Holiday Chair

Mitchell Allen

21 Dec 2025 — 3 min read

This is what you get when you build a Laz-y-Boy recliner out of Yule logs! Wooden you love to sit in this for a bit of a slumber? Did you know that the word "slumber" is not a portmanteau of "saw" and "lumber"? I remember getting that bit of misinformation as a child. I think it was based on the cliché of depicting snoring in the comic strips and animated cartoons.

Now, here is a bit of stream-of-consciousness: logs come from trees; paper comes from logs. Logo derives from the ancient Greek verb for "to speak" or "to gather or count". This evolved into English log, meaning to record or journal, thus, we get logbooks, weblogs and logging on! In the far future, will historians equate chopping down trees with accessing the primitive Internet?

Okay, that's enough silliness. I did write a story about a planet where trees were the Internet, but the actual story is about what happens when Google swallows up every other corporation.

All In The Family

My 90-year-old dad has a thriving movie trivia newsletter. He shares some of Theophilus puns with his readers. Check these out:

Is John Payne a bathroom discomfort?
Norman Fell into a Brad Pitt
Ted Knight and Doris Day teamed up as "Ted and Doris"
Gloria Grahame met the Ritz Brothers and they all went crackers.
Rock Hudson liked Chris Rock but Chris preferred Sharon Stone
Karen Black seduced Albert Dekker and used him like a tool.
Shelley Winters in Florida while Suzanne Somers in Europe
Does Janice Rule while Claude Rains?
What makes Stacy Dash and Barbara Rush while Nancy and Helen are Walkers?
Duncan Renaldo joined Robert and Peter Donat to form Duncan Donats

My youngest son, Ryan, shared a couple of cool puzzle links:

Victordle - Play Wordle against other people!
Connections - Well, the main feature got zapped by The New York Times, but you may find something fun to try in the custom Puzzles.

Shout Out to Reader Paul Macko

Long-time reader Paul Macko, who has a newsletter on Substack, regularly shares links to online diversions. His Dec. 15th issue, linked above, has a new one! Go see.

Stuffing Stockers

That's a lot of stuffing, even for Costco!

For those of you who celebrate Holiday Chairs in any form, this PDF is a year-end present for you. And, if you want to buy a little stocking stuffer for your computer, check out my new app, Kaleido-Pad PRO!

Happy Holly Daze!

Chairs,

Mitch