WEBVTT - Josh and Chuck's 2014 Christmas Extravaganza! 0:00:01.000 --> 0:00:15.280 Welcome to stuff you should know Frondhouse stuff Works dot com. Hey, 0:00:15.360 --> 0:00:19.400 and welcome to the Christmas Podcast. I'm Josh Clark. There's 0:00:19.560 --> 0:00:24.000 Charles W. Schucker's Bryant and guest producer Noel is with 0:00:24.160 --> 0:00:27.160 us today. Yeah, we got it's Jerry Stocking though, hanging 0:00:27.200 --> 0:00:30.200 over by the fireplace, and I am glad you built 0:00:30.200 --> 0:00:32.879 that fire, my friend. It's a little hot in here. 0:00:33.080 --> 0:00:35.920 Gets me in the mood though, you know, sure Christmas spirit, 0:00:37.040 --> 0:00:40.080 the Christmas mood. I said, oh yeah, you can talk 0:00:40.120 --> 0:00:44.120 about the mood for that that too. Yeah, we have 0:00:44.240 --> 0:00:48.400 like glad tidings and good cheer and warmth and Christmas 0:00:48.520 --> 0:00:52.960 lights and color and sugar sprinkles and stuff like all 0:00:53.000 --> 0:00:55.160 over the place. It's our Christmas. I have to say, 0:00:55.240 --> 0:00:56.720 my friend, you really know how to set the mood 0:00:56.760 --> 0:00:59.800 in here. You really go all out. Thank you, thank you, 0:01:00.200 --> 0:01:04.040 well done. Glad you feel comfortable, Nold, do you feel comfortable? Also? Yes, 0:01:04.880 --> 0:01:07.559 he has a little um. He painted his beard white 0:01:09.120 --> 0:01:12.880 is pretending to be sand and mine is going white naturally. Yeah, 0:01:13.600 --> 0:01:17.039 I'm not going a beard because probably beats some great interest. 0:01:18.200 --> 0:01:21.720 I've made my bed, I'm gonna lie in it. Does 0:01:21.760 --> 0:01:25.280 that make sense sure, So, Chuck, I think we want 0:01:25.319 --> 0:01:29.080 to say welcomed everybody out there, and we hope that 0:01:29.120 --> 0:01:32.560 you're having a wonderful holiday season so far. So kick 0:01:32.600 --> 0:01:37.240 off your shoes, put on your slippers, make some We'll 0:01:37.240 --> 0:01:40.039 make yourself comfortable. You put on your comfy pants. There 0:01:40.080 --> 0:01:44.360 you go as we prepare for our two thousand fourteen 0:01:44.560 --> 0:01:56.040 Christmas extravagances. So, Chuck, uh, you have seen the great, 0:01:56.120 --> 0:01:59.840 great movie A Christmas Story. Not just one of my 0:02:00.000 --> 0:02:02.760 favorite Christmas movies, it's one of my favorite movies of 0:02:02.760 --> 0:02:05.840 all time. Yeah, John Hodgman has never seen that. Weird 0:02:06.200 --> 0:02:09.040 I thought so too, and disappointing. Yeah, he said he's 0:02:09.040 --> 0:02:13.919 not a fan of of Jean Shepherd. So I guess 0:02:13.919 --> 0:02:15.359 if you're not a fan of Jean Shepherd, you wouldn't 0:02:15.360 --> 0:02:18.880 like A Christmas Story. Yeah, that's this is tough to swallow. 0:02:19.440 --> 0:02:23.120 Like I'm having trouble swallowing right now, Hodgeman, stuck in 0:02:23.160 --> 0:02:26.200 your throat for everyone else out there in the world 0:02:26.520 --> 0:02:31.359 besides you, John, Um, A Christmas Story is a beloved 0:02:31.400 --> 0:02:35.360 holiday movie, and um, it's actually got kind of a 0:02:35.400 --> 0:02:37.680 cool little backstory to tell you the truth. That was 0:02:37.760 --> 0:02:41.480 the movie that wouldn't go away, it would not be overcome. 0:02:41.880 --> 0:02:46.200 That's right. It's the nineteen sixties. Bob Clark is a 0:02:46.200 --> 0:02:49.160 writer and director and he's driving a date around and 0:02:49.200 --> 0:02:53.560 he's flipping the radio around because his date was dull. Sure, 0:02:54.240 --> 0:02:58.560 and he comes across writer Jean Shepherd's recollections and stories. 0:02:58.639 --> 0:03:03.399 He's he's a audio storyteller, a humorist, a humorist exactly 0:03:03.919 --> 0:03:06.639 talking about growing up in Indiana in the thirties and forties. 0:03:07.000 --> 0:03:10.480 And he was smitten with it. And apparently, uh was 0:03:10.520 --> 0:03:12.840 so smitten that he just kept driving until the program 0:03:12.880 --> 0:03:15.920 was over and said, you just stay there and be quiet. 