Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

This fight is for everything.

Conservatism: there are some people the law protects but does not bind and others who the law binds but does not protect.

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

Ron DeSantis, the grand wizard, oops, governor of FL

Consistently wrong since 2002

“That’s what the insurrection act is for!”

Despite his magical powers, I don’t think Trump is thinking this through, to be honest.

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

Today’s GOP: why go just far enough when too far is right there?

Republicans want to make it harder to vote and easier for them to cheat.

It’s easy to sit in safety and prescribe what other people should be doing.

Hot air and ill-informed banter

I’d like to think you all would remain faithful to me if i ever tried to have some of you killed.

The revolution will be supervised.

“Why isn’t this Snickers bar only a nickle?”

Prediction: the GOP will rethink its strategy of boycotting future committees.

Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

Accountability, motherfuckers.

“I never thought they’d lock HIM up,” sobbed a distraught member of the Lock Her Up Party.

I like you, you’re my kind of trouble.

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

I was promised a recession.

You are here: Home / Politics / America / Amusing Christmas Traditions: The Most Senior Ranking Jewish American Military Officer Is In Overwatch In Support Of Santa’s Deliveries

Amusing Christmas Traditions: The Most Senior Ranking Jewish American Military Officer Is In Overwatch In Support Of Santa’s Deliveries

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Yes, you read that right Gen David L. Goldfein, Chief of Staff of the Air Force and the most senior Jewish American officer in the US Military, is supervising this year’s tracking of Santa by NORAD.

This US Air Force tradition of tracking Santa began back in the 1950s when a typo in an advertisement led a call to Santa to go awry and wind up on the line of Col. Harry Shoup, of Continental Air Defense Command, now known as North American Aerospace Command (NORAD).

Shoup’s children, Terri Van Keuren, 65, Rick Shoup, 59, and Pam Farrell, 70, recently visited StoryCorps to talk about how the tradition began.

Terri remembers her dad had two phones on his desk, including a red one. “Only a four-star general at the Pentagon and my dad had the number,” she says.

“This was the ’50s, this was the Cold War, and he would have been the first one to know if there was an attack on the United States,” Rick says.

The red phone rang one day in December 1955, and Shoup answered it, Pam says. “And then there was a small voice that just asked, ‘Is this Santa Claus?’ ”

His children remember Shoup as straight-laced and disciplined, and he was annoyed and upset by the call and thought it was a joke — but then, Terri says, the little voice started crying.

“And Dad realized that it wasn’t a joke,” her sister says. “So he talked to him, ho-ho-ho’d and asked if he had been a good boy and, ‘May I talk to your mother?’ And the mother got on and said, ‘You haven’t seen the paper yet? There’s a phone number to call Santa. It’s in the Sears ad.’ Dad looked it up, and there it was, his red phone number. And they had children calling one after another, so he put a couple of airmen on the phones to act like Santa Claus.”

“It got to be a big joke at the command center. You know, ‘The old man’s really flipped his lid this time. We’re answering Santa calls,’ ” Terri says.

“The airmen had this big glass board with the United States on it and Canada, and when airplanes would come in they would track them,” Pam says.

“And Christmas Eve of 1955, when Dad walked in, there was a drawing of a sleigh with eight reindeer coming over the North Pole,” Rick says.

“Dad said, ‘What is that?’ They say, ‘Colonel, we’re sorry. We were just making a joke. Do you want us to take that down?’ Dad looked at it for a while, and next thing you know, Dad had called the radio station and had said, ‘This is the commander at the Combat Alert Center, and we have an unidentified flying object. Why, it looks like a sleigh.’ Well, the radio stations would call him like every hour and say, ‘Where’s Santa now?’ ” Terri says.

“And later in life he got letters from all over the world, people saying, ‘Thank you, Colonel,’ for having, you know, this sense of humor. And in his 90s, he would carry those letters around with him in a briefcase that had a lock on it like it was top-secret information,” she says. “You know, he was an important guy, but this is the thing he’s known for.”

“Yeah,” Rick says, “it’s probably the thing he was proudest of, too.”

It says something important that a whimsical tradition, born of a moment of empathy at the start of the Cold War, is now being overseen and promoted by the highest ranking Jewish American military official. That despite all the meanness and smallness and pettiness of the past year there is still resilience left in American civil society.

For those celebrating Christmas tonight: a very Merry Christmas to you. For those that aren’t:

Merry Christmas! And Happy Holidays! Drive safe, be safe, and enjoy!

Open thread!

Reader Interactions

192Comments

  1. 1.

    Pogonip

    Merry Chinese-restaurant Christmas, Adam! And Merry Christmas to all the wonderful Juicers.

    The rest of you, try again next year.

  7. 7.

    amygdala

    Happy baking, Adam. Cracking up at the yin-yang and Star of David at the bottom of the sign.

    Back to boxing up holiday cookies and wrapping a few last gifts. Happy Christmas to all who celebrate it.

  11. 11.

    MattF

    Jennifer 8 Lee wrote a piece about the Jewish taste for Chinese food. She asked all the experts for possible explanations, until one old lady, exasperated, said “Because it tastes good.”

  15. 15.

    Aimai

    We’ve brought latkes and other food and a christmas tree and ornaments over to my mom’s house snd are celebrating the birthday of my grandfather tonight. Its impromptu but all plans were cancelled because of her broken arm.

