Page 1720 – fakuto

December 21, 2016

How ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ Went From Box Office Dud to Accidental Christmas Tradition

filed under: christmas, christmas-movies, Movies, Pop Culture

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YouTube

Director Frank Capra’s 1946 classic It’s a Wonderful Life is sacred in the holiday movie pantheon. It’s not as quotable as A Christmas Story (1983) or as lyrical as 1966’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, but the story of George Bailey has a universal message behind it that endures 70 years later. Though the movie is the quintessential Christmas tale today, when it was first released in 1946, audiences and critics were lukewarm toward the picture, resulting in a box office disappointment that killed Capra’s nascent production company, Liberty Films. In a strange twist, decades after it was first released, an unlikely clerical screw-up managed to turn It’s a Wonderful Life into the Christmastime staple we know today.

In the 1930s, Capra became a magnet for Academy Awards, directing movies like the screwball comedy It Happened One Night (1934) and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939). After Pearl Harbor, Capra knew he could contribute something to the war effort, so he took a post in Washington overseeing the development of U.S. propaganda films for the government—most notably the award-winning Why We Fight series of documentaries.

Upon returning from Washington in 1945, Capra—along with other wartime directors William Wyler and George Stevens—helped finance Liberty Films, an independent production company poised to give filmmakers the one thing they all dreamed of: freedom. The company’s first film would be an adaption of a short story titled “The Greatest Gift,” which would also appear in Good Housekeeping under the title “The Man Who Was Never Born,” and would be adapted for the screen as It’s a Wonderful Life. It’s one of the few movies Capra also received a screenwriting credit for, and with a proposed budget of $2 million, it was a huge gamble for Liberty.

In the book Five Came Back, writer Mark Harris describes It’s a Wonderful Life‘s production process as something akin to a nightmare. Script rewrites, a bloated shooting schedule, and an ever-changing crew cost the studio nearly all of the original $2 million budget—well before filming was even wrapped. The spending became such a concern for Capra’s partners at Liberty that George Stevens remarked, “Why the hell couldn’t it be springtime?” when he saw how much it cost the production to produce fake snow for shots. Capra bet Liberty’s future on audiences looking for some comforting nostalgia after the war, but he was about to see firsthand just how much the world had changed since he came back.

The original plan was to release It’s a Wonderful Life in January 1947, after the Oscar deadlines, but when RKO—the film’s distributor—needed a movie to release in time for Christmas, Capra’s project was the easy solution. It opened just weeks after William Wyler’s major studio film The Best Years of Our Lives, a hard-hitting drama about a U.S. soldier coming home after the war to pick up his life again. The two films couldn’t be any more different, and the reviews reflected that.

Even at nearly three hours long, The Best Years of Our Lives was an absolute hit with critics and at the box office, recouping its budget multiple times over. It’s a Wonderful Life, with its inflated budget and saccharine tale touting old-timey values, was met with a whimper, making only an estimated $3.3 million against a $3.7 million budget. Wyler beat Capra in every way: reviews, box office, and awards. The Best Years of Our Lives won seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture, while It’s a Wonderful Life received only a lone technical award—ironically for the fake snow Stevens loathed.

Liberty Films had borrowed more than $1.5 million to make the film, and with such a disappointing box office return, the production company was soon sold off to Paramount. Capra only directed five feature films afterwards, none of which ever reached the heights of his pre-war work. As unlikely as it seems today, It’s a Wonderful Life was seen as a flat disappointment destined for anonymity—until a clerical error changed its fate.

In 1974, the movie entered the public domain after the film’s copyright holder simply forgot to file for a renewal. This meant that TV stations everywhere could play It’s a Wonderful Life all day and all night and not have to pay a cent for it. Networks aren’t necessarily shy about exploiting free Christmas content, and the film’s reemergence on television gave Capra’s story new life. While a post-World War II crowd may have rejected the movie’s sentiment, subsequent generations seem to revel in the opportunity to visit the nostalgic whimsy of it all.

“It’s the damnedest thing I’ve ever seen,” Capra once told The Wall Street Journal about the film’s revival. “The film has a life of its own now and I can look at it like I had nothing to do with it. I’m like a parent whose kid grows up to be president. I’m proud … but it’s the kid who did the work. I didn’t even think of it as a Christmas story when I first ran across it. I just liked the idea.”

Legalities rewrote the history of It’s a Wonderful Life yet again in 1993. The Supreme Court’s previous ruling in Stewart v. Abend established a precedent that allowed the film’s original copyright owner—Republic Pictures—to regain its ownership of the movie. The ruling claimed that since Republic owned the copyright on the original short story which the movie was based on, and the score for the film, they, in essence, still owned the movie. So what was once a near barrage of networks airing It’s a Wonderful Life has since been pared down to just one: NBC.

