12/12/25 - Time Person, Christmas Playlist, and It's A Billion!
- bribriny
- 4 hours ago
- 4 min read
Friday 12/12/25
Celebrate:
Festival of Unmentionable Thoughts
International Sound Check Day
National 12-Hour Fresh Breath Day
National Ambrosia Day
National Ding-a-Ling Day
National Poinsettia Day
National Salesperson's Day
Official Lost and Found Day
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Today is National Gingerbread House Day. While the tradition began in Germany, inspired by the Brothers Grimm story Hansel and Gretel, a modern survey shows that 65% of people admit their gingerbread houses collapse before they are finished decorating.
When I tried making one with a friend, I don't know how we got icing on the ceiling.
Don't forget you can see local gingerbread creations at the Rockwell Museum.
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This Weekend at the Box Office (and beyond)
Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery hits Netflix. Daniel Craig returns as Benoit Blanc to solve a murder with a new cast, including Jeremy Renner and Mila Kunis.
Ella McCay - Comedy from James L. Brooks with Rebecca Hall, Woody Harrelson, Jack Lowden, Jamie Lee Curtis, Emma Mackey, and Ayo Edebiri.
By the way, the 4-hour Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair does have a 15-minute intermission.
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It’s a billion-dollar drawing Saturday!! The Powerball jackpot has surged to an estimated $1 billion, with a cash value of $461.3 million, after no ticket matched all six numbers in Wednesday's draw.
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Time Magazine is out with their Person of the Year. This year, it's the Architects of AI.
This year, the debate about how to wield AI responsibly gave way to a sprint to deploy it as fast as possible. The CEO of Nvidia says, “Every industry needs it, every company uses it, and every nation needs to build it.”
“This is the single most impactful technology of our time.” OpenAI’s ChatGPT, which at launch was the fastest-growing consumer app of all time, has surpassed 800 million weekly users.
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In Antwerp, Belgium, one shop owner has transformed her storefront into a yuletide wonderland 365 days a year, selling festive ornaments long after December’s gone. It’s part nostalgia, part entrepreneurial whimsy– and definitely a conversation starter on weird seasonal devotion.
That's nothing...we had a whole Christmas Shoppe that was open most of the year!
Miss Julie and the gang.
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Time to look up!! (and bundle up)
If you can stand the cold, one of the best meteor showers of the year peaks Saturday and Sunday.
The Geminids is considered to be one of the most spectacular meteor showers of the year. There is a possibility of sighting around 120 meteors per hour at its peak in ideal conditions.
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Health experts are warning about "Christmas Tree Syndrome," a real allergic reaction caused by mold spores growing on live trees. Studies show that a live tree brought indoors can increase the mold count in a room by 500% within two weeks, causing "flu-like" symptoms that people mistake for a winter cold.
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Bubble Lights That Actually Bubbled
These weren’t just lights. They were miniature lava lamps for your tree, and every family had them.
Each unit had a glass tube filled with colored liquid sitting atop a hot bulb. The heat made the liquid boil, creating streams of bubbles rising up the tube.
Introduced in 1946, they peaked in the 1960s when they were as standard as tinsel. A string of seven lights cost a few dollars then—about what $28 would buy today.
Each light was fragile glass. Break one, and mysterious liquid spilled everywhere—methylene chloride, which metabolizes into carbon monoxide if ingested.
Plus they ran incredibly hot and consumed serious electricity. The 1973 energy crisis made them seem wasteful.
Modern LED lights can’t generate enough heat for bubbling. Reproductions exist, but they’re specialty items now—vintage curiosities rather than standard equipment.
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A leading music expert has developed the world’s happiest Christmas car playlist 'guaranteed' to keep everyone happy – according to science.
According to the equation, the secret to a dopamine-boosting song is a combination of being in a major key, featuring bright and energetic vocals, playing at 100-140 BPM, with a simple, catchy chorus.
It was found the tune that scientifically hits all the right notes is Brenda Lee’s ‘Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree’ – although research of 2,000 Christmas-celebrating motorists found Mariah Carey’s ‘All I Want for Christmas is You’ (45 per cent) was the yuletide track which makes them most happy.
1. Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree – Brenda Lee
2. Feliz Navidad – José Feliciano
3. Jingle Bell Rock – Bobby Helms
4. Holly Jolly Christmas – Michael Bublé
5. I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday – Wizzard
6. It’s The Most Wonderful Time of the Year – Andy Williams
7. Sleigh Ride – Harry Connick, Jr.
8. Santa Claus Is Coming To Town – The Jackson 5
9. Wonderful Christmastime (Edited Version / Remastered) – Paul McCartney
10. Underneath the Tree – Kelly Clarkson
11. All I Want For Christmas Is You – Mariah Carey
12. Winter Wonderland – Bing Crosby
13. Step Into Christmas – Elton John
14. Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow! – Frank Sinatra
15. Last Christmas – Wham!
16. White Christmas – Bing Crosby
17. Merry Christmas Everyone – Shakin’ Stevens
18. Mistletoe – Justin Bieber
19. Happy Xmas (War Is Over) – Remastered 2010 – John Lennon, Yoko Ono
20. Christmas Wrapping – The Waitresses
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One of the First Encyclopedias Had a Typo. On December 10, 1768, the first-ever edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica was published in Edinburgh.3 Its very first entry, "A," contained a typo: it defined an 'A' as a letter of the alphabet, but misspelled one of the key words in the definition.
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Today's Useless Fact of the Day - Reindeer Eyes Change Color.
Reindeer are the only mammals whose eyes change color depending on the season. In the summer, their eyes are gold to handle the constant sunlight. In the winter (starting now), they turn deep blue to capture more light in the permanent darkness of the Arctic.
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