  16. 16.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    All of the pressies and baked goods have been delivered to the family, Christmas Dinner (Beef Wellington and Salmon en croute and all the trimmings) has been prepped and is ready to transport to Mum’s house for cooking tomorrow. Hoping DH and Mum can get through the day without killing each other and then looking forward to another big family party on Wednesday. First full Christmas at home, and loving it. Happy Christmas everyone!

  17. 17.

    Schlemazel

    I love the story of the phone number. We have done Chinese for Christmas the last couple of years because the family is scattered & work when you are young is very unforgiving. This year is different & we will have the family. Our favorite place closed a after the first and the second place was not as warm and friendly which sort of spoiled the occasion. You need to have reservations in by Thanksgiving to get in tomorrow.

  18. 18.

    Adam L Silverman

    @MattF: Also, the restaurants were open and often in the same or adjacent neighborhoods to Jewish Americans who had nothing else to do on Christmas.

  19. 19.

    SenyorDave

    I’d be offended by this stereotype of Jews eating Chinese food on Christmas (eve) except I don’t have the time because my mother wants to get to the restaurant (Ming Feng) by 6 PM sharp.

    When I was in high school we started going bowling on Christmas eve. We went to a place called the White Horse Bowling Academy. It was open 365/24/7, and IIRC was owned by some Polish brothers. It was an old style bowling alley, no frills, just bowling, beer and basic food (burgers and fries). It also was a place where if you were a male and looked within a few years of 18 they would serve you. I was 6’2″ at 15 and they served me.

  23. 23.

    Deecarda

    Great story, I had no idea how the NORAD ?? tracking started, thanks for sharing. Planning my Chinese takeout order for tomorrow. Not spending holiday with family, so instead of 7 fishes, had seafood nachos & fish tacos tonight. Hope everyone at BJ has a Merry & a Happy.

  25. 25.

    Mike in NC

    Ordering Chinese food for Christmas Eve was very much a family tradition, especially after my mom and dad moved to NH and we kids (with our families) came to visit from far away.

  26. 26.

    JMG

    @Litlebritdifrnt: Wow, we’re having beef Wellington tomorrow as well. Tonight it’s crab cakes. As a former Delawarean, I adore crab more than any other shellfish, even Wellfleet oysters.

  27. 27.

    Mike J

    In ye olden dayes we used to get the NORAD updates on reel a few weeks before xmas. We wouldn’t have run them if I hadn’t seen them in the PSA pile, recognized them, and carted them up.

  29. 29.

    Schlemazel

    @SenyorDave:
    When the kids were home we always went bowling after holiday meals. Thanksgiving, Easter, Christmas. But now all the allies near us are closed on those days.. One thing I learned was that anything can be a family tradition if you make it one. The kids still talk about it & how we miss it. I expect in 50 years Festivus poles will be a real thing in some homes & lard only knows how pasta will grow, I already see people who seem serious about Pastafarianism.

    Humans love our traditions and this modern world has freed people to make their own instead of accepting the majorities.

  33. 33.

    tobie

    I live in a place that does not have great Chinese food, so we did our best and made our own hot-and-sour soup. It doesn’t live up to New York’s Chinese fare but it will do.

  39. 39.

    lamh36

    Merry Christmas Juicers, I’ll be at work tomorrow, so I may forget to say it..

    And if anyone wants to get ole LAMH a gift this Christmas, go on ahead and get me a 3 month subscription to MoviePass!

    BTW, Why am I just now finding out about MoviePass!!!!!

  41. 41.

    Feathers

    @Adam L Silverman: Sounds delicious. I bake a lot, but have not added cheesecake to my repertoire. Watched a marathon of the Great British Baking Show Christmas Masterclass specials last weekend and Mary’s ginger and white chocolate cheesecake made me want to give it a try.

    I stayed in Boston for some Thanksgivings. Some friends and I started having Jewish Christmases for Thanksgiving by going to Chinatown for lunch and then a movie.

    The Chinese restaurant in Harvard Square closed and is now a Clover vegetarian place. It really isn’t a replacement, because the Chinese place stayed open on all the holidays. It was good to have somewhere super warm and friendly to go. I don’t know if anyone thought that through.

  44. 44.

    lamh36

    On the agenda for tonight, my yearly watching and live-tweeting of It’s A Wonderful Life.

    My favorite Christas movie…

  46. 46.

    Schlemazel

    @Adam L Silverman:
    There were several Jewish families in my neighborhood when I was growing up. A couple of the kids were my age & a couple more near enough that we hung out. I learned so much about what it means to be different as well as what it meant to be Jewish. I miss those guys. It probably was just them but they all had a great sense of humor about so many things. They made bad jokes about how they controlled everything when we were teens. I was pretty naive until I met a guy who gave me some mimeographed sheets with the information about the “international Jewish-communist conspiracy with the black foot soldier”. It was years before I heard about the “Protocols”. Looking back it is probably not funny but I have a hard time not joking because it is so stupid

  47. 47.

    Schlemazel

    @Baud:
    I mentioned before – hope you are tanned, rested & ready. America needs Baud now, more than ever!

    welcome back

  48. 48.

    HumboldtBlue

    Merry Xmas, Juicers.

    I have three grandnieces that need a-spoling, see youse later.

    L’chaim! Slainte! Skol! Kampai! Cheers! Salut! Nazdrave! Prohst! Okole Maluna! Saude!

