Christmas Camp: How to Roast Chestnuts on an Open Fire

In the last installment of 2017’s Christmas Camp, we tackle the “how to” of one of the most famous lines in all of Christmas music. The line–“Chestnuts roasting over an open fire”–is from “The Christmas Song”, written by singer Mel Torme (known as the “velvet fog”) and Bob Wells in the summer of 1945. The song is known as the most recorded/played of modern Christmas songs (although Mariah Carey’s “All I Want For Christmas Is You” is fast closing in). The version that most people know is the one by Nat King Cole, which was recorded in 1961, but there are other versions–in particular Ray Charles’ take on the classic–that are also superb. So…what better way to end the Christmas Camp series with a video that shows you how to “road chestnuts on an open fire”. Follow the directions, use appropriate protection, and you know what to put on the hi-fi while you’re working. Merry Christmas.
Set the Holiday mood, check out the Christmas One More Time XV playlist at Spotify…just type http://sptfy.com/12dC into your browser and you’ve got music to get you through all your projects.
 
Fine Print: Video Embed courtesy of YouTube. It has not been altered in any way. We thank them for sharing. All rights belong to the respective rights holders and we thank them for making their videos available for distribution and sharing. Christmas Camp,  a guide to the essential skills of Christmas, is a project of DonaldPierce.com….. Copyright (c) Donald Pierce, all rights reserved. Enjoy the holidays.
 
 

Christmas Camp: How to Make a Yule Log

The tradition of the Yule Log goes back centuries. Originally, the Yule Log was a very substantial log–sometimes an entire tree–that was brought into the house and burned on Christmas eve. Tradition says that the new Yule Log was lit from the ashes of the previous year’s log, which were saved in the house (Yule Log ashes are said to prevent lightening strikes) for use the following year. Depending on the country, different types of wood was selected: Oak in England, birch in Scotland, Cherry in France. If you’d like to start the Yule Log tradition in your family, this year is the time to do it. Just click the instructions above. And, always be careful, either cutting or lighting the Yule Log. Wear protective clothing and gear, and don’t be in a rush.
Set the Holiday mood, check out the Christmas One More Time XV playlist at Spotify…just type http://sptfy.com/12dC into your browser and you’ve got music to get you through all your projects.
 
Fine Print: Video Embed courtesy of YouTube. It has not been altered in any way. We thank them for sharing. All rights belong to the respective rights holders and we thank them for making their videos available for distribution and sharing. Christmas Camp,  a guide to the essential skills of Christmas, is a project of DonaldPierce.com….. Copyright (c) Donald Pierce, all rights reserved. Enjoy the holidays.
 

The Nightshift: 24 December 2017

Press Clippings:
Embed from Getty Images
Good morning, it’s Sunday, 24 December 2017 and this is the Christmas Eve Edition of The Nightshift.
The Deputy Director of the FBI, Andrew McCabe, plans to take early retirement next year, stripping the agency of another experienced leader. McCabe has been heavy criticism (for whatever) from Republicans and the President.
Green Bay Packers Quarterback Aaron Rodgers has been placed on injured reserve (IR) and will not play again this year. Rodgers came off of the IR list and played last week, in a game the Packers lost to the Carolina Panthers. The Packers, without Rodgers, also lost 16-0 to the Minnesota Vikings last night. Some teams are saying the Packers violated league rules and should “release” Rodgers as a result but that’s not happening. In more intriguing news, the owner of the Carolina Panthers, Jerry Richardson, has announced plans to sell the team at the conclusion of the season; one of the more interesting names to emerge as a potential buyer is Eddie DeBartolo, who previously owned the San Francisco 49ers. DeBartolo’s teams won five Super Bowls in 14 years.
The Daily Grope: Three managers of the Miss America pageant are out for alleged inappropriate conduct.
Today is National Eggnog Day. It’s also Christmas Eve. Draw your own conclusions. (and don’t forget a little shot of bourbon in the eggnog..makes all the difference)
Please check out the CNN “text news” site, which is much faster than their full multi-media site. It’s below at the end of the links.
Stay safe, stay dry, and help one other person today.
The International Headlines are all at your fingertips, below.
The Times (London
Financial Times (UK)
The Irish Times (Dublin, Ireland)
The Wall Street Journal (European edition)
Washington Post (Washington, D.C.)
New York Times (New York)
The Los Angeles Times (Los Angeles)
Daily News Egypt (Cairo)
South China Morning Post (Hong Kong)
The Moscow Times (Moscow)
Le Figaro (Paris)
Bloomberg.com (New York)
The Jerusalem Post (Jerusalem)
The Japanese Times (Tokyo)
Sputnik (Moscow)
The Buenas Aires Herald (Buenas Aires)
The Sidney Morning Herald (Sidney)
Deadline Hollywood (Hollywood)
FiveThirtyEight (New York City)
Politico (Washington, DC)
Lawfareblog (Washington, DC)
Wired (San Francisco, CA)
The Weather Channel
CNN News Text Site
 