0:03:16.160 --> 0:03:19.359 I'm listening to this story on the radio. Okay, So yes, 0:03:19.400 --> 0:03:22.639 smitten is a good way to put it. Enthralled maybe, sure, 0:03:22.840 --> 0:03:25.040 But he decided right then and there, I'm going to 0:03:25.120 --> 0:03:28.840 bring Jean shepherd stories to the silver screen. That's right. 0:03:29.639 --> 0:03:31.760 It took him a little while though, because, as this 0:03:31.880 --> 0:03:34.240 article says, and we got this from a Christmas story 0:03:34.240 --> 0:03:41.240 house dot com. Um g R. Yeah, was just he 0:03:41.360 --> 0:03:45.040 was a journeyman director. He specialized in B movies. Yeah, 0:03:45.120 --> 0:03:47.240 he not many people know this. He made a movie 0:03:48.040 --> 0:03:52.880 called Silent Night, Evil Night. He made another Christmas movie. Yeah, 0:03:52.920 --> 0:03:55.840 and Silent Night, Deadly Night. Now this was called Black 0:03:55.920 --> 0:03:58.520 Christmas is one of those was released under several titles. 0:03:58.960 --> 0:04:01.680 Was it Verse Side Night, Deadly Night? It was Black 0:04:01.760 --> 0:04:04.480 Christmas or Silent Night, Evil Night, and then there was 0:04:04.520 --> 0:04:08.240 another title. And he also did a movie called moon 0:04:08.360 --> 0:04:11.320 Runners about Moonshine that Dukes of Hazzard was based on. Wow, 0:04:11.760 --> 0:04:13.560 this guy was all over the place. Yeah, he got 0:04:13.600 --> 0:04:15.680 a big fat settlement when they released that Dukes of 0:04:15.680 --> 0:04:19.360 Hazzard movie recently. Nice good for him, like eighteen million bucks. 0:04:19.480 --> 0:04:23.520 That's great. Yeah, So Bob Clark in the sixties becomes 0:04:23.640 --> 0:04:26.240 enthralled with Jean Shepherd and it wasn't until the early 0:04:26.279 --> 0:04:28.560 eighties that he got to make a Christmas story. And 0:04:28.600 --> 0:04:30.640 the whole reason he got to make a Christmas story 0:04:30.920 --> 0:04:35.280 is because he finally made a blockbuster movie known as 0:04:35.320 --> 0:04:40.400 Porky's Yep, a teen sex round comedy. Man. That movie 0:04:40.560 --> 0:04:47.000 was the most mysterious, enticing thing when I was a kid, 0:04:47.320 --> 0:04:50.160 because it was I was ten years old and it 0:04:50.200 --> 0:04:53.560 was supposedly just the dirtiest thing that had ever been made. 0:04:53.640 --> 0:04:56.039 I wasn't allowed to see it. I wasn't stay have 0:04:56.120 --> 0:04:58.719 not seen Porkies. You know, it's funny. Watch Porkies and 0:04:58.760 --> 0:05:01.520 you'll be like, this is pretty team. Yeah, like it's 0:05:01.520 --> 0:05:05.159 it's body. But it's really not like I thought. It 0:05:05.200 --> 0:05:09.080 was borderline pornography. That's that's what I took from it too. 0:05:09.839 --> 0:05:13.560 It's not at all so huge hit. Though it was 0:05:13.600 --> 0:05:15.839 an enormously yea at one time, for a brief time, 0:05:15.839 --> 0:05:18.360 it was the best. It was a top twenty five 0:05:18.400 --> 0:05:20.479 all time grossing movie in the best selling comedy of 0:05:20.480 --> 0:05:23.200 all time, Wow, but only for a brief window. I 0:05:23.240 --> 0:05:29.720 think Ghostbusters quickly dwarfed it. And Yeah, so the studios 0:05:29.760 --> 0:05:32.559 came back to Bob Clark and said, man, do that again. 0:05:32.680 --> 0:05:38.159 Make a Porky's too, He said, despite John Hodgman's wishes, 0:05:38.880 --> 0:05:41.760 I'm going to make another movie. First. It's called a 0:05:41.839 --> 0:05:43.920 Christmas Story, That's what we're gonna call it. I'm gonna 0:05:43.960 --> 0:05:48.039 base it on Jean Shepherd's stories, Um that we're collected 0:05:48.040 --> 0:05:50.680 into a book called and God we trust all others 0:05:50.760 --> 0:05:54.360 must pay cash. And they said, fine, just go do 0:05:54.440 --> 0:05:56.640 your movie or whatever. And he did. He made this movie. 