  49. 49.

    Schlemazel

    @Feathers:
    Mom taught me how to make cheesecake several different ways. I like them all. One thing very different is one I make for my MIL. She loves blu cheese. I make a blu cheese (St. Agur, for the money you can’t find better) cheesecake with a walnut crust. It makes a great meal with a salad. It is very rich & kinda heavy so, small slices.

  50. 50.

    Suffragette City

    That is the best Santa story I’ve ever read about!!

    Happy Holidays/Merry Christmas ETC to All

  51. 51.

    JMG

    The merriest of Christmases and/or the happiest of holidays to all of you, my friends I’ve never met.

  52. 52.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Schlemazel: It is both very stupid and, unfortunately, very insidious. The ability to make fun of it, however, helps to destroy its power.

  53. 53.

    Mnemosyne

    I’m waiting for G to get home without our last few Christmas Eve necessities, and then it’s movies and books and chocolate for the rest of the day and evening, crowned by our traditional viewing of The Shop Around the Corner, which is yet another example of all the best Christmas entertainment being made by Jews (in this case, Ernst Lubitsch and Samson Raphaelson).

    This year, I went for the California tradition of tamales for Christmas Eve and got a half-dozen chicken tamales with salsa verde. Lord only knows what Christmas dinner will be since my sister in law isn’t much of a cook. Le sigh.

    Our extended family’s Christmas tradition was to drop all of the kids off at the movie theater after early dinner so the adults would have time to relax without us. Sadly, that tradition has fallen by the wayside.

    Happy Christmas to all who celebrate it, and a relaxing day off for those who don’t!

  54. 54.

    Mike in NC

    @Schlemazel: If you had the stomach to go look at Bannon’s Breitbart filth, you’d no doubt find references to the Protocol. The classics never go out of style.

  59. 59.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @danielx: I got a Samsung Gear VR for myself to Christmas; since Baud!2020 is virtual, does it work in the Oculus/Samsung environment or in the Google Cardboard environment. Is there a reddit on this? Enquiring minds want to know!

    ETA: Answers to these questions need to come from the Baud!2020 campaign sooner rather that later.

  61. 61.

    lamh36

    Awww… I’m not crying …who’s crying…ya’ll are crying!

    @Music1996Man
    My parents were married for more than 20 years, divorced, fought a lot, went to work on themselves. Years later, they start dating and as of yesterday, this happened;

    Congrats Mom and Dad! True love always finds its way back around.

    6:37 PM – Dec 23, 2017
    https://twitter.com/Music1996Man/status/944728695742320640

  62. 62.

    Lahke

    @Feathers:
    Try ChangSho on Mass Ave between Harvard and Porter Squares, very tasty. Had Sunday lunch buffet today, too full for eating dinner now.

  63. 63.

    Gator90

    @Baud: My Jewish children totally believe in Santa. It’s adorable. (And if they were old enough to vote, I’d encourage them to vote BAUD!)

  66. 66.

    SiubhanDuinne

    I was supposed to be celebrating Christmas tonight with my Atlanta cousin, but she threw her back out so I cancelled our dinner reservation at the best Mediterranean restaurant in town and rescheduled for Tuesday night (Boxing Day). I guess I’ll make myself a tuna salad sandwich tonight. Tomorrow? Probably will go see Darkest Hour in the afternoon and then have sushi for dinner at one of the few open restaurants. Lashings of sake, naturally, and if I’ve been very, very good, I might have a glass of plum wine as a post-prandial treat.

  70. 70.

    geg6

    I don’t usually comment on the banner ads here, but this one with Sarah Huckabee Sanders is just heinous.

    By the way, I love this story, Adam. I’ve been a total Grinch this entire holiday season, but this made me smile for the first time in days and days.

  72. 72.

    lamh36

    No one tell Megyn Kelly or Fox News, but…

    @vicenews
    Santa is a black man, and he lives in New Orleans (VIDEO)

    This man has been Santa for GENERATIONs of kids and there parents here in NOLA. Watching Miracle on 34th St the other day and saw the scene where the little Dutch girl was brought to meet Santa but her adoptive mother didn’t think Santa would be able to understand her…when Santa began speaking Dutch to the young girl, she smiled wide and held a nice conversation with Santa…to folks being idiots about this…don’t you think the little Black kids seeing the Black faceif Santa don’t feel the same as the little Dutch girl from the movie? Representation matters!

  73. 73.

    Mnemosyne

    It’s adorable when both 15-pound cats want to lay on me at the same time, but it makes it tough to move. ?

    Somehow the third, 8-pound cat never wants lap time.

  77. 77.

    Mnemosyne

    @lamh36:

    If you ever listen to “The Santaland Diaries” by David Sedaris, he talks about his brief seasonal employment as a Christmas elf at Macy’s in the 1980s. Even back then, they always had at least one Black Santa in the mix.

    Sometimes racist white people would tell him they were mad that they got the “chocolate” Santa the previous year and/or told him to be sure to direct them to a “traditional” Santa. If they did, he always made a point of deliberately steering them to the Black Santa instead. ?

  78. 78.

    The Very Reverend Crimson Fire of Compassion

    I for one welcome our new Jewish overlords. I think a world administered by the Jews I’ve known would be a damned fine place to live, infinitely preferable to our current story arc. Merry Christmas, jackals!

  79. 79.

