Josh and Chuck's Christmas Extravaganza 2012

Welcome to you Stuff you Should Know Fromhoustuffworks dot com. Hey, before we get on with the Christmas shenanigans, what how about we do a little TV show reminder for the folks out there. We have a TV show called Stuff you Should Know at debuts Saturday, January nineteenth at ten pm after the hour long season three premiere of Idiot Abroad with Carl Pilkington and.

Ricky Gervais, and then comes to our show.

Then comes our show when we're airing two episodes back to back on premiere night. Then following that on Saturday nights at ten pm, you will get to see one episode thirty minutes long. And if you don't have cable in any of that junk, you can get them on iTunes the day after release and watch them there at buck ninety nine.

That's right, But there's a Christmas present here. Yeah, the first episode you'll be able to get for free iTunes today after its premiere. Yeah.

And you know what, this is just me talking. If you're going to throw down a buck ninety nine per episode for ten episodes or gets nine, you could probably upgrade your cable package for that and get Science.

Channel all bet of.

Course, you know it's a per month fee.

But you know what I'm saying, But not only will you get our great television show stuff you should know where we play ourselves as podcasters in this fictionalized office world that we live in. Yeah, you'll get all the other great shows that Science Channel has to offer, including Idiot.

Abroad, Yeah, and Oddities Through the Wormhole Through the Wormhole of Morgan Freeman.

Yeah.

And I watched one on the Hindenburg last night.

It was really good.

It just one of their one offs.

Hey, you're saying Hindenburg And what was the other one?

The nuclear bomb that is off the coast of Savannah.

There's a show in that that's right anyway, fascinating.

We're very happy to be on Science and help support It's January nineteenth at ten pm.

Yes, and if people want to hang out with us in person, they can come to Brooklyn and do it on January eighth, Tuesday at the Bellhouse.

Right, that's right. We are throwing a premiere party slash variety show for the TV show, featuring performances by people like John Hodgman, people like Lucy Waynwright other special guests. Yeah, Lucy's in the show other special guests. There are gonna be some other special guests, not performing, just kind of milling about.

In the crowd, hanging out.

And this all goes down at the Bellhouse in Guanas, Brooklyn, January eighth. You actually have to buy tickets for this one. Yeah, we're trying to cover costs on this one. Everything else has always been free, so we'll get mad at it. Yeah.

And plus I should tell you like, this is gonna be a big show.

Yeah, and it's only ten bucks though, so buy your tickets at the Bellhouse ny dot com and doors are at seven thirty. Showtime is at eight, and that's it. The Bellhouse that is in Guanas, Brooklyn, specifically seventh Street.

Nice. Okay, so we're done. It's time Chuck, finally for Christmas.

Yay, It's Christmas.

Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, There's Charles W. Chuck Bryant. And where's a couple of little elves ready to do this thing? How do you feel? And do you have some glad tidenings around you?

We're not naked elves, which that is foretelling from later on in the podcast.

You're a bespectacled elf.

Yeah, I got glasses at forty one.

Looks good.

Yeah, the aging hipster thing is now full fully formed.

As it is a velvet jacket.

Yeah. They're just for reading in computer stuff.

Though, and to look cool with because you look cool.

Yeah. But I can't walk around to them, well, because they're for reading. It's like, you know, i'd mess up my eyes.

Oh I thought you meant like you physically can't, like you can't chew gum and walk at the same time.

No, but I am having to get used to it, you know.

Oh you need to put those on a little chain to dangle around your Yeah, you can like look at a bill like yeah, like an older it's kosher.

Well, it must be Christmas because it's ninety degrees in the studio, right, it's.

Warm about seventy five degrees outside.

Yeah, but the building doesn't know that. No, the building thinks it's wintertime. Right, So I'm sweating.

Yeah I am too, So don't feel bad. Good, So it's a little gamy here in our Christmas studio. But it is Christmas time, that's right. And like I said, we do have glad tidings.

Of great joy, So.

I guess I don't have anything more to say before we get to.

This to you, let's just kick it off.

I'm very excited im too.

It is after all, this gets me in the mood Christmas time, Chuck josh As.

This is our Christmas extravag cans. There's lots of celebratory stuff, but there's also a lot of really good solid information.

Yeah.

Specifically like if you it being Christmas Day and all haven't selected a Chris yet, Yeah, we have. We have some tips on how to select one and how to care for it.

Really, all kinds of Christmas tree stuff.

So with Christmas trees, the vast majority of Christmas trees sold in the US, yeah, are real trees. And this is actually like a huge, huge industry, isn't it.