0:05:57.440 --> 0:06:01.880 He scouted out um twenty cities, I believe, and finally 0:06:01.920 --> 0:06:04.159 settled on Cleveland, And one of the reasons he settled 0:06:04.160 --> 0:06:08.240 on Cleveland was because Jean Shepard grew up in uh Indiana, 0:06:08.520 --> 0:06:12.360 which is very near Cleveland, and Cleveland had a department 0:06:12.360 --> 0:06:16.080 store called Higbie's. And Higgbie's said, hey, man, we were 0:06:16.080 --> 0:06:18.440 around in the forties. Why don't you just go ahead 0:06:18.440 --> 0:06:21.280 and film some of your stuff in here? And he said, 0:06:21.279 --> 0:06:23.760 Cleveland it is. Yeah, it's still it's still had that 0:06:23.800 --> 0:06:25.600 old I mean they had addressed it, of course, but 0:06:25.640 --> 0:06:29.719 it's still had that old department store look, that classic look. Um. 0:06:29.880 --> 0:06:31.880 By the way, if you're ever in New York again, 0:06:32.080 --> 0:06:37.039 go to Macy's Herald Square and ride the wooden escalators, okay, 0:06:37.080 --> 0:06:40.280 and be prepared to be delighted. Oh really, it's just 0:06:40.320 --> 0:06:42.520 the coolest thing. Man. I didn't even know they existed, 0:06:42.800 --> 0:06:46.080 but there would the rails, the steps, the whole thing, 0:06:46.600 --> 0:06:49.960 the people on them, and they haven't redone them, you know, 0:06:49.960 --> 0:06:52.920 they're still like it's it's really pretty neat. It sound 0:06:52.960 --> 0:06:55.919 like the cutting edge new would elevators, No, but it 0:06:55.960 --> 0:06:59.840 feels like a Higgbie's. Wait, escalators are elevators. Escalators? Yeah, 0:07:00.000 --> 0:07:02.360 even cooler. It feels like you're at a Higbie's though 0:07:02.360 --> 0:07:04.560 when you're at macy Seral Square, because it's uh, it 0:07:04.680 --> 0:07:06.960 just has that old school department score field when you're 0:07:06.960 --> 0:07:10.400 on those things. Um. They didn't give him much budget 0:07:10.440 --> 0:07:12.520 for a Christmas story, No, and they didn't expect very 0:07:12.560 --> 0:07:16.240 much from it either. No. They gave him just about 0:07:16.320 --> 0:07:20.760 nine screens um the weekend before Thanksgiving, and it made 0:07:20.760 --> 0:07:22.360 a little bit of money a couple of million, then 0:07:22.400 --> 0:07:24.960 about four million the next weekend, like six million in 0:07:24.960 --> 0:07:27.240 its first two weekends. Yeah, and they but they didn't 0:07:27.440 --> 0:07:29.240 have a big plan to roll it out because they 0:07:29.280 --> 0:07:31.200 didn't count on it being much, so they didn't roll 0:07:31.240 --> 0:07:34.600 it out. Grossed about nineteen mill, which of course made 0:07:34.640 --> 0:07:36.240 the money back and then some. So it was a 0:07:36.760 --> 0:07:40.160 moderate success as far as uh making the suits happy. 0:07:40.560 --> 0:07:45.080 But it wasn't some runaway hit until cable TV. Well 0:07:45.200 --> 0:07:49.040 yeah that's just cable but video as well. Yeah. So MGM, 0:07:49.160 --> 0:07:51.040 like you said, didn't think too much of this movie, 0:07:51.040 --> 0:07:53.600 and they actually they sold it to Warner Brothers. They 0:07:53.680 --> 0:07:57.440 tossed it into a pot of fifty movies that Warner 0:07:57.480 --> 0:08:00.840 Brothers bought. And after Warner Brothers audit, I guess they 0:08:00.840 --> 0:08:03.240 had to do with Turner because T n T and 0:08:04.880 --> 0:08:07.720 had a stunt on Christmas Eve where they ran it 0:08:08.120 --> 0:08:11.080 twelve times for twenty four hours. They played a Christmas 0:08:11.120 --> 0:08:15.200 Story back to back and they just, I guess, did 0:08:15.200 --> 0:08:18.840 it to fill some airtime, and it was just a 0:08:18.920 --> 0:08:21.880 huge hit. People started clamoring for it, and every year, 0:08:21.960 --> 0:08:25.200 I believe since, they've had a Christmas Story marathon now 0:08:25.240 --> 0:08:29.600 on TBS in at some point during the day, Uh 0:08:29.720 --> 0:08:32.400 forty million people tune in to watch at least parts 0:08:32.440 --> 0:08:34.800 of this movie. And for good reason. Do you want 0:08:34.800 --> 0:08:37.599 to know why? Because The Christmas Story is one of 0:08:37.679 --> 0:08:40.560 the greatest movies ever made. It's really pretty great. So 0:08:40.640 --> 0:08:44.559 you want to hear some cool facts about a Christmas Story? Uh? Yeah? 0:08:44.840 --> 