    Mnemosyne

    @rikyrah:

    I’ve probably already missed you, but I got my blanket from Amazon and I really do love it — it’s soft and warm but still lightweight (I hate heavy blankets). I don’t know if it’s warm enough for the Midwest, but WaterGirl’s niece bought one for WG’s upcoming visit and she’s supposed to report back.

  80. 80.

    Fair Economist

    @Chip Daniels:

    That movie as much as anything helped transition me from conservative to liberal.

    It occurs to me that if Enron and W hadn’t converted me from libertarian to liberal, I’d probably have gotten in on Bitcoin early and would now be rich. Sigh. The price of morality…

  81. 81.

    Josie

    I grew up in deep South Texas, about 15 miles from the Mexican border. My family always had tamales and various side dishes for Christmas Eve. My sons and I are carrying on the tradition and faithfully eating our tamales tonight. They are really good; they warm the soul.

  83. 83.

    gene108

    Watching the Seahawks v Cowboys game.

    Fox Sports keeps wishing us Happy Holidays.

    Part of me wants to inform Hannity and Tucker Carlson about The War on Christmas their employer is waging, despite Trump making it OK to say Merry Christmas again.

  84. 84.

    geg6

    @Chip Daniels:

    This made me laugh. I’ve been a liberal all my life, from a family of rabid liberals and we all hate and make fun of that movie. When we were kids, we’d hate watch it if my dad wasn’t home when it was on (dad wouldn’t have allowed it on if he was home). Too treacly for us. It’s like eating sugar from the bowl—totally awful. Obviously, YMMV.

  85. 85.

    Jager

    One Christmas day, shortly after my Baby Sister married her D1 lineman husband we went bowling in the afternoon. My BIL had never bowled, he’s 6-5 and weighed 300 at the time (he’s lost about 60 lbs since his playing days) he picks up the ball walks to the line and the ball travels in the air 3/4 of the way down the lane, he gets a strike, turns around and says, “I like this game” he pretty much rolled gutter balls the rest of the way. Don’t think he’s bowled since. BTW I now have a nephew who is the size of Gronk and a niece who started for 4 years on her college basketball team. Both great kids.

  87. 87.

    efgoldman

    It says something important that a whimsical tradition, born of a moment of empathy at the start of the Cold War, is now being overseen and promoted by the highest ranking Jewish American military official.

    For as many years as he was on active duty, my dad took Xmas OD from whoever’s turn it was.
    Therefore he never had any trouble getting the high holy days off.

  89. 89.

    Miss Bianca

    Happy holidays, everyone!

    Cheyenne Mountain, where NORAD is housed (or used to be housed – heard that it’s been decommissioned) is, so to speak, right around the corner from me, so Colorado Springs radio station used to play that Santa story a lot. It’s pretty much the only Santa story i truly love (unless you count the story about St. Nicholas punching out the heretic Arias at the Nicene Council. But that one’s not nearly as heart-warming).

  92. 92.

    Tehanu

    Sick with a horrible head cold or virus or something, had to post a Christmas card on Fbk because I’m too zonked to actually write cards to individuals, and Hubby Dearest’s present has to wait till probably next weekend to be bought because I got sick on the day we were going shopping. But we’ll see the grandkids tomorrow even if I have to crawl from the car to the house, and all our friends and family seem to be doing OK, so I’m still hoping for a merry Christmas (and H.D. DVR’d Scrooged for me last night, so hopefully I’ll feel up to watching it tonight). I wish all my fellow Juicers happy holidays, and a 2018 that’ll see the last of Der Fubar et al. in Washington!

  93. 93.

    Mnemosyne

    @geg6:

    I go back and forth on IAWL. It is very treacly, but it’s also very liberal in a New Deal kind of way. Bedford Falls is a nice place where immigrants can get ahead and be respected and even Black housekeepers can have a comfortable retirement thanks to the Bailey Building & Loan. Pottersville is a capitalist hellhole where one mistake can send a too-friendly girl down the slippery slope to prostitution. People forget that, once the movie takes its dark turn, it’s really fucking dark.

    Some years the sentimentality is too much, and other years it’s nice to have that dose of optimism about the way things should work. I’m not sure yet which kind of year this is for me.

  94. 94.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Mnemosyne:

    I do love the “Santaland Diaries.” This morning I was listening to the live broadcast of the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols from King’s College, Cambridge, and I was thumbing ahead in the program and saw that they were, as always, going to sing “Away in a Manger,” and of course in my head I immediately heard DS singing it à la Billie Holiday!

  98. 98.

    Fair Economist

    @Mnemosyne: I love how IAWL shows the complexities of human interactions. What we do makes all kinds of differences, in complex ways.

    My realist side, however, insists that there should have been some negative sides to George’s existence too. He must have helped some guy get a car who later killed somebody in a drunk driving accident, although I can accept somebody like George would overall be a real asset to the world. I suppose Clarence was practicing some selective reporting.

  99. 99.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    I think I could pretty easily stop drinking my usual red wine if necessary, and I almost never drink spirits these days anyhow, but I believe I’d have a hard time if someone told me I could never drink sake again. Even though I only have sushi/sake maybe twice a year, if that.

  100. 100.

    Fair Economist

    @Tehanu:

    Sick with a horrible head cold or virus or something

    Uck, me too. This is my fourth day and I thought I was getting better but I think I can feel the fever coming back…

  101. 101.