Uh.

Yeah, We've got thirty to thirty five million Christmas trees produced a year, and that's worldwide, but about twenty million or so of those are produced here in the US, Yeah, which is a lot.

There's also in the United States. The National Christmas Tree Association that is a thing, says that the industry supports twenty one thousand growers and employs more than one hundred thousand people. Those are job creators.

This is a crop. Yeah, and that's the way. And we'll get into whether or not it's green to have an artificial tree or a real tree. But here's a hint. It's a crop, and that's maybe how you should think of about it.

Right. It is about a million acres of land are set aside to grow Christmas trees in the US.

Correct, That is correct? And my stats say Oregon leads the United States by a long shot in producing trees about six point eight million in two thousand and seven. Yeah, North Carolina about three, and then Michigan at one point five, Pennsylvania one point two, and it just goes down from there. But apparently Michigan and Pennsylvania it's like they're they're dropping, are there thirty percent down?

Well, every state in the Union except for Alaska has a Christmas tree farm on it somewhere.

Why not Alaska is every cold? I don't know.

I would think that southern Alaska would be able to grow them. Too cold, they're just too too hardy to pay for a Christmas tree. They're like, we'll just go get our own.

Yeah, maybe that.

We're Alaskans. So while there's what how many how many did you say we're going to be sold in the US every year.

I think about twenty million million in the US.

Okay, there's still four hundred million growing in the US. Because it takes about six to seven years for a tree to mature to a five to six foot harvestable height. How long six to seven years? I understand. Yeah, and during that time you're going to have a lot of shearing going on, which is very important. Yeah.

Is that what gives it the shape or is it already sort of shape like that?

I think it's already kind of shaped like that. But then to convert it from that wild Christmas tree that never quite does the trick to the hallmark card Christmas tree. The people who grow these, the fine Christmas tree farmers, shear them on a pretty regular basis, and they cut off the lateral branches that go out. Then they'll cut off the top too, depending on how pointy they want it, how wide they want it.

Do you get a real one still?

No? We have an artificial one do Yeah. It's very nice, good, just drenched in ornaments.

That's not when it was pre ornate or ornated. It's pre lit, Okay.

But no, we know we collect our own very special ornament.

Well, sure, because that's what normal people in society do, right, But I didn't know that they made them pre decorated as well for the madmen do there. Yeah, that's what it said in this article. You can get one fully decorated that you just see.

You've just put your Christmas tree up, and then start eating your hungry man dinner and then cry Christmas.

And then bury another body in the backyard.

Yeah, and that's what that's for. Uh So where did Christmas trees come from? Right? I mean this seems like a pretty recent phenomenon, the idea of going to a Christmas tree lot and buying it. It's actually way older.

Yeah. Apparently, like many things Christmas did, is German and tradition, and maybe as early as a d. Seven hundred they started cutting down trees and putting them in the house.

Yeah. I've always heard the story that it was Martin Luther who was the first to actually decorate them, though, oh really with candles, which is a fire has but that's a long tradition with Christmas trees too.

He was the first and last to decorate with candles, And of course, you know, like all things German, it spread to England, which spread to America and that's why we eat sauerkrop today.

Right, And again, you would think that up until maybe the fifties or something, when the cities were really starting to boom. Well, no, I guess that's when the suburbs started to boom, that people went out in their backyards and cut down trees. Right. But apparently there have been commercial Christmas tree lots in the United States since the mid nineteenth century.

Yeah, that really surprised me. Yeah, I figured for sure that people in the eighteen hundreds would just take the axe out and cut one down in their own backyard.

Sure, that's a logical thing to think, but no, apparently we've always relied on guys from that movie A Christmas Story to sell us.

Jeez. I saw a lot the other day in New York that was just like on a sidewalk. And then, you know, obviously space is at a premium there. I'm sure there are lots, like empty parking lots where they do this, but it's not like the suburbs. It was literally just on a sidewalk. Some dude had set up his little farm.

Yeah, why not, It's an American tradition. So you've got the you've got your your Christmas tree, have it all selected. You're like, I like the plump, short one, so I know that they shear the top off several times in addition to the lateral branch. Yeah, and I'm going to bring it home. But I don't know what to do with this thing. We're going to tell you because it's very much like cut flowers. It's a plant that's.

Yeah, dying, Yeah.

That you can keep on life support for a little while by feeding it water.

