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It’s a seasonal ritual that countless families enjoy — getting dressed in their holiday finest and heading off to see a local production of the “The Nutcracker,” that candy-coated ballet that celebrates all things Christmas. It’s also a ritual that’s critical to the bottom line of many dance companies, which depend on those solid “Nutcracker” sales to get them through the rest of the year. In fact, one prominent company, the Atlanta Ballet, told me that 70% of its annual box-office revenue derives from its production of the holiday favorite

Appointments for free vasectomies at a Planned Parenthood facility in Oklahoma filled up in less than 48 hours as dozens of men signed up to get 'the snip.' Up to 100 slots are thought to have been made available at the Oklahoma City clinic, with all slots filled in less than two days, and many more men joined a waitlist. Staff at the clinic say more men are signing up for procedure because of the state's political climate, with Governor Kevin Stitt vowing to make Oklahoma the most anti-abortion state in the country. Under current state laws, abortions are illegal...

Now that men cannot rely on abortions anymore to shirk their parental responsibilities, many are requesting permanent sterilizations or vasectomies instead. And the abortion chain Planned Parenthood is stepping up to meet their requests. America’s biggest abortion business is doing more and more vasectomies. And its doing them for free in a mobile trailer ironically called “The Nutcracker.” You can’t make this up. Here’s what’s happening in Missouri, a pro-life state where unborn babies are protected from abortions. Planned Parenthood in Missouri will carry out 100 free vasectomies in October for uninsured or underinsured men to celebrate World Vasectomy Day....

Free vasectomies will be offered at clinics in Missouri in response to a surge in demand after the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade. Sixty procedures will be available at mobile clinics in St Louis, Springfield and Joplin as part of an initiative run by family planning charity, Planned Parenthood, during the first week of November. In June, the US Supreme Court, the highest court in America, voted to overturn the constitutional right to choose abortion, which has existed for more than 50 years. The controversial ruling means a woman's right to decide is now determined individually by each...

A Playboy model was kicked out of a mall after she stripped down and used just body paint to dress as the nutcracker. Francia James, 31, who has wracked up over nine million followers on Instagram under the username @francety, stood in the middle of a shopping center in only her underwear and some paint, as she gave out nuts to people passing by - and her outfit, or lack there of it, eventually led to her being asked to leave. The model, originally from Manizales, Colombia, but now living in Miami, Florida, re-created the famous Christmas character using only...

Edie Falco will star as Hillary Clinton in the upcoming FX series “Impeachment: American Crime Story.” According to The Hollywood Reporter, the former star of “The Sopranos” will join Sarah Paulson, Clive Owen and Billy Eichner about former President Bill Clinton’s impeachment trial and his scandal with Monica Lewinsky. There is no release date as of right now for “Impeachment: American Crime Story.”

Many people this holiday season will experience the joy of attending a local performance of “The Nutcracker” ballet by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. It’s the most implausible American tradition imaginable, an import from fin-de-siècle Russia straight to your hometown. It’s living proof of the capacity of music and the art of dance to leap the bounds of time and space and delight us forever. Perhaps some viewer’s own children will perform in it, and that’s part of the appeal. What theater goers don’t entirely realize is that they are watching something even more wonderful than what they see. In this one...

<p>Flaws in nuts that hold up lights throughout the Big Dig’s tunnels may be the result of workers overtightening the fasteners when they were first installed, a top highway official said Thursday.</p> <p>Highway officials revealed this week that an inspector had discovered a cracked nut on a light fixture in the Ted Williams Tunnel in September. After further inspection of the Williams Tunnel and the Interstate 90 Connector and Interstate 93 tunnels, officials said they believe hundreds of fasteners throughout the Big Dig tunnels are flawed and must be replaced.</p>

Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) is joining the ballet … at least for one night. The congresswoman is reprising her role as a merry widow in the Washington Ballet’s production of “The Nutcracker” on Saturday. It’s the third time Norton, 77, has taken to the stage with the ballet company. Other Washington fixtures, including Mayor Vincent Gray (D) and the late former Mayor Marion Barry (D) have appeared in the classic Tchaikovsky ballet.“There is no more delightful fun than seeing or being lucky enough to be asked to perform in ‘The Nutcracker,’ ” Norton said in a statement. “Isn’t this...

Thanksgiving weekend marks the official kickoff of the holiday season and it’s always a busy one. Today for example Raj, Little Mo, DeweyFromDetroit and I traditionally go see the Nutcracker.  No, not Val Jar or Lady M – White House entrance to Val-Jar’s officeThe Nutcracker I’m talking about is Tchaikovsky's ballet. Neither of our Big White nutcrackers enjoy the music, greatly preferring the beat and lyrics of a good Beyoncé song and dance to that of classic ballet. Odd, as Bey has been known to “borrow” from the ballet art form. And I’m not just talking about the ballerina heels...

We haven’t even had time to hang the mistletoe and would you believe there are already skirmishes breaking out in the war on Christmas? The latest yuletide battleground is Butler Elementary School in Belmont, Mass. Over the years I’ve covered my fair share of anti-Christmas school house shenanigans. There was the dimwit who confiscated a child’s candy canes and the dunderheads who banned the colors red and green. And how can we forget about the simpletons who outlawed classroom poinsettias or the Junior League communists who rewrote the lyrics to "Silent Night"? But those are junior varsity skirmishes compared to...

Urban Outfitters is back in the spotlight again for their questionable product choices. This time it’s for the Hillary Clinton Nutcracker, an actual nutcracker in the shape of, you-guessed-it, Hillary Clinton. These days it seems as if Urban Outfitters’ marketing plan is largely based around generating press on derogatory items such as a “one of a kind sweatshirt featuring the Kent State University logo” with a suspicious blood-like spatter, and an array of T-shirts that perpetuate stereotypes against Native Americans, Mexicans, Jews, and Irish among others (at least the fact that no one is safe is slightly comforting?).

A group of young ballerinas rehearsing for “The Nutcracker” was kicked out of American University’s theatre so MSNBC host Chris Matthews could interview President Obama on Thursday. American University admitted they dumped Ballet Petite’s two final dress rehearsals so they could host MSNBC’s “Hardball College Tour.” Matthews will be presiding over a one-hour conversation with the man he’s likened to President Kennedy’s last brother, President Abraham Lincoln and Jesus Christ. The ballet company had been scheduled to rehearse on Wednesday and Thursday in preparation for their opening performance on Sunday.

Watch the tiger on the left. This, ladies and gentlemen, is how you quit a ballet company in style... You know some stage manager backstage was flipping his s*** when he saw that

Pirouette on over, Baryshnikov. There’s a new interpretation of Tchaikovski’s Nutcracker coming out! (Crazy-funny video)

The story isn't that the Democrats finally took on Hillary Clinton. Nor is it that they were gentlemanly to the point of gingerly and tentative. There was an air of "Please, somebody kill her for me so I can jump in and show high minded compassion at her plight!" Barack Obama, with his elegance and verbal fluency really did seem like that great and famous political figure from his home state of Illinois--Adlai Sevenson, who was not at all hungry, not at all mean, and operated at a step removed from the grubby game. Mr. Obama is like someone who...

Literally.

Little Fun with Nutcrackers http://www.pimpmynutcracker.com/

A Croatian man got a nasty surprise when he tried to get out of his deck chair and found his testicles had got stuck. Mario Visnjic had gone swimming naked in the sea at the Valalta beach in western Croatia. His testicles had shrunk while in the cool sea and slipped through the wooden slats when he sat back down on his wooden deckchair. But as he lay in the sun they expanded back to normal size and got stuck between the slats. He was eventually freed after he called beach maintenance services on his mobile phone and they sent...

JOHN Kerry has joined John Murtha and other Democrats in saying he erred in voting for the liberation of Iraq. "It is essential to acknowledge that the war itself was a mistake. . . . It was wrong, and I was wrong to vote for that Iraqi war resolution," Kerry told a Democratic Party gathering in Washington this week. If the junior senator from Massachusetts truly believes that his judgment was so clouded that he sent thousands of American men and women to their deaths needlessly, then he should do the honorable thing and resign from Congress. Senators and congressmen...