    Hungry Joe

    I think this is from “Portnoy’s Complaint”: When the family goes to a Chinese restaurant for dinner, Portnoy’s (?) mother always insists on sitting with her back to the kitchen door “so I shouldn’t see what’s going on in there.”

    Tomorrow our daughter, just graduated from UC Davis, is flying back up to Sacramento — she claims to be a NorCal girl now — so we’re going out for Chinese food and a movie (probably “Three Billboards”) tonight. Soon. Like … now. See y’all around.

  102. 102.

    debbie

    @Mnemosyne:

    I also love the attention to details, like the timing of Bert and Ernie’s routine at the honeymoon suite. Very little of that in movies anymore.

  104. 104.

    Zelma

    @Tehanu: I
    I’ve got the head cold too. I’m supposed to be in VA with my kids and didn’t make it. I’m eating leftover stew tonight and will probably eat an Amy’s dinner tomorrow. Oh well.

    Merry Christmas to all. And may all our wishes for 2018 come true.

  105. 105.

    Anne Laurie

    @Adam L Silverman:

    Also, the restaurants were open and often in the same or adjacent neighborhoods to Jewish Americans who had nothing else to do on Christmas.

    When I was growing up in the Bronx, “everybody knew” that Jews gravitated to Chinese restaurants because they didn’t have to worry about mixing meat & milk (since dairy isn’t an ingredient in most Chinese recipes). Of course, kosher-keeping friends still had to be careful about all that pork — not to mention the crab rangoon! — but at least they didn’t have to worry about dishes sauteed in butter, or cream in sauces.

    (Why, yes, “kosher Chinese” — even “glatt kosher” — are indeed a thing in some places… )

  107. 107.

    eemom

    Lindsey Graham: Where were you on Christmas last year?

    Elena Kagan: Well, Senator, like all Jews, I was at a Chinese restaurant.

    ❤️❤️❤️

  108. 108.

    Mike in NC

    Whatever one thinks of “It’s a Wonderful Life” (box office flop in 1946), Netflix is streaming a terrific three-part documentary called “Five Came Back”, which looks at the careers of five famous American movie directors — Frank Capra, John Ford, William Wyler, John Huston, and George Stevens — and how their experience during WW2 forever affected their later work.

  111. 111.

    Skepticat

    My former financial planner and my former lawyer (the Moores can tell you I’m not prejudiced; I had a Jewish lawyer) always called Christmas Jewish Ski Day because all the gentiles were at home around the tree, so they and their families had the slopes to themselves. I love the Chinese restaurant sign. Not doing much for the holiday, but I just checked the Maine forecast and see that Thursday’s forecast has a seventy-eight-degree difference in temperature between here and my summer home.

  113. 113.

    Mnemosyne

    @Fair Economist:

    Clarence was pretty clearly just hitting the highlights. And I know I’m not the only woman who can’t figure out why Mary is doomed to be a spinster librarian in the alternate timeline rather than marrying Sam Wainwright.

    But I think it hits the basics for George’s family correctly: the Baileys only have one son who dies in childhood (Harry), and Uncle Billy’s not responsible enough to run the B&L, so when George’s father dies, the family is totally ruined and there’s no one else who can stand up to Potter.

  115. 115.

    Mnemosyne

    @Mike in NC:

    I read the book but I haven’t seen the documentary yet. It’s a really great book. George Stevens never really recovered from his experiences filming at the concentration camps.

  116. 116.

    eemom

    Fun fact: there’s some obscure denomination of Protestantism — the name of which I can’t recall, but I think it’s associated with Calvinism — that doesn’t celebrate Christmas because, they say, the only “holiday” that the Bible authorizes is the Sabbath. I used to work with a nice young man of this faith, and he said that he and his fellow believers just relaxed and enjoyed the day off. Never asked if they ate at Chinese restaurants.

    Fun fact #2: Someone else I used to work with who was a non-observant Jew had a rule that he always WORKED on Christmas, and the reason was quite touching. His late father, who was disappointed at his lack of observance, was upset that he worked on the High Holy Days, and demanded to know if he worked on Christmas too, and he said he did. So, every year, he continues to keep that “promise.”

  118. 118.

    chris

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    the only thing I miss about drinking.

    You’re not alone though I never cared much for sake. When I see an ad for an adult-aged single malt Scotch from a distillery I never heard of the little voice in my head says, “Just one…” Nope. After all these years the little voice in my head is barely a whisper but it’s still there if i choose to listen to it. I don’t.

    Merry Christmas!

  122. 122.

    eemom

    @Mnemosyne:

    Well, Sam Wainwright WAS kind of an asshole. Like in the iconic scene where George and Mary are talking to him on the phone and he says to George “What are you trying to do, steal my girl?” while being caressed by a bunch of adoring fur-clad groupies.

  124. 124.

    Immanentize

    @lamh36:
    “You know his cheeks wouldn’t be rosy,
    but still you could tell the man was cold,
    from his red underwear peeking
    ‘neath his soulful, soulful jelly roll.”

    Favorite Christmas song

  127. 127.

    eemom

    @Major Major Major Major:

    Nope, neither of those. I also had a 7th Day friend once and they totally celebrate Christmas. Wasn’t J. Witness either.

    I do remember that his wife lost a baby in a miscarriage, and he said they believed the child was part of the “elect,” which IIRC is a Calvinist thing.

