So this is Christmas And what have you done? Another year over And a new one just begun And so this is Christmas I hope you had fun
Thanks, John and Yoko.
On behalf of everybody involved with Some Geek Told Me, we hope everybody has a Merry Christmas! I’m on my Christmas break, so I’m taking time away for the blog. However, I’ll still post daily nonsense on Twitter and Mastodon, so don’t fret.
The Pōhutukawa tree, often referred to as the New Zealand Christmas tree, is an iconic symbol of the holiday season. Its bright red flowers, blooming in December, are not only used for decoration but also feature on Christmas cards. This tree’s association with Christmas dates back to the mid-1800s and is deeply rooted in local culture.
Thank you for reading, following, and subscribing to Some Geek Told Me through 2024. Look after yourself and your family, and I’ll see you on 1st January 2025.
I’ve been saving this blog post for some time, for obvious reasons. I mean, why discuss Christmas in March or September? Even for me, that’s a little strange. No offence to Emily and Stephen.1
Christmas is just around the corner, and from an advertising standpoint, it has been present since late September or early October. Whether through cards, literature, songs, movies, or posters, we have all been exposed to the essence of Christmas—the birth of Jesus Christ, among other themes.
Credit: Working in New Zealand
Other themes include snow, fireplaces, eggnog, snowmen, ice skating, jackets, jerseys, snow, snow, and more snow. I know this because different mediums have explained this to us for years.
Bing Crosby had a massive hit with White Christmas, Charles Dickens succeeded with A Christmas Carol, and Die Hard 2,Home Alone, and Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, showcase snow-related Christmas violence. These works of pop culture, and many more, have helped to reinforce the notion that Christmas is an event that involves snow—or at the very least, happens in Winter.
We sing songs about dashing through the snow, display pictures of snowmen on windows, and dream about having the perfect Christmas Day experience by having it snow. It’s great and it sounds like a lot of fun. It does. We are told that this is the most superior Christmas experience on the planet, and it’s what everybody strives for and wishes for.
If you’re a follower of this wayward blog, you will realise that something is coming; and you would be correct. I don’t have a problem with a white Christmas. I lived in London for three years and the closest I got to that was a white Boxing Day. I loved it, and I enjoyed the experience of being cold on Christmas Day.
I do have a small issue with how Christmas is portrayed in the media though, specifically as a Winter holiday. It seems to be presented as the only version. The truth is, and this might frustrate Flat Earthers, that the Earth’s axis is tilted at an angle of 23.45° relative to its orbit. This tilt means that countries in the Northern Hemisphere experience Christmas in Winter. If they’re fortunate, they may even have snow on Christmas Day.
The thing is that not everybody gets that, and it’s not because they don’t want it. It’s because they can’t have it, since countries in the Southern Hemisphere will experience Christmas in Summer. Like myself in New Zealand.
Christmas here involves shorts, jandals, t-shirts, sand, barbeques, cricket, sunglasses, sunscreen, and pavlovas. That being the case, it can be difficult sometimes to take media seriously when you see children having snowball fights at Christmas in a movie, when your Christmas Day is 25°C in the shade.
Stuff like that I find hilarious, however, what really twists my undies is not Christmas media from the United States or the United Kingdom, or any other Northern Hemisphere country promoting white Christmases. I understand that and accept it.
No, to my eternal dismay and horror, the biggest promoters of a white Christmas to New Zealanders, are other New Zealanders. I would love to joke about this, but I’m not. In a Southern Hemisphere country, which means we have Christmas in Summer, what do other New Zealanders do? You’re smart, so I know you’ll get it.
Yes, businesses dealing with customer services, whether they are hairdressers, clothing stores, or supermarkets, decorate their businesses with snowflakes and snowmen. It could be on their windows, website, or hanging from the ceiling, but they are covered in Winter-related paraphernalia. Why do you have Frosty the Snowman in your window? It’s 32°C outside!
Not that I’m huge into Christmas decorations, except for the tree and wreath, but I often think about how having more accurate decorations would be better. Sorry, I’m a geek that judges, but I’m trying really hard not to do it!
