The Rockefeller Center Tree
This year’s tree has arrived! This is how you know the Christmas season has officially begun. It will be lit the night of December 3 on NBC’s Christmas in Rockefeller Center.
Here’s the background on how they found the tree and the family that grew it.
Uploaded to YouTube by TODAY
Goodbye, Farmers’ Almanac
I should say right away that this is the other almanac, not the one you probably know, The Old Farmer’s Almanac, so PLEASE DO NOT PANIC. That one is still being published (and they want to make sure you know that).
But Farmers’ Almanac was loved too. It was first published in 1818, but last week the company announced that the 2026 edition will be its last.
It’s always sad to see a publication fold, especially one that’s even older than the Post.
What is Six-Man Football and Why Haven’t I Heard of It?
Apparently, it has been popular for years.
Uploaded to YouTube by CBS Evening News
Like Sands Through the Hourglass…
Days of Our Lives celebrates 60 years on the air this week. And when I say “the air” I mean the Peacock streaming service, which has been the home of the soap since it left NBC’s broadcast channel in 2022.
It’s the second-oldest soap opera still running, a short list that includes General Hospital (the oldest, premiering in 1963), The Young and the Restless (1973), The Bold and the Beautiful (1987), and Beyond the Gates (2025). Remember when there were a ton of soaps on TV every morning and afternoon instead of awful talk shows and reality shows featuring a judge? Daytime TV is rather sad now.
I still miss Guiding Light, and that went off the air 16 years ago.
RIP James Watson, Sally Kirkland, Cleto Escobedo III, Lenny Wilkens, Paul Tagliabue, Burt Meyer, Margaret DePriest, and Marjorie Johnson
James Watson discovered (along with Francis Crick) the structure of DNA. He died last week at the age of 97.
Sally Kirkland received a Golden Globe award and an Oscar nomination for Anna and appeared in The Sting, The Way We Were, JFK, Coming Apart, Private Benjamin, and many other films. She died Tuesday at the age of 84.
Cleto Escobedo III was the bandleader on Jimmy Kimmel Live!. He died Tuesday at the age of 59.
Lenny Wilkens was named one of the “50 best players of all-time” by the NBA in 1996. He was a nine-time All Star and a member of the Hall of Fame. As coach he won 1,332 games. He died recently at the age of 88.
Paul Tagliabue was NFL commissioner from 1989 to 2006. He died Sunday at the age of 84.
Burt Meyer helped create such games as Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots, Operation, Mystery Date, Lite Brite, Toss Across, and Mouse Trap. He died in October at the age of 99.
Margaret DePriest wrote for such soaps as General Hospital, Days of Our Lives, The Doctors, Another World, and Where the Heart Is, which she created. She died in September at the age of 94.
Marjorie Johnson was known for her award-winning baking. She was named the “Blue Ribbon Baker” of Minnesota and won several contests at the Minnesota State Fair and other fairs. She also made several appearances on talk shows. She died last week at the age of 106.
This Week in History
Bram Stoker Born (November 8, 1847)
The Irish author is famous, of course, for writing a novel about a certain guy with sharp teeth, but he wrote a dozen other novels and several short stories too.
The SS Edmund Fitzgerald Sinks (November 10, 1975)
A year later the Lake Superior disaster became the subject of a popular Gordon Lightfoot song.
This Week in Saturday Evening Post History: “Football Huddle” by Alan Foster (November 12, 1927)
That one kid is explaining the rules of six-man football to the other kid.
Saturday Is National Homemade Bread Day
Here’s a recipe for Homemade White Bread from Tastes Better From Scratch, and here’s one from the Post for Homemade Cinnamon Raisin Bread. Preppy Kitchen shows you how to make Homemade English Muffins, while Food52 has a recipe for Kindred’s Milk Bread, often called “the most delicious bread you’ll ever eat.”
And since I become addicted to it every fall, here’s a recipe for Pumpkin Spice Bread from Food.com.
Next Week’s Holidays and Events
Clean Your Refrigerator Day (November 15)
Just in time for those Thanksgiving leftovers (though you should regularly clean it anyway).
Play Monopoly Day (November 19)
The invention of the game has always been credited to Charles Darrow, but the real story is more complicated than that.
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Comments
Great comment, Myles. I have to agree with you on Dark Shadows, and consider it to be the Star Trek of horror. They started a few months apart, in 1966. It did result in two feature films from 1970 and ’71. The 2nd one wasn’t good, unfortunately, basically a contractual obligation for the double features still around back then.
I’m actually re-watching it currently on Tubi-TV, at about episode 270. If you Google ‘Dark Shadows audio dramas’ the first 2 that come up are worth looking into. These are from the 2000’s to early 2020’s with the original stars. Definitely get the ‘Tony & Cassandra Mysteries’ series bringing the 1968 (best year) characters into the present. Big Finish Productions.
Midnight, my mom watched ‘The Secret Storm’ and ‘The Edge of Night’ decades ago. Of course, I had her hooked on “Dark Shadows’ too.
My Memaw watched “As the World Turns” and “Guiding Light.” I remember another one that had the word “storm” as part of the title but can’t remember much about it.
6-man football is fun to watch and great for small rural communities.
Although I watched it online (the entire series!) decades later, for my money, by far, the best daytime soap-opera ever was Dark Shadows!
Spawned two feature films and a long running radio series.