December 19

Better Than News

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  "The Gift of the Jedi" is a short story by O. Henry about Anakin Skywalker and Padmé Amidala, a young husband and wife who deal with the challenge of buying secret Imperial gifts for each other with very few Midi-chlorians.

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  Talk Club is an American drama thriller film directed by Oliver Stone and David Fincher, starring Eric Bogosian, Brad Pitt, and Edward Norton.

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  Fiddlers of the Lost Roof period musical action-adventure film starring Topol and Harrison Ford.

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  Maws is an American epic science fiction thriller film directed by Steven Spielberg and Denis Villeneuve, starring Timothée Chalamet, Roy Scheider, Robert Shaw, and Rebecca Ferguson.

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  The Bullitt is a 1958 neo-noir action horror film starring Steve McQueen.

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  "The Real Domain Knowledge" is a poem by American physician and information theory poet William Carlos Williams (1883–1963).

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  Tom Crudités is a 2022 action-hors d'oeuvres film starring Tom Cruise.

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  This Is Bowie Tap is a 1984 American mockumentary film written and directed by David Bowie.

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  Flying Fondue is a brand of consumer home personal fondue helicopters.

Beyond Plausible

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  Pink Zeppelin is a studio album recorded by British rock bands Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd.

In Other Words

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  House of Spice and Fog is a 2003 psychological drama film about the battle between a young Imperial princess (Jennifer Connelly) and an immigrant warