WTF-Beta

@Mark said in Merry Christmas All:

I also got her a Lego F1 car modeled after the recent McLaren car. Again opened with the excitement of when she was little.

Way to go, @mark ! What a thoughtful present.

Reminds me of my dad...just before I graduated from college he asked me if there was anything I had wanted when I was a child but that I never got. I told him I had always wanted a flashlight. For whatever reason, I thought the idea of having portable light was just so cool.

On my graduation day in 1978 he gave me this:

I still have it and every time I use it, it reminds me of what a great dad he was.

@AndyD Thanks for the recipe! I still have potatoes from my garden. I think I'll prepare them a la Andy to go with tonight's chicken!

Just finished watching the King's Christmas message on BBC News.

@Steve-Miller said in Who's cooking / baking for the holidays?:

Rib bones are from last night and also have a lot of meat on them.

I'm drooling....

@Steve-Miller said in Merry Christmas All:

I haven’t seen a ham like that for sale in decades.

Me either, till last week. Saw "fresh ham" at one of the international markets.

Interestingly, the Sam's Club carries beef tongue, tripe, and something else that's not common these days, maybe beef heart? I caught a cheapo Sam's membership and thought we'd check it out. Won't renew next year but they have some interesting stuff.

@AndyD said in Merry Christmas All:

Anyone else improvise a Christmas tune on the ivories?
We're about to eat, a full goose, & rather large gammon (that says it feeds 14).
So with six round the table we'll be eating sarnies till Monday

We both speak English. Okay, so I speak American, but...I had to look up two words in the post.

So...ham and/or goose sandwiches from the leftovers?

That photo of the dinner table laden with food ...OMG, scrumptious!

@Steve-Miller

This recipe is pretty close to ours, though uur version skips the ham, at least for Christmas Eve.

https://valentinascorner.com/olivier-salad-recipe-russian-potato-salad/

We used to call it Babos Salad, named after an elderly Lithuanian/Russian lady who was an integral part of the Lithuanian community I grew up in. "Baba" is "grandma" in Russian; that's what we all called her. She used to use crab meat on top as a garnish. Great addition!

We use red potatoes, skins on. I dice the raw potatoes and steam them. Much easier than trying to dice them after they're cooked. Same for the carrots, dice and then either steam or zap in the microwave for a minute or two.

No cukes in ours; they tend to release too much liquid as the salad sits in the frig to chill.

I had never heard of pickles with oak leaves (agurkai su ąžuolų lapais), but this particular brand of them has become our favorites. Kėdainių Konservai products are quite available at international markets.

https://tasteitmarket.com/products/kedainiu-pickles-with-oak-leave

What fun! And tell the person at the head of the table that I love the sweater.

@AndyD said in Who’s decorating for the holidays?:

What's white, furry, and smells of mint?

A polo bear

Okay, I'll bite...

@AndyD

Crackers! So very British....

@Axtremus The lobsters as tree toppers are a nice touch.

@Piano-Dad Impressive! When do they start putting that display up?

What a wonderful way to start the day! Thanks @andyd and ...

Merry Christmas to all!!

A singer-songwriter is refusing to perform at the Trump-Kennedy Center after the venue’s name changed.

Kristy Lee announced Monday that she canceled her scheduled performance at the Washington, D.C., arts institution scheduled for Jan. 14, 2026. The move came days after President Donald Trump’s name was added to the former John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

“I don’t have much power, and I don’t run with the big dogs who do. I’m just a folk singer from Alabama, slinging songs for a living,” Lee wrote on social media. “Hell, my songs are really just my own diary set to music. They’re not polished or hit songs, but they’re my truth and nobody can take that from me. I’m proud of that.”

“I believe in the power of truth, and I believe in the power of people. And I’m gonna stand on that side forever. I won’t lie to you, canceling shows hurts. This is how I keep the lights on. But losing my integrity would cost me more than any paycheck,” she continued. “When American history starts getting treated like something you can ban, erase, rename, or rebrand for somebody else’s ego, I can’t stand on that stage and sleep right at night. America didn’t get built by branding. It got built by people showing up and doing the work. And the folks who carry it don’t need their name on it, they just show up. That’s all I’m doing here. I’m showing up.”