Seeing Santa Claus wearing shorts and sunglasses, Rudolph playing cricket, kiwis wearing Santa hats, or a sandman at the beach, are more apt for us. Do we complain about it? No, not really. Who’s going to listen to us anyway?
I would love for us to stop looking as intelligent as the Coyote, after his new ACME product has failed, yet again. I love my quirky country, I just wish we could stop trying to be like our Northern cousins and just be the best vowel-slaughtering version of ourselves.
That was a weird one, so I hope somebody might relate to it, though my blogs can be off-centre sometimes.
Since Wednesday is Christmas Day, I’ll put up another blog post, but it will be shorter…..because I’m on holiday. Yay!!! This means I’ll be having my Christmas break, which will be for two weeks.
Thank you once again for reading, following, and subscribing to Some Geek Told Me. Please don’t forget to walk your dog, read a banned book, go watch Merry Little Batman and the Superman teaser trailer, and I’ll see you on Christmas Day.
1 Bonus geek points for understanding those two references.
I realise there are more pressing issues confronting the world currently. These include the danger of climate change, the Sudanese civil war, the cryptocurrencies of Cristiano Ronaldo and the Hawk Tuah girl, Israel’s genocide of Palestine, when the Superman trailer is going to drop, and whether The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim, will rule them all at the box office.
In saying that, I must acknowledge last week’s announcement of TIME’s 2024 Person of the Year. If you’ve been living under a rock or listening to Chumbawamba’s Tubthumping at full volume for a week, then you would have heard that the lucky winner was 2016’s winner, Donald John Trump. You know, the star of Zoolander, Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, Two Weeks Notice, The Little Rascals, and Eddie.
As you can imagine, the concept of Donald Trump winning TIME’s 2024 Person of the Year, has delighted millions of people and equally enraged millions more. On one hand, people are praising the decision, because he’s the OG of MAGA, defeated Kamala Harris in the US Presidential election, survived an assassination attempt, and is the proud father of three of his five children.
On the other hand, Trump’s been busy. He was convicted on 34 felony charges for falsifying business records related to hush money payments to a porn star, found liable for sexual assault and defamation, and has more legal issues concerning the IRS, and the Trump Organisation, among others.
So the two questions on many people’s minds are, yes, bananas do grow upside down, but also, why was a convicted felony and President-elect selected as TIME’s 2024 Person of the Year? Sadly, the answer is boring and nuanced, because, and say it with me, TIME’s Person of the Year is not what you think it is.
Credit: TIME
Let’s go back a few steps to 1927, when TIME, the American news magazine, first introduced the award of Person of the Year to Charles Lindbergh.1 Now you would think gracing the cover of TIME for the Person of the Year, would be a great honour, worthy of the amazing contributions you have made to humanity for the past year.
Again, you could imagine that it was because you had developed a vaccine, brokered a peace treaty and ended a war, discovered a new early human species, won the World Cup, was the star of a $2 billion blockbuster, or won an election. If you thought this, you would be wrong, oh so wrong.
According to TIME editors, to be awarded Person of the Year, you need to fit this criteria:
“Featuring a person, group, idea, or object that “for better or for worse … has done the most to influence the events of the year.”
I’m going to let that sink in for you. Influencethe events of the year. Not curing children’s diseases; not clearing mines from a warzone; not freeing sex slaves; not persecuting racists, like the Ku Klux Klan, or Neo-Nazis; not developing carbon capture devices; or not fighting for human and animal rights; but influencethe events of the year.
After reading that, and for better or for worse, tell me that person(s) is not Donald Trump. Did I want it to be him? Of course not, because both my grandfathers would return from the grave to beat some sense into me if I did.
However, this is the reason Donald Trump was awarded the title; not because he’s a good, honest, positive, decent, law-abiding and amazing person, but because he has dominated the news cycle in 2024. He really has. Even here in New Zealand, we have read and watched his shenanigans this year, whether they were election-based or legal-based.
