They all sparkle. They all bubble. And they’re all water. But club soda, seltzer, and sparkling water are not interchangeable. Here’s what you need to know the next time you reach for one.
CLUB SODA
Club soda is just water with a few add-ins: carbon dioxide for carbonation and “mineral-like” ingredients such as sodium bicarbonate, sodium citrate, and potassium sulfate. It’s unflavored, other than the slightly mineral-y taste, which is why club soda is a great cocktail mixer.
Why is it called club soda? According to Culinary Lore, the beverage was once called Club Soda (note the proper noun). The water was—and still is—trademarked in Great Britain and Ireland by Dublin-based beverage company Cantrell & Cochrane. In 1896, C&C lost a lawsuit against a Jamaican company that had used the term “club soda,” which is probably why it remains a generic term everywhere else.
By the way, there’s not much truth to the idea that club soda is a champ at getting stains out; plain water typically works just as well.
SELTZER
Like club soda, seltzer is also just plain water with carbon dioxide added for carbonation, but without the mineral additions. Unlike club soda, seltzer can be sweetened and flavored, often with citrus or other fruits. Interestingly, seltzer was also once a trademarked product, this one sold in Germany as far back as 1728. European immigrants brought it with them when they came to America, and the term eventually became used more generically.
SPARKLING WATER
Sparkling mineral water usually comes from a natural spring or well, which may provide natural carbonation. There’s also sparkling water that isn’t mineral based and doesn’t come from a spring; it’s simply carbonated water, sometimes flavored.
BONUS: TONIC WATER
Tonic water is also—wait for it—carbonated water. The big difference is the addition of quinine, an ingredient found in the bark of the South American cinchona tree. Quinine was originally used as malaria medicine; according to legend, British soldiers started mixing the bitter stuff with soda water, sugar, and gin, to make it go down easier. It’s also fluorescent, so the next time you’re enjoying a gin and tonic, find yourself a black light and revel in its blue glow.
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You may not know Disney’s compilation movie package Fun and Fancy Free by name, but there’s a good chance you’re familiar with at least half of it. Released on September 27, 1947, Fun and Fancy Free was made up of two separate stories: “Mickey and the Beanstalk” and “Bongo.” The former is the one everyone seems to remember, in part because of Willie, the memorable giant:
If you’re not familiar with “Bongo,” the other half of the movie, well, you’re probably not alone. Here are a few other things you might not have known about Fun and Fancy Free.
1. BOTH SHORTS WERE SLATED TO BE FEATURE-LENGTH FILMS.
After WWII, Disney Studios was running low on funds. Walt assessed the array of half-completed movies he had in his lineup and decided to splice some of them into package films as a fairly quick way to get movies out that would generate some money for the studio. Fun and Fancy Free was the result of those mashups; 1946’s Make Mine Musicwas another.
2. THE PROJECTS WERE PUT ON HOLD SO DISNEY COULD PRODUCE WAR MATERIALS FOR THE U.S.
A partially completed script for “Bongo” was turned in on December 8, 1941—the day after Pearl Harbor was bombed. Predictably, everything changed quickly, and the movies were shelved for a while so that Disney employees could produce war-related films for the U.S. “Bongo,” specifically, was delayed so that Disney could make a short for the Treasury Department called The New Spirit.
3. FUN AND FANCY FREE HELPED FINANCE CINDERELLA.
Disney’s scheme to get more money into the studio’s pipeline worked. Because of the success of Fun and Fancy Free, the studio was able to scrape together enough money to make Cinderella—but there was a lot riding on that glass slipper. “Boys, if Cinderella doesn’t make it, we’re through!” Walt told his employees.
Despite the fact that it’s the lesser-known part of the story now, “Bongo” was a big deal at the time of its release because it was based on a short story by Sinclair Lewis. The author, known for his more serious fare such as the political novel It Can’t Happen Here, wrote the lighthearted piece “Little Bear Bongo” for Cosmopolitan Magazine in 1930.
5. ”MICKEY AND THE BEANSTALK” ORIGINALLY HAD A DIFFERENT TITLE.
The working title for “Mickey and the Beanstalk” was “The Legend of Happy Valley.” Presumably, the title was changed to make it clear that Disney’s big star was part of the production.
6. THERE WERE SEVERAL DELETED SCENES.
When the feature-length films were chopped down so that both could fit into the span of a single movie, some of the original scenes had to go. That included a scene where our trio of heroes accidentally awaken Willie the Giant’s toddler son, who thinks that Mickey, Donald, and Goofy are the perfect little toys. Additionally, the “Fi-Fie-Fo-Fum” song was longer, featuring Willie changing into a three-headed dragon and walrus, among other things.
7. IT WAS THE LAST FILM IN WHICH WALT VOICED MICKEY.
Getty Images
Disney himself was the first voice of Mickey, and he recorded the script for “Mickey and the Beanstalk” during the spring and summer of 1941. Eventually, his other duties with the company became so great that he couldn’t dedicate time to regularly voice his most famous character. He asked his sound effects guy, Jimmy MacDonald, to take over the role; MacDonald agreed, and voiced Mickey for three decades.
Though it was the last film in which Walt provided Mickey’s voice, it wasn’t the last time he spoke for Mickey; he reprised the role on his TV show on occasion.
8. OTHER FAMILIAR FACES WERE SUPPOSED TO HAVE CAMEOS.
The tricksters from Pinocchio, Honest John and Gideon Foulfellow, were going to be the con artists who traded Mickey the beans for his cow. Another version, which was even storyboarded, had Queen Minnie present Mickey with a gift of the magic beans.
9. ONE OF THE SONGS WAS ORIGINALLY WRITTEN FOR PINOCCHIO.
“I’m a Happy Go Lucky Fellow,” the ditty Jiminy Cricket sings at the beginning of the movie, was a discarded song from Pinocchio.
10. THE VOICE OF THE GIANT ALSO VOICED ANOTHER FAMOUS DISNEY CHARACTER.
Billy Gilbert, the voice of Willie the Giant, was a well-known comedian whose famous schtick was a comic sneeze—which is why he was cast in the role of Sneezy in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. In fact, it’s said that Gilbert got the part by simply walking into Disney’s office and sneezing five times.
11. CANDICE BERGEN HELPED CELEBRATE THE RELEASE.
As part of the promotional blitz surrounding the movie’s release, birthday parties for Mickey Mouse, who was turning 20, were held across the nation. One of them, held at Disney Studios, was attended by Candice Bergen—the daughter of narrator Edgar Bergen.
12. IF YOU REMEMBER A DIFFERENT NARRATOR, YOU’RE NOT WRONG.
Although Edgar Bergen originally narrated the “Mickey and the Beanstalk” half, telling it to child actress Luana Patten at her “birthday party,” he wasn’t the only one to tell the tale. When the movie aired on Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Color TV program in 1963, Bergen was replaced with an animated character named Ludwig Von Drake.
Another version had Sterling Holloway—the voice of Winnie the Pooh, among others—as narrator. And in the early 1970s, Shari Lewis and Lamb Chop took over storytelling duties.
When Charles Foster Kane died in Orson Welles’s 1941 film Citizen Kane, complete with a snow globe tumbling out of his hand and shattering on the floor, he uttered what is arguably the most famous line in the history of cinema: “Rosebud.”
Kane, of course, was infamously based on newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst—though Welles denied the connection, saying, “It is not based upon the life of Mr. Hearst or anyone else. On the other hand, had Mr. Hearst and similar financial barons not lived during the period we discuss, Citizen Kane could not have been made.”
Nice lip service—but Hearst didn’t buy it for a second, and Welles didn’t do much to dispel the rumor when he came face-to-face with Hearst himself. On Citizen Kane’s opening night, Welles was in an elevator in San Francisco when, by incredible happenstance, William Randolph Hearst walked in. Welles invited him to the premiere, but Hearst refused to acknowledge the invitation. When Hearst exited the elevator, Welles said, “Charles Foster Kane would have accepted.”
He may not have felt particularly chatty that day, but Hearst certainly let his feelings be known. He had his journalists, his critics, his gossip columnists, and probably even his typesetters spread vitriol about Welles’s character and personal life, calling him out for communism and questioning his patriotism. Hearst managed to get the movie blocked from most theaters by getting bigger studios to book them. And, of course, none of Hearst’s vast media holdings would advertise or even mention the movie. When it was unavoidable, they referred to it only as a “new screen attraction.”
Stacy Conradt
But now, 75 years after the release of the movie, it seems Orson Welles has had the last laugh. Though it may have bombed at the box office, today, Citizen Kane is widely regarded as the best movie of all time. However, Hearst’s reputation hasn’t aged so well—fair or not, he’s mostly known today as “the mythical bogeyman of American journalism.”
After being in poor health for a few years, Hearst died of a heart attack on August 14, 1951, and was buried in the Hearst family mausoleum at Cypress Lawn in Colma, California. Were his last words as famous as Charles Foster Kane’s utterance of “Rosebud”? It doesn’t seem so—there’s no record of them.
Peruse all the entries in our Grave Sightings series here.
Don’t live anywhere near New York City but still desperate to see something—anything—drop during the countdown to 2017?
We can help. (Well, we can help some of you. Some of you might have to go on a road trip.) Check out these places that have put their own twists on the rather odd tradition of hoisting a giant object up in the air to celebrate the beginning of a new year.
1. A GIANT PEEP // BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA
Peeps’s parent company, Just Born, calls the eastern Pennsylvania town home, which is why Bethlehem drops a 4.5-foot tall, 85-pound, illuminated Peep to mark the new year. Though Peeps come in shapes to suit every holiday these days, the drop is done with a traditional chick that flashes different colors at midnight.
2. A WOODEN FLEA // EASTOVER, NORTH CAROLINA
Why the town would create a 3-foot-tall, 30-pound wooden flea is a real head scratcher—unless you know that the town was once known as Flea Hill.
3. A MOON PIE // MOBILE, ALABAMA
Why a Moon Pie? According to PR Newswire, the tasty snack cake is the “favored throw” at the Mardi Gras parade (never mind that whole bead thing), which originated in Mobile. Sadly, the 600-pound Moon Pie is electronic, not edible.
4. A REAL (DEAD) CARP // PRAIRIE DU CHIEN, WISCONSIN
Most carp don’t see 15 seconds of fame, let alone 15 minutes. But every year in Prairie du Chien, Lucky the Carp is the center of attention when he’s lowered onto a throne to celebrate the new year. It’s the culmination of a week of activities, including hanging carp ornaments on a pine tree, the Carp Plunge (Prairie du Chien’s version of a Polar Bear Plunge) and busting open a carp piñata. As far as we know, the piñata contains candy, not carp.
5. AN OLIVE // BARTLESVILLE, OKLAHOMA
It descends from the top of Price Tower, a Frank Lloyd Wright-designed building, and falls neatly into a martini glass.
6. A BEACH BALL // PANAMA CITY BEACH, FLORIDA
Paying homage to the tourist industry that keeps the town hopping, Panama City Beach drops an 800-pound beach ball at midnight. Those who prefer beach balls of the non-deadly variety can attend the children’s drop at 8:30 p.m., where more than 10,000 inflatable balls are released from overhead nets.
7. A SARDINE // EASTPORT, MAINE
The area has sardine fishing and canning roots, but Eastport also drops a Maple Leaf as a friendly gesture to their Canadian neighbors across the bay.
As home to both a Pat Vincenti Duck Decoy store and the Duck Decoy Museum, it makes perfect sense that Havre de Grace would drop a glowing duck decoy on New Year’s Eve.
10. A PEACH // ATLANTA, GEORGIA
Go figure. If you prefer your crowd of revelers to be large on New Year’s Eve, Atlanta is the place to be: the Peach Drop is the largest New Year’s Eve celebration in the southeast.
11. A PINECONE // FLAGSTAFF, ARIZONA
In case you’re missing the connection, here’s a bit of trivia for you: Flagstaff sits in one of the largest Ponderosa Pine forests in the world. And the town has come a long way from the garbage can with pinecones glued on it that was used during the drop’s inaugural year in 1999—see for yourself:
12. AN APPLE // MANHATTAN, KANSAS
Paying homage to their “Little Apple” nickname, nearly 10,000 residents and visitors gather every year to watch the city drop a brightly-lit Red Delicious.
It’s no doubt got some competition, but Plymouth proudly proclaims itself the Cheese Capital of the World, which is why it drops a large chunk of Sartori cheese to welcome the new year.
14. A DRAG QUEEN IN A RED HIGH HEEL // KEY WEST, FLORIDA
Her name is Sushi (the drag queen, not the stiletto). But Sushi is just one of the many midnight drop options in Key West: They also drop a 6-foot conch shell at Sloppy Joe’s and a pirate wench at the Schooner Wharf Bar.
15. 200 POUNDS OF BOLOGNA // LEBANON, PENNSYLVANIA
If you’re a cured meat connoisseur, you need to know that Lebanon bologna is kind of a big deal. That’s why the city of Lebanon deems it important enough to ring in the new year with [PDF].
16. COAL // SHAMOKIN, PENNSYLVANIA
The little town of about 7000 drops a glowing chunk of coal from the community flagpole every year to celebrate its heritage.
17. AN ONION // ST. GEORGE’S, BERMUDA
St. George’s is another town that celebrates local industry at the end of the year. They drop a glowing onion as a nod to Bermuda’s large onion export.
18. MARSHALL THE MUSKRAT // PRINCESS ANNE, MARYLAND
As if dropping a giant rodent wasn’t unique enough, Princess Anne has decked the stuffed semiaquatic rodent out in a top hat and bow tie. No, Princess Anne isn’t the hometown of the Captain and Tennille; the humble muskrat has been a target for trappers in the area since humans first inhabited it.
19. A LIVE OPOSSUM // BRASSTOWN, NORTH CAROLINA
In the self-proclaimed “Opossum Capital of the World,” one of the little guys is lowered carefully at midnight, protected by a plexiglass cage. Though the critter is fed and released post-drop, PETA has been fighting the state to stop the live drop for several years. Looks like everything is proceeding this year as planned, though.
20. A PICKLE // MT. OLIVE, NORTH CAROLINA
If you love briny cucumbers, you’ll appreciate the 3-foot pickle that drops down the flagpole at midnight Greenwich Mean Time. That’s 7 p.m. eastern.
21. AN ACORN // RALEIGH, NORTH CAROLINA
It would take a Godzilla-like squirrel to carry away this 10-foot-tall nut made of 1250 pounds of copper and steel. Regular-sized squirrels can have a go at it, though: The acorn lives in Moore Square the other 364 days of the year and was created by sculptor David Benson to celebrate the City of Oaks.
22. YELLOW BREECHES // LOWER ALLEN TOWNSHIP, PENNSYLVANIA
Lower Allen Township wins for the quirkiest drop. The 5-foot-tall Bunyan-sized britches honor the local Yellow Breeches Creek—and for the kiddos, a pair of “baby breeches” is dropped at 10 p.m. instead of midnight [PDF].
23. A POTATO // BOISE, IDAHO
This year will be Boise’s fourth year dropping a giant spud.
24. THE DEUCE OF CLUBS // SHOW LOW, ARIZONA
The city of Show Low got into the New Year’s object-drop game just a few years ago. According to city legend, the city was named when two feuding men decided to draw cards to decide who had to leave town. “If you show low, you win,” was the game, and the winner turned over the deuce of clubs.
25. A KEY // FREDERICK, MARYLAND
In 2012, the city of Frederick began the tradition of dropping a 5-foot by 2.5-foot wooden key from a suspension bridge. Why a key? To honor one of its most famous sons, of course—The Star-Spangled Banner lyricist Francis Scott Key.
26. A BUNCH OF GRAPES // TEMECULA, CALIFORNIA
There’s more than one way to toast the new year. Temecula, which is in the heart of California Wine Country, does it with a 5-foot-by-8-foot bunch of grapes made of 36 illuminated spheres and 48 sequined balls.
27. A MUSIC NOTE // NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE
The Music Note dropped at midnight in Nashville is a nod to the town’s “Music City” nickname.
28. A PELICAN // PENSACOLA, FLORIDA
Pensacola pays homage to its city mascot by letting one with a 20-foot wingspan come home to roost at midnight. It’s not a real pelican, mind you, but an aluminum one studded with more than 2000 lights.
29. A HOG // FAYETTEVILLE, ARKANSAS
“Last Night Fayetteville” is considered one of the top 10 New Year’s Eve celebrations in the U.S.—and part of that accolade is due to the Hog Drop. Made with 1085 individually controlled LED lights, this oinker took more than 100 hours to create. Wilbur, eat your heart out—this is definitely Some Pig.
What Goes Up…
What goes up, stays up … at least when it comes to these objects that are raised instead of dropped.
30. AN ORANGE WEARING SUNGLASSES // MIAMI, FLORIDA
“Big Orange” is a 35-foot neon orange that climbs 400 feet up the side of the InterContinental Hotel in Miami. And if that’s not enough for you, there’s also Pitbull.
31. A WATERMELON BALL // VINCENNES, INDIANA
When it gets to the top, the ball opens to release 12 real watermelons, making a mess that would make Gallagher proud in the splash zone below.
32. A GIANT HERSHEY’S KISS // HERSHEY, PENNSYLVANIA
The Kiss weighs 300 pounds and is seven feet tall before the “paper” plume is added. The banner brings the massive candy’s height to 12 feet.
33. THE QUEEN CHARLOTTE CROWN // CHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA
For those of us who aren’t well-schooled in city nicknames, Charlotte is sometimes known as the Queen City because Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz was Queen consort of Great Britain when the city was incorporated. The crown is raised 25 feet in uptown Charlotte.
34. A TO-GO CUP // SAVANNAH, GEORGIA
This year marks the fourth annual “Up the Cup” celebration in Savannah. The cup is sponsored by Wet Willie’s, an establishment that serves frozen alcoholic drinks in—you guessed it—a to-go cup.