  128. 128.

    Ohio Mom

    @eemom: Seventh Day Adventists do not do Christmas, and I think I remember that they are vegetarians or at least strongly promote vegetariasm. That’s about all I know about them, can’t answer if they go to Chinese restaurants on Christmas.

    I’m finding the Santa tracker very entertaining. I’d heard of it but never looked it up before.

    We’re having another quiet day/evening/ today and day tomorrow. Such is life with someone (Ohio Dad) recovering from heart valve surgery. We might as well have been snowed in for the last two and a half weeks. I am enjoying hibernating but Ohio Son is bored beyond imagining.

    We do have plans to venture out tomorrow. Ohio Dad’s first post-surgery trip will be to yes, a Chinese restaurant.

    Then Thursday, I take him to the surgeon for the first post-op visit.

  130. 130.

    Mnemosyne

    @eemom:

    Of course, but that only makes the point even more: alternate universe Mary marries Sam Wainwright for his money and ends up being completely miserable, just like everyone else. It makes more sense than “spinster librarian” and is probably even more depressing.

  132. 132.

    Amir Khalid

    @MattF:
    That’s because fried rice was originally created as (and still is) a way to use up yesterday’s leftovers.

  133. 133.

    Ohio Mom

    @eemom: I googled it. Celebrating Christmas is controversial among Seventh Day Adventists. Some do, some don’t. Which makes them as “cafeteria” as every other religion I am familiar with.

  135. 135.

    Mnemosyne

    @Major Major Major Major:

    I saw a theory one time that pockets of Catholicism hung on in rural parts of England for longer than was originally thought in part because Catholicism had a lot of holidays and feast days that the Protestants wanted to get rid of in the name of making people work harder. I don’t know that the theory holds up to scrutiny, though.

  136. 136.

    Immanentize

    @eemom: The Puritans banned Christmas in Boston. Then again, they sometimes had dishes with charming slogans (painted on them) like, “We are naught but dirt.”

    ETA clarity

  138. 138.

    J R in WV

    Well, I’m kind of a grinch. I used to hate all the customs of Xmas (which isn’t a derogatory abbreviation, as in Greek, “X” is a sacred abbreviation for “Christ”) but after I got married, love of Mrs J and wanting to get her something she’d like, kind of brought me around.

    But now, we have everything we need or want, but for the odd book or gadget or jacket, which we know we can pick out ourselves.

    Still, the spirit of the season lasts, and so I wish everyone a very merry Christmas, whether secular or religious, no matter which one either.

    Take care, all of you nasty jackals !! and Adam, thanks for the NORAD stories, so amusing, so good feeling !!

  140. 140.

    lamh36

    Alright now…Ya’ll know it’s almost that time again… #ItsAWonderfulLife coming up on NBC at 7CST….before we begin, folks always wonder why It’s A Wonderful Life is one of my fav holiday movies. Well…

    1)I’ve always had an affinity for the character of George Bailey. The older child who through no real fault of his own, has his life routinely put on hold by obligations to family, or friends, or whatever… I’ve been there…

    2) Choices we make or actions we take, small or large, can have a ripple effect on the lives of others, that we may not see in the short term, but in the long term…those actions goor or bad…made a difference in not just your life, but someone elses…

    3)No matter how dark or dim life can get, there can always be some light and being down doesn’t mean you should end it all, there is good somewhere somehow

    4) “Remember no man is a failure who has friends”…

  141. 141.

    Mary G

    The video with this tweet has the Obamas’ first and last Christmas messages from the White House, with some outtakes from the first when Michelle gets a bit grumpy. I miss them so much.

    Here’s Barack & Michelle’s first & last Christmas messages to America. Nice to see a REAL president on #ChristmasEve, unlike whatever we have right now.An oligarch/dictator/sociopath/Scrooge/Grinch/moron. #MerryChristmas pic.twitter.com/GwXWCHbZy3— Scott Dworkin (@funder) December 24, 2017

  146. 146.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Miss Bianca:

    Cheyenne Mountain, where NORAD is housed (or used to be housed – heard that it’s been decommissioned)

    That’s what they want you to think…

  147. 147.

    Mnemosyne

    @Adam L Silverman:

    A Jewish friend of mine has cousins by marriage who voted for Trump. They did it because they hate Muslims.

    She often says she wishes there was some way she could revoke their Jewish card and drum them out, but she can only declare them a shanda and leave it at that.

  149. 149.

    Major Major Major Major

    @J R in WV:

    I used to hate all the customs of Xmas (which isn’t a derogatory abbreviation, as in Greek, “X” is a sacred abbreviation for “Christ”)

    That always makes me think of Futurama (as so many things do).

    Fry: Yeah, it really puts you in the Christmas spirit.

    Farnsworth: What-mas?

    Fry: Christmas. You know? X-M-A-S.

    Leela: Oh, you mean Xmas. You must be using an archaic pronunciation. Like when you say “ask” instead of “aks”.

  150. 150.

    Mnemosyne

    @debbie:

    If you ever see The Big Red One (one of raven’s favorites), it’s an autobiographical film about writer/director Sam Fuller’s WWII experiences, including the liberation of a concentration camp and discovering the crematoriums. I think Mark Hamill plays the Fuller avatar character.

    ETA: IMDb says I’m wrong and it’s Robert Carradine who has the Fuller role. Hm.