To highlight the selection, I give you two quotes from TIME”s website on the announcement, to better explain the choice from their point of view:
“For 97 years, the editors of TIME have been picking the Person of the Year: the individual who, for better or for worse, did the most to shape the world and the headlines over the past 12 months. In many years, that choice is a difficult one. In 2024, it was not.”
“Today, we are witnessing a resurgence of populism, a widening mistrust in the institutions that defined the last century, and an eroding faith that liberal values will lead to better lives for most people. Trump is both agent and beneficiary of it all. For marshaling a comeback of historic proportions, for driving a once-in-a-generation political realignment, for reshaping the American presidency and altering America’s role in the world, Donald Trump is TIME’s 2024 Person of the Year.”
Nobody on the planet had dominated and influenced the news cycle in 2024 more than Donald Trump. Even Palestine was drowned out by the MAGA Emperor. Using TIME’s definition of “Featuring a person, group, idea, or object that “for better or for worse … has done the most to influence the events of the year”, Donald Trump is the clear winner.
I know this decision has upset people, but I want to leave you with two things; one negative and one positive. If you’re angry about the choice, don’t blame Trump. He’s a 78-year-old narcissist, who doesn’t have the need, desire, or ability to change.
Don’t blame TIME, by trash-talking or boycotting them. It’s their rules and they are just following them.
If you want someone to blame for Trump winning this award, blame yourself. Blame your parents, children, spouse, siblings, neighbours, and politicians. Blame teachers, lawyers, journalists, reporters, scientists, librarians, talk show hosts, activists, social influencers, podcasters, singers, actors, and world leaders, for this mess.
You could blame everybody and anybody you’ve ever talked to in the last 10 years. Hell, you can even blame me. The reason is that all of these people, regardless of their political philosophy and beliefs, or mine, all have something in common: whether it’s positive or negative, we all talk about Trump.
Any attention that man gets is good attention, because it means people are talking about him, and that’s what he wants. And we have all given it to him, which is why he has dominated the news cycle.
By ignoring his crazy rants and lies, along with his illegal dealings, we are condoning his behaviour; therefore, we are enabling him. By calling out his crazy rants and lies, along with his illegal dealings, he can play the “I’m a billionaire victim because the false news and the deep state are out to get me” card; therefore, we are enabling him.
He’s like a male succubus, but instead of feeding and living off sexual energy and activity, he thrives on communication. The more people discuss him, the stronger he becomes. His ego feeds off the attention. But hey, what do I know? Even writing this stupid post will probably mean Trump will reach Super Saiyan God status now.
As for the positive part, just remember that even though Trump won this award, he joins some other previous top-quality winners of the award like Chiang Kai-shek and Soong Mei-ling (1937), Adolf Hitler (1938), Joseph Stalin (1939 and 1942), Richard Nixon (1971 and 1972), Henry Kissinger (1972), Ruhollah Khomeini (1979), Jeff Bezos (1999), Vladimir Putin (2007), and Mark Zuckerberg (2010).
Trump and the rest of the League of Losers can’t hold a candle to recent winners like The Ebola Fighters (2014), Angela Merkel (2015), The Silence Breakers (2017), and Greta Thunberg (2019); along with my favourites, The Protester (2011), The Guardians (2018), and Volodymyr Zelensky and The Spirit of Ukraine (2022).
And with that, I’m going to shut my mouth and go to bed. We are well into Summer here, which I’ll discuss somewhat next week. Thanks again for reading, following, and subscribing to Some Geek Told Me. Please remember to walk your dog, read a banned book, keep watching Syria and Palestine, and I’ll see you next week. Christmas is coming!
1 The award was actually first named Man of the Year, but eventually, equality caught up.
And here we go again! One of my infamous bad ideas is still continuing to pay dividends, with the 7th entry detailing the historical references in We Didn’t Start the Fire by Billy Joel. Yes, I know the song is 35 years old, and other people have already done this before, but they haven’t done it this badly.
For the uninitiated, here are the previous entries:
Because you’re clever and eat carrots, you will realise we are up to the glorious year of 1955. And just like last time, strap yourself in because I’m going to be firing some facts at you! Good luck!
