(1) ALIEN ARTIFACT. ComicBook.com has good news for all the fans who haven’t tossed their VHS players: “Official Alien: Romulus VHS Review (From an Actual VHS Collector)”.

Disney, 20th Century, and Sony just did something that major studios haven’t done in two decades: Released a brand new film on VHS. Boutique physical media labels and collectors online have been selling new movies on VHS for a while, and occasionally a smaller indie studio like A24 will put a specific movie out on tape. When it comes to the big studios, though, there hasn’t been an official VHS release since A History of Violence back in 2006.

That changed this month with the home debut of Alien: Romulus. In honor of the success that Alien found on VHS back in the ’80s and ’90s, the team behind Romulus wanted to produce a nostalgic replica that movie fans could appreciate. So Disney (whose physical media now runs through Sony) put out a very limited release of Alien: Romulus on VHS. The preorders sold out quickly and now the only way to find an official copy is to look for resellers online, so you’ll likely pay a bit of a premium….

(2) THE IMMORTAL SHORTS OF SFF. New Scientist has posted a list of “The 26 best sci-fi short stories of all time – according to New Scientist writers”. Lots of legitimate picks here – classics by Bradbury, Clarke, Heinlein, Russ, plus more recent candidates for sf immortality by Jemisin, Roanhorse, Martha Wells. Here’s an example:

Fire Watch by Connie Willis (1982)

There is a popular what-if scenario of going back in time to assassinate Adolf Hitler before he can start the second world war. Connie Willis’s 1982 novelette Fire Watch takes a completely different tack by immediately plunging its time-travelling narrator into confusion as he appears in London during the Nazi German Luftwaffe’s bombing raids in 1940. The narrator is tasked with joining fellow volunteers in the seemingly Sisyphean task of putting out incendiary bombs on the roof of St Paul’s Cathedral that threaten to burn down the hallowed landmark, even as he struggles with his real assignment of trying to figure out why his history professors have chosen to send him back to that harrowing period without adequate education or preparation. As an added complication, the narrator begins to suspect a fellow fire watch member of subversive wartime activities while he himself struggles to blend in and avoid blowing his cover with the locals. As the narrative follows a series of dated diary entries from the increasingly paranoid and exhausted narrator, Willis’s story shines by treating time travel as a tool used judiciously by historians to bear witness and deepen their understanding of humanity, rather than depicting it as a superpower for manipulating the past or future.  Jeremy Hsu

(3) PET TREK. Contingent Magazine considers “Man’s Best Friend In Space”.

Nearly a decade ago, my now-husband first introduced me to the Star Trek franchise by way of the series Star Trek: Enterprise. “You’ll like this one,” he assured me, “it’s got a dog in it.”

Porthos, the dog belonging to Captain Jonathan Archer, portrayed by Scott Bakula, is one example of Star Trek’s odd pets. They’re cute and lovable, but there’s something just not quite right about them. It wasn’t until 2009’s Star Trek cinematic reboot when Scotty, played by actor Simon Pegg, says that he tested the particle beam on “Admiral Archer’s prized beagle” that I realized why. The dogs, cats, fish, Targs (Klingon boars), and other animals of Star Trek are portrayed as individual domestic pets of their owners when they are in fact maritime animals. 

In 1898, the Southern Cross Expedition took around ninety dogs to Antarctica.¹ The dogs were brought for their power, for their ability to carry people around camp in the most inhospitable conditions. As the first canines to set foot in the South Pole, though, these dogs were also agents of colonization – proven by a massacre of penguins that magnetic scientist William Colbeck described as “heartbreaking.”² But this doesn’t feel like any of the pets I know of in the Star Trek universe. Despite being a Beagle, Porthos isn’t known for his hunting abilities. Captain Picard’s fish, Livingstone, certainly isn’t much of a threat. Grudge the cat from Star Trek: Discovery is, perhaps, the closest match, but still not an obvious representation of colonial domination.³

As I read more about the Southern Cross Expedition, I realized the dogs’ roles were much more complicated. During a particularly harrowing part of the expedition, some of the men were pushed to the limits of exploration. Left with limited options and dangerous conditions, the explorers measured their humanity by how each man treated the dogs. Physicist Louis Bernacchi wrote of his disdain for commanding officer and surveyor Carsten Borchgrevink’s “barbaric” treatment of the dogs after the especially tragic death of the dog Bismark. In his own writing, Borchgrevink described scientist Anton Fougner as “noble” for working to dig a grave in the frozen earth for his puppy.⁴ The role these dogs played during the most intensive part of the journey was to reflect the scientist explorer’s humanity back to them.