That's right, and you should these days, you can get the little trunk a little inch or so cut off of the bottom of the trunk, yeah, by your Christmas tree, dude or dudet probably, but if not, you should do that yourself because a fresh cut is what you want down there. And I guess the reason is it drinks up the water more readily.

Well, yeah, it's the same thing as bringing home flowers. When you get flowers, you want to cut them again before you put them in the water stems. Yeah, but there's actually a rule of thumb for how much water you want to give a Christmas tree, basically a live tree or fresh cut tree as you call them, Yes, can drink up to a gallon of water a day.

Yeah, I am remiss every year. It's it's here's how it goes in my house. Oh crap, I haven't checked the water in like three days, and I'm going stick my finger in there and its dry as a bone. Sure, and the needles'll fall off of my hair. Yeah, and then I pour water in it and the tree just looks at me like, thanks, jerk.

Well, apparently there's a there's a way to handle this, right, So you get a Christmas tree stand that holds I think you want probably up to a gallon what with the tree in it? Sure, because a lot of people will say, oh, it holds a gallon. Well, if you put a four inch diameter Christmas tree trunk into that, it's going to hold less than a gallon.

Or it's gonna spill out on your floor.

And you need to give your tree a court or a leater of water, depending on where you live in the world, for every inch of diameter of the trunk. Okay, So if you have a four inch diameter Christmas tree trunk, which is pretty substantial, sure, you want to make sure that your tree holder can hold a gallon of water. And you want to add a gallon of water every day. Yeah.

I used to have heard some sort of like syrup or sweetener or something helps, but I'm not sure about that.

I've never heard that one.

Really. Yeah, I've heard that, but I don't know if it's true.

Well we'll find out.

Yeah, I mean I should have looked it up. I guess it just hit me.

Yeah, I've not heard that one. Really. That's good stuff. But like maybe it's just like a tree for the for the tree. Yeah.

Maybe.

So here's some sat back. So if you if you don't feel like keeping up with live Christmas tree, you can always of course go the artificial route. And those are actually also older than I realized.

Boo boo artificial trees.

Man, I'm telling you, your artificial tree is awesome.

What does it smell like?

It smells like heaven, it smells like love?

Or does it smell like PDC made in Asia?

No, I mean I know what should mean. But we have like a cinnamon and cinnamon broom behind it takes care of everything. Does your tree smell like cinnamon? I don't think it does.

No, it smells like a tree, a lovely fir tree. I'm just I'm anti artificial. But I get it. Some people don't like the fuss of going out and getting one, or cleaning up needles or whatever your reason is.

So chuck. Apparently people have wanted to get around that fuss for many, many years. Apparently again in the nineteenth century, artificial trees were around.

Yeah, it seems like it sort of mirrored the Christmas tree lot. Yeah, you know, around the same time, I guess yea. And they were originally you know, made to look like real trees, many which still are. But in the nineteen fifties it got a little crazy, and we actually have one of these trees from the nineteen fifties.

You don't put it up, yeah, I put it up in you.

Know, it's small. So we have one in the sun room.

So you selectively pooh pooh artificial trees.

I selectively pooh whoo using an artificial tree in lieu of a real tree. So we have our little fifties retro with a color wheel the fire hazard tree in one room.

What color is it?

It's silver?

Nice? Yeah, do you have like the bright colored ornaments on it and everything?

We just do like, uh, I think we just do like one kind of single red ball not a single ball, but one single style all over the tree.

Very tasteful.

And it's not like our regular tree we have, you know, all of our childhood stuff and the stuff we bought together, stuff like that, and our our Exon commemorative and our Chevron commemorative ornaments McDonald's ornaments. No, but you know how like every corporation on Earth Christmas ornaments. Could you imagine if that's all you add.

Yeah, that'd be kind of sad, that'd be awful. So you were saying that a lot of people turn to, uh, turn to fake trees because of the mess and all that stuff. There's also another really good reason that people increasingly are selecting artificial trees. And there's some really top notch artificial, expensive artificial trees out there that look very much like real trees. Yeah, and it's becoming a growing

It out, well, right, throw it out, mulch it.

Maybe not everybody does. I'm just saying it. It seems like an environmental nightmare.

Yeah, it could be.

But so the artificial tree would seem smarter. But apparently there's a study done in two thousand and nine that basically said once and for all, like no, actually, depending on how long you keep your artificial tree, you're better off getting a real tree every year.