The network paid for exclusive rights to air the movie, which is why you’ll only see It’s a Wonderful Life on TV once or twice during the holidays. But the movie’s modern appeal exists because of that scarcity. The film that killed a production company 70 years ago is now an annual television event and part of countless family traditions around the globe. It turns out Capra always knew what audiences wanted, he just needed to wait for the right clerical error to prove it.

December 21, 2016 – 5:00pm

December 21, 2016

Get These Amazon Holiday Deals Before It’s Too Late

Smart Shopping Team

filed under: shopping

Image credit:

amazon / istock

As a recurring feature, our team combs the Web and shares some amazing Amazon deals we’ve turned up. Here’s what caught our eye today, December 21.

Mental Floss has affiliate relationships with certain retailers, including Amazon, and may receive a small percentage of any sale. But we only get commission on items you buy and don’t return, so we’re only happy if you’re happy. Good luck deal hunting!

December 21, 2016 – 9:58am

December 21, 2016

15 Things You Should Do at Least Once a Year

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15 Things You Should Do at Least Once a Year

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15 Things You Should Do at Least Once a Year

December 21, 2016

Is White Chocolate Really Chocolate?

Stacy Conradt

filed under: Big Questions, candy, Food

Image credit:

Richard Faulder, Wikimedia Commons // CC BY 2.0

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.

Have you got a Big Question you’d like us to answer? If so, let us know by emailing us at bigquestions@mentalfloss.com.

December 21, 2016 – 3:00pm

December 21, 2016

‘Pregnancy Brain’ Is Real, But It’s Not What We Thought

Kate Horowitz

filed under: neurology, science

Image credit:

iStock

Scientists say pregnancy creates lasting changes in women’s brains that may help prepare them for motherhood. They published their findings in the journal Nature Neuroscience.

“Pregnancy involves radical hormone surges and biological adaptations,” the authors write. “However, the effects of pregnancy on the human brain are virtually unknown.”

To investigate these effects, neuroscientists recruited couples who were trying to conceive for the first time and gave them brain scans. Some of the couples became parents and some did not, which created a sort of built-in control group. Once the babies were born, the researchers scanned participants’ brains; two years later, they did it again.

The scans revealed a clear difference between the two groups. New moms’ brains were missing something: a substantial amount of gray matter in the region associated with socialization. The disparity between the two groups’ brains were so significant that the researchers could spot which women had been pregnant just by looking at their scans.

But far from being a problem, the researchers say, this reduction in gray matter may actually be the brain’s way of paving the way for a strong mother-child relationship. The researchers found no memory loss or other cognitive problems. In other words, the gray matter loss isn’t brain damage. It’s tidying up in preparation for the challenging new cognitive work of motherhood.

To confirm this idea, the scientists gave the new moms another round of brain scans, this time while the women looked at pictures of their babies and babies they’d never seen before. Sure enough, the tidied-up portions of the women’s brains were especially active as they gazed on their own offspring. The more gray matter lost, the stronger the connection.

Two years after giving birth, new moms’ brains were still lighter on gray matter in that region than they had been before they became pregnant.

Co-author Oscar Vilarroya is a neuroscientist at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona in Spain. “The findings point to an adaptive process related to the benefits of better detecting the needs of the child, such as identifying the newborn’s emotional state,” he said in a statement. “Moreover, they provide primary clues regarding the neural basis of motherhood, perinatal mental health and brain plasticity in general.”

December 21, 2016 – 2:30pm

December 21, 2016

5 Ways to Get Along Better With Your Boss

Danielle Braff

filed under: Work

Image credit:

iStock

You’ve got a hunch that you’re on the outs with your boss—it could be because of that deadline you missed, or simply because you dared to speak to him before he finished his morning coffee. Either way, things are tense, and it could spell trouble for your career. Use these pro tips to get back into his or her good graces.

1. SCHEDULE A TIME TO MEET.

The best way to work through your issues with your boss is to talk things over face-to-face. But don’t spring this meeting on him, because he may take this as an ambush, says Art Glover, director of Human Resources at the Douglas County Libraries. During the talk, approach things tactfully and deferentially. “Talk openly, and say things like, ‘I’m feeling like things aren’t working too well, and I want to make sure I’m meeting your needs,'” Glover suggests. Or, “I want to hear what you’d like from me.” It sounds simple, but this is an incredibly difficult conversation for some people to have. You may want to practice first.