In this lens, the Trek pet who best symbolizes these dogs is Data’s cat, Spot. On a traditional maritime ship, Spot’s role as a cat would be pest control. He would spend his time hunting rats and cockroaches. He might even share this role with other animals like chickens or a small terrier. On the Enterprise, Spot’s role is to humanize Data, both to others on the ship and to Data himself. The odd thing about Spot, though, is that this is largely where his story line ends. At the risk of being too punny, we don’t ever “see Spot run” – down the corridor, to his friends, or into trouble. Unlike other maritime animals, Spot isn’t everyone’s cat – a mascot….

(4) WINNING SCIENCE PHOTOGRAPHY. [Item by Steven French.] Some quite astonishing science photos here, including one titled The Lovecraftian World: “Royal Society Publishing Photography Competition”.

Earlier this year we invited scientists from across the world to send in their images in the categories of Astronomy, Behaviour, Earth Science and Climatology, Ecology and Environmental Science, and Microimaging. We are delighted to now present the winners and runners-up, including our overall winner from the Behaviour category Angela Albi for her image “The hunt from above”.

(5) HEAVY TRAFFIC. The New York Times invites us to “Honk if You Understand This Obscure Bumper Sticker” – (behind a paywall.)

“We’re known as the bumper sticker couple now, I’m sure,” said Brian Gebhart, 32, who, with his fiancée, Alyssa Walker, 30, runs Frog Mustard, one of the most prolific creators of this genre of bumper stickers. They release a handful of new ones each week to their more than 35,000 Instagram followers, whom they call the Frog Army.

The couple started the company last winter, after Mr. Gebhart had a mountain biking accident and needed extra money to pay for a surgery. They came up with Frog Mustard — a moniker as nonsensical as many of their designs — by using a random name generator.

Their first designs included a sticker that read “E.T. for City Council” and another with a crying kitten and an appeal to fellow drivers: “Sorry for speeding! But my cat is at home alone!”

By the spring, after a series of viral TikTok posts, the business was growing ever faster. Soon, the couple was investing in an industrial vinyl printer and operating out of their basement home office in Kent, Wash. The business is now a full-time job for Mr. Gebhart, and Ms. Walker maintains a corporate tech job while producing many of the designs.

Frog Mustard now averages 1,200 orders a month with a stock of about 350 designs, they said.

As of late, these include popular stickers like “on my way to get a lobotomy,” “I’m pro-sexualizing the green M&M and I vote!” and “Deny, Defend, Depose” (a reference to the killing of the UnitedHealthcare chief executive), among hundreds of others, some of which are the result of ideas people submit through their website. The couple describe their oeuvre as “brain rot stickers.”

In American culture, where cars are often seen as physical extensions of their owners’ personality, bumper stickers have long been a way to make a vehicle distinctly your own, reflecting your politics and interests. They used to represent earnestness and authenticity: This car really did climb Mount Washington; I do support this presidential candidate; my child actually is an honor student….

(6) IT’S HOMERIC. “Christopher Nolan’s ‘The Odyssey’: Next Film Is ‘Mythic Action Epic’” – Variety tells us what to expect.

Sing to me, muse! Details of Christopher Nolan‘s star-studded next project at Universal have finally been revealed.

According to a new X post from Universal Pictures, the filmmaker’s next project “is a mythic action epic shot across the world using brand new IMAX film technology. The film brings Homer’s foundational saga to IMAX film screens for the first time and opens in theaters everywhere on July 17, 2026.”…

(7) A ROOM OF HIS OWN. George R.R. Martin was feted when he visited his childhood hometown of Bayonne, NJ: “A Day to Remember” at Not A Blog.

