Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas
It's Free for All Friday!
It’s Free for ALL Friday! Each week I keep track of some of the off-the-path things I've found, and work extra-hard to make sure you never hit a paywall, using my own subscriptions, gift links, and other (legal) hocus-pocus.
Inside the Dramatic Race to Restore Notre Dame Cathedral
Behind the restoration of Paris’s greatest landmark—and the controversies that nearly consumed it.
About a year before Notre Dame was set to reopen after a devastating fire, the French general tasked with overseeing the cathedral’s reconstruction, Jean-Louis Georgelin, disappeared.
Georgelin, a strapping 74-year-old who had once served as President Jacques Chirac’s military chief of staff, was taking a break in the summer to trek through the Pyrénées. He was known to hike alone and regularly climbed the Pyrénées’ highest peaks. When he didn’t return to his mountain refuge one August evening, the caretaker called the police to tell them the hiker hadn’t returned. A helicopter was quickly dispatched, and hours later the police found Georgelin’s body on the slopes of Mont Valier, a 9,311-foot mountain near the Spanish border.
The tragedy hit France hard. Georgelin was in the homestretch of one of the most complicated reconstruction projects that France had ever undertaken on a historical monument, and his death put even more pressure on French President Emmanuel Macron, who had staked much of his legacy on rapidly restoring a cathedral that for centuries has symbolized the country’s civic and religious life.
Macron had to quickly replace his hard-charging general with a leader who could get the project over the finish line, and his choice could not have been more different: Philippe Jost, a lanky engineer who had spent much of his career in the cogs of the country’s defense ministry making sure France’s army was well-equipped.
While the cathedral wasn’t ready for the Olympic Games in Paris this summer as authorities had initially hoped, its scheduled reopening for religious services this December offers a stunning cap to a year when Paris has been center stage.
Before the fire, the cathedral got around 12 million visitors a year, far more than the Vatican. Soon crowds will return to peer at it all. (The Wall Street Journal)
You Want That Gift to Arrive Today? This Is What It Takes
Retailers like Amazon, Walmart and Target have figured out that if they get you your online order today, you will probably spend more tomorrow.
One day in early November, I ordered an emotional support pickle. The image on Amazon showed a green crocheted prolate vegetable, with a pink bow fixed on top and two black button eyes. It held a sign that read, “Emotional Support Pickle: I will always be around to let you know that you are a BIG DILL.”
I wanted it right away. And my wish seemed attainable.
In the past year, if you’ve shopped online from one of the big retailers, you’ve probably noticed new delivery options. You do not have to wait two days or even overnight for your package to arrive. Instead, you can get what you want that very afternoon, between 4 and 8 p.m., if you’d like.
For $6.99, I could get a little emotional support during the busy holiday shopping season, which, for a reporter covering the retail industry, is also the busy season. More important, I wanted to understand how it was possible to order a gag gift in the morning and have it arrive before I went to sleep.
“Customers love fast delivery, and the faster we deliver, the more often customers come back,” said Sarah Mathew, a vice president for delivery experience at Amazon. “It doesn’t sound like rocket science, but that was really the aha of ‘Oh, we should really continue to invest here.’” (The New York Times)
How “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” Went From Morbid Omen to Holiday Mainstay
Are you muddling through somehow or hanging a shining star upon the highest bough?
Hugh Martin was crestfallen. He and his creative partner, Ralph Blane, had just finished performing a melancholy ballad that Martin had written for Judy Garland to sing in the 1944 musical Meet Me in St. Louis—and the producers were laughing.
They knew that. In fact, it was sort of why they were laughing: because the song was “so depressingly sad,” as Martin remembered one of them saying.
“It’s not supposed to be funny,” Martin said.
Original lyrics included:
“Have yourself a merry little Christmas
It may be your last.
Next year we may all be living in the past.
...
But at least we all will be together
If the Lord allows
From now on, we’ll have to muddle through somehow
So have yourself a merry little Christmas now.”
This is the story of the revisions. (Mental Floss)
A Man Hid Five Treasure Chests Worth More Than $2 Million Across the United States. Here’s How to Find Them
What does it take to channel the spirit of Jacques Cousteau and search for secret treasure?