2. MATCH THEIR COMMUNICATION STYLE.

Your boss could be having a hard time working with you because he likes to skip the details and the chatter and get right to the point, but you’ve been filling his inbox with stories rather than quick one-liners. Or maybe the reverse is true. “Instead of making assumptions about the person, act like a detective as you study their behavior,” says Christen Bavero, coach at the brand management and executive coaching company ThinkHuman.

“Once you study their behavior, match their communication style,” Bavero says. Do they send just two-to-three sentences in an email? Or does each email include five paragraphs explaining each process? Do they like to have animated face-to-face meetings that involve conversations about family, or is a quick instant message chat more their style?

3. GET TIPS FROM A TRUSTED CO-WORKER.

Surely your boss gets along with someone. Ask that person what she’s done to get along with the boss, says Susan Heathfield, a management and organization development consultant who specializes in human resources issues. Heathfield also recommends asking that person what she thinks you should be doing differently. Maybe the boss confided in her about you—or maybe she knows that your boss just doesn’t like people who bring tuna fish to work because it stinks up the break room. Really, it could be anything, and your co-worker could know the secret.

4. DON’T ENGAGE.

In moments of real conflict with your boss you need to make sure you don’t say something you’ll regret. The best way to do this? “Breathe,” says Jody Michael, CEO and founder of Jody Michael Associates, an executive and career coaching company with offices in Chicago and Atlanta. “Deep diaphragmatic breathing is one of the easiest and most effective ways to regain your composure. The last thing you want to do is to engage in the frenzy that your boss might be creating, and to say or do something you later regret.” Also, she says, remember that your boss is human, which makes him or her vulnerable to pressure and stress. While you may not like him, try to understand his perspective and the factors that might be driving his behaviors.

5. MAKE A CHANGE.

Sorry to break it to you, but your boss might have a good reason for disliking you. Maybe you botched a project or are always late to work. If you are determined to change, then you should apologize for your behavior. If you’re sincere, your boss will eventually come around, Glover says. “Generally, we human beings, once we’ve been given negative info, take a little while to see that you’re going to turn that around,” he says. “Actions speak louder than words.” If your actions are consistently positive, and your boss is a reasonable person, then you should be able to mend the relationship.

December 21, 2016 – 2:00pm

December 21, 2016

China’s Road-Straddling Bus Has Been Blocking Traffic for Months

Michele Debczak

filed under: tech, technology, traffic, transportation

Image credit:

TEB

In May 2016 and again in August, we covered a road-straddling bus that promised to alleviate traffic in Chinese cities. If the futuristic transit plan seemed too good to be true, that’s because it probably was. As Shanghaiist reports, the test bus has been collecting dust on a city road for more than two months.

Over the summer, the Transit Elevated Bus or TEB took the media by storm when it completed its first test run on a 1000-foot track in Qinhuangdao, China. The demonstration was met with praise by many outlets, while others were less optimistic. A few days after the test, the BBC reported on doubts surrounding the project’s feasibility and the legitimacy of the company behind it. According to CNN Money, the whole thing may have been an elaborate publicity stunt funded by a peer-to-peer financing scheme. These type of lending programs aren’t strictly regulated in China, and they often lead to scams.

The situation isn’t looking any better for investors after a local reporter went to take a look at the old test site recently. TEB Technology had stated they would remove the track before their lease expired at the end of August, but the lease has since been renewed with the track and the 72-foot-long bus is still sitting undisturbed. Motorists in Qinhuangdao are now forced to maneuver around the awkward roadblock that was originally designed to help traffic flow smoothly.

TEB Technology has yet to give the official word on the state of their bus, but it’s shaping up to be more of a cautionary tale than a success story. In the meantime, we can dream of passenger drones, self-driving pods, and hyperloops when looking ahead to the transportation of the future.

[h/t Shanghaiist]

December 21, 2016 – 1:30pm

December 21, 2016

New Vaccines May Prevent Fatal Opioid Overdoses

Jordan Rosenfeld

filed under: biology, medicine, science

Image credit:

INeverCry via Wikimedia Commons // Public Domain

Prescription opioid drugs have become such an epidemic in the United States they now cause more fatalities than heroin each year, leaving addiction scientists scrambling. Two of these highly addictive drugs, oxycodone and hydrocodone, are the most commonly associated with emergency department visits, according to the Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN), and fatalities linked to these two drugs alone have increased four-fold between 2000 and 2014. Recently, however, researchers at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have developed vaccines that decrease the risk of fatal opioid overdose with these two drugs.