Yeah, they did the study in Montreal and they said, and they said, this is the most definitive study yet said, you have to reuse that artificial tree for more than twenty years to be greener. This includes greenhouse emissions, resources, human health impacts. Like I said, a lot of fake trees contain PBC. They're generally manufactured in Asia and shipped over here. You definitely cannot mulch those. No, once you get sick of it, it's probably gonna have been a what do you call it a garbage lot?

What do you call those?

Landfill?

Landfill or field?

Landfield? Is that no? So, of course the chairman and chief executive of Balsam Hill, makers of artificial tree, says no, no ours for more green.

Yeah. Well, he was saying the point he makes is that if you take all of the emissions created by all of the Americans driving to a Christmas tree lot, getting their Christmas tree, and driving home, in addition to like whatever transportation costs. Because you know, most of those Christmas tree lots around here, other trees are coming from North Carolina. Yeah, and they're being then ami down and

Yeah.

The artificial trees more environmentally conscious. Yeah, but this study supported it too, which one Well, the study eventually Oh sure, over the course of I mean, you'd have to take care of your tree for twenty years, but yes.

Well and look at the bright side, your tree will then be retro twenty years later.

You can use nothing but red ornamental exactly.

So that's all I got except for you know, multier trees afterward, because they can end up you know, I mean, you don't have to do it yourself. Most Citi sub programs where you can put it out and they mulch it and it'll end up on a playground somewhere, a nice, fine smelling playground of Douglas fur or.

If you have an artificial tree, you can reuse it.

Yeah, just box it up, put it in the attic, use it again next year.

So, Chuck, you've heard of NORD, the North American Aerospace Defense Command, Right, I'm a big fan. They're basically like the Missile Defense Group for the US and Canada. Yeah.

I did not know it was a joint effort by both countries. I did not know it was US and Canada. It makes sense. I have a feeling I'm probably wrong that the US like set this all up and then told Canada, Hey, we need to put some of our stuff up there.

That's a distinct possibility and it'll keep.

You safe if you just give us that plot of land, right, And they said sure.

Yeah. Hey. Well, nor AD, famous for tracking missiles, is also famous for a Christmas tradition of tracking Santa Claus.

Pretty great tradition. Yeah.

Back in nineteen fifty five, this serendipitous accident happened when a serious department store accidentally listed CONEAD, which is the Continental Air Defense Command, which was the our assessor to nor ED. The series listed conad's operations hotline as Santa Claus's number. So all of a sudden, Conad started getting all these calls from the little kids wanting to talk to Santa Claus.

Right, that's right, And instead of being an old curmudgeon, the director at the time, Colonel Harry Shop said, you know what, We've located Santa Sleigh on the radar here and we're tracking him as we speak, no doubt to the delight of the dozens of calls received from the kids right that year. And it started a little tradition in nineteen fifty eight and all of a sudden it was a thing.

Yeah, well, nineteen fifty eight was when Nora d started right.

Oh before that it was Conad, you're right.

And then the FAA got in on it, right, And as of two thousand and six, the FAA clear Santa for flight every year, which.

Is pretty cute. I wonder if they did they just say yeah, we're tracking him, or do they put a little like, you know, realism into it, like if the sleigh weighed this much and he's traveling this fast.

Oh, there's like all website you can go to if you'd like to delight kids science. It's not a dot CoV slash. Santa brings up all sorts of different stuff, this whole epic saga about Santa's preparations for his Christmas deliveries. And then if you want to track san at home, you can go to Nora Adsanta dot org.

All right, Josh, let's talk about one of my favorite Christmas time drinks.

Eggnog as one of my favorites too.

And I don't drink it much to have about one solid cup at my Christmas party.

That's all you have a year?

Yeah, I mean how much of that can you drink?

You're totally out of it.

Plus at the at what you drink a lot?

You need to open your eyes, buddy, what do you drink? You can drink more than one cup of eggnoggy?

Well, I mean when do you drink it besides Christmas? Or do you drink it multiple times at Christmas?

Multiple times around Christmas?

Okay? Yeah, I just I make a batch homemade, of course, if you buy it in the cart and I just.

So you make it. Oh, sure, have you tried George Washington's recipe?

No, but that's gonna be on the list this year.

I can tell you that I tried George Washington's recipe using store bought, but with this booze and it is out of sight. We'll get to it soon, but let's talk about eggnog and its origins first.

All right. They can trace it back to possibly the fourteenth century, and of course it was the medieval Englishman drinking something known as posset, yeah, which didn't have eggs though it was hot milk curdled with ale wine, often sweetened and spiced, which sounds really nasty, eh, curdled milk, all right. They were trying to get bombed, That's what they were trying.

