It’s been an odd week. For instance, my bus commute is on one of the Rapid Ride lines. One of the things about the Rapid Ride buses is that all of the doors open at each stop, and most of the stops are equipped with a pay station so that passengers with a bus pass or pay card can pay before the bus arrive. Makes each stop faster, but also puts people on the honor system. So there are random teams of Fare Enforcement officers who board buses and check everyone’s passes while the bus continues. Normally I only see Fare Enforcement about once a week. This week, every single time I rode the bus, Fare Enforcement boards. And each time they found two people who hadn’t paid, who were then written up with a ticket. The best was coming home Monday night, though. A Fare Enforcement crew got on the bus just before we pulled out of downtown. They found two people, then they got off the bus at a later stop (where they wait for the next bus). Then, about 100 blocks later, a second crew got on the bus, and they also found and ticketed two people (and they were different people, because the others had left the bus by then). Fun, eh?
Enough of that. Welcome to the Friday Five. This week I bring you: five stories about one of the sweetest holiday specials Jim Hensen’s Muppets ever made, the top five (IMHO) stories of the week, five stories about writing and reading, five stories about awful people, and five videos (plus notable obituaries).
This week in Emmet the Otter:
Jim Henson’s Emmet Otter’s Jug-Band Christmas Soundtrack Gets First Ever Release.
Oscar Winner, Paul Williams, Talks Jim Henson, Muppets and Music on Tom Needham’s Sounds of Film.
‘Emmet Otter’s Jug-Band Christmas’ turns 40: An oral history of Jim Henson’s holiday Muppet musical.
Stories of the Week:
Exclusive: Sparkly, opal-filled fossils reveal new dinosaur species.
Osiris-Rex: Nasa probe arrives at Asteroid Bennu.
Latest House results confirm 2018 wasn’t a blue wave. It was a blue tsunami.
ACLU Files Suit Against School That Won’t Allow a Student Gay-Straight Alliance to Call Itself ‘Gay’.
Ocasio-Cortez shreds Mike Huckabee: ‘Leave the false statements’ to your daughter.
Writing and Reading:
“Don’t Lose Sight of the Big Picture” by Barbara Ashford .
“The Revision Machete” by Derrick Boden .
Through a Painted Door: An Ode to Children’s Science Fiction/Fantasy Art.
Awful People:
Milo Yiannopoulos’ debt crisis .
Republicans Brazenly Gut Voting Rights in Lame Duck Before They Lose Power.
FRAUD: North Carolina GOP Allegedly Destroyed Absentee Ballots.
Handgun reported stolen in 1990 found atop Seattle police officer’s locker.
Far-right terrorism in North America, Europe increased even as terrorism deaths declined: Report.
In Memoriam:
Buzzcocks singer Pete Shelley dies at 63.
Podcast: What It Felt Like to Live Through the George HW Bush Presidency.
Dead Poppy. “one thing that’s been left out in this rush to praise Bush as the Greatest Single-Term President in History or whatever other superlatives you wanna toss out there in the encomiums of doom is that he had no fuckin’ choice when it came to legislative goals except to do some rational shit. He had a Democratic House and Senate for his entire term.”
Videos!
The Danish National Symphony Orchestra – For A Few Dollars More (Live):
(If embedding doesn’t work, click here.)
‘Captain Marvel’ Official Trailer #2 (2019):
(If embedding doesn’t work, click here.)
Jingle Bells | The King’s Singers:
(If embedding doesn’t work, click here.)
Making Christmas (from ‘The Nightmare Before Christmas’) – Pentatonix:
(If embedding doesn’t work, click here.)
Tom Goss – Gay Christmas – This video is for those who have felt like an outsider on what is supposed to be the happiest time of the year. If you don’t feel at home this holiday season, I hope you can spend time with those that love you for all that you are:
(If embedding doesn’t work, click here.)
Font Folly 
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