If the idea of a vaccination for a drug addiction sounds odd, researcher Kim D. Janda, professor of chemistry at TSRI, who ran the recent study, tells mental_floss, “There are ways to stimulate the immune response against different molecules besides bacterial pathogens or a virus.” One way is vaccine-mediated pharmacokinetic strategy: In the treatment, a small molecule known as an “immunogenic protein conjugate” stimulates the immune system to make drug-specific antibodies. These antibodies then “bind the drug molecule so it doesn’t reach the opioid receptors,” Janda says.

Because the vaccines are drug-specific, scientists must make a unique vaccine for each drug in order for them to be effective. In the current study, published in ACS Chemical Biology, the researchers made one vaccine for hydrocodone, dubbed Hydro-TT, and one for oxycodone, Oxy-TT. They administered these vaccines to mice via injections into their abdomens two to three times over an eight-week period. “The vaccine has to build up over time,” Janda explains. “It doesn’t kick in all at once.”

Once the mice had built up their vaccine levels, researchers then administered potentially lethal doses of either hydrocodone or oxycodone, depending on which vaccine the mice had been given. They found that survival rate in the Oxy-TT vaccinated mice increased from 14.2 percent to 37.5 percent. In Hydro-TT vaccinated mice, the results were even more dramatic, with the survival rate jumping from 25 percent to 62.5 percent.

This vaccine has several advantages to current treatment, Janda and his co-authors write in their paper: “Such a vaccine could effectively suppress the addiction liability and overdose potential of the target drug over an extended time period without placing excessive compliance demands on the patient.”

The vaccines would last several months and require monthly boosters to maintain their efficacy. Janda’s research does not show any significant side effects, and he believes them to be no more taxing to the immune system than vaccines for diseases like polio and smallpox.

Of course, these trials have so far only been done in rodents and non-human primates, but Janda is hopeful they will eventually move to human trials.

Even once they prove effective in humans, unlike typical vaccines for diseases and viruses, opioid vaccines are not preventative, and Janda stresses that they are not a cure for addiction. “You’re not going to be giving these to kids or people who don’t do drugs,” he says. “This is for people who have problems getting off the drugs, [who] have issues with abstinence, which all addicts have.”

The vaccines will most likely only be given to people who have either had a previous overdose or are unsuccessfully attempting to quit. Phil Skolnick, director of the Division of Therapeutics and Medical Consequences at the National Institute on Drug Abuse, which funded Janda’s work (as well as other similar research), believes that opioid vaccines could be especially helpful with compliance. In other words, it will hopefully help addicts do what they need to do to keep off opiates, whether that’s suboxone treatment, a drug detoxification method for opiates; the medication naltrexone, which prevents the drug from binding to the opiate receptors; or simply staying away from their drugs of choice.

“Getting [addicts] to make one good decision every day not to take opiates is a very tough thing to do,” Skolnick tells mental_floss. However, by taking a biologic vaccine targeted to the drug they’re addicted to, an addicted—and now immunized—person “would have an enduring protection. That’s one of the strongest arguments for developing biologics against drugs of abuse,” he says.

There are some downsides to the vaccines. For one thing, they block the pain-relieving effects of the opiates, so a person who was taking an opiate for pain would need to find an alternative. Likewise, because there is no global vaccine for all opiates, if a person has been abusing more than one opiate, they would need more than one vaccine.

Other vaccines are in development for drugs including heroin, fentanyl, cocaine, and methamphetamines. Skolnick thinks that if all goes smoothly in further trials, the first available opioid vaccines for humans could hit clinics in the next five years or so.

Meanwhile, Janda’s team views the vaccines “as a crutch to assist people who are undergoing abstinence programs and have relapse problems.” Either way, biologic vaccines offer a promising addition to drug treatment programs and a potential new way to curb fatal opioid overdoses.

December 21, 2016 – 1:00pm

December 21, 2016

15 Things You Should Do at Least Once a Year

Caitlin Schneider

filed under: Lists

Image credit:

ISTOCK

Just handling day-to-day tasks can be a monster achievement (seriously, we all deserve a medal), but sometimes it can be even harder to keep tabs on those to-dos that only need annual attention. We’ve got you covered. Here’s a checklist of 15 things you should be doing with every trip around the sun.

1. GET PHYSICAL, BUT NOT NECESSARILY A PHYSICAL.

You know your body best, but mounting evidence suggests that, contrary to popular belief, you probably don’t need an annual physical. Still, that doesn’t mean there aren’t certain health checks you should be doing every time you have to buy a new calendar. In lieu of a check up with your doctor (again, everyone is different and we aren’t talking about children, the elderly, or those with a medical condition), give yourself an annual, self-administered fitness test. You should be breaking a sweat on the regular anyway, but consider instituting a tradition in which you challenge yourself to a set of physical tasks to see how you measure up. There’s an adult version of the President’s Physical Fitness Challenge to get you started, but the specific parameters can be up to you. It’s a good way to see where you’re at in terms of physical health and fitness, and a good motivator if you’re not where you want to be.

