Dino Drac’s Countdown to Xmas!
Welcome to Dino Drac’s Countdown to Christmas! This feature will be updated daily (or close to daily) through December 25th, with some kind of holiday-related thingamajig. You never know what might turn up!
This one’s really for the old schoolers who prefer blogs to algorithmic timelines full of ads for dicey hair products. I won’t be plugging it often off-site. If this is up your alley, remember to check back often! (And visit After Dark and the Xmas Jukebox, too!)
11/30: Talking Grinch Doll! (2000)
I couldn’t remember how I got this Talking Grinch doll from the Jim Carrey movie, which certainly wasn’t a recent pickup. Didn’t seem like something I would’ve bought from eBay, much less at some kind of toy convention.
Finally, it hit me. It was that big Toys “R” Us holiday clearance sale, maybe in 2002, or possibly 2003. I was in my early twenties, and at that age, I still went all-in on Christmas bric-a-brac.
My long-dead local TRU used to convert part of the store into Christmas Central, mostly to sell whatever was new, but also to unload old, unloved stock at wildly reduced prices.
That live-action Grinch movie was merchandised to death, but despite its success in theaters, I never got the impression that kids of the early 2000s were seriously pining for Grinch junk. This may explain why Toys “R” Us still had so much of it years later… and also why they couldn’t get rid of it even after slashing prices by as much as 90%.
This talking doll wasn’t the only Grinch thing I bought from that firesale, but it does seem to be the sole survivor. I found him in an old storage tub that was otherwise filled with Starlog magazines. He’d probably been trapped in there for a good 15 years, so I assume he’s become an absolute expert on Star Wars, Star Trek and Planet of the Apes.
11/30: Coke & Holiday Sandwiches! (1978)
This Coca-Cola magazine ad from 1978 is less about soda and more about the time-honored tradition of turning holiday leftovers into insane sandwiches that are tall, messy and full of warring flavors. As I’m posting this a few days after Thanksgiving, some of you probably did exactly this, with or without the glass-bottled Coke.
I’ve always loved the concept. It’s like a yuletide spin on the Dagwood sandwich, and feels more like an art project than food prep. While my own personal quirks mean that neither ham nor yam would ever hit my version of this, I can at least attest to the glory of a turkey-cranberry-stuffing sandwich. That shit just works.
The one upgrade I must insist upon? Better bread. I’ve seen many variations of this recipe over the years, and most call for plain old white bread, which has zero chance of housing these monstrosities without incident. You need a loaf of Italian bread for something like this! Read More…