0:08:47.480 How about the fact that the part of the Father 0:08:47.720 --> 0:08:51.480 that was ultimately played by Darren McGavin was originally offered 0:08:51.840 --> 0:08:54.840 to Jack Nicholson And I shudder at the thought. Can 0:08:54.880 --> 0:08:58.679 you imagine Nicholson in that movie? Actually I could, I can't. 0:08:58.720 --> 0:09:00.679 I think you would have been pretty great. But Darren 0:09:00.720 --> 0:09:04.280 McGavin is the greatest. Um. I was actually lucky enough 0:09:04.320 --> 0:09:08.439 to go to a screening the Alex Theater in Glendale, California, 0:09:09.040 --> 0:09:12.120 over Christmas and Bob Clark did a Q and A 0:09:12.440 --> 0:09:15.760 and Darren McGavin was there right before he died and 0:09:15.880 --> 0:09:18.800 was old and frail and he got a standing ovation 0:09:18.960 --> 0:09:21.760 and his wife like helped him stand up, and I 0:09:21.800 --> 0:09:23.880 think he just wasn't clear to him and she was like, 0:09:23.920 --> 0:09:25.199 this is for you, this is for you. It was 0:09:25.280 --> 0:09:28.400 just the sweetest, sweetest moment. One of my best Christmas 0:09:28.440 --> 0:09:31.720 moments ever. That's a Christmas moment. It was great. Um 0:09:31.840 --> 0:09:37.760 Jean Shepard he did all the voiceover narration, yeah as Ralphie, right, yeah, 0:09:37.800 --> 0:09:40.440 it's grown up Ralphie. Yeah. But he also made a cameo. 0:09:40.600 --> 0:09:43.520 So the old man who says, that's the back of 0:09:43.559 --> 0:09:48.040 the line where the line starts there, that was Jean Shepard, 0:09:48.200 --> 0:09:51.079 that was. And Bob Clark also had a cameo as 0:09:51.160 --> 0:09:54.880 Swede the h the neighbor with a Southern accent who 0:09:54.920 --> 0:09:58.000 stops spy to marvel at the infamous leg lamp. He goes, oh, 0:09:58.080 --> 0:10:01.840 you won an award age reward. That was the director. 0:10:02.400 --> 0:10:06.040 And the kid Grover Dill right, the little toady. Yeah, 0:10:06.280 --> 0:10:10.200 he actually went on to become the two dollar paper 0:10:10.240 --> 0:10:14.120 boy in Better Off Dead. I had no idea two dollars. 0:10:14.880 --> 0:10:18.640 I didn't ask for a dime two dollars. Yeah, and 0:10:18.679 --> 0:10:21.760 apparently those are the only couple of three movies that 0:10:21.800 --> 0:10:28.480 he was ever in. Ya know, it's an odd name. Um. 0:10:28.520 --> 0:10:32.120 Speaking of leg lamp, uh, it was based on a 0:10:32.160 --> 0:10:36.000 real lamp. UM a knee high logo that was eliminated 0:10:36.520 --> 0:10:39.480 and the style was of course um. Ruben Freed, the 0:10:39.520 --> 0:10:43.840 production designer, created the leg lamp. And I wonder if 0:10:43.840 --> 0:10:46.559 he has any claim on that thing, because those things 0:10:46.600 --> 0:10:49.320 were sold like crazy now, little ones, big ones, like 0:10:49.400 --> 0:10:53.240 key chains. I wonder who's making that dough. Hopefully it's 0:10:53.280 --> 0:10:56.360 going to him. I doubt it. Um probably going to 0:10:56.760 --> 0:11:02.160 MGM or Warner Brothers. Probably. Yeah, it's not very Christmas Eve. 0:11:03.080 --> 0:11:06.000 You can pinpoint, even though it's never said, you can 0:11:06.040 --> 0:11:09.480 pinpoint the month and year when all this action takes 0:11:09.480 --> 0:11:13.280 place thanks to the little or Finani decoder pin that 0:11:13.400 --> 0:11:17.520 Ralphie gets. The one he gets is the speed Omatic model, 0:11:17.640 --> 0:11:20.359 which is the one that was released in nineteen forty. 0:11:20.559 --> 0:11:25.959 So a Christmas Story takes place in December of nineteen forty. Uh. 0:11:26.080 --> 0:11:30.280 Many of the exteriors are filmed in Toronto, Toronto except 0:11:30.280 --> 0:11:33.679 the house the houses in Cleveland, and it's now a museum. 