To do, pretty much. And then eventually somebody said, hey, let's see what happens when we add eggs some.

Raw and they could make you sick.

Yeah, they did. Eventually the wine came to be replaced by sherry and madeira. And as this this drink that eventually became eggnog, became more complex, it became more expensive, and over in Europe, basically you had to be rich to have a decent glass of eggnog.

Right, yeah, became the stuff of I don't know, would you say aristocrats or zach wid a little too high flutine?

No? I would say that, okay, And we should say we want to thank our friends over at Mental Floss for providing us with this one. This one. Yeah, here's our glass of eggnog. Crazy to you guys.

Boy, I wish I was drinking it right now. Actually, so, the first eggnog in the US apparently was drank by Captain John Smith.

At his settlement. Yeah, sixteen oh seven.

Sure, what are you gonna do? Kick back in James sound have a little agnogs.

Yeah.

And because it's the US, we had plenty of eggs and plenty of booze, so it wasn't like in England, and it became pretty popular here.

Yeah, and it's still in England. Its popularity went down the tubes and even still like some people drink eggnog there, but not very often. It's very much an American thing, even though we totally cribbed it from Europe.

Yeah, well, good for us.

And they actually think that the word eggnog. One of the one of the origin stories for the word was that it's a contraction of egg and grog, which is what Americans used to ask the bartenders for at the at the end of the eighteenth century.

Right or came from the word noggin, which was the little small wooden mug that they served it in. And yet another says a Norfolk slang nog refers to the strong ales that were served in those cups.

Yep.

So somewhere in there lies the word origin. Which one do you like?

I like the American contraction? Yeah, eggnog all right, regardless of where the name came from, the first use of eggnog to describe this drink came at eighteen hundred and there's a guy named Isaac Well Junior who described eggnog as consisting of new milk, eggs, rum, and sugar beat up together. Pretty simple.

Yeah, he had to put new milk in there, I guess because the old version was curdled milk or buttermilk.

Yeah, ooh, can you imagine buttermilk eggnog.

I've never even had buttermilk except in.

When you were bad.

Things in the ex bad And what makes me drink buttermilk? I've only had it in like recipes that I've used for cooking and baking, and I might very well like it to this day, but I've been so grossed out my entire life because my dad drank it and he would put like a whole thing of corn bread in it and stir it up until it was just a big, mushy, goofy mess, and he would eat it with a spoon. And I just can't even look at it to this day because that grows me out so much as a kid.

I don't blame you. That's the Southern thing, are you sure?

Oh? I'm positive? Okay, buttermilk with corn bread very big?

Uh? Okay, so uh, washing is very American.

Yeah.

What's more American than George Washington?

Not much.

George Washington's eggnog. Yeah, we have his recipe. He left his recipe and he must have been sousd when he wrote the recipe because he forgot to include how many eggs? But he included everything else. And this is a the verbatim recipe left by George Washington found in the Mount Vernon records.

Okay, yep, may I please?

One court cream, one quart milk, one dozen table spoons sugar, one pint brandy pint, one half pint rye whiskey, one half pint Jamaica rum, one quarter point pint sherry.

So that's two and a quarter pints of liquor. We should point out.

Right, which makes which makes a court in a quarter court in an eighth. Okay, that's a lot of liquor.

That's a lot of booze.

I want to point out here that you can you can do an easy conversion here. If you take the cream in the milk, that's six four ounces, You take the two and a quarter pints, that's thirty thirty six ounces, and you can do some easy conversion. So basically, if you do four, if you do four, if you want to buy your eggnog, this is my tip here. This

Yeah, And apparently Georgie Boy loved the stuff.

Oh he did. He loved his liquor.

Oh yeah, that's why his teeth are all rotten. Nextly, that's not true. It might have contributed. Yeah, So if you get eggnog in the stores these days, you're probably not gonna have a lot of egg in it. FDA regulations say that about only require about one percent of the final weight be made from solid egg yolks, and then egg flavored eggnog. Flavored milk is really just milk. It's got maybe point five percent egg yolk. So I say, make it yourself.

It's fun if you do make it yourself. Though, you want to use pasteurized eggs, because you should. If you use fresh eggs, you could come down with salmonella. A lot of people say, well, wait a minute, I'm putting two and a half pints two and a half two and a half pints of booze in this concoction. Of course, it's going to kill all the salmonilla. FDA says, not necessarily, don't risk it. Just use pasteurized eggs.

Don't use pasturized eggs. I should, though, yeah.

