Kwanzaa (Dec. 26 -- Jan. 1). It is an annual celebration of African-American culture culminating in a communal feast called Karamu.
Around the world, December is also host to numerous other holidays and events including Diwali, India's biggest and most important holiday of the year, and, of course, the totally secular New Year's Eve.
So, back to the "Merry Christmas" versus "Happy Holidays" debate. When Pew researchers asked Americans how they prefer to be greeted when Christmas shopping, a majority -- 52 percent -- said it doesn't matter.
Your politics may define how you feel about this. Republicans favored "Merry Christmas" by 54 percent with 38 percent saying it doesn't matter. Democrats largely (61 percent) said they didn't care.
The so-called "war on Christmas" was a Fox News spiel that was promoted by ousted commentator Bill O'Reilly and picked up by other Republicans, which explains how the political divide has crept into the holiday.
So, what should your holiday greeting be? Personally, I don't see why "Merry Christmas" should be the least bit offensive. If someone greeted me with a "Happy Hanukkah" or a "Joyous Kwanzaa" I would be pleased, not distressed. Likewise, what's offensive about a hearty, generic "Happy Holidays" or a festive "Season's Greetings"? With 95 percent of Christians celebrating the holiday, that so-called war on Christmas looks like a total fantasy.
Maybe we should brush those chips off our shoulders and just get along. You know, in the spirit of the, uh, season.
Five Christmas Trivia Questions
to Impress Your Friends and Family
How many lights were on the Griswold's house in the movie National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation?
The song Jingle Bells was, of course, written originally to be a Christmas song. True or False?
What was the name of the angel who appeared before Mary to tell her she was pregnant?
What do the children of the ever-practical Swedes leave out for Santa Claus?
What's the most popular fast-food restaurant in Japan on Christmas Day?
Answers below
December events and milestones...
The month of December is packed with college football championship games and bowls culminating in New Years Eve's Peach Bowl, Sugar Bowl, Fiesta Bowl, and Music City Bowl. The remainder of the big bowl games roll over into Jan. 2, and the National Championship Game will be televised (ESPN) on Monday, Jan. 9.
Speaking of football, er, soccer... Mark your calendar for Dec. 18, when the finals of the World Cup in Qatar will be televised. As this was written, Team USA was still in it.
Mankind's return to the moon began on Nov. 16 when Artemis 1 successfully thundered off the launchpad at the Kennedy Space Center carrying the Orion spacecraft. Ten days later, the craft entered into lunar orbit before beginning its journey home. The Orion capsule is scheduled for splashdown off the coast of San Diego on December 11.
On this mission, Orion carried three test dummies festooned with instruments in preparation for the next flight, fully crewed, in 2024. That flight will also orbit the moon doing further tests, all in preparation for what is hoped to be a 2025 lunar landing. On board for that will be the first woman and the first person of color to land on the moon.
The world's first nuclear reactor celebrates its 80th anniversary on Dec. 2. It marks the date in 1942 that physicist Enrico Fermi and his team created the first controlled nuclear chain reaction. They did it under the stands of the University of Chicago's football stadium.
National Pawnbroker's Day is celebrated on Dec. 6 -- St. Nicholas Day. St. Nicholas is the patron saint of pawnbroking. And, yes, we're talking about that St. Nick, a.k.a. Santa Claus. The whole tradition of Christmas presents traces its roots to St. Nicholas and his habit of giving gifts to people in secret.
Dec. 7, a day that lives in infamy. At 7:55 a.m. on this day in 1941 Japanese aircraft attacked the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor, propelling America into World War II, an event that ultimately led to the atomic bombing of the Japanese mainland. And, yes, Enrico Fermi had a hand in the development of the bomb.
Dec. 14. Night Dreams Talk Radio podcast host Gary Anderson will have yours truly on for a live conversation about asteroids, books, and other strange things. Tune in at 10:20 p.m.
National Cat Herder's Day is Dec. 15. If you think your job, or your life, is like herding cats, then this is the day dedicated to you.
Dec. 15 -- 17. NCAA Women's Volleyball Championship will be held in Omaha.
First Flight. It was on Dec. 17, 1903, that the Wright Brothers of Dayton, Ohio, brought their heavier-than-air craft to a North Carolina beach for its first successful test flight. Many people believe this event at Kitty Hawk was where the airplane was invented. Not so. It was just where the test flight took place. All the work was done in Dayton, the birthplace of aviation. As they like to say in Ohio, Dayton provided the brains, North Carolina provided the sand.
Saturnalia is observed between Dec. 17-23. It is an ancient Roman festival honoring the agricultural god Saturn. It was a time of great festivity marking the end of the harvest season and falling around the beginning of Winter. It was a time of feasting, gift-giving, and merriment. As Rome became Christian in the third century CE, Saturnalia and Christmas eventually merged into one another. Interesting Fact: There is no mention of the exact day of Jesus' birth in the Bible.
Titanic's 25th anniversary. On Dec. 19, 1997, the movie Titanic starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet was released. The film won 11 Academy Awards including Best Picture.
Dec. 21. The first day of Winter (Winter Solstice) and the day of the year with the fewest hours of sunshine in the northern hemisphere.
Festivus. Dec. 23 marks the date for this annual made-up holiday concocted by the family of Seinfeld writer Dan O'Keefe and aired as an episode of the show on Dec. 18, 1997. Created as a counterpoint to the excesses of Christmas, Festivus involves a plain aluminum pole (instead of a Christmas tree) and is a time for wrestling, meatloaf eating, and airing of grievances. What started as a joke has now become an international phenomenon.