2. BUT DO SEE THE DOC FOR OTHER THINGS.

Eye exams, mole checks, and even dentists visits should be done annually (yep, healthy teeth also only need a checkup once a year), and while you’re making the rounds to keep your body in tip top shape, take a look at your health coverage. Medical needs can change from year to year, and there’s usually an annual enrollment period in which you can adjust your plan. Mark that window on the calendar and spend a little time making sure your needs are covered. Your body will thank you.

3. THAT HEALTH CHECK GOES FOR PETS TOO.

We wish our pets could talk to us for all sorts of reasons, but especially when it comes to how they’re feeling. Since we haven’t quite cracked the animal-to-human translation code just yet, it’s important to be proactive about the health of your furry or feathered friend. Take them to the vet at least once a year, and include blood work in the check up. It’s a good way to get ahead of any health issues that might arise, ensure your pet is up to date with any necessary vaccinations, and get valuable insights on how your beloved is doing.

4. SCOPE YOUR CREDIT SCORE.

Being an adult means knowing what’s up with your financial health too, and the best way to do that is to know your credit score. It’s hugely important for landing that apartment you want or getting a good rate on a loan, two of the big things you need to do in the game of life. It’s also free to check annually, so no excuses (and contrary to popular belief, these kinds of “soft inquiries” do not negatively influence your credit score). Basically, a good handle on your credit is a good way to keep money in your pocket. While you’re at it, consider an annual sit down with a financial advisor as well to review your money, your plans, and any changes in the market that may have occurred over the course of the year.

5. DRAIN YOUR HOT WATER HEATER.

The next few annual check ups are related to the home. If your household has one or two people in it, your hot water heater needs to be checked every six months and drained at least every 12 months. Draining it will help it last longer by eliminating any minerals or debris that have built up and could cause the unit to break down. It’s a job you can do yourself with a little time and a hose, so pick a Saturday, read the instructions, and hop to it.

6. CLEAN YOUR CARPET.

No matter how clean you are, there are certain items you just can’t deal with on a regular basis (and often don’t need to). That said, once a year you should roll up your sleeves and tackle carpets, rugs, and upholstery. This isn’t just a run of the vacuum, but a deeper purge with steamers, a soapy bucket, a rented machine, or professionals. Other yearly cleanups include emptying the gutters and cleaning the fireplace and chimney. It’s a dirty job, but someone’s gotta do it.

7. GET INSPECTED.

To keep the well-oiled machines in your life running, you have to keep them, well, oiled! Or you know, whatever the particular efficiency-booster might be. And to do that, you often need the help of professionals. Once a year, bring them in to check out your air conditioning units, furnace, roof, gas appliances, and pipes. Termite inspections should happen on the regular, too—that’s an enemy you want to get a jump on.

8. MIND THE GAP.

Time, use, and the elements cause wear and tear on outdoor spaces that can damage their integrity in no time. When it comes to decks or outdoor woodwork, reseal once a year to keep the raw materials protected. They’ll function better and look how they’re supposed to, plus resealing extends their lifetime every time you do it. Same goes for driveway pavement, especially in snowy climates. Whether you have concrete or asphalt, take care of your cracks every 12 months to lengthen the life of your surface.

9. REPLACE THE BATTERIES IN YOUR SMOKE DETECTOR.

We’ve all had that moment when a piece of toast starts burning, the smoke alarm goes off, and we want to rip the thing out of the ceiling—but those loud beeps are exactly what you want to be hearing from your smoke detector. To make sure yours are always in top form, test them monthly and replace alkaline batteries every year. It’s an easy bit of maintenance to ensure the safety of you and yours in the event of a fire.

10. TAKE SPRING CLEANING SERIOUSLY.

It doesn’t have to be spring (though the built-in reminder is kind of nice), but you should take some time out every year to go through your many beloved belongings and decide what isn’t so treasured anymore. The best place to start is your closet: Take a good hard look at your wardrobe and figure out what you love, and want to leave behind. Everything that’s still in good condition can be donated or sold, and the rest can go in the garbage can. It’s also worth going through books and other collections that can get out of hand right under our noses.