0:11:33.840 --> 0:11:36.720 I've been there, so you you have. Oh yeah, okay, 0:11:37.080 --> 0:11:40.760 do you recommend it. I've talked about it before. It's 0:11:40.800 --> 0:11:43.320 the best thing ever. You go and there's the the 0:11:43.360 --> 0:11:45.920 original house and you can walk through that's still dressed 0:11:45.960 --> 0:11:49.120 like the movie, and then down the street that someone 0:11:49.160 --> 0:11:52.840 bought another house and has a museum um of artifacts 0:11:52.840 --> 0:11:56.280 and things from the movie. And it's totally a great time. 0:11:56.640 --> 0:11:59.920 If you're ever in the Cleveland area around Christmas, do it. Okay, 0:12:00.040 --> 0:12:02.760 it's gonna be busy, but don't go in the summer. 0:12:02.800 --> 0:12:07.120 You know, you really gotta get that Christmas feeling. But um, 0:12:07.120 --> 0:12:09.280 a lot of the exteriors are filmed in Toronto because 0:12:09.280 --> 0:12:11.680 in one scene you can even see one of their 0:12:11.880 --> 0:12:15.200 red trolley cars in the background, which Cleveland does not have. 0:12:15.679 --> 0:12:19.920 Oh or Indiana as far as I know. So, Chuck, 0:12:20.000 --> 0:12:23.440 that's a Christmas story. Huh yeah, I mean, I guess 0:12:24.080 --> 0:12:26.760 we should say that there were some deleted scenes that 0:12:26.880 --> 0:12:29.040 never made it, you know, the black bart scene. He 0:12:29.120 --> 0:12:32.480 shot several of those, including one with Flash Gordon and 0:12:32.559 --> 0:12:34.840 at the Christmas Story House. You can see clips of 0:12:34.880 --> 0:12:37.920 those and some of the artifacts and uh, Ralphie, you know, 0:12:37.960 --> 0:12:42.640 went on to be a big shot producer, Peter. Of 0:12:42.880 --> 0:12:45.560 all those a lot of those Vince Vaughn um favro 0:12:45.760 --> 0:12:49.719 movies he's attached to. And uh, I think Vince Vaughn 0:12:49.760 --> 0:12:51.760 still calls him Ralphie sometimes just to get under his skin. 0:12:51.880 --> 0:13:13.240 I could see that. Of course, Chuck. It wouldn't be 0:13:13.280 --> 0:13:16.320 one of our Christmas specials if we didn't talk about 0:13:16.360 --> 0:13:20.960 booze offer an alcoholic recipe, right exactly. So this year 0:13:21.000 --> 0:13:26.520 we're doing mold wine. Mold wine is old. Actually. They 0:13:26.600 --> 0:13:32.040 think that it was developed too keep old wine from spoiling, 0:13:32.400 --> 0:13:34.160 or when it was about to spoil, to use it 0:13:34.200 --> 0:13:36.960 up really quick. Yeah, and it gained a lot of 0:13:37.000 --> 0:13:39.840 notoriety when Charles Dickens put it in a Christmas story. 0:13:40.040 --> 0:13:42.760 I'm sorry, Christmas, Carol. I still got that on the brain. 0:13:43.400 --> 0:13:47.120 And uh, that's a largely where it's association with the 0:13:47.160 --> 0:13:50.560 holidays comes in. I think, sure, I don't like it, 0:13:50.600 --> 0:13:54.240 do you? Yeah, I don't. I can't do it. They 0:13:54.240 --> 0:13:56.760 sell it on the streets of Budapest and it is 0:13:57.840 --> 0:14:00.600 wonderful stuff. Yeah, I tried it. I just I don't 0:14:00.679 --> 0:14:04.480 like the hotness and I don't like those spices. Just 0:14:05.000 --> 0:14:07.400 not my thing. You would not like mold wine. But 0:14:07.440 --> 0:14:10.680 I love wine, yeah, but not mold No. You know, 0:14:10.760 --> 0:14:14.360 I read this article from like nineteen forty, I think 0:14:14.360 --> 0:14:16.920 of the New Yorker. It was it's about this bar, 0:14:17.080 --> 0:14:19.480 the oldest bar in New York, and it was talking 0:14:19.520 --> 0:14:21.920 about how some of the old timers like would take 0:14:21.960 --> 0:14:24.840 their mug's vele and put them next to the potbellied 0:14:24.880 --> 0:14:27.680 stove and heat it up to like coffee temperature and 0:14:27.760 --> 0:14:30.480 drink their beer like that. So I've never heard of 0:14:30.760 --> 0:14:32.880 I think back then they were like, I'm cold and 0:14:32.920 --> 0:14:35.320 I want to be drunk. Yeah, so let's just do 0:14:35.400 --> 0:14:39.080 those two things, yes, which is what mold wine was too. 0:14:39.120 --> 0:14:42.240 So with mold wine, you typically want to use like 0:14:42.280 --> 0:14:45.800 a dry red like maybe a Sara or a z infandel, 0:14:46.200 --> 0:14:50.240 which I didn't realize we're dry, yeah, okay. Um. You 0:14:50.240 --> 0:14:53.440 want to add a little citrus, usually fort to fortify 0:14:53.480 --> 0:14:57.560 it with something like brandy. Um. Other people use port 0:14:58.000 --> 0:15:04.760 sometimes sport exactly. Uh. And then spices, despite Chuck's tastes, yeah, 0:15:04.800 --> 0:15:08.960 clove and cinnamon, ginger, nutbag the traditional Christmas drink spices. 