Christmas Eve. Dec. 24 is the time before Christmas when all through the house, not a creature was stirring, etc. Some families exchange presents (and open Santa's gifts) on Christmas Eve. Some Christmas morning. Traditions vary. Let's not fight over this.
Joining Jesus celebrating birthdays on Dec. 25 are Jimmy Buffett, Barbara Mandell, Humphrey Bogart, Cab Calloway, Clara Barton, Miami Dolphins great Larry Csonka, Sissy Spacek, and Justin Trudeau.
Dec. 26 is Boxing Day, a legal holiday in Canada, the U.K., and elsewhere in the world. Apparently, it started as the day after Christmas when servants, tradespeople, and the poor were given gifts. Now it's a shopping and sports holiday.
The TV show Howdy Doody marks its 75th anniversary this year. It premiered on Dec. 27, 1947.
Dec. 31, in addition to being New Year's Eve, is Make Up Your Mind Day. Apropos of that, the International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service, which ordinarily adds a leap second to the official atomic clock on Dec. 31, changed its mind and decided to wait until next year.
Elvis in History--
December Report
We conclude our year-long Elvis in history monthly reports with this:
Elvis, according to the Elvis History Blog, rarely worked during the month of December, almost always coming home to Memphis for the holidays.
But his most important December event was the airing of his "Comeback Special" in 1968 that aired on NBC.
Elvis also proposed to Pricilla in December, 1966, received his draft notice in December of 1957, and on Dec. 5, 1956, Elvis joined Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, and Johnny Cash at the recording studio at Sun Records for what would become celebrated as the "Million Dollar Quartet."
Holiday Movies
on my Watch List
December is often a blockbuster month for movie releases, and topping this year's batch will be Avatar: The Way of Water, the sequel to the 2009 hit, which takes place after the events in the original movie. The original Avatar, by the way, is the highest grossing box office movie of all time at nearly $3 billion. Release date: Dec. 16.
But before then, on Dec. 2, tune into Netflix for Robert Downey Jr.'s tribute to his father, Sr., which chronicles the life and eclectic career of his pioneering filmmaker dad, Robert Downey Sr.
And if you missed it in the theaters, Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, will be released on Netflix on Dec. 23.
For a more complete list, check out CinemaBlend.
Christmas Jokes
How is Christmas like your job? You do all the work and some fat guy in a suit get the credit.
What do you call Santa's little helpers? Subordinate clauses.
What do you call a bunch of chess players bragging about their games in a hotel lobby? Chess nuts boasting in an open foyer.
Strange Science
Chickens sighing in relief
The federal government has green-lighted a new way for Americans to eat lab-grown meat after authorities deemed a meat product derived from animal cells to be safe for human consumption.
The US Food and Drug Administration will allow a California company called Upside Foods to take living cells from chickens and then grow them in a laboratory environment to produce a meat product that doesn’t involve the slaughter of any animals.
The FDA said it was ready to approve the sale of other lab-grown meat, stating that it was “engaged in discussions with multiple firms” to do the same, including companies that want to grow seafood from the cells of fish.
Sometimes you get the gator. Sometimes the gator gets you.
You might be thinking that in a showdown between an alligator and a Burmese python, both inhabitants of Florida's Everglades -- and beyond -- that the gator would have the best of it, as in the accompanying photo.
But not always.
In a gruesome video that went viral, animal pathologists recently extracted a dead five-foot-long gator from an 18-foot-long python. News reports call it a "jaw-dropping video," which is technically accurate as pythons have the ability to disengage their jaws to swallow prey much larger than themselves. Deer, for instance.
So, everyone knows to run if they encounter a gator. In addition to those teeth, they are surprisingly fast on land. Well, if you see a python, you better skedaddle, too. They'll try to eat anything.
Don't Look Up
Scientists recently were able to photograph and track an asteroid heading for a collision with Earth a full four hours before it struck the planet.
The space rock was only a yard across -- but that's precisely why this was such big news. It's the smallest asteroid ever tracked heading for Earth. The technology -- and the networks -- used to do this are getting ever more sophisticated.
And that's good news. It's our first line of defense against an extinction-event meteor.
You can view my TikTok report on this here.
Peanut Butter Poll Results
Thanks to everyone who participated in November's Peanut Butter Appreciation Month poll. With more than a thousand newsletter recipients, this is a pretty good sample size. The results:
Jif and Skippy tied for first place as the clear favorites among poll respondents, each receiving 35 percent of the vote. Other -- meaning some brand not mentioned by name in the poll -- earned 15 percent. And Smart Balance, Planters and Peter Pan (my personal fave) garnered 5 percent each.
Bon appetit!
From Our Mailbag
Dear J.C.
Is it true that the third book in your Strange Files series, Get Strange, won the Gold Medal for best mystery in the annual Royal Palm Literary Awards?
J. Sandford
Yes, indeed.
Dear J.C.
That's like the second year in a row one of your books has won top honors, isn't it.
S. King
Yep. In last year's awards, Strange Currents also won the Gold Medal.
Dear J.C.
I read all about that in the newspaper. You should share a link to that article with your thousands (or is it millions?) of fans.
L. Child
Great idea. Here it is:
'Get Strange' turns the tropics into a mystery setting
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Christmas Trivia Answers
25,000. Imagine the electric bill!
False. It was originally written for Thanksgiving.
Gabriel
Coffee. Guess they don't want Santa falling asleep on the job.
Kentucky Fried Chicken.
Parting Shot