You should. Do you boil your water when your nettie pot?

Yet no, I live by the seat in my pan.

Well they don't even bother using pasteurized eggs.

Then I don't look, I'm not the one that's always sick, all right? So is that it on eggnog?

Unless you want to tell the story of Judge Garnet of Matthews County, should be sure.

All right. In nineteen hundred, Good Housekeeping ran a story about the tradition in Virginia, and it had this anecdote. So religiously is the custom of eggnog drinking observed? The Judge Garnett of Matthews County tells a story of rushing in on Christmas morning to warn his father that his house was on fire. The old gentleman first led his son to the breakfast table and ladled out his glass of eggnog, drank one with him, and then went to care for the burning building. That is the love of agog,

To Josh.

One of my favorite parts of Christmas because I don't have a working fireplace, even though I'm working on that. By the way, you see the soot on my hands.

Oh nice.

Yeah, I've been clean at my chimney.

Very nice.

It's awful work, by the way, I imagine, and I have black lung and I'm sneezing up black boogers. So because of all this, one of my favorite traditions is the yule log on the TV set.

Yeah, and that's actually dates back to nineteen sixty six when a guy named Fred Thrower, who is a programming director, realized that a lot, a lot, a lot of New Yorkers who subscribe to a station WPIXTV New York didn't have fireplaces. Yeah, so he figured out, maybe we should take a video loop of a nice little fire set to Christmas music and broadcast that not only does everybody get a fire in their head else, but we all get the day off, except for the one engineer who

And I didn't see this in there, but I bet a bunch of people in programming thought this is not gonna work. This is a really stupid idea.

Yeah, and it became a pretty big tradition. So Fred Thrower came out on top, right, it's right. In two thousand and four, they started broadcasting it in high definition. Cable picked it up pretty shortly after cable came around, and then now you can find it on YouTube.

Yeah, I'll watch it on my local cable provider. You just searched through during Christmas time and it's the ulog right there.

Do you prefer Christmas music or crackling fire sound?

I do my own Christmas music, so therefore I prefer the crackling.

Fire sound very nice. Yes, you I like the crackling fire myself. Yeah?

Yeah, so do they do that?

Do they?

They don't give you both.

Not Fred Thrower's neighborhood. It was set to Christmas music. But if you go like onto YouTube, you can find one two three hour increments of just crackling fire. Nice.

Hey, Chuck, hey Josh.

Have you ever heard of a guy named the Grinch? Yes, dude, you've seen the Grinch. She stole Christmas many many times?

Right, How the Grinch stole Christmas? Yeah?

Yeah, yes, it is how the Grinch stole Christmas. I've seen that many times. I've seen the movie. I love the Grinch.

Yeah, the Jim Carrey movie pretty good.

Yeah, you know, not bad at all. Really got into the who's blew your mind at the end that it all took place on like a molecule and a snowflake. Yeah, yeah, I was surprised by that spoiler, is it? Well?

Sure, but who hasn't seen that?

I don't know. Yeah, hopefully no one listening to this. But we've got the origin story thanks to our buddies at MPR, right about how the Grinch stole Christmas and how Ted Geisel aka doctor Seuss created this thing.

Yeah, apparently, guys, will it was a little more like the Grinch than your average who in Whoville in the nineteen twenties, he was an illustrator and the very first idea of Grinch came about when he was drawing illustrations of basically what looked like a boogeyman combined with Sanna. Yeah, and it was sort of the first little inkling that like a malevolent Sanna was around and spoiling things for people. So he was apparently a bit of a curmudget I saw.

I could see all those based on himself. Sure, sure, Well, with the Grinch. He published that in nineteen fifty seven at age fifty three, and it was pretty much an an instant success.

Yeah, he was literally inspired. Apparently one day he looked in the mirror. He was doing a self portrait like Rockwell style, where you look in the mirror, and he said he looked in the mirror and saw the Grinch looking back. It was very much based on his perception of himself at least.

Sure. Yeah, So the book takes off, and then in nineteen sixty six, CBS says, hey, man, let's make a version of this, a TV movie version. Yeah, And this is how The Grinch became green, actually thanks to a guy named Chuck Jones, who made a name for himself creating characters like the Roadrunner, Wiley, Coyote, bugs, Bunny, just a.

Name of you. You know, his granddaughter listens, Oh is that right? Yeah, she wrote in a couple of weeks ago about you know, I can't remember what it was about, but she says, by the way, I'm Chuck Jones's granddaughter.

Oh that's cool.

