Free Republic

Some films are obviously Christmas movies, like Noelle. But that designation is not so clear cut for others. They may be set during the holiday season, and they may even touch upon Christmas themes, but does that mean they truly qualify in the traditional sense? …And the latest movie to take the stand in our great Christmas movie debate is hoping its season stock(ing) is about to go up. That’s right, it’s time to buy or sell holiday shares in Trading Places. How much of Trading Places takes place at Christmastime? Roughly 75% of Trading Places is set during Christmas...

Maria and the family fled Villa Trapp in Austria not by foot over the mountains – that would have taken them to Germany, not Switzerland – but by train to Italy (formerly Croatia), where Georg had grown up and earned a military pension

This is a chapter from my book, "Sleuthing The Scriptures". I wrote the book in late 2022. It's Christmas time again, so I am offering it to me fellow freepers. I pray you enjoy it. When you think of the first story of Christmas, it’s usually about Mary and Joseph looking down at their new born son in a manger, surrounded by barn animals and maybe a shepherd or two looking on. Angels singing praises of joy to the Lord Most High, and maybe even the star that is guiding the wise men from Babylon to the destination of the...

If you’ve been dreaming of a white Christmas, be warned that it might not become a reality. Many people have memories of watching the snow fall on Christmas Day—but data shows that, across the country, a white Christmas occurs less frequently than you might think. In general, if an area has widespread snow and persistently colder patterns leading up to Christmas, it could be a predictor of snow on Christmas. But while many people across the country might lament the white Christmases of their youth, the truth is that many places typically don’t see snow in late December—people just think...

Among its countless achievements, the song was named the 20th century’s most-played song on American radio and television by the BMI.Only the most momentous songs in pop history make it into the Grammy Hall of Fame, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the Top 40 of Rolling Stone’s 2004 list of the 500 greatest songs of all time, and the Top 10 of the RIAA’s Top 365 Songs of the Century. But only one could achieve all that and be named the most-played song on American radio and television during the 20th century by the BMI. Its title? “You’ve...

The recent federal indictment of Dana Williamson — California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s former chief of staff — should come as no surprise: It’s the latest example of a thoroughly corrupt Sacramento political culture that afflicts both parties. But as bad as you may think the corruption is, I can tell you first-hand that it is much worse. For Democrats, supermajority status has resulted in a “might makes right” attitude of abusing their power to impose their will — and to help themselves. Worse, because Democrats control almost all the levers of state and local law enforcement (including the state attorney...

They decked the halls — and each other. A ritzy Nantucket Christmas celebration erupted into mayhem as men decked out in “Ralph Lauren and Burberry” traded blows just moments after Santa Claus made his appearance, according to shocking footage. The wild brawl broke out on Federal Street Saturday afternoon during the Massachusetts island’s 51st Annual Christmas Stroll, where hundreds had gathered to visit local businesses in one of America’s priciest small towns, the Nantucket Current reported. In dramatic video shared with the outlet, about a dozen men — ranging in age from 20s to 60s — were seen arguing and...

How did more than $3 million in Civil War era gold coins end up in a farm field, somewhere in Kentucky? Everyone from the Washington Post to USA Today to major TV news networks covered this story last summer when it first broke, but in this segment you'll hear for the first time from the Lexington coin dealer who brokered the sale of the coins when he was first approached by the farmer who literally stumbled upon them. You'll also hear from a UK professor about why she thinks the coins were buried in the first place, and from some...

An international team of researchers have successfully recovered and analysed ancient DNA from Egyptian mummies dating from approximately 1400 BCE to 400 BCE, including the first genome-wide data from three individuals. The study found that modern Egyptians share more ancestry with sub-Saharan Africans than ancient Egyptians did, whereas ancient Egyptians were found to be most closely related to ancient people from the Middle East and Western Asia. This study counters prior scepticism about the possibility of recovering reliable ancient DNA from Egyptian mummies. Despite the potential issues of degradation and contamination caused by climate and mummification methods, the authors were...

A central claim among those who deny a link between ancient and modern Egyptians is that subsequent invasions replaced the original population. This is not supported by demographic, genetic, or linguistic evidence. Genetic studies show ancient Egypt DNA continues.The Greek and Roman Periods: The Ptolemaic Greeks and later the Romans ruled as small, elite minorities. Their demographic footprint on the overall gene pool of Egypt was negligible.The Arab Conquest (7th Century CE): This was the most significant cultural event, introducing Arabic and Islam. However, this was a case of elite dominance and cultural diffusion, not population replacement. The Genetic Impact:...