…Bayonne has changed some over the years…the city has lost all its movie houses, and Uncle Milty’s Amusement Park where I had my first job… but the projects are still there, and Brady’s Dock, and Mary Jane Donohoe School on 5th Street… the candy store on Kelly Parkway where I bought my comic books and Ace Doubles is still there, and so is the Fifth Street Deli-Ette… oh, and Hendrickson’s Corner, and Judicke’s sprinkle Donuts…

And the public library remains… changed some, yes… but better than ever.

I remember the library.  I always will.

And it would seem that the library remembers me. They have just completed some renovations, and did me the honor of naming one of the new rooms after me: the George R.R. Martin Room for Popular Fiction.  To mark the occasion, they declared October 15 to be George R.R. Martin.

That is… so cool, so… so…  well, words fail me….

…The library also added a wonderful mosaic dragon to its decor.

(8) NICE HOLIDAY MILK STOUT AND NAUGHTY EGG NOG ALE. [Item by Denise Kitashima Dutton.] I love a good stout.  Hell, I’ll even take a mediocre stout if I’m really desperate.  Because there’s nothing like the full-bodied flavor of a dark beer.  So when Flying Dog Brewery here in Maryland decided to repeat their “Naughty” and “Nice” brews this year, I was excited to learn that “Nice” would be a Holiday Milk Stout.  When I found out that “Naughty” would be an Egg Nog Ale?  I was a bit iffy.  But I’ll cop to a particular bias here; as a Marylander, I like to play favorites with my breweries.  Doesn’t mean I don’t have favorites elsewhere – hello there, Shiner and Three Floyds – but the brewers in my home state do get a special benefit of the doubt.  So I decided to tuck into both.

First off, let’s go Naughty, shall we?  Medium-tall head, nice and foamy, quick to dissipate. Beautifully clear and golden (a much lighter color than their press images), with an almost champagne-like carbonation effervescence. While the “yellow beer” is something that everyone can recognize, there’s a warmth to this golden color, and the long-lasting fizz makes me want to keep tipping it back, if only to get yet another look at those tiny bubbles.

Then there’s the aroma. A nose that sends out the spices, but not with a wallop; a scent that invites rather than demands. That comes with the tasting. There’s a strong allspice and nutmeg hit on first sip, and while the spices are definitely loud and proud, it didn’t shock me out of a second sip. Or a third.  There’s no rum notes here, though the idea of a barrel-aged Egg Nog Naughty wouldn’t be amiss. It’s just spice, spice and a touch of fizz.

As with Shiner’s Texas Warmer, this is a beer that ain’t afraid to get right up in your face.  And I respect that.  While the heavy spice may put off some, if you’re having a cheese and charcuterie evening, a sugar cookie sampling, or just want a bit of holiday spice while watching A Christmas Carol for the umpteenth time, Naughty‘s got your back.

Then there’s Nice, which starts off with a light, quick to dissipate head. And is that a hint of cascading that I see? Absolutely. Who doesn’t love watching their beer move in the glass like that?  The beer itself is an absolutely gorgeous, clear, deep chocolate brown color I could get lost in. And with a 7.2 ABV, that’s not necessarily a figurative statement.

Nice is almost creamy, as a milk stout should be. The chocolate is a strong nib flavor, with a hint of toasty/smokiness that balances out the sweetness. This is a rough-trade sweetness; think the umami of cocoa rather than the overkill of candy. The creaminess of the mouthfeel and the bitter tang of the chocolate combine nicely, giving Nice a wonderful drinkability.

Another sip, and I catch a hint of Nice‘s fizzy, almost sharp, carbonation. But it’s such a fine bubble that it’s buzzy rather than off-putting. There’s no effervescence here, but with such a deeply colored beer, it’d be almost impossible to see anyway.  Plus, anything overly fizzy would get in the way of the robust flavors in this stout.

I’d recommend this for dessert binges, a hearty brunch with pancakes and maple sausage, or as a dessert in and of itself.  I’d also love to be able to find a six-pack of this to take camping; I’m betting s’mores would be a wonderful go-with.  Nice is exactly that; robust but not heavy, flavorful but not too “busy”, smooth but substantial.

And yeah, I decided to do a half-and-half.  And let’s just say that while these two beers play well with my tastebuds separately? It’s like sucking back a mouthful of Christmas tree if you combine ’em.  I just can’t hang with that much powerful flavor all at once.