Credit: Collinson & Cunninghame Ltd: Publisher
1955
Albert Einstein
Arguably, the most famous scientist of the 20th century, if not for the last 3,000 years, was Albert Einstein. Born in 1879, Einstein was a theoretical physicist who researched and published work on the photoelectric effect, Brownian motion and the Einstein relation, special relativity, the principle of mass-energy equivalence (E=mc2), statistical mechanics, and many more outstanding contributions to science.
I would be as mad as a guest at one of the Mad Hatter’s tea parties if I didn’t mention his work on general relativity, which changed the world. Einstein’s theory of general relativity was once described as, “…the highest intellectual achievement in the history of humanity.” In my poor opinion, I believe it’s an accurate statement.
Einstein died on 18th April 1955, at Princeton, New Jersey, USA. In scientific and academic circles, Einstein was a rock-star scientist, and he crossed over to become a pop culture icon. For the death of a modern famous scientist, I’m going to offer the late great British theoretical physicist and cosmologist, Stephen Hawking, who died in 2018.
Albert Einstein (1879-1955) at home in Princeton. 1944. Credit: Unknown
James Dean
1955 was a difficult year for science lovers and movie fans because just five months after Einstein died, James Dean died on 30th September 1955, aged only 24 years old.
Dean was a Hollywood heartthrob, who had a bad boy image. He became a professional actor in 1951, and his acting experience covered theatre, television, and film. In saying that, the two films, East of Eden and Rebel Without a Cause, helped to boost his rising star into the stratosphere, both being released in 1955.
Dean was driving his new Porsche 550 Spyder on U.S. Route 466, when he crashed at the junction of SR 46 and SR 41 near Cholame, California. His passenger, Rolf Wütherich, survived and sustained multiple injuries, but Dean was killed instantaneously.
A contemporary example would be the actor, Paul Walker, who died in a car accident on 30th November 2013.
James Dean in the 1955 film “Rebel Without a Cause.” Credit…John Kobal Foundation/Hulton Archive, via Getty Images
Brooklyn’s got a winning team
We’re going to break free of celebrities dying and focus on a sports team. A baseball team to be precise. In the 1950s, the Brooklyn Dodgers were a Major League Baseball team operating out of, you guessed it, Brooklyn, in New York City.
They were in the National League, where they had won the pennant 10 times previously. However, 1955 was a big year for the Dodgers, because they won the National League again, but this time over the Milwaukee Braves. In the World Series, they met the New York Yankees, which was the fifth time in nine years that the Dodgers and the Yankees met in that format.
The 1955 World Series was special for the Dodgers, since they defeated their rivals 4-3, winning the trophy for the first time. If you remember Roy Campanella from the 1953 post, you’ll also remember that Campanella played for the Brooklyn Dodgers.
In 1957, the New York Giants and the Brooklyn Dodgers moved to California, becoming the San Francisco Giants and the Los Angeles Dodgers.
I’ve said this before, but baseball is not in my wheelhouse of expertise, so I’ll leave it up to a baseball fan to give us a modern equivalent for the 1955 Brooklyn Dodgers, because I have no idea. However, I do know that the Los Angeles Dodgers won the 2024 World Series, beating the New York Yankees again, 4-1.
The team photo of the 1955 World Champion Brooklyn Dodgers at Ebbets Field. The Dodgers won their first World Championship in Brooklyn. Credit: walteromalley.com
Davy Crockett
This is an odd one, but I’m sure we’ll bumble our way through it. The great Davy (David) Crockett was a folk hero in American culture, being a politician, militia officer and frontiersman, from 1786-1836. He became famous for his hunting, coonskin cap, politics, military service, and his death, at the Battle of the Alamo.
In 1954, a television mini-series named Davy Crockett was released, and it became extremely popular as Davy Crockett-mania swept the United States, with Davy Crockett merchandise exploding everywhere. The show had five episodes, with Fess Parker starring as the “King of the Wild Frontier.”
In 1955, Walt Disney Productions edited and recut the original first three episodes into a theatrical film named Davy Crockett: King of the Wild Frontier. The film made $2.15 million at the box office, which would be $25.3 million today, adjusted for inflation.