The Fine Print: Image embed courtesy of our friends at Getty Images, who have the photographic history of the 20th and 21st century on file. This photo has not been altered in any way. We thank them for sharing. The Nightshift is a production of Perception Engineering and The Media Bunker. This post is number 1522 for this site. The Nightshift is a continually evolving experiment in news communications. It’s rapid iteration. Thanks for reading. Now–catch up on the world.

Christmas Camp: How to Make a Fruitcake

Continuing with baking (you’re in the kitchen already and prep is a snap now), here’s some instruction on how to create the quintessential Christmas goodie–the fruitcake. There are some people who absolutely love fruitcake (it’s great with a good cup of coffee) and others who just don’t like it all. We’ll assume those that don’t like it have never had the experience of tasting really well-made fruitcake. Maybe what’s necessary is to bake your own and make it the way you want.  No problems there. Making your own fruitcake is not impossible– just follow the recipe and instructions and you’ll soon amaze yourself (and your friends and family).
Set the Holiday mood, check out the Christmas One More Time XV playlist at Spotify…just type http://sptfy.com/12dC into your browser and you’ve got music to get you through all your projects.
 
Fine Print: Video Embed courtesy of YouTube. It has not been altered in any way. We thank them for sharing. All rights belong to the respective rights holders and we thank them for making their videos available for distribution and sharing. Christmas Camp,  a guide to the essential skills of Christmas, is a project of DonaldPierce.com….. Copyright (c) Donald Pierce, all rights reserved. Enjoy the holidays.
 

Christmas Camp: How to Make a Gingerbread House

Closing in the very last set of instructions, guides, and videos for this year’s iteration of Christmas Camp, we’re going deep into Christmas tradition with instructions on how to make the signature baked good of the season: a gingerbread house. This video, with our English presenter, is clean and straightforward (there are currently two types of instructional videos on essential Christmas skills: the semi-or-almost-goofy and the professional) and well presented. If you’ve ever been curious about how to make a gingerbread house, here’s a guidebook to the mysterious art of baking a holiday house.
Set the Holiday mood, check out the Christmas One More Time XV playlist at Spotify…just type http://sptfy.com/12dC into your browser and you’ve got music to get you through all your projects.
 
Fine Print: Video Embed courtesy of YouTube. It has not been altered in any way. We thank them for sharing. All rights belong to the respective rights holders and we thank them for making their videos available for distribution and sharing. Christmas Camp,  a guide to the essential skills of Christmas, is a project of DonaldPierce.com….. Copyright (c) Donald Pierce, all rights reserved. Enjoy the holidays.
 

Christmas Camp: How to make Christmas cookies

Paying Attention:
The holidays mean holiday cooking and–most importantly–holiday baking. You are making Christmas cookies this year aren’t you?  The correct answer is yes and with this short video giving you the basics, you should have no problems whatsoever. This video features the recipes and techniques for 10 different types of Christmas cookies–it does assume you have some basic kitchen skills. The Media Bunker team found another video which was more basic, but the attitude and instructions were just not solid enough to make the cut. So–let’s go with pros.Put on your Michael Buble’ Christmas CD (or better yet, check out our Christmas playlist on Spotify, info below) and start baking.
Set the Holiday mood, check out the Christmas One More Time XV playlist at Spotify…just type http://sptfy.com/12dC into your browser and you’ve got music to get you through all your projects.
 
Fine Print: Video Embed courtesy of YouTube. It has not been altered in any way. We thank them for sharing. All rights belong to the respective rights holders and we thank them for making their videos available for distribution and sharing. Christmas Camp,  a guide to the essential skills of Christmas, is a project of DonaldPierce.com….. Copyright (c) Donald Pierce, all rights reserved. Enjoy the holidays.