0:15:09.800 --> 0:15:11.840 Uh that I just cloth. I think it might be 0:15:11.880 --> 0:15:16.320 what ruins it for me. Oh really maybe, and it's 0:15:16.360 --> 0:15:19.440 just not my thing. So I don't like sancree either. Yeah, 0:15:19.800 --> 0:15:23.560 I could see that you wouldn't um some spices or 0:15:23.640 --> 0:15:26.680 some recipes say you might want to sweeten this a 0:15:26.680 --> 0:15:29.400 little bit, so that's some honey, add some sugar, do 0:15:29.560 --> 0:15:32.120 something like that. And that's the beauty of muld wine. 0:15:32.160 --> 0:15:34.320 It's like you can just kind of start with some 0:15:34.360 --> 0:15:36.760 wine and add a little bit here there until you 0:15:36.840 --> 0:15:39.440 come up with your own concoction. But we'll give you 0:15:39.480 --> 0:15:41.680 like a basic muld wine recipe. I think we got 0:15:41.680 --> 0:15:44.600 it from grape dot com. It sounds like a good 0:15:44.600 --> 0:15:47.120 place to get a muld wine recipe. Yeah, it sounds 0:15:47.160 --> 0:15:50.480 like authoritative. So you want to take one bottle dry 0:15:50.480 --> 0:15:55.160 red wine. I'm guessing a seven fifty Yeah, probably, you 0:15:55.200 --> 0:15:58.360 want six ounces of brandy. That's a lot of brandy. 0:15:58.440 --> 0:16:00.920 That is a lot of brandy. Uh So it's getting 0:16:00.960 --> 0:16:03.280 just better and better by the second. This recipe is 0:16:03.680 --> 0:16:07.920 one orange slice in the rounds, two lemons sliced into rounds, 0:16:08.360 --> 0:16:11.960 half a cup of honey. Yeah, three cinnamon sticks refer 0:16:12.000 --> 0:16:16.720 to our cinnamon episode. Yeah, six whole cloves, one teaspoon 0:16:16.840 --> 0:16:20.600 fresh ground nutmeg, that's delicious. Uh, and then maybe some 0:16:20.680 --> 0:16:23.520 ginger if you want. You combine everything in a large sauce. 0:16:23.560 --> 0:16:26.880 Pain And this is very important, Chuck. You heat it slowly. 0:16:27.800 --> 0:16:30.240 You don't let it boil. You don't just crank that 0:16:30.280 --> 0:16:33.280 heat up the high. No, And as it starts to 0:16:33.320 --> 0:16:37.000 steam a little bit, it's done. You serve in mugs 0:16:37.080 --> 0:16:40.640 and enjoy. That's right. And I was reading this a 0:16:40.640 --> 0:16:42.680 bit you sent about the Charles Dickens pub in Worth 0:16:42.720 --> 0:16:45.320 in England, and they served mulled wine by the glass 0:16:45.360 --> 0:16:47.960 and it sounded like a really neat thing until I 0:16:48.000 --> 0:16:50.360 saw that they use a microwave to heat it up. Yeah, 0:16:50.720 --> 0:16:54.800 it's like man. They take six ounces of Spanish red 0:16:54.840 --> 0:16:58.120 wine at one ounce of berry cordial, which I'm curious 0:16:58.160 --> 0:17:03.960 what berry, Yeah, elderberry. I don't know, English berry, I 0:17:04.040 --> 0:17:07.760 guess um. And they pour it over an orange slice 0:17:07.760 --> 0:17:10.239 with a cinnamon stick in two cloves. And then like 0:17:10.320 --> 0:17:13.200 you said, they put the glass in the biker and 0:17:13.240 --> 0:17:18.840 they ruin the holy experience. The traditional dickensie and microwave, Oh, 0:17:19.320 --> 0:17:22.240 featured so prominently in Oliver Twist. But hey, at least 0:17:22.280 --> 0:17:25.040 they're trying. Yeah, and you can try to less know 0:17:25.080 --> 0:17:27.359 how your mould wine recipe. I think in Oliver Twists, 0:17:27.359 --> 0:17:28.879 you're right. They placed her may have some more, and 0:17:28.920 --> 0:17:30.800 he says, well, when you get out of the microwave first, 0:17:31.119 --> 0:17:33.640 then you can have some more. That was the original line, 0:17:33.800 --> 0:17:37.320 and Dickens crossed it out, so it won't hurt our 0:17:37.359 --> 0:17:39.560 feelings if you pause us to go make some mold 0:17:39.600 --> 0:18:07.359 wine and come back and listen to the rest. So, Josh, 0:18:07.600 --> 0:18:12.280 let's