In contemporary times, turning a television programme into a movie, via means of a reboot, is commonplace now. Just look at 21 Jump Street, Alvin and the Chipmunks, Baywatch, Charlie’s Angels, and so many more.
But even though Hollywood of 2024 can be guilty of rehashing and rebooting movies, as well as pumping out sequels, editing episodes of a television show and repackaging them as a theatrical film, is a line that Hollywood of 2024 would not cross. Maybe.
This is a poster for Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier. Credit: Walt Disney Studios
Peter Pan
The character of Peter Pan, the leader of the Lost Boys, and eternal foe of Captain Hook, has been translated into many mediums over the years, such as plays, literature, animated and live-action films, and television programmes, since his creation in 1902.
On 7th March 1955, NBC Television did something quite radical. The Peter Pan Broadway Show was ending soon, so the studio decided to broadcast a television adaption of Peter Pan, using the original Broadway cast.
What makes this production so special, was that it was broadcast live and in colour. It amassed 65 million viewers, even though colour television sets were still developing in popularity. It was such a success, that NBC did it again in 1956 for a second live broadcast.
Comparing this reference to a modern one is difficult because live colour broadcasts are the standard for television viewing in 2024, however the ability to stream your favourite television programmes via devices like tablets, computers, or phones, has changed the way people interact with the world, but also how we consume our entertainment, for good or for ill.
Mary Martin, Kathleen Nolan, Joseph Richard Stafford, and Robert Harrington in Peter Pan (1955) Credit NBC Studios
Elvis Presley
It’s taken us until 1955, but we are ready to talk about the King of Rock and Roll, Elvis Presley. Like James Dean, Presley’s star power was developing, so on either 20th or 21st November 1955, aged only 20 years old, Presley signed a record contract with RCA Records. Although he was legally a minor, technically, his father signed the contract.
His previous contract with Sun Records was purchased for $40,000, which was audacious for the time. During this period, Presley also signed a contract to create two new music businesses to showcase his musical talents and to expand his growing stardom.
I’m not down with the kids today, but some contemporary equivalents would be Justin Bieber, Adele, or Rihanna.
Elvis signs his first contract with RCA Records. Credit: Graceland
Disneyland
Disneyland opened on 17th July 1955, in Anaheim, California, USA. It was the first theme park created by the Walt Disney Company and the only one that Walt Disney personally designed and constructed.
It took only a year to build for $17 million, which adjusted for inflation, works out to be around $153 million. 28,000 people attended the opening, but things didn’t go exactly to plan, with several mistakes happening, which drew negative attention and press.
Walt Disney went on to refer to the opening day as Black Sunday. In 2024, there are six Disney theme parks located in California, Florida, (United States) Hong Kong, Tokyo (Japan), Paris (France), and Shanghai (China).
An aerial view shows Disneyland as guests attend opening-day festivities in Anaheim, California, on July 17, 1955. Credit: Associated Press.
So for 1955, we covered the deaths of a theoretical physicist and an actor, a baseball team, a movie, a television broadcast, a music contract, and a theme park. This took longer than I had anticipated, so 1956 isn’t going to be any easier. Cool.
And that’s it for another week. Thanks again for reading, following, and subscribing to Some Geek Told Me. I’m still haunting Twitter and Mastodon, so please drop by for some useless daily information.
Before I go, keep your eyes on Syria, because after ruling and brutalising the country for 24 years, Bashar al-Assad has been overthrown and fled to Russia. Having survived 13 years of civil war, will Syria be able to keep moving forward with progress, justice, and democracy, or will Assad’s absence cause more conflict? I have no idea, but I hope it’s the former and not the latter.
Please remember to walk your dog, read a banned book, go and tell a Nazi to fuck off, and I’ll see you next week. Christmas is coming!
After smelling something disgusting at a market the other day, it reminded me of two things; vomiting and writing a new Food and Prejudice blog post. Because the original blog post was such a success, let’s pull a Terminator 2: Judgment Day, and be better than the original.