11. SPRING CLEAN YOUR E-LIFE, TOO.

The more we live and work on our computers, they more cluttered they become. When you’re done cleaning out those closets, take a load off and direct those cleansing efforts toward your music collection, documents, and other bits of electronic waste that have accumulated over the course of a year. You probably do this regularly too, but the spring cleaning attitude also applies to social networks where connections and follows should be regularly evaluated. Just because it’s the internet, doesn’t mean it doesn’t require some timely decluttering. While you’re at it, annually take a peek at the security and permissions settings on your accounts too, because let’s be honest, you might need to change your relationship status with them from time to time as well.

12. TRASH YOUR BEAUTY STASH.

Not all of it, but it’s a good idea to keep an eye on beauty products and stay diligent when it comes to refreshing the supply—this stuff is going on your body, after all, often in highly sensitive areas. In particular, nail polish, sunscreen, hair products, lipsticks and liners, eyeliner, brow pencils, face creams, foundation, cream eyeshadows and blushes, cleansers, and other like items should not sit on your shelf for more than a year. Many of these you’ll be using with enough frequency that they won’t last long anyway, but pay attention to those items that might accidentally stick around longer than they should.

13. GET YOUR WHEELS CHECKED.

The schedule for car maintenance is almost entirely individual to the driver because it’s based more on mileage than time, but assuming you’re an average driver and your car isn’t drifting where it shouldn’t be, you should get your wheel alignment checked about once a year (if you drive a lot or have a habit of hitting potholes, you might need to get them realigned more frequently). Having properly oriented wheels makes for a huge difference in how your car rides and performs. Not only that, it’s better for the hardware, which will save you money and time as the car ages. Plus we know you love visiting your mechanic.

14. REASSESS YOUR RETIREMENT PLAN.

You’re saving for retirement, which is great, and should feel like an accomplishment in and of itself, but it’s really an ongoing process that requires regular check ups if you want to party hard when you’re an octogenarian. Check up on your retirement plan at least once a year to figure out how things are going, whether you can or should be contributing more, and make considerations about whether you want to tweak your savings plan and/or investments. Many retirement plans are set up to run and adjust to the market without your constant supervision, and while all that’s great, it’s always a good idea to make sure your nest egg is incubating as efficiently as it should be.

15. DO YOUR TAXES.

OK, OK, you knew that already. But there’s something you might not be doing when you’re settling up with Uncle Sam, and that’s keeping tabs on how much you’re withholding. Many have too much or too little withheld, resulting in unexpected bills or refunds come April 15. Ideally, you want it to be just the right amount, and luckily it’s pretty easy to take a quick evaluation at IRS.gov (the amount is based on what you earn and the allowances you claim on your W-4 Form—something you filled out when you were hired). An annual appraisal will help make tax time a little less daunting, and that’s something worth scheduling.

This article was originally published on December 21, 2015.

December 21, 2016 – 12:15pm

December 21, 2016

The Holly Jolly History of the Santa Suit

Maureen Monahan

filed under: fashion, History, holidays

Image credit:

iStock

When you think of Santa, exactly one outfit comes to mind: boots, a red suit with white trim, and a matching stocking cap. The icon didn’t always dress this way, though. Over time—hundreds of years, in fact—the expanding mythology of Old Saint Nick crystallized the sartorial staples of Christmas lore. In the very beginning, he was simply a robe-wearing holy man.

THE ORIGIN OF OLD SAINT NICK

Santa Claus’s pious ancestor was St. Nicholas—a 4th century Greek bishop-turned-saint from an area that is now Turkey, whose generous feats included leaving coins in the shoes and stockings of children (sounds familiar) and paying the dowries of three poor women, so that they might avoid a life of prostitution (less familiar). In fact, St. Nicholas is believed to be one of the people recognized as a saint before the official canonization process was established in the late 10th century. Fittingly, early portrayals show him clad in traditional bishop’s robes.

Long after his death on December 6, 343 CE—the anniversary of which became known as St. Nicholas Day—St. Nicholas remained a popular figure in Europe until the Protestant Reformation, where the observance of saints was condemned. Despite this, the tradition largely endured throughout Europe, with the exception of some staunchly Protestant areas, which began to replace St. Nicholas with their own yuletide patriarchs, like England’s Father Christmas (who was often portrayed as a kindly old man in fur robes), among others. The idea of Santa Claus, let alone his suit, wouldn’t be formed for a couple hundred more years.

BRINGING SANTA TO THE STATES

As detailed in Bruce David Forbes’s Christmas: A Candid History, it was a man named John Pintard who led the major push toward the recognition of St. Nicholas in American popular culture. Pintard was a merchant and philanthropist, whose civic cred includes being a key figure behind both New York’s first savings bank and the American Bible Society. He was elected the first secretary of the New York Historical Society in 1805, and keeping in mind the city’s Dutch heritage, he and the Society established an annual Saint Nicholas Day Dinner, the first of which took place on December 6, 1810. Pintard tasked artist Alexander Anderson with drawing a picture of the saint to be distributed at the event. In the resulting work, St. Nicholas is portrayed as traditionally saintly—barefoot and clad in long bishop’s robes. While the outfit would never make it to the secular mainstream, you can spot the familiar title “Sancte Claus” in the Dutch captions below the image, a clear predecessor to today’s “Santa Claus.”

Around the same time as Pintard’s initiative, a (perhaps unlikely) figure from American literary history would step in to popularize Saint Nick: Washington Irving. On Saint Nicholas Day in 1809, the author published A History of New York: a satirical account of the city’s founding that heightened and caricatured the city’s Dutch roots. Written under the pseudonym Diedrich Knickerbocker (which would later give birth to the New Yorker nickname “Knickerbocker,” as in the New York Knicks), A History detailed New Amsterdam’s founders arriving on a ship bearing a figurehead of Saint Nicholas on its bow, describing it “a goodly image of St. Nicholas, equipped with a low, broad-brimmed hat, a huge pair of Flemish trunk-hose, and a pipe that reached to the end of the bowsprit.” While this look was still a long way off from the modern Santa suit, A History of New York did contribute to modern Santa lore, with its St. Nicholas Day depiction of a gift-filled carriage helmed by a jolly, ‘winking’ St. Nick, a portrayal that would later find its way into a much more famous holiday tale.

The tale in question? “A Visit From St. Nicholas”—sometimes known as “Twas the Night Before Christmas”—by Clement Clarke Moore (or Henry Livingston, Jr.). First published anonymously in 1823, the popular poem solidified a few major aspects of Santa lore (outfit included) at a time when the legend of St. Nick still varied widely. With lines that describe St. Nick as “dressed in all fur, from his head to his foot,” whose “cheeks were like roses” and with a “nose like a cherry,” not to mention his beard “as white as the snow,” the poem offered a clear visualization of Santa, right down to his physique: “He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf.” Not everything stuck, though. Throughout the poem, St. Nick is characterized as a pint-sized elf with a “miniature sleigh” and “tiny reindeer,” an image that might have been pushed aside by the next great depiction of Santa, which would come a couple decades later in 1863, from “The Father of the American Cartoon,” Thomas Nast.

THE ‘JOLLY OLD ELF’ TAKES FORM

Thomas Nast may have been known for his political cartoons, like his depictions of Boss Tweed, but he’s also partially responsible for what we recognize today as the Santa suit. From 1863 to 1886, Nast regularly contributed drawings of Santa Claus to Harper’s Weekly, heavily influenced by “A Visit From St. Nicholas,” as well as his German heritage. The American image of Santa was now definitively fat and usually short, though not necessarily “miniature.” The tall, spindly “Father Christmas” figure popular in European depictions gave way to the jolly fellow described in Moore’s poem. Along with his signature belly, Nast’s Santa sported a bushy white beard, boots, and a belted fur ‘suit’ (which looks kind of like long underwear) and cap.

Nast’s contributions to Kris Kringle lore didn’t stop at his outfit, either—they also popularized the notion of Santa’s “naughty or nice” lists. The drawings show the influence of Nast’s Bavarian childhood in their similarities to Pelznickel, the “stern German gift-bringer” who, clad in all furs, carried gifts for good children and threatened naughty children with switches. The Pelznickel influence may be why some of Nast’s Santas wear a suit that looks more like deerskins than the luxurious red and white we now associate with St. Nick. (Interestingly, Pelznickel was first popularized in post-Protestant Reformation Germany as a secular alternative to St. Nicholas after the honoring of saints had been condemned.) In 1890, Nast published a collection of his Santa drawings entitled Thomas Nast’s Christmas Drawings for the Human Race. Though his style of cartooning was starting to be considered outdated at the time, the anthology featured one of the most popular and enduring images of Santa: that of this jolly bearded gentleman, clad in red, holding a pipe and an armful of toys. To this day, Nast’s German hometown of Landau honors their native son’s contributions to Santa lore with their annual Christmas market, the Thomas-Nast-Nikolausmarkt.

