Santa Claws

Rickrolled

The New Yorker ~ Joe Dator

Red Army Hockey

As a New York Rangers fan since the late 1960s, I saw them play the Soviet Union's Central Red Army team at Madison Square Garden on December 27, 1979.

The Red Army outplayed and outscored the Rangers 5-2.  The bigger news that day was off the ice. The Soviet Union had invaded Afghanistan, and Afghan president, Hafizullah Amin, was overthrown and murdered.

Less than two months later, the Central Red Army team were miraculously defeated by an amateur team of U.S. college players at the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, New York, after which ABC Sports broadcaster Al Michaels famously cried "Do you believe in miracles?" The U.S. team's Gold Medal finish came to be known as the Miracle on Ice. 

Ronald Reagan was elected President the following November and within 10 years the Berlin Wall came down and the Soviet Union collapsed.

F' Yeah

National Gallery

Frederick Wiseman's latest documentary brings you inside the National Gallery, as well as behind the scenes with the institution's leaders and craftsmen. It runs three hours, has no voice-over narration, and is simply remarkable. It's playing now at the MVFC.

Ho, ho, woof!

Another in a series of great Christmas-time New Yorker covers by cartoonist George Booth.

The New Yorker ~ December 22, 2014 ~ George Booth

The New Yorker ~ December 13, 2010 ~ George Booth

The New Yorker ~ December 13, 2004 ~ George Booth

The New Yorker ~ December 15, 2003 ~ George Booth

I Can't Breathe

Michael Ramirez ~ Investor's Business Daily

Eric Garner's death was a needless tragedy. NYC levies the highest excise taxes on cigarettes in the country, $5.85 on each pack, and then uses its police force to enforce the unlawful sale of tobacco.

Furthermore, the same week NYC's mayor said Garner's death was due to excessive force, the city's tax authorities filed suit against a Virginia-based tobacco shop for supplying untaxed cigarettes on Staten Island.

According to a recent report, 57 percent of the cigarettes smoked in New York are smuggled across state lines to avoid state and city taxes, which total $58.50 per carton.

According to cancer.org:

"Higher prices reduce cigarette consumption and save lives."

Put another way, higher cigarette prices and taxes criminalized behavior like Eric Garner's and the tragic implications of the city's laws and police enforcement.

50 years over 518 pages for $5,000

That's Taschen's "definitive, authorized illustrated history of the world's greatest rock 'n' roll band," titled The Rolling Stones . . . signed by Mick, Keith, Charlie and Ronnie, and featuring a forward by Bill Clinton.