For any unfortunate culinary fans that missed the first entry on this journey of truth, you can find it here, where I explained my disdain for Sour Cream and Chives, Corn, and Beetroot. I feel I need to clean my fingers because I just typed their names.
To give our fellow homo sapiens some context for this thoroughly thought-out project, the idea is this:
I enjoy eating food, mainly because it helps me to live, but also because of the fantastic tastes and flavours. However, as you can imagine, I don’t love everything. There are some foods that I dislike so much, that I’m prejudiced against them.
I would also like to mention that if you like and enjoy any of the entries on the lists, please don’t get upset too much, because you’re a better person than me, since you can actually eat those foods. Ok? One small thing to add is that the word “food” in the context of these blog posts, also covers drinks. Awesome.
Without further time wasting, because as we all know, The Honourable Simeon Brown MP does not like time wasting, or going slow, so let’s crack on with Food and Prejudice: Volume 2!
Where do I start on this hybrid of woe? Asparagus is not as dangerous as Corn, but that’s like comparing an orca to a wolf. One is more dangerous than the other, but they are both predators and out to get you; just like Corn and asparagus.1
On paper, asparagus has a lot going for it, but in what I like to call reality, it doesn’t. It really doesn’t. This limp and flaccid spring vegetable, which is what people call asparagus and eat, are the young shoots of the plant.
Its texture is slimy like a mutated worm with an algae addiction, the smell is like pure petrol, and its taste is like the offspring of a leprosy-afflicted cockroach and a depressed bamboo.
An interesting fact about asparagus is that if the shoots are allowed to develop and grow, it can produce fruit in the form of red berries, which to nobody’s surprise, can be toxic to humans. Yet another reason to fester ill thoughts about this terrible vegetable.
This is an odd entry because I love fruit, so I should enjoy eating pears. I’m emphasising on the word should, since I really want to like pears. I just can’t. I feel disappointed in myself over this, however, this pity party for one ends, when I remember that pears are deceptive.
They look like an apple that has been on one too many rides around a particle accelerator, hence the shape. I can overlook this since it’s not the pear’s fault it looks like that. The problem is that my support for pears fades when it comes to the taste.
Even though the pear looks like a misshaped apple, it tastes nothing like an apple; unless there is a new variety of apple that tastes like sawdust and sand. It’s so gritty, seriously, it’s gross. Like I said earlier, I really want to like pears, but my body is allergic to foods that make me want to clean my tongue after eating them.
Like myself, and every other member of the human race, we all make mistakes and have faults.2 My wife is no exception to this rule, because not only does she love Corn, she also enjoys ginger beer. Yes, yes, I know nobody is perfect, but I was devastated to learn that ginger beer was one of her favourite beverages.
I try to be a supportive and loving husband by sometimes purchasing ginger beer for her. I never think it through though, because if she wants to drink it, the bottle/can will need to be opened, and frankly, when that happens, that’s it for me.
Ginger beer tastes of regret and guilt, mixed with disappointment, stress, and failure; however, it pales in comparison to the smell of ginger beer. Once I can smell that awful odour from my wife’s open bottle or can, I have to fight the instinct to start twisting and distorting my body in discomfort.
My mind is screaming at me, “Even though you love that woman, you need to get away from her and that smell. Run, don’t walk. Run as fast as you can and get away from that smell, because if you don’t, she’ll offer you a taste of that ginger-flavoured septic discharge, and the words that fall out of your mouth will result in a divorce. Run!”
I hate ginger beer.
Credit: iStock
Do you agree with any of my food prejudices? What are yours? As always, please let me know.
We are officially in December now, so the Christmas chaos can officially start. Are you ready for it? I’m not, but what’s new?
So that’s it for another week. Thanks for reading, following, and subscribing to Some Geek Told Me. Please remember to walk your dog, read a banned book, go and lose a board game to a child, and I’ll see you next week because we’re going back to 1955. See you there.
1 I spell Corn with a upper case C, because Corn is dangerous and deserves your respect. When you’re not paying attention, Corn will get you, because Corn is always stalking you.
2 This of course does not include Chuck Norris, since he is the exception to the rule. I mean, why would he notbe?
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