Snowbirds, take note: If a winter season completely devoid of snow sounds like your idea of heaven, these 12 places are calling your name. Though they do get the occasional dusting, once every few decades is definitely more novelty than nuisance.
1. ROME, ITALY
Rome gets a dusting every few years, but heavy snow that sticks happens only once every 25 years or so. When it happened in 2012, the snow did some damage to the Colosseum, forcing officials to close the historic monument for inspection.
2. MIAMI, FLORIDA
In 1977, a cold wave swept through Florida, causing snow flurries for the first and only time in the recorded history of many towns, including Miami. The only time it had happened before was in 1899, and that was in Fort Pierce—130 miles north. While Miamians were charmed by the snow, workers in the state’s citrus and vegetable industry weren’t so thrilled; the snow and cold weather wiped them out, costing at least 150,000 people their jobs.
3. THE SAHARA DESERT
The Sahara isn’t always dry—the desert experiences snow storms on extremely rare occasions, including December 19, 2016, when snow stuck to the sand dunes in Ain Sefra, Algeria, for about a day.
The white stuff ended a 37-year snowless spell for the region; the last time the Sahara saw snow that stuck was February 1979, and it only lasted for 30 minutes.
4. SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA
Though the only recorded snowfall in Sydney’s history happened close to 200 years ago, there was a close call in 2007. However, the tiny white precipitation turned out to be “soft hail,” not snow. In fact, some historians think the 1836 event may also have been hail. “Two hundred years ago they may not have been that well trained and it was probably small hail,” saidPeter Zmijewsk, senior forecaster at the Bureau of Meteorology.
5. BAGHDAD, IRAQ
Although it’s not uncommon to see snow in Northern Iraq, snow took a 100-year hiatus from Baghdad before deciding to show itself again in 2008. Most of it melted as soon as it hit the ground, but citizens were still pleasantly surprised.
6. LISBON, PORTUGAL
FRANCISCO LEONG/AFP/Getty Images
Prior to January 2006, it had been more than a half-century since Lisbon had last seen snowfall. Many highways and roads were closed in central and south Portugal during the storm of 2006; one town even lost power.
7. MALIBU, CALIFORNIA
Snow in the mountains of California is expected, but snow in Malibu is pretty rare. The last measurable amount was during a cold snap at the end of 2008 that also hit Las Vegas.
8. LAS VEGAS, NEVADA
It used to be a rarity to see snow falling on the Palms or the Bellagio, but it seems to be happening about once a year now. The snow is brief and often melts as fast as it falls, but in December 2008, enough stuck around to make it a pretty newsworthy event.
9. BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA
JUAN MABROMATA/AFP/Getty Images
If you could happily go 89 years without seeing snow, Buenos Aires might be the place for you; snow was a stranger to the city from June 22, 1918, through July 9, 2007.
10. SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA
The mountains in San Diego county see snow every year, but San Diego proper hasn’t had measurable snowfall since 1967. Flakes have floated through the air on occasion, even on a memorable Christmas Eve in 1987—but nothing like the amount they got in ’67. It was so much, one resident reported, that some kids managed to go sledding.
11. HAWAII
It snows pretty much annually in Hawaii—even enough to go skiing. To see the rare event, however, you’ll have to go up: The white stuff only sticks around at the top of Mauna Loa, Mauna Kea, and Haleakala. In fact, Mauna Kea was recently blanketed in snow.
12. NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA
Chris Graythen/Getty Images
Just 17 “snow events” have been recorded in Nola from 1853 to 2008. Nothing compares to the snow of 1895; residents were flummoxed to find themselves snowed in with more than eight inches of snow on the ground.
To many people, white chocolate is a lesser chocolate. Its sweetness is almost cloying, and it doesn’t have the rich, nuanced flavor that dark and milk chocolate have.
Maybe that’s because it’s not really chocolate at all. Here’s why:
The stuff that’s extracted from a cocoa bean to make chocolate is called a chocolate nib. The nibs are ground into a paste, which is called “chocolate liquor” even though there’s no alcohol involved (another chocolatey lie!). The chocolate liquor can be separated into two parts: cocoa solids, which is where we get that delicious chocolate flavor, and cocoa fats, better known as cocoa butter.
White chocolate doesn’t contain any cocoa solids. Though one of its major ingredients is cocoa butter, the substance lacks any flavor, which is essentially how we define something as chocolate. What’s more, the FDA only requires white chocolate, which it deems a “solid or semiplastic food,” to have 20 percent cocoa fat—so something that is legally labeled “white chocolate” may only contain 20 percent of a flavorless product derived from cocoa beans. The rest is made up of sweeteners, dairy product, emulsifying agents, spices, flavorings, and whey.
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On December 24, 1929, all was not calm at the White House—though it certainly was bright.
President and First Lady Herbert and Lou Hoover were hosting a Christmas party for children of White House staffers when White House Chief Usher Ike Hoover (no relation) delivered a quiet message to the president: The West Wing was ablaze.
Hoover immediately grabbed his son and members of his Cabinet and led them to the executive office, where they crawled through a window and began hauling out steel cabinets full of important files. Hoover’s secretaries grabbed his desk drawers while Secret Service agents saved the desk chair and the presidential flag.
With the critical documents and important politicians out of the way, firefighters broke the skylight and chopped holes in the roof to let smoke out and water in. As they battled the blaze, the children’s party continued and the Marine Band played on. When the kids left around 10 p.m., the First Lady and her sister joined the president on the West Terrace of the White House to keep an eye on the progress. The flames were finally doused around 10:30 p.m.
According to Lt. Col. Ulysses S. Grant III—the former president’s grandson—the inferno started when 200,000 government pamphlets that were being stored in an attic fell victim to faulty wiring or a blocked chimney. (Obviously, fire investigation forensics have since improved.)
Though 19 engine companies, four truck companies, and 130 firefighters acted quickly and heroically, the West Wing still suffered extensive water, smoke, and fire damage. It was unavailable for more than four months, not opening again for business until April 14, 1930. And though the children at the party that night were blissfully unaware that anything had happened, Hoover made it up to them the next Christmas anyway—with toy fire trucks.
By the way, if you find this pyro-presidential history particularly charming, you’re in luck: The 2016 Christmas ornament being sold by the White House Historical Association commemorates the occasion.
Every year, millions of kids around the globe communicate with Jolly Old St. Nick the old-fashioned way: Pen (or crayon) and paper. The top three countries that generate snail mail to Santa send more than 4 million letters annually: CNN estimates that 1.7 million come from France, 1.35 million are sent from Canada, and more than a million letters are written in the U.S. (The United States Postal Service doesn’t have an exact number, but says the number of letters to Santa from American kids is “easily in the millions.)
That’s a lot of correspondence. So what happens to all of it? Well, as with any other piece of mail, it depends on how the letter was addressed.
In 1912, the U.S. Postmaster General gave local postmasters the authority to allow employees and citizens to answer letters addressed to Santa. It eventually became known as Operation Santa, and today, multiple locations across the U.S. participate in the program to help deliver gifts to needy children. Those who want to play elf for the season can drop by any one of them and select a letter (or letters) to Santa to fulfill. If you don’t have a participating post office in your area, you can volunteer to start an Operation Santa in your city or donate to an existing location.
The USPS has another program called Letters to Santa, which guarantees children a response from the North Pole, but no presents. Parents mail their children’s letters to the “North Pole Postmark Postmaster,” along with Santa’s response and a self-addressed, stamped envelope. The North Pole Postmark Postmaster will return the letter to the child with a special postmark from Santa.
The U.S. isn’t alone in its Yuletide philanthropy—there are similar Santa programs around the globe. The Royal Mail makes sure kids who send letters to Mr. Claus receive a response, as does the Canada Post, which even gives the big guy the custom postal code “H0H 0H0.” Brazil has Papai Noel dos Correios, a program similar to Operation Santa. And in France, any child who writes to Le Père Noël will receive a response from a post office dedicated specifically to the cause. In fact, since 1962, receiving a response from Le PèreNoëlis actually guaranteed by law, bringing new meaning to that whole “naughty or nice” thing.
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The sweet and striped shepherd’s hooks can be found just about everywhere during the holiday season. It’s time you learned a thing or two (or 10) about them.
1. THEY’VE BEEN AROUND SINCE THE 17TH CENTURY.
While the origins of the candy cane are a bit murky, legend has it that they first appeared in hooked form around 1670. Candy sticks themselves were pretty common, but they really took shape when the choirmaster at the Cologne Cathedral in Germany got the bright idea of twisting them to look like shepherd’s hooks. He then handed them out to kids during church services to keep them quiet.
2. A GERMAN IMMIGRANT BROUGHT THE TRADITION TO THE STATES.
It’s no surprise, then, that it was a German immigrant who introduced the custom to America. The first reference we can find to the tradition stateside is 1847, when August Imgard of Wooster, Ohio, decked his home out with the sugary fare.
3. THEY HAVEN’T ALWAYS BEEN STRIPED.
Candy canes without the red don’t seem nearly as cheery, do they? But that’s how they were once made: all white. We’re not really sure who or exactly when the scarlet stripe was added, but we do know that images on cards before the 1900s show snow white canes.
4. THEY’RE A (RELATIVELY) VIRTUOUS HOLIDAY TREAT.
Most candy canes are around five inches long, containing only about 50 calories and no fat or cholesterol.
5. THEY DON’T ALWAYS FIT ON A CHRISTMAS TREE.
The world’s largest candy cane was built by Geneva, Illinois chef Alain Roby in 2012. It was 51 feet long, required about 900 pounds of sugar, and was eventually smashed up with a hammer so people could take home a piece.
6. EVERYONE HAS THEIR OWN WAY OF EATING THEM.
Fifty-four percent of kids suck on candy canes, compared to the 24 percent who just go right for the big crunch. As you may have been able to guess, of those surveyed, boys were nearly twice as likely to be crunchers.
7. MORE THAN A BILLION ARE MADE EACH YEAR.
According to the National Confectioners Association, about 1.2 billion candy canes are made annually, and 90 percent of those are sold between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Which honestly begs the question: Who’s buying the 10 percent in the off season?
8. A PRIEST PLAYED A MAJOR ROLE IN THE CANDY’S MOVE TO MASS PRODUCTION.
Bobs (that’s right; no apostrophe) Candies was the first company to really hang its hat on the sweet, striped hook. Lt. Bob McCormack began making candy canes for his kids in the 1920s, and they were such a hit he decided to start mass-producing them. With the help of his brother-in-law, a Catholic priest named Gregory Harding Keller (and his invention, the Keller Machine), McCormack was eventually able to churn out millions of candy canes a day.
9. THEY HAVE THEIR OWN (ODDLY-TIMED) HOLIDAY.
December 26 is National Candy Cane Day. Go figure.
10. THE PROCESS FOR MAKING THEM BY HAND IS MESMERIZING.
Here’s how they make candy canes at Disneyland—it’s a painstaking (and beautiful) technique.
It’s been 50 years since artist, producer, entrepreneur, and all-around game-changer Walt Disney passed away from lung cancer on December 15, 1966. Half a century later, it’s easy to forget that Disney was a real guy, not just a caricature or company figurehead. In honor of the man, not the corporation, here are 15 facts about his life.
1. HE ONCE PLAYED PETER PAN IN A SCHOOL PLAY.
The story Peter Pan surely held a special place in Walt Disney’s heart: not only was it a hit movie for him in 1953, it also took him back to his childhood. After seeing Peter Pan on stage, young Walt was given the opportunity to play the Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up in a school performance. Walt later recalled that his brother was in charge of the rope used to hoist him over the stage to simulate flying, proving that Roy has always been an integral part of Walt’s life.
2. HE WAS A HIGH SCHOOL DROPOUT.
Walt was just 16 when he left school to join the Red Cross Ambulance Corps, wanting to do his part in World War I—but because he was just shy of the minimum age requirement of 17, he forged a different date on his birth certificate. Disney didn’t see much action, however. He was sent to France in late 1918, not long after the armistice was signed that ended the fighting. He still helped where he could, driving Red Cross officials and performing other tasks, before he was discharged in 1919.
3. HE ALMOST SOLD VACUUM CLEANERS FOR A LIVING.
In 1923, Walt joined his older brother Roy in L.A. to pursue a career in animation. Roy had been selling vacuum cleaners door-to-door to make ends meet and encouraged Walt do the same. Walt considered it, but before he could get sucked in by a Kirbyesque scheme, he got a call from a company in New York that wanted him to make shorts for them.
In 1927, Universal asked Walt and his chief animator Ub Iwerks to create a cartoon character for them; the result was Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. Oswald was a huge hit, complete with robust merchandising. With this success under his belt, in 1928, Disney went to New York to renegotiate his contract with producer Charles Mintz. Mintz, however, countered with a different deal: He wanted to cut the budget. And to add salt to the wound, Mintz had been working backdoor deals to hire Disney’s animators out from under him. In the end, Universal ended up with the rights to Oswald, and Disney left New York feeling as if he had lost almost everything. But it all worked out in the end—on the train ride back to California, Disney sketched a character that would eclipse Oswald in popularity: Mickey Mouse.
The company regained control of the obscure character in 2006, almost eight decades after losing him. The rights were part of a trade between Disney and NBC/Universal: They agreed to let Disney have Oswald back, and Disney, the owner of ABC and ESPN, agreed to let NBC use sportscaster Al Michaels for Sunday Night Football.