say your little kid and you want to write 0:18:12.280 --> 0:18:15.960 a letter to Santa Claus. Are you allowed to do so, sir? 0:18:16.160 --> 0:18:21.320 And if so, when did that start? Well, it's pretty old. 0:18:21.840 --> 0:18:24.919 Have you heard of this Twitter account tweets of old No, 0:18:25.440 --> 0:18:28.439 they just take old like newspaper clippings and stuff and 0:18:28.440 --> 0:18:32.280 tweet them. And so it's not supposed to be funny, No, 0:18:32.440 --> 0:18:34.800 but it comes off as funny sometimes. Some of the 0:18:34.800 --> 0:18:38.720 stuff these people said, we're funny, bizarre, random. But around 0:18:38.760 --> 0:18:42.280 Christmas time they do kids letters to Santa like old 0:18:42.320 --> 0:18:44.720 timey ones. There are a lot of kids who were 0:18:44.760 --> 0:18:48.439 not just asking for stuff, they were also asking that 0:18:48.520 --> 0:18:52.359 like their siblings got nothing, which is hilarious. I was 0:18:52.400 --> 0:18:55.520 never like that, but apparently no, I wasn't either always 0:18:55.560 --> 0:18:57.760 like my brother and sister. I was just I wanted 0:18:57.800 --> 0:19:00.560 us all to have what we wanted right at the 0:19:00.640 --> 0:19:03.159 very least. You realize that Santa wouldn't would frown on 0:19:03.240 --> 0:19:06.200 that kind of avarice. You know, I was a good sharer, 0:19:06.240 --> 0:19:09.680 I guess. Yeah. So. Um. Apparently though, as far as 0:19:09.720 --> 0:19:14.760 the United Postal Services concerned, all of this started around ninetenwelve, 0:19:15.640 --> 0:19:18.840 long time ago, when the they that's when they say 0:19:18.840 --> 0:19:22.359 they started really receiving a noteworthy amount of letters for 0:19:22.400 --> 0:19:26.240 Santa clause. And as we all know, Santa gets extraordinarily 0:19:26.320 --> 0:19:29.640 busy around this time of year, so he can't sit 0:19:29.680 --> 0:19:32.520 down and answer all these letters. So the Postal Service said, 0:19:32.640 --> 0:19:36.200 maybe there's another idea. Yeah, Postmaster General Frank Hitchcock said, 0:19:36.240 --> 0:19:38.080 you know what, why don't we write these kids back? 0:19:38.400 --> 0:19:42.880 And I'm gonna authorize not just employees, but volunteers, regular citizens. 0:19:43.240 --> 0:19:45.240 You and I could do this, Yeah, you can. You 0:19:45.280 --> 0:19:47.320 just have to go to your local post office if 0:19:47.320 --> 0:19:50.760 it's a participating post office, fill out a little personal info, 0:19:51.240 --> 0:19:55.000 put your fingerprints down right, stand there for a mug shot, 0:19:55.680 --> 0:19:59.119 and um, and you'll get some letters from children that 0:19:59.200 --> 0:20:03.400 you can answer in Santa's behalf. Yes, it's called Operations Santa, 0:20:03.480 --> 0:20:05.920 and it's a pretty neat thing to participate in. I've 0:20:05.960 --> 0:20:07.560 never done it, but I might try and do it 0:20:07.640 --> 0:20:12.199 this year. Um. They are now redacted obviously because they 0:20:12.200 --> 0:20:15.080 want to protect the anonymity of these kids and their 0:20:15.119 --> 0:20:18.159 families and the addresses, which is pretty smart move. I 0:20:18.160 --> 0:20:22.320 think in two thousand six is when they started doing that. Um. 0:20:22.400 --> 0:20:25.800 But yeah, you can write to kids from all over 0:20:25.840 --> 0:20:29.560 the world, I guess, or at least all over the country. Uh, 0:20:29.600 --> 0:20:32.040 it is voluntary. As a post office, you don't have 0:20:32.119 --> 0:20:34.480 to do it, but if you live in a major 0:20:34.520 --> 0:20:38.000 city there's bound to be a post office. It's participating. Yeah. 0:20:38.040 --> 0:20:46.440 And um, the USPS says they'll take all charitable organizations, groups, families, friends, whoever. 