Conscription into the in the US military effectively ended on this day in 1972 when Richard Nixon declared a national day of mourning due to the death of President Harry S Truman, shuttering most federal offices and preventing the on-boarding of draftees. The policy lapsed and was not renewed. Still all male citizens and residents between the ages of eighteen and twenty-five are required to register and be subject (deferments and exemptions notwithstanding) to induction into the armed forces.
Wednesday, 28 December 2022
4-f (10. 417)
Tuesday, 27 December 2022
8x8 (10. 416)
adad gate: bas-relief discoveries help limn the dazzle of ancient Nineveh
rewind: a growing collection of Year-End Lists arranged categorical
take the a-train: an NYC subway quiz—via tmn mush from the wimp: a collection of the best headlines from 2022
double jeopardy: a personalised quiz show tradition based on family gossip
a chromatic hallucination: the colour magenta (previously) is a mental construct
fast-forward: 2022 summarised in seven minutes
nazca lines: a whole cache of hidden geoglyphs found in Peru
Monday, 26 December 2022
ฮบฮฑฮปฮนฮบฮฌฮฝฯฮถฮฑฯฮฟฮน (10. 415)
A figure of Greek, Balkan and Anatolian folklore, the malevolent goblins called kallikantzaros (previously, literally beguiling centaur in Greek but possibly etymologically sources to the Turkish word 
for werewolf or vampire) are summoned from the underworld during Twelvetide to turn their mischief on humans, there being a reprieve from their infernal, eternal task during this fortnight when it is believed the Earth’s journey through the calendar year is suspended. Consigned to hack away at the trunk of the World Tree and bring about its doom, one Christmas dawns and the Sun stops moving, they are called to the surface, distracted and forgetting about their job, nearly complete, until Epiphany resumes Ordinary Time—and the sawed bough has had the chance to regenerate. In order to save the world, most humans would endure this period of bedevilment but there were additional (see above) ways to keep the kallikantazaroi away, including keeping the Yule Log burning for the duration of the holidays so they could not creep down one’s chimney and through one’s hearth, avoid venturing out late at night and, particularly in Serbia, to refrain from adulterous liaisons since that activity attracts them and will ensure that the affair gets found out.
my company takes the entire delivery fee. you were a capitalist until five minutes ago—you should know how these things work. (10. 414)
Regular contributor to McSweeney’s Steven Ruddy presents a delightfully Dickensian gig-economy, Uber Eats retelling of the Christmas Carol, specifically the concluding scene when Scrooge cries out to a boy in the street, ecstatic that he hasn’t missed Christmas Day and attempts to dispatch a prize turkey to the Cratchit home, though has difficulties fulfilling his order. “Delivery fee is two crowns, sir.”
may all jollity lighten your christmas hours (10. 413)
For Second Christmas, our AI wrangler Janelle Shane (see previously) hit upon another ingenious application for generative networks, remedying in one fell prompt the inscrutability of Victorian greeting cards and the relatively anodyne nature of contemporary cards, to enliven the iconography and sentiment for the industry. 
Yearly good tidings and descriptions were issued by machines fed on the corpus of inaccessibly weird cards, and where possible, illustrated by our programmer. The unrenderable caption that goes with the above 1889 motto calls for “a jester puppet with magic hat holding a leaping, toothed bird which brandishes a cane as it leaps.” Another favourite was for 1890—May You Feel Sturdy and Gay—picturing an elegant naiad lifting a pianoforte and wearing a striped bathing suit. Much more to explore at the links above.
the duchess and the dirt water fox are calling (10. 412)
Originally telecast on this day in 1992 with the MST3K treatment—having previously attained somewhat of a cult following by its inclusion in Elvira’s Movie Macabre in 1984, the 1965 scif-fi movie from the Woolner Brothers (also with the credits Hercules Unchained, Hercules and the Captive Women, Attack of the Fifty Foot Woman and Hillbillies in a Haunted House) follows the plot of a mysterious agent, Dr Kolos, of the Intergalactic Council tasked with replacing prominent human scientists with android doppelgรคngers in order to take over the Earth. The alien plan is foiled by intervention from the US National Intelligence Service.
Sunday, 25 December 2022
away in a manger (10. 411)
On Christmas Day in 1223, inspired himself by a pilgrimage undertaken in somewhat safer times years 
earlier to Bethlehem and to discourage the faithful from making the arduous trip after the fall of the Crusader Kingdoms in the Holy Land by offering a local alternative, St Francis of Assisi arranged the first Nativity Scene (Presepe) in a grotto—sanctuary—in the village of Greccio in Lazio. Francis arranged for a human baby to be lain in hay and attended by an ox and donkey. Word spread and parishioners came from all over the valley, bearing torches and candles to witness the display. Attending friars celebrated Mass and Francis recited the gospel. The scene, reflected in the village coat of arms, is recreated annually.