  152. 152.

    ThresherK

    Santa Claus Conquers the Martians is a tradition here. Fortifying oneself first is part of the tradition.

  153. 153.

    StringOnAStick

    My half Jewish half Catholic husband and I have rather fallen off the traditional holiday stuff, mostly because being given a day off means we can go hiking or back country skiing or biking, etc. and neither of us likes to shop in general. That means we understand why so many are moving to Colorado, and can’t really blame them so we just sigh and figure out ways to get our recreation on at less popular times. Today’s skiing at 10 degrees in occasionally howling winds certainly kept the crowds down!

    Happy Holidays everyone!

  157. 157.

    Ohio Mom

    @Mnemosyne: The code for that is “better for Israel.”
    So much nicer sounding then “he hates Arabs as much as we do.”

    Rolling my eyes at my co-religionists.

  159. 159.

    Shana

    @efgoldman: In high school I worked at a Walgreens and always worked Christmas Day to let at least one of the Christian employees have the day off. I was happy to do it but it was always pretty sad, mostly a bunch of hungover men coming in to buy Christmas gifts. As I recall we sold a lot of what passed for higher end stuff like cameras that day.

  161. 161.

    magurakurin

    @Major Major Major Major:

    You are headed to Lisbon, right? If you don’t already know, there is a very interesting spot called Carnide about a 20 minute subway ride on the blue line from the center of Lisbon. It is the stop just past the big shopping mall, Centro Colombo, which is itself also kind of interesting (decent food court, for a mall anyway) Just up the hill from the subway stop is the remains of an old 18th century village and there are about 10 restaurants in there that are very popular with the people in Lisbon. I stayed in a rented house there for two weeks last year and made it to four of the places. They are really good. In particular the “naco na pedra” is famous in nearly all the places in Carnide. It’s a big block of steak on a searing hot stone and you cook the meat as you eat it at your table.

    Of the places I went to I thought Carvoeiro de Palma was the nicest. The waiters spoke a lot of English (some of the places it is much less) and you can choose the fish or meat you want to eat from a case in the front of the restaurant. Another spot that was very lively and nice was Adega das Gravatas. It seemed to be popular with French visitors. Not a lot of gringos to be found around there, though. Check out Carnide if you get a chance. Really good eating there.

  162. 162.

    normal liberal

    Adam, thank you for this post. I’ve always enjoyed the NORAD tracking thing, but had never seen the backstory. I’m amusing myself by imagining Col. Shoup’s very first thought on hearing a child asking for Santa on the fabled Red Phone.

  165. 165.

    NotMax

    Three hours of lawn mowing done. Ready to collapse.

    @Anne Laurie

    There’s a glatt kosher Persian restaurant near where Mom hangs her hat. Ultra-fancy and super expensive.

    Looked at the menu posted outside once and came to the conclusion that even if I could afford to dine inside there was nothing offered I would ever be interested in eating as a meal.

  166. 166.

    chopper

    still cant get used to the term “Jewish American”. is my catholic neighbor a “Christian American”? he’s my favorite Christian American neighbor!

  167. 167.

    magurakurin

    @Major Major Major Major: Lisbon is such a great city. So much to see, yet you can just hang out and do nothing at it is still amazing. Lot’s of hills though. Definitely get a transit pass, I think it’s called Viva Viagem, and do the “zapping.” You load on 15 euro or something and you can just swipe it to get on all the subway, buses, trolley cars and trams in the center. You get a small discount on the fare as well. It is good for the “elevators” as well. And pastel de nata. Those are awesome. Eat them everywhere and often.

  168. 168.

    Fair Economist

    @Mnemosyne:

    A Jewish friend of mine has cousins by marriage who voted for Trump. They did it because they hate Muslims.

    Don’t people study history anymore? Historically Muslims were substantially more tolerant of Jews than Christians. It was the creation of Israel which created the current friction, and that’s quite recent. The reason the Evangelicals are supportive of Israel isn’t something that would inspire Jews either, although they could be excused for believing it’s nonsense.

  170. 170.

    magurakurin

    @chopper: I guess it depends who you ask and when. Pretty sure there was a time in American history when he would not have been considered neither “christian” nor “American.” But yeah, that is an interesting point about why nobody says Christian American…it’s the default for the whole operating system, I suppose. White, male, christian.

  172. 172.

    joel hanes

    Went down to the Safeway looking for Sylvia, the older homeless woman who has been panhandling in that parking lot for the last three Christmas Eves running (last year it was raining, and she was soaked and shivering).

    She’s not there, and I fear she passed during the last year, alone somewhere out of sight.

  173. 173.

    NotMax

    @zhena gogolia

    Primary problem I have with that movie is an absolute detestation for the uncute, snotty, bratty kid role they stuck Margaret O’Brien with.

    Figured, of all people, you’d be listening to Rimsky-Korsakov’s Christmas Eve Suite today (composer inspired by a Gogol story).   ;)

  174. 174.

    Steve in the ATL

    @chopper:

    still cant get used to the term “Jewish American”. is my catholic neighbor a “Christian American”?

    Not according to fundies and evangelicals. But they aren’t known for getting facts right.