5. HE DIDN’T DRAW MICKEY MOUSE.
He did at first, but it didn’t last long—after 1928, Walt was no longer animating, focusing instead on story development and direction. He relied on Ub Iwerks and other superior artists to do the drawing dirty work. He never drew Mickey in any of his theatrical releases, and in fact, probably only really drew Mickey when autograph seekers requested it.
6. BUT HE DID VOICE MICKEY MOUSE.
From 1928 to 1947, Walt was the man behind the mouse—literally. Even after the voice work was officially turned over to Jimmy MacDonald in 1947, Walt continued to do Mickey’s voice for shorts on The Mickey Mouse Club.
7. HE DROVE HIS DAUGHTERS TO SCHOOL EVERY DAY.
Despite the fact that he had drivers, a live-in housekeeper, and a number of other staff members at his disposal, Disney took great pleasure in driving his two daughters to school every day. He also spoiled them unabashedly, which historian Steve Watts believes was a reaction to Walt’s own stern upbringing.
8. HE HAD A SECRET APARTMENT AT DISNEYLAND.
It’s still there, in fact, above the fire station. Walt’s private apartment isn’t typically open to the public, but VIPs are occasionally offered tours. The furnishings remain virtually unchanged from when Walt used to spend time there, including a lamp in the window visible from outside. It’s always kept on to signify that Walt is always in the park.
9. HIS FAVORITE SONG WAS “FEED THE BIRDS.”
There have been a lot of toe-tapping hits in Disney movies over the years, but Walt’s personal favorite was a ballad: “Feed the Birds,” the song about the pigeon lady in Mary Poppins. According to songwriter Richard Sherman, Walt often stopped by the Sherman brothers’ office at Disney on Friday afternoons and requested a personal performance of “Feed the Birds.” “He loved that song, and knew it was the heartbeat of the whole movie,” Sherman said.
10. HE FOUND GOLF ANYTHING BUT RELAXING.
Though many people play golf to relax, Disney couldn’t deal with it. After giving up polo at his doctor’s behest, Walt took up golf, getting up at 4:30 a.m. to squeeze in nine holes before work. He found the game so frustrating that he quit and took up a more chill sport—lawn bowling.
11. WALT FELT RESPONSIBLE FOR HIS MOTHER’S DEATH.
Once he became successful, Walt bought his parents a rather extravagant present: a new house. And when his parents needed something fixed, tweaked, or repaired, he sent his own repairmen from the studio over to take care of it. Such was the case when they discovered a problem with their furnace in 1938. Tragically, his team didn’t take care of the issue properly, and Flora Call Disney died of carbon monoxide poisoning at the age of 70. His father, Elias, also fell very ill from the gas leak, but survived. Walt’s daughter, Sharon, said that even years later, Walt found the subject nearly impossible to talk about.
12. HIS HOUSEKEEPER WAS A VERY WEALTHY WOMAN.
Thelma Howard was the Disney family’s live-in housekeeper and cook for three decades. She was hired in 1951 and quickly became part of the family, even making sure the fridge was well-stocked with hot dogs—Walt liked to eat them cold as a snack when he got home from work. As part of her annual Christmas gift, the Disneys gave her stock in the company. She never did anything with them—and by the time she died in 1994, the woman was a multimillionaire because of them. She left nearly $4.5 million to poor and disabled children, and roughly the same amount to her disabled son.
13. DISNEY WAS OBSESSED WITH TRAINS.
Walt always had an interest in trains, even building an elaborate model in his office, which he enjoyed running for his guests. In 1948, his hobby grew to new heights when he constructed a 1/8 scale model in his backyard, with track spanning half a mile. He deemed it the Carolwood Pacific Railroad.
14. ONE OF HIS LAST WRITTEN COMMUNICATIONS WAS RATHER MYSTERIOUS—AND INVOLVED KURT RUSSELL.
Shortly before his death, Disney wrote “Kurt Russell” on a piece of paper. It was later found on his desk, and, according to Disney historian Dave Smith, the notes were among Disney’s last few written words. At the time of Disney’s death, Russell was a largely unknown child actor working for the studio. No one has any idea what Disney was referring to with his note—including Kurt Russell.
15. WALT DISNEY IS NOT CRYOGENICALLY FROZEN.
Bob Nelson, the former president of the Cryonics Society of California, makes a good point: if Disney was the first cryogenically frozen man, it would have been a pretty big deal for cryonics, and they would have publicized the heck out of the Mickey Mouse-cicle. No, Walt was cremated and buried at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Glendale. His gravesite is in a public area for people who want to see it for themselves.
The chilly rumor may have been started by Ward Kimball, one of Disney’s famed “Nine Old Men” animators, who had a wicked sense of humor.