0:20:47.080 --> 0:20:49.520 Just come along and fill out your info. Yeah we 0:20:49.560 --> 0:20:52.000 should have. We should do that one year for house 0:20:51.960 --> 0:20:54.800 stuff works, okay, and get like the whole company to 0:20:54.880 --> 0:20:57.879 sort of take part. I'd be neat and um. Since 0:20:58.240 --> 0:21:02.959 it's territory reaches the new with Pole, the Canadian um 0:21:03.000 --> 0:21:07.320 Postal Service maintains a postal code specifically for Santa Nice. 0:21:07.320 --> 0:21:10.080 They use letters in their postal code, so Santa's is 0:21:10.320 --> 0:21:14.040 H zero H zero H zero, which spells ho ho 0:21:14.040 --> 0:21:46.280 ho nice ho ho ho. Alright, buddy, I'm glad you 0:21:46.400 --> 0:21:49.000 stumbled upon this because I had never heard of it, 0:21:49.480 --> 0:21:52.960 and it is now my favorite thing ever. We have 0:21:53.040 --> 0:21:56.600 to thank Snopes for this one. Barbara Michelson is just 0:21:56.720 --> 0:22:00.159 hats off to her. She's almost singlehandedly written in the 0:22:00.240 --> 0:22:04.159 Snopes website. You know that. Yeah, man, Well, this is 0:22:04.160 --> 0:22:06.600 the story of the Christmas Pants and it is true, 0:22:07.320 --> 0:22:11.920 and um, basically it goes like this. Uh, there are 0:22:12.400 --> 0:22:15.120 is a brother and a brother in law, Roy Collette, 0:22:15.800 --> 0:22:20.199 and uh Larry Kunkle, great minnesotaan name sounds like a 0:22:20.280 --> 0:22:27.280 Christmas villain name house, so uh in when did it start? 0:22:27.359 --> 0:22:30.240 Nineteen sixty four, Larry Kunkle's mom gave him a pair 0:22:30.280 --> 0:22:33.560 of Moleskin pants and he said, these aren't so good 0:22:33.560 --> 0:22:35.600 in Minnesota because they freeze and get kind of stiff, 0:22:35.760 --> 0:22:38.440 and I can't walk. I can't walk. So as a joke, 0:22:38.600 --> 0:22:41.679 he gave them, regifted them the following year to his 0:22:41.720 --> 0:22:46.240 brother in law, Roy, and this started what I think 0:22:46.320 --> 0:22:49.160 is one of the best back and forth practical jokes ever. Yeah. 0:22:49.280 --> 0:22:53.400 For more than twenty years they they would send them 0:22:53.440 --> 0:22:55.280 back and forth and at first it was just kind 0:22:55.280 --> 0:23:00.160 of like, ha, here they are again, here they are again. Well, eventually, 0:23:00.160 --> 0:23:04.119 I think after the first couple of years, Um, it 0:23:04.280 --> 0:23:09.240 was Larry Kunkle who took the pants, was it collect 0:23:09.320 --> 0:23:12.160 He took the pants and roll them up and stuck 0:23:12.240 --> 0:23:15.600 him in a three ft long, one inch diameter pipe 0:23:16.040 --> 0:23:18.200 and then wrap that up and gave that to Larry 0:23:18.280 --> 0:23:21.360 Kunkle and said, good luck, here's the pants. Yeah, and 0:23:21.400 --> 0:23:25.240 so that obviously inspired Oh yeah, brother in law, Yeah, 0:23:25.320 --> 0:23:27.760 I'm gonna one up you. And it became a game 0:23:27.800 --> 0:23:32.119 of one upsmanship each year, and eventually, uh, there were 0:23:32.160 --> 0:23:37.040 some rules. Uh, most notably, the pants could not be destroyed. Yes, 0:23:37.119 --> 0:23:39.080 they had to. The game was over if the pants 0:23:39.080 --> 0:23:41.639 were destroyed, they had to remain intact. What were the 0:23:41.640 --> 0:23:44.840 other rules? There were some that they had to be 0:23:44.960 --> 0:23:49.800 legal and moral methods. Supposedly they wanted to use junk 0:23:49.880 --> 0:23:52.000 parts as much as possible, But I don't think that 0:23:52.080 --> 0:23:54.720 rule panned out all the time, because they clearly spent 0:23:54.800 --> 0:23:58.040 a lot of money over the years in tuning these 0:23:58.080 --> 0:24:01.520 pants and various things. Let's let's talk about some of 0:24:01.560 --> 0:24:05.679 these methods. Um. Like you said, it started out pretty 0:24:06.080 --> 0:24:08.919 basic stuffing them in a pipe. Then I think the 0:24:08.920 --> 0:24:12.240 following year wrapping them in wire and giving basically the 0:24:12.240 --> 0:24:15.919 whole ideas make them super hard on the receiver to 0:24:16.080 --> 0:24:19.640 get to write, so so he can't give them back 0:24:19.960 --> 0:24:22.680 exactly because you would win. I guess if you're like, 0:24:22.720 --> 0:24:25.399 I just can't get these pants exactly. Yeah, and that 0:24:25.840 --> 0:24:28.919 he would have to keep the pants forever. Um, how 0:24:28.960 --> 0:24:32.800