Her post went viral, generating hundreds of thousands of likes, shares and comments. She thanked fans for their support and said she plans to instead perform virtually at home on Jan. 14.

https://www.syracuse.com/entertainment/2025/12/singer-cancels-kennedy-center-concert-after-trump-name-change.html

Kristy Lee's statement.

https://www.facebook.com/kristyleefans/posts/pfbid0w7d3eFTsc2vLJpMs2247qxGP7aGtLBBsAWJBHYfd7HTDCxoxSyuBkuCAR5za6tN5l?rdid=Z1VFv8Fv68WWgkLY#

Samples of her music, and a donation link.

https://www.kristyleemusic.com/

Good for them.

A planned Christmas Eve jazz concert at the Kennedy Center, a holiday tradition dating back more than 20 years, has been canceled. The show's host, musician Chuck Redd, says that he called off the performance in the wake of the White House announcing last week that President Donald Trump's name would be added to the facility.

"When I saw the name change on the Kennedy Center website and then hours later on the building, I chose to cancel our concert," Redd told The Associated Press in an email Wednesday. Redd, a drummer and vibraphone player who has toured with everyone from Dizzy Gillespie to Ray Brown, has been presiding over holiday "Jazz Jams" at the Kennedy Center since 2006, succeeding bassist William "Keter" Betts

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/arts/christmas-eve-jazz-concert-at-kennedy-center-canceled-after-trump-name-added-to-building

A center for homeless residents was set to close. Then Rick Steves stepped in.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/news/a-center-for-homeless-residents-was-set-to-close-then-rick-steves-stepped-in/ar-AA1SXEDv

Steves' FB post:

https://www.facebook.com/ricksteves/posts/pfbid0GTRpQoioZuuHAUakSptTRE7iunnk4MXqEoAAmHYE83Y9ZSkxPvQwWR5yusfKgpR2l

I made a sweater just like mine for Mr wtg; we are sweater twins.

A friend stopped by today when Mr wtg and I were wearing our sweaters and said we should have done a Christmas card with a photo of the two of us wearing them. We said we don't have any friends to send cards to, and she came up with the brilliant idea of simply sending Christmas cards with our sweater photo to random people. We got a good chuckle out of the thought that the recipients would be trying to figure out where they know these two oldsters from....

Transcript of the 60 Minutes piece. Be prepared for a tough read.

https://www.thenation.com/article/society/cbs-news-60-minutes-bari-weiss-cecot-segment-transcript/#

Christmas dinner at @bernard 's!! All the goodies look fabulous, in particular the Christmas cake.

We're having our Lithuanian Kūčios (Christmas Eve dinner) tonight. Various types of herring, beet and bean salad, Salad Olivier, šližikai, (poppy seed biscuits with poppy seed milk), and kisielius (cranberry kissel). Tomorow is a bit up in the air.

Lithuanian Christmas traditions:

https://www.lithaz.org/arts/xmas.html

It just arrived!! OMG it is a thing of beauty!! I can't wait to start lifting weights cook in it....

@Piano-Dad said in One reason they were holding up the release:

Alternatively, they're just truly incompetent.

I cast my vote for that option.

Details on the "how to":

Epstein Files Hacked And Posted To X

“Trump’s DOJ is so incompetent that they don’t even know how to properly redact PDFs,” Brian Krassenstein, political commentator and journalist, tweeted the day the agency released the files. You might be inclined to write this off immediately, given that Krassenstein is known for his anti-Trump stance. In this case, however, that would be a mistake. As well as providing the evidence in a series of tweets that showed the highly redacted documents as well as the unredacted versions, Krassenstein went on to explain precisely how the Epstein files could be hacked.

While it is common to read about hackers using PDFs in attacks, the portable document format is susceptible to attack itself. The shocking truth is that it was ridiculously easy, employing straightforward methods that have been known for years. That the DOJ was seemingly unaware of the PDF bugs that have been exploited to do this is concerning from a national security viewpoint at the very least. I am surprised, given that the DOJ has shown technical competence in operations with the FBI in the past, such as remotely deleting files from thousands of U.S.-based computers.

I have reached out to the DOJ for a statement, but in the meantime, here’s how the hack went down.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/daveywinder/2025/12/24/epstein-files-hacked---all-you-need-to-know/