And I wrote her back, said you're messing with me, and she's like, oh, no, I'm not.

I get that all the time.

I'm the real deal.

Well, it's a good thing that Chuck Jones came on board because he ended up being to Doctor Seuss what Stanley Cooprick was to Stephen King in the Shining. He took a very classic, awesome idea, yeah, and put the modern, possibly better spin on it, brought it to life. You could say that's true people around the world.

Yeah, because it wasn't black and white in the book, a little pink here and there. But like you said, Chuck Jones made him green and apparently changed the face a little bit to look like himself from the original book, which he said he liked to do and a lot of his characters was give a little bit of himself.

Well, he said that. I heard he subconsciously he snuck himself in when he looked in the mirror, like Norman Rwell or Doctor Seuss, to kind of get an expression right, right, he would end up inadvertently drawing himself as well.

That's pretty cool.

Yeah.

So the original cut was about twelve minutes long, which was too short, so it was up to Jones and Geisel to fill it out, and one of the main ways they filled it out was through Max the dog, who Jones felt represented the audience, and Max became a much larger character in the short TV short he was in the book. Yeah.

He, I mean a lot of stuff hinged on him. He had to keep the sleigh from going over. That's a lot to put on a little dog.

It is.

Another thing that brought it to life is the soundtrack.

Yeah, it was.

Narrated and the voice of the Grinch was done by Boris Karloff. Of all people like they were like, well, let's see who's the master of horror movies at the time. Ah, yah, you you come do the voice for this children's cartoon.

Well, I saw an interview with Chuck Jones and he said, I'm glad that that ended up happening because he knew what a great voice actor he was. And he said, not many people, because back then he did a lot of voices without people knowing it was him. Yeah, because you just couldn't google it and find out, you know who did that.

As they very aptly put it in this NPR story, Boris Karloff nailed the story simultaneous, lighthearted and ominous tone. I think that's pretty fair assessment.

I agree.

Albert hag wrote the songs and then You're a mean one, mister Grinch.

Yeah wrote the music, but guys will actually wrote the lyrics.

Oh he did.

Yeah, mean that seems appropriate, Yeah, totally.

But You're a one mister Grinch, of course was sung by Thurle Ravenscroft.

Had no idea and I think, like most people, I believe that it was Boris Karloff.

Oh no, it's Tony the Tiger.

But yeah, he was Tony the Tiger Raven's croft. They're great. So, uh, Ravenscroft was uncredited in the in the original film, Yeah, so was June fora who did Cindy lou Who? And apparently Chuck Jones and uh and guys that were both like pretty upset about this, and like every interview they ever did made sure they pointed out, like it's not Karloff singing, like he couldn't even sing and June four a was Cindy lou Who, And so they tried to get it in as many articles as possible.

That nice, Yeah, good for them. Everybody loves the Grinch except for two brothers, David and Bob Grinch, who lived in Ridgefield, New Jersey, and wrote a letter to Theodore. Guys all and said, hey, can you change the name of the Grinch because that's our last name and everybody's teasing us. And doctor Seuss wrote back, yeah, and I hope that they still have this letter because it read, I disagree with your friends who harass you. Can't they understand that the Grinch in my story is the hero

And he sealed it with a kiss. So I've got the lyrics here for the classic song and the Grenches compared to many things in the song Charming as an eel, cuddley as a cactus, a bad banana with a greasy black peel, an empty hole, brain full of spiders, garlic in your soul, a sea sick crocodile, a heartful of unwashed socks, that's my favorite one. Or a dead tomato squash with multi purple spots.

That's pretty good.

Crooked jerky jockey and he drives a crooked horse. You're a three decker sauer Kraut and toadstool sandwich with arsenic sauce.

I'm very president understand that doctor Seuss wrote the lyrics of the song.

Yeah, it's different when you read it. When it's sung, it just sort of goes along you read it. It's like, man, this is the work of a madman. So you got anything else?

No?

It ran on CBS for twenty two years and then TBS acquired it and now you can find it all over the place thanks to TBS.

And thank you, mister Brinch.

All right, Josh, I see dangling the missletoe above my head. You know what that means? Come over here, give me a big smacker.

There's actually there's a procedure to all this. When a people kiss under the missletoe, the kiss initiator takes a berry from the missiletoe.

I never knew that.

And eventually, once all the berries are used up, the missletoe's used up, there's no longer good luck for kissing under it.

That's right, And it's supposed to be good luck for married couples, means their marriage will be successful and long. Bad luck if you don't and you're a married couple, And if you're a single woman who fails to get kissed, you will not get married for another year.