Through the turn of the century, the Santa suit continued to evolve. L. Frank Baum’s The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus provided an elaborate backstory and daring adventures for its hero, but a red suit still wasn’t the norm, as shown on the book’s first edition cover, published in 1902. One of the first times Santa is featured wearing the iconic red coat is on the cover of Puck magazine, widely regarded as America’s first successful humor magazine. In the 1901 image, Santa offers toys to a little boy and girl, who reject the gifts in favor of the works of Montaigne and Tolstoy; in 1902, a rather saucy cartoon shows Santa climbing in through the bedroom window of two Victorian ladies, each planting a kiss on his cheek. Both covers prominently feature St. Nick in a white-trimmed red suit and hat, carbon copies of the iconic Santa suit we recognize today.

The Santa suit wasn’t done changing, though; it would be again modernized and re-popularized, as portrayals became less cartoonish and more human. Norman Rockwell’s portrayal of Santa first appeared on a 1913 cover of Boys’ Life magazine, and soon evolved into a much more naturalistic Santa, who could, for instance, doze off in a simple white shirt and apron. As these depictions made their way into culture consciousness, the red Santa Suit as we know it began to cement its status.

COLA-COLA CHRISTMAS (AND SANTA AS WE KNOW HIM)

Full ubiquity would come with now-iconic Coca-Cola advertisements. While many credit Coke with inventing the Santa we know today, you now know that they were only a piece in the larger puzzle. After a brief appearance in Coke ads in the 1920s, artist Fred Mizen drew Santa enjoying a Coke at a busy soda fountain for an ad that ran in 1930 when the company was looking to up its cold-weather sales. Following the ad’s success, Coca-Cola looked to stake a further claim as Santa’s beverage of choice. According to a history section on Coke’s website, “Archie Lee, the D’Arcy Advertising Agency executive working with The Coca-Cola Company, wanted the campaign to show a wholesome Santa who was both realistic and symbolic [. . .] showing Santa himself, not a man dressed as Santa.” The following Christmas, Coke debuted Haddon Sundblom’s Santa, which featured the same jolly, white-bearded man in the red suit. This time though, Santa looked even more human, with ruddy cheeks and wrinkles marking his animated face. Most importantly, due to Coca-Cola’s enormous advertising presence, Sundblom’s image reached far and wide, thereby solidifying Santa’s specific look into the imaginations of millions.

Decades later, a world of Santa impersonators has a whole costume industry doesn’t just offer a unified vision of Kris Kringle, but a luxe one, too. Most professional Santas own multiple suits ranging in price from $500 to $5,000, and the commitment doesn’t stop there. Some companies, like The Noerr Programs Corporation, specialize in delivering the whole Santa experience: the company’s headquarters, christened The Noerr Pole, provides potential Santas with intricate, theatrical-quality costuming as well as specific training. (They require that Santas be “naturally bearded gentlemen” to ensure each one is prepared to Create Holiday Magic!® Yes, they trademarked that.) We’ve come a long way since the Salvation Army started sending out volunteers in Santa suits in the late 1800s.

For amateurs wishing to try the Santa suit on for size, there’s always SantaCon. In the official guidelines, it’s stated: “A Santa hat alone is not enough. You don’t have to dress exactly like Santa but the theme is red.” Sorry, Pelznickel.

December 21, 2016 – 12:00pm

GADGETS

KITCHEN

HOME

HEALTH AND BEAUTY

OFFICE, SCHOOL, AND CRAFTS

OUTDOORS, GARDEN, AND SPORTS

ELECTRONICS

TOOLS

1. SCHEDULE A TIME TO MEET.

2. MATCH THEIR COMMUNICATION STYLE.

3. GET TIPS FROM A TRUSTED CO-WORKER.

4. DON’T ENGAGE.

5. MAKE A CHANGE.

1. GET PHYSICAL, BUT NOT NECESSARILY A PHYSICAL.

2. BUT DO SEE THE DOC FOR OTHER THINGS.

3. THAT HEALTH CHECK GOES FOR PETS TOO.

4. SCOPE YOUR CREDIT SCORE.

5. DRAIN YOUR HOT WATER HEATER.

6. CLEAN YOUR CARPET.

7. GET INSPECTED.

8. MIND THE GAP.

9. REPLACE THE BATTERIES IN YOUR SMOKE DETECTOR.

10. TAKE SPRING CLEANING SERIOUSLY.

11. SPRING CLEAN YOUR E-LIFE, TOO.

12. TRASH YOUR BEAUTY STASH.

13. GET YOUR WHEELS CHECKED.

14. REASSESS YOUR RETIREMENT PLAN.

15. DO YOUR TAXES.

THE ORIGIN OF OLD SAINT NICK

BRINGING SANTA TO THE STATES

THE ‘JOLLY OLD ELF’ TAKES FORM

COLA-COLA CHRISTMAS (AND SANTA AS WE KNOW HIM)