  175. 175.

    magurakurin

    @Major Major Major Major: The people are really nice in Lisbon as well. The one thing that does sort of piss them off, though, is visitors acting like Portugal is Spain. It really grates on their nerves is people say “gracias” instead of “obligado.” They don’t say anything at the time (they are too gracious for that,) but if you get someone aside and chat for a bit, they will reveal that pet peeve. And the thing is, it is so much NOT Spain. I love Spain, but the places just couldn’t be more different. It’s fascinating actually.

    The tile museum is good for a rainy day. Museu Nacional do Azulejo

  176. 176.

    Mayim

    @eemom:

    Traditionally, Quakers didn’t celebrate Christmas, although that had pretty much changed by the 20th century.

    In Scotland, New Year’s was the big holiday and Christmas wasn’t a statutory holiday until {if my memory hasn’t completely abandoned me} the mid 1950s, although it was celebrated well before that; my grandmother remembered the first time her father had the day off, around 1900.

    There’s no decent Chinese in my midcoast Maine town and the local movie theater is closed this evening and tomorrow, plus there’s a decent amount of snow predicted, so I’m doing my introvert variant of Jewish Christmas ~ making Korean at home followed by Netflix and Ancestry ;-)

  180. 180.

    NotMax

    @magurakurin

    instead of “obligado.”

    Slight correction.

    Obrigado. (Obrigada if a female is saying it.)

    Da rulez:

    ● Men must use “obrigado” to say thank you.

    ● Women must use “obrigada” to say thank you.

    ● When saying thanks on behalf of other people, men must use “obrigados.”

    ● When saying thanks on behalf of a group of people who are all women, women must use “obrigadas.”

    ● When saying thanks on behalf of a group of people that includes men AND women, women must use “obrigados.”

  181. 181.

    Mnemosyne

    G decided on his own to have a very Adam Christmas and have us watch “Christmas With the Joker” as part of his holiday program. ?

  182. 182.

    Shell

    my yearly watching and live-tweeting of It’s A Wonderful Life.

    My favorite Christas movie…

    Me…”The Bishops Wife”. Also on tonight.

  183. 183.

    magurakurin

    @NotMax: although, since the Portuguese end up reducing a lot of vowels to schwa, it sounds like “obrigaduh” when most people say it. Portuguese really doesn’t sound like it looks. It is a lot like English in that way. I was able to converse a little once I got my mind around the idea that Portuguese is most definitely not Spanish. At least in speaking. Reading the two are pretty close, but speaking, no way. People really seemed to appreciate any efforts at all to speak Portuguese. I bought train tickets and muddle my way through and the man helping me patiently listened and conversed with me in Portuguese. He gave me instructions on how and when to get the train very slowly and clearly. Then he checked that I had understood in English. His English was better than mine! He was so kind about it all. No way that would happen in France.

  185. 185.

    Gretchen

    @lamh36: I was confused for a minute because the only person I’ve known who spoke Dutch was a black man from a former Dutch colony in the Caribbean. So I thought the black man talking Dutch to the little girl was all one story.

  186. 186.

    m.j.

    Does anyone like The Man Who Came to Dinner?
    Amazon doesn’t rent it and there’s only clips on Youtube.

  188. 188.

    Mnemosyne

    @Gretchen:

    True fact I came across recently: Sojourner Truth was born into slavery in pre-Revolutionary New York and owned by a Dutch family, so her first language was Dutch, not English.

  190. 190.

    Tenar Arha

    @Mnemosyne: No one Jewish close to me voted for him.

    However if they did, you better believe I would have shoved their noses in every single moment during Charlottesville where people were almost set on fire, a local synagogue was menaced, and multiple people were hurt or killed, and every moment afterwards where that vile carbuncle said something awful.

    ETA & then I would have called them “Shanda fur di goyim” again.

  191. 191.

    Tehanu

    @magurakurin:

    He was so kind about it all. No way that would happen in France.

    Must disagree with this. There was a huge change in Paris, anyway, between my first visit there in 1969 and my last time, 1998. In 1969, the Parisians were just as snooty as legend has it, but apparently in the late 1980’s the French government realized that since Paris was the number one tourist destination in the world, they ought to do something about being more welcoming, so they conducted a huge campaign to get their people to buy in. And it worked! On our last visit, we got lost — in a non-touristy district, mind you — and went into a kiosk trying to get directions (in my mostly-forgotten schoolgirl French) to the Metro. The people in the kiosk could not have been nicer! They came out and pointed the way, all smiles. And they were not the only nice, friendly, helpful people we met on that trip. We were also astounded that so many people spoke English, maybe not much better than my French, but at least they were trying. I think the mere fact that I was trying to speak French got me some brownie points, instead of being sneered at for not speaking perfectly. A huge change from the first time.

    @m.j.

    TCM shows “The Man Who Came to Dinner” sometimes. My own favorite is “Christmas in Connecticut” with Sydney Greenstreet and Cuddles Sakall. And Barbara Stanwyck, of course!

  192. 192.

    Ruckus

    @Tehanu:
    In the navy in the 70s we did a number of cruses to the Med and as the NATO rep ship. We stopped in all sorts of ports and some guys hated every port because no one spoke english to them. I on the other hand tried to learn Hello, Please and Thank You in each language. That got me along every where and I had a blast and wanted to move to several places. Denmark, Belgium, Greece, The Netherlands, Spain……… In every single place as soon as I tried to speak they would recognize american (not english) and talk to me, from young kids to people my grandparents age. Even the two guys in Naples that tried to stick six of us up at knife point spoke english.

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