Nice Holiday Milk Stout
Style: Milk/Sweet Stout
ABV/Alcohol By Volume: 7.2%

Naughty Egg Nog Ale
Style: American Strong Ale
ABV/Alcohol By Volume: 8.4%

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[Reprinted from Green Man Review because it’s too good not to share. Denise Kitashima Dutton has been a reviewer since 2003, and hopes to get the hang of things any moment now. She believes that bluegrass is not hell in music form, and that beer is better when it’s a nitro pour. You can find her at Atomic Fangirl, Movie-Blogger.com, or at that end seat at the bar, multi-tasking with her Kindle.]

(9) GWYNETH JONES SF WRITER ON CHESTNUTS. [Item by Gwyneth Jones.]

Chestnuts, I’m obsessed with chestnuts at Christmas. 

The obsession dates back to childhood, when chestnuts roasted over the coals on a fire-shovel were a winter treat, back in the primitive and labour intensive days when my parents’ house was heated by an Aga (solid fuel range) in the kitchen, and coal/wood fires elsewhere. And marrons glacees were the ultimate in sophistication… until I finally tried them, and wondered what the fuss was about. (I’m sure they’re very nourishing, by the way.) 

Now I live in Sussex, I expect to forage a kilo or so of sweet chestnuts in October or November. After that it’s hit or miss. One year I slung them in the freezer wet and still in the shell & they defrosted as mush. Another year I left them in a copper bowl in a corner they went mouldy & the bowl suffered too. The supermarket then provides, boring!

Still, enough times the chestnuts survive, and then it’s the awful day of reckoning. People will tell you (e.g. Elizabeth David, see below) that there is a knack to peeling chestnuts and once you know it you will never look back. They lie. Usually it’s pure masochism, burned fingertips, outbursts of rage. 

Then you eat them with sprouts and crispy bacon or put them in the stuffing. But this is one of the best rewards for all the pain:

Chestnut and Chocolate Cake.

Shell and skin 1lb (450g) of chestnuts.

Cover them with milk (either skimmed milk or half and half milk & water), and simmer until very soft — about an hour. Drain off the liquid & sieve or mash the chestnuts to a smooth puree. Save the liquid, it’s a beautiful stock base.

Make a syrup with 3 oz (100g) sugar and 2-3 tablespoons of water. Add this to puree, with 2 oz (about 70g) softened butter. When you have these ingredients well mixed leave to stand. Brush a small loaf tin, or other half litre/1 pt rectangular mold, with sweet oil (almond oil or similar), and fill it with the soft “dough”. Set to chill in a refrigerator for 24hrs.

Next day, make a chocolate coating with around 100g dark chocolate, adding a couple of teaspoons of sugar to the melted chocolate, & let the paste cool slightly. Turn the chestnut cake out of the mold, use a smooth-edged knife dipped in water to coat it with chocolate. Leave to chill again before serving.

This recipe is from Elizabeth David, French Provincial Cooking. You will find the lies about chestnut peeling on p. 265, blotted with my tears. 

[From the Archives of the Sleeping Hedgehog.]

(10) MEMORY LANE.

[Written by Cat Eldridge.]

December 23, 1960 — Twilight Zone’s “Night of The Meek”

On December 23, 1960, Twilight Zone’s “The Night of the Meek” first aired. It was one of the six episodes of the second season which was shot on videotape in a failed attempt to cut costs. Networks and their bean counters.

This was a Christmas-themed story with Art Carney as a Santa Claus fired on Christmas Eve who finds a mysterious bag that gives an apparently unlimited stream of gifts. But before we learn that we have this opening scene and narration:

“As snow begins to fall, a drunk Henry Corwin (Carney) wearing his Santa Claus suit, leans against a curbside lamppost. He is approached by two tenement children begging for toys, a Christmas dinner, and ‘a job for my daddy.’ As he begins to sob, the camera turns to Rod Serling standing on the sidewalk:

“This is Mr. Henry Corwin, normally unemployed, who once a year takes the lead role in the uniquely popular American institution, that of the department-store Santa Claus in a road-company version of ‘The Night Before Christmas’. But in just a moment Mr. Henry Corwin, ersatz Santa Claus, will enter a strange kind of North Pole which is one part the wondrous spirit of Christmas and one part the magic that can only be found… in the Twilight Zone.”