For Jon Collins-Black, this question sparked a thrilling journey that led him to hide five treasure chests across the United States.
His new book, “There’s Treasure Inside,” offers hints for eager treasure hunters, sending them on an expedition to find hidden chests with a combined prize value of more than $2 million.
Each chapter contains detailed clues leading to one of the five chests.
Although Collins-Black remains tight-lipped about the book’s specifics, he promises that anyone can find the treasure. “All the clues you need are in the book,” he said.
To protect the integrity of the search, Collins-Black worked with as few strategists and editors as possible to avoid any hints from leaking to the public. He even decided to keep the treasure locations a secret from his wife. (CNN)
2,189 Miles, 40 Days, and 3 Showers: How Tara Dower Destroyed the Appalachian Trail Speed Record
Fueled by 90-second “dirt naps” and the “La La Land” soundtrack, she beat the record by 13 hours.
Minutes before midnight on a Saturday in September, Tara Dower emerged from the forest on Springer Mountain in Blue Ridge, Georgia. Trudging through the darkness, the 31-year-old wore a headlamp to navigate the last section of the Appalachian Trail—a beacon in the homestretch of a legendary journey.
With thousands of miles behind her, Dower fell to her knees and put her hands on the finish, a bronze plaque that reads, “A footpath for those who seek fellowship with the wilderness.”
Dower became the fastest person in history to complete the Appalachian Trail, a 2,189-mile path that traverses Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Georgia.
The professional ultrarunner, who lives and trains in Virginia Beach, Virginia, covered the trail heading southbound in 40 days, 18 hours, and five minutes, the fastest known time (FKT), pending verification. She beat the previous overall record by 13 hours.
Her days began with a 3 a.m. alarm (usually from a tent close to the trail) followed by a quick breakfast. After taping blisters and sores on her feet, she set off in the dark around 3:30 a.m. For the next 17 hours or so, Dower only stopped for a couple of short breaks for meals, 90-second “dirt naps,” and pacers rotating in and out until 8:30-9:30 p.m. (Runners World)
Mathematicians Discover the Perfect Way to Multiply
By chopping up large numbers into smaller ones, researchers have rewritten a fundamental mathematical speed limit.
Four thousand years ago, the Babylonians invented multiplication. Five years ago, mathematicians perfected it.
On March 18, two researchers described the fastest method ever discovered for multiplying two very large numbers (opens a new tab). The paper marks the culmination of a long-running search to find the most efficient procedure for performing one of the most basic operations in math.
“Everybody thinks basically that the method you learn in school is the best one, but in fact it’s an active area of research,” said Joris van der Hoeven (opens a new tab), a mathematician at the French National Center for Scientific Research and one of the co-authors. (Quanta Magazine)
How Do I Stay Healthy in My 50s?
Ageing isn’t something that simply starts after you’ve reached a certain year. It’s a lifelong process, and in midlife your health needs can change.
People in their 50s can be prone to a “vicious cycle”, says Nathan LeBrasseur, director of the Mayo Clinic’s Robert and Arlene Kogod Center on Aging. The high-stress grind of work and family responsibilities can lead to days when exercise, a solid meal and good sleep are bonuses rather than givens.
When such days become the norm, “we can see health issues start to emerge, sometimes earlier than they should”, says LeBrasseur.
“The beautiful thing is that we have such powerful control over the ageing process,” he says. “There is plasticity to aging.”
Aging isn’t something that simply starts after you’ve reached a certain year, says LeBrasseur. It’s a lifelong process, and in midlife, your health needs can change. We talked to experts about how to take care of your health in your 50s. (The Guardian)
Why does everything have to be a raci? I think she would have gotten a lot more out of the journey if she took time to enjoy her surroundings.
The 50's were a breeze. Wait until you get into your 60's!
Good job today Bill. It all looks good. Since the Appalachian Trail runs through what used to be my neck of the woods and since Helene tore through that same area, closing down for lord knows how long 180 miles of it, I will be making that my first article to read. It’s possible too that I may have known the person whose record got broken. That’s another reason I have to read it.