The most direct way to answer the ancestry question is through genetics. Recent studies of ancient DNA (aDNA) have provided a robust, chronologically consistent picture of the Egyptian people’s origins, showing remarkable stability over thousands of years, followed by gradual admixture. Genetic evidence shows that the foundational population of the Nile Valley was established long before the first dynasty. During the “Green Sahara” period (approx. 11,000 to 5,000 years ago), populations migrated towards the Nile from all directions as the Sahara dried, creating a unique, indigenous mix of Northeast African peoples and migrants from the Near East. A breakthrough 2025...

Rome's rise created a supply challenge on a massive scale. This segment uncovers the harbour system at Portus and Ostia that helped keep the empire running, and why its remains are so important today. The Roman 'Mega-Harbour' that Powered an Empire | 6:00 BBC Timestamp | 905K subscribers | 3,502 views | December 10, 2025

THE LEGACY OF THE WWII GENERATION Every day, memories of World War II are disappearing from living history. The men and women who fought and won this great conflict are now in their 90s or older; according to US Department of Veterans Affairs statistics, 45,418 of the 16.4 million Americans who served in World War II are alive as of 2025.

One of the most important cyclical events in my life as a data analyst of American religion is the semi-regular release of the General Social Survey.... I was more than pleased that the Association of Religion Data Archives had already managed to upload the 2024 General Social Survey to their website... I wanted to do a really tight “zoom in” on the changes in the religious composition of the GSS before the pandemic and then in the 2024 data. So, here’s how things have shifted since 2016.... You can see some really significant swings in these figures from 2018. For...

Why do we have a constitution? How and why did it come into existence? Just what, exactly, prompted the calling of the Constitutional Convention, which gave birth to it? Most Americans believe, logically enough, that after we sent His Britannic Majesty packing, it was time to create a new government. This is false, and it entirely overlooks the fact that we already had a functioning government at the time of the Convention. That government had been in effect for the entirety of the Revolution and for six years following the final British defeat at Yorktown. No, the Convention was prompted...

Because of the shift from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar in the 1500s, Christmas ended up being celebrated 11 days earlier than before. When the change reached America in the 1750s, some people continued to observe December 25 as sacred and also marked January 6 as “Old Christmas.” This tradition held on strongly in Appalachia and remained part of Kentucky's holiday heritage as a parallel celebration alongside the newer Christmas date. The Forgotten Holiday Called 'Old Christmas' | 5:57 KET - Kentucky Educational Television | 44K subscribers | 47,374 views | November 26, 2025

A fiber-optic cable survey of the lake from Buffalo to Toronto alerted experts to an anomaly sitting on the lakebed, leading experts to surmise it could be the Rapid City vessel, an 1884-built schooner lost in 1917.Now, though, they don't think it can be that recent a wreckage.James Conolly, Trent University archaeologist and diver, said there were features that just weren't common for ships built after 1850, a period that experienced a bit of a technological leap for Great Lakes ships. Post-1850s ships had metal rigging, whereas the one found is rope-rigged. "It immediately puts it into, likely, the first...

Online claims of "large underground structures" discovered under Egypt's famed pyramids of Giza are unfounded, experts in the field say. The assertions stem from a YouTube video featuring three Italian researchers with no background in Egyptology or archaeology. The claims spread on social media after three researchers -- Corrado Malanga, Armando Mei and Filippo Biondi -- held a press conference March 22 and 23 on YouTube. "The pyramids are monumental stone structures, built on a flat plateau," said Jean-Guillaume Olette-Pelletier, doctor of Egyptology at the University of Paris-Sorbonne (archived link). "They were then excavated or converted to include burial and...

A team of Italian scientists took the world by storm last March when they announced the discovery of a colossal underground complex plunging nearly 3,500 feet beneath Egypt's Giza Plateau and linking chambers the size of city blocks. Now Filippo Biondi, the radar engineer who developed the imaging method, has gone public with evidence that he said leaves little room for doubt.In a new interview on Jesse Michels' American Alchemy podcast, Biondi revealed that four independent satellite operators, Umbra, Capella Space, ICEYE and Italy's Cosmo-SkyMed, all returned identical raw tomography data showing the same structures.>>>Each shaft has a central column...