Christmas specials are a weird case for me. One, I’m a secular jew, so I have no attachment to Christmas specials from growing up. My wife was raised in a Christian household, but, while bearing some minor spirituality, is mostly anti-religious due to her (justified) feeling that organized religion especially is just about control of others. So Christmas is celebrated with her family in a 95% secular way. Nothing is watched at all.
Still, when we’re with friends around the holiday, or at home, we have some Christmas favorites: Jingle All the Way (borrowed from one of our mutual friends who was a groomsman at our wedding), Scrooged, and any NUMBER of Rifftrax Christmas episodes - special emphasis on the truly maddening antics from Rifftrax Christmas Circus with Wizzo the Clown. Much booze needed. Much.
Of the Christmas animated specials, How the Grinch Stole Christmas and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer are really the only ones I still like. All the others seem goofy and/or cloying to me now.
I don’t go out of my way for political debates, and most of my friends see things more or less the same way I do, but it’s exploring those differences that can be interesting. It would be a waste of both of our times for me to go head-to-head with a hardcore MAGAhead, though.
I saw a public pay phone in Tomales, California while on vacation two years ago. It was interesting enough to me that I actually took a picture of it, so I assume if I had seen one since then it would have been equally interesting and I would have remembered it.
Lemonade in most cases, which is what I picked. But if I’m on a plane, then ginger ale.
Depends on the lemonade. Good lemonade – actual lemons, not too much sugar so it’s still on the tart side, no extra shit: I’ll take the lemonade, please. Crappy lemonade, I’ll take my chances on the ginger ale, which is somewhat more likely to be at least passable. Really good lemonade versus really good ginger ale? Depends on the mood I’m in.
The beverage is conditional. If the tea is good (like the tea I make), then I’ll take that lightly sweetened. I like both ginger ale and (good) lemonade. Costco has a really nice lemonade.
An Arnold Palmer with unsweetened tea and good lemonade? Yes, please.
The Snow Miser and heat Miser songs from The Year Without A Santa Claus. are so catchy that Big Bad VooDoo Daddy did a reprise of them,. The film sucks, however.
Hmm, I assumed that between my asthma and the heavy chest cold I have right now that I wouldn’t even make it to 30 seconds, but I made it to 54 seconds. So I re-selected 30 - 60, but I might try again in a couple of weeks.
I never watch any movie on a regular schedule, but I enjoy watching The Ref at Christmas time. I just ignore Spacey. “Slipper socks. Medium.”
I’ve never been good at holding my breath. I blame it on being raised by a chain smoker.
I love good ginger ale. But it’s usually too sweet now. Vernor’s disappeared decades again and was re-introduced a while later, but the formula had changed to a sweeter one. I want bite when I drink ginger ale. I hate sweet tea.
Holding your breath is a bit scary and harder than I expected. I made it 30 seconds. Could have gone on longer maybe but I really didn’t like it.
Between Lemonade, Ginger Ale and Iced Tea, I truly like them all about equally, but I picked lemonade. Especially if it’s fresh and slushy like they do at Middle Eastern restaurants near me. I would drink unsweetened iced tea every day if I weren’t worried about caffeine and staining. As such, I don’t drink it much.
My wife’s from Vermont and introduced me to B&J’s years ago (we even toured the main plant in Waterbury once, and her niece later worked there). Very good ice cream - pricey but worth it. Creme Brulee, alas now in the Flavor Graveyard, was astonishingly good.
I seem to remember watching Nolan Ryan pitch a record setting no-hitter, where an outfielder on the other team accepted an ‘error’ pretty much just to preserve his record.