The script would be reused in the Eighties version of this series, and on the radio program as well. 

Serling ended the original broadcast with the words, “And a Merry Christmas, to each and all”, but that phrase was deleted in the Eighties for reasons never made clear and would not be back until Netflix started streaming the series. The series runs on Paramount+ now in its original full, uncensored version. The line is still missing from all the DVD versions.

John Fielder who is Mister Dundee here would have a second Twilight Zone appearance in “Cavander is Coming” in which he has the lead as the Angel Harmon Cavender.

Oh, and let’s note that it’s a cat that mysteriously starts off this tale by knocking down a large burlap bag full of empty cans, which when Corwin trips over it, is then filled with gifts. See cats are magical! 

Serling ends with this narration:

“A word to the wise to all the children of the Twentieth Century, whether their concern be pediatrics or geriatrics, whether they crawl on hands and knees and wear diapers or walk with a cane and comb their beards. There’s a wondrous magic to Christmas and there’s a special power reserved for little people. In short, there’s nothing mightier than the meek. And a Merry Christmas to each and all.”

(11) COMICS SECTION.

• WaynoVision’s problems are behind him.
• Bizarro makes impressions.

(12) WHEN NEWSPAPERS ROAMED THE EARTH. “Remembering When ‘the World Really Made Sense’ on the Comics Pages” in the New York Times. (Link bypasses the paywall.)

One morning in early 1985, the comic strip creator Berkeley Breathed received a call from an unlikely fan: Ronald Reagan.

Breathed had started “Bloom County,” the wily tale of several eccentric middle-American animals — human and otherwise — five years earlier. Its cast included an emo penguin named Opus as well as Bill the Cat, a droopy-tongued, occasionally comatose former presidential candidate with a penchant for Tender Vittles and cocaine.

On its surface, “Bloom County” didn’t seem particularly Gipper-friendly. But a recent installment had featured a flattering image of the first lady, Nancy Reagan, and the president wanted to express his gratitude.

When Reagan finally reached Breathed at his home in Iowa City, the cartoonist had stepped out of the shower. “Mr. President,” Breathed told Reagan, “you should probably know I’m not wearing any pants right now.” Their chat went well, and not long afterward, Breathed found himself seated with Reagan at a state dinner, where the two discussed the president’s film career….

(13) WHEN THE MOON IS IN THE SEVENTH HOUSE. “Particle Could Be Portal to Fifth Dimension: What Is Dark Matter?” at Popular Mechanics. I had to run a link to a headline about the “Fifth Dimension”. I didn’t know any more about the subject once I finished the article, but it did leave me humming the “Wedding Bell Blues”.

Scientists say they can explain dark matter by positing a particle that links to a fifth dimension.

While the “warped extra dimension” (WED) is a trademark of a popular physics model first introduced in 1999, this research, published in The European Physical Journal C, is the first to cohesively use the theory to explain the long-lasting dark matter problem within particle physics.

Our knowledge of the physical universe relies on the idea of dark matter, which takes up the vast majority of matter in the universe. Dark matter is a kind of pinch hitter that helps scientists explain how gravity works, because a lot of features would dissolve or fall apart without an “x factor” of dark matter. Even so, dark matter doesn’t disrupt the particles we do see and “feel,” meaning it must have other special properties as well….

…Could dimension-traveling fermions explain at least some of the dark matter scientists have so far not been able to observe? “We know that there is no viable [dark matter] candidate in the [standard model of physics],” the scientists say, “so already this fact asks for the presence of new physics.”…

(14) VIDEO OF THE DAY. Boston Dynamics bids us “Happy Holidays 2024”.

Wishing you a holiday season full of light and laughter as we flip over into the new year!

[Thanks to Steven French, Kathy Sullivan, Teddy Harvia, Mark Roth-Whitworth, John A Arkansawyer, Mike Kennedy, Andrew Porter, John King Tarpinian, Chris Barkley, Cat Eldridge, and SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Jim Janney.]