A year don't even bother. And this is a very very very ancient tradition. They think that it dates back to the Vikings, thinking that this was a fertility plant. Yeah, it possibly. It possibly derives from enemies who would meet under the missletoe. If they happen to be under a missletoe, they would put their arms down and embrace and go on a cease fire for the day until they took up arms again the following day.

Yeah, exactly like our little story last year, remember that, Yeah, the Christmas truth. Actually they partied well into the new year.

Yeah, they did.

I wonder if there was missiletoe it would seem appropriate. So what else? It's a source of luck, It is a sexual symbol of virility, and what else do youy Oh? Apparently maidens would place it under their pillow at night like a tooth fairy style, But I don't see what they would get in return.

They would get to dream of their prince charming. And also, if you were a maiden, you could burn some missletone and find out how your marriage is going to go. If it burned very steady and long, you were going to have a nice, long, happy life with marriage. And if you if the flames flickered, you might want to work a little extra hard.

And that is missletone, Chuck.

You've heard of Santa Claus sinsor Claus Crompus, all those guys, right, Yeah. Sat Nicholas is the Dutch version of Santa Claus, and he's not as nice as our American version. In fact, he had a little help for an elf named Black Pete. And Black Pete's job was to accompany I know, Saint Nicholas on his rounds and to keep up with the naughty boys and girls. And when they encountered one of the boys or girls who's naughty, Black Pete would whip them. That's the Dutch Santa Claus.

I just yeah, I love it.

Well, you found a great story for us about elves that I think we should read word for word because it's just beyond adorable.

Yeah, this is classic. You've heard this before, right.

I have, but it's been a very long time.

Yeah. I was the same way, and there's been different versions. But this is called The Elves and the Shoemaker from The Brother's Grim and uh. It is our annual Christmas reading. Last year we did Night Before Christmas. Yeah, this year it's the elves and the shoemaker. So without further ado.

A shoemaker, by no fault of his own, had become so poor that at last he had nothing left but leather for one pair of shoes. So in the evening he cut out the shoes, which he wished to begin to make the next morning, And as he had a good conscience, he lay down quietly in his bed, commended himself to God, and fell asleep. In the morning, after he had said his prayers and was just going to sit down to work, the two shoes stood quite finished on his table. He was astounded, and he knew not

Soon after a buyer came in, and as the shoes pleased him so well, he paid more for them than was customary, and with the money the shoemaker was able to purchase leather for two pair of shoes. He cut them out at night, and next morning was about to set work with fresh courage. But he had no need to do so, for when he got up they were already made, and buyers also were not wanting who gave him money enough to buy leather for four pair of shoes.

Now it befell that one evening not long before Christmas, when the man had been cutting out, he said to his wife, before going to bed, what think you if we were to stay up tonight and see who it is that is lending us this helping hand. The woman liked the idea and lighted a candle, and then they hid themselves in a corner of the room behind some

Next morning, the woman said, well, I would have said a lot of things, but this is what this lady said. The little men have made us rich, and we really must show that we were grateful for it. They run about so and have nothing on and must be cold. I tell thee what I'll do. I will make them little shirts and coats, and vest and trousers, and both of them a pair of stockings. And do thou too make them two little pairs of shoes. The man said,

No, we are boys so fine. To see why should we longer cobblers be. Then they danced and skipped and leapt over chairs and benches. At last they danced out of doors. From that time forth they came no more. But as long as the sh shoemaker lived, all went well with him, and all his undertakings.

Prospered, the elves and the shoemaker by their brothers grim.

So I guess the moral here is, if you are ever helped by any unclothed elves, clothe them. That's what I got from this one.

That's what I got to. So I've got no listener mail. Let's say we should just give our annual glad tidings.

I agree, I agree, glad tidings to you all. Happy holidays, Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, happy Kwanza. Yeah, have a tiptop.

Tent, however you celebrate this time of year, And even if you choose not to, I just hope you're feeling great. Yeah, we'll put Chuck, sure.

I wanted to say a very special Merry Christmas to my lovely wife Umi. It's very nice, uh, and to your wife as well, Chuck.

Hey, thanks to.

All of our families. Merry Christmas, Yes to all of our listeners. Thank you for a very wonderful, wonderful year with you guys, and we look forward to another wonderful year with you as well.

Yep, Jerry, do you echo the sentiment?

Absolutely?

Merry Christmas everyone. For more on this and thousands of other topics, visit HowStuffWorks dot com.