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The Library of Congress has named Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and 24 other films to the National Film Registry this week. A quick view of the list tells me I've only seen 5 of them, so I need to start watching more movies. In other news: Former Chicago mayor and outgoing US Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel suggests some ways the Democratic Party can get back in the saddle. The Chicago City Council finally passed its 2025 budget, a $17.3 bn mess that only got 27 out of 50 votes, and then only because...

If the forecasts remain accurate, Christmas in Chicago will round out only the fifth "holiday temperature reversal" in history: This could be only the 5th time that Christmas will be warmer than BOTH Halloween and Thanksgiving since records began in Chicago back in 1871.   Halloween Thanksgiving Christmas 1873 -1°C 1°C 3°C 1895 6°C 5°C 13°C 1954 4°C 6°C 7°C 1982 7°C 3°C 9°C 2019 1°C 3°C 7°C I'd say "cool" but that's cheap.

Former Deadspin editor David Roth examines the evidence in this year's White House Christmas decorations video: Even though Melania is also a cipher whose relationship to her powerful husband has for years seemed tragicomically ceremonial, her Christmas video delivers an insight into a crucial mystery of the Trump aesthetic: Why is all this always so shitty? How is it possible for something so fancified to feel so repellent and cheap? Again, in one sense, there’s just nothing there to find. Trump...

A triptych. Dinner: Outside: Inside: Noel.

I've arrived safely in the Ancestral Homeland, and as my body will tell you, it's too early to text anyone back home to let them know. Right now I plan to sleep. Assuming I wake up sometime today, I'll get some caffeine, possibly a bite, and then walk around my second-favorite city in the world for a bit, aiming to queue up for St Paul's midnight service sometime around 22:30. (I might also try to get in to the Christmas carol service at 16:00; haven't decided yet.)

Combine a full moon, a really good camera, and a beautiful church on Christmas Eve: (The grain is from shooting a HDR photo at ISO-12800.) Did I mention the candlelight part? The final piece of the service is the entire congregation singing "Silent Night" holding candles. Even as an atheist, I found it moving. And the Winnetka Congregational Church, while still a Christian church, doesn't beat people over the head with religion. I'm certain I wasn't the only atheist in the congregation.

By Bruce Marcus and Lori Factor-Marcus 'Twas the night before Christmas, and we, being Jews, My girlfriend and me—we had nothing to do. The Gentiles were home, hanging stockings with care, Secure in their knowledge St. Nick would be there. But for us, once the Hanukkah candles burned down, There was nothing but boredom all over town. The malls and the theaters were all closed up tight; There weren't any concerts to go to that night. A dance would have saved us, some ballroom or swing, But we searched...