Breaking — no, exploding news

 Watch a garbage truck explode in Arlington Heights, Illinois 

As a public service

Odie Henderson’s 10 worst movies of the year

Who is Odie Henderson, you may ask. I have no idea.

Oh wait. He works for the Boston Globe.

Yes it is

Mass Hysteria? Iran? China? The U.S. Military? How the Leading Drone Theories Stack Up.

“We have these industry, military, law enforcement professionals that are directly conflicting the message that is coming from the White House,” [a New Jersey assemblywoman named Dawn Fantasia] says. Speaking of Rep. Pallone’s comments after being briefed, Fantasia said: “Now, are we in a situation that our [federal] elected officials are in the know but the state of New Jersey is still not in the know? I mean, this is getting silly.”

Getting silly, that is.

And so, since everyone's entitled (I think it's in the Constitution somewhere) to have an opinion, I'm going with mine.

It's somebody (or somebodies) training an AI, much like everyone from Tesla and Google to Uber and Lyft are training automobiles. 

Most likely it's a U.S. government entity and nobody's talking about it because…wait for it…it's a secret.

Now we can talk about the wisdom of secrets.

The key word here is "world's"

Donald Trump’s win is boosting optimism among the world’s top executives

Seems (to me, at least) like a not-exactly counterintuitive but certainly counter-narrative report. 

And notably…

The worries [about tariff threats] are concentrated among heads of larger companies, according to the survey: 13% of those CEOs thought tariffs would have a positive effect on their businesses, compared with 80% of CEOs of the smaller companies surveyed.

Well, well.

We may be needing a sports editor soon

Martial artists break dangerous record involving cucumber, chainsaw, blindfold

Dec. 16 (UPI) -- Members of an Indian martial arts collective broke a bizarre Guinness World Record: Most slices of a cucumber held in a person's mouth with a chainsaw while blindfolded in one minute.

First we had kids writing and drinking sake while swimming in armor; then the World Excel Championship; and now seeing how close you can get to a guy's nose with a chainsaw. Wearing a blindfold.

It's not the guy with the nose that's wearing the blindfold (which might make some sense). It's the guy with the saw.

No word on what happens to what's left of the cuke.

And wait: There's more.

Dec. 16 (UPI) -- A municipality in the Philippines broke a Guinness World Record by gathering more than 2,000 people dressed as angels.

And now for the real news of the day

What We Know About Reports of Drone Sightings in New Jersey and New York

At a press briefing last week Sabrina Singh, a spokeswoman for the Pentagon, said that the reported objects were not drones operated by the U.S. military and that officials did not believe they were “coming from a foreign entity or adversary.”

Which was immediately interpreted on X(Twitter), of course, as they're from outer space.

But no. It's just Santa's elves, a little bit behind schedule this year on checking it twice. Which, nevertheless, absolutely needs to be done before Christmas.

Especially in New Jersey.

Eating will kill you. (So will breathing.) Good luck.

Why Ultraprocessed Foods Aren’t Always Bad

Just keep doing it.

And tonight, it's the Bears

If you were home in New England [yesterday], forced to watch Patriots-Cardinals ahead of the true Game of the Week, too bad. Instead of a possible prelude to this year’s Super Bowl, you were hostage to the Dumpster Fire In The Desert.

-Boston Globe

Imagine.

[In the true Game of the Week the Bills beat the Lions 48-42. As if you didn't already know.]

Bored? Running out of things to do?

Well, you probably can't do any of this unless you live in New York City, but if you do live in NYC you're in luck.

NYC has scores of small, specialized or quirky museums. Here are some highlights

Brooklyn Seltzer Museum

474 Hemlock St, Brooklyn

An interactive museum and factory tour run in partnership with the city’s oldest seltzer works, a family business now in its fourth generation. The museum, inside Brooklyn Seltzer Boys’ active factory, is “dedicated to preserving and promoting the effervescent history of seltzer water,” and celebrates “the manufacturing of seltzer, the science of seltzer, and seltzer as a cultural force in New York City and the world beyond.”

Not to mention, guests can spritz each other with seltzer.

And more… 

ESPN will never run out of material, will they?

Canadian man wins Microsoft Excel World Championships in Las Vegas

Michael Jarman defeated 11 other finalists, including three-time world champion Andrew "The Annihilator" Ngai of Australia, at the spreadsheet-managing sport and took home a $5,000 prize and the wrestling-style championship belt.

Forget the cookies…

SantaCon Attendees Overrun New York for Raucous, Boozy Event

This spirited gathering is part of a massive global phenomenon, with parallel events unfolding in cities spanning multiple continents.

In Australia, Adelaide hosted its own congregation of Santas, while across North America, celebrations stretched from Vancouver to Fort Lauderdale. Major metropolitan areas including London, Phoenix, San Francisco, Dallas, and Los Angeles joined the festivities, each putting their local spin on the holiday tradition.

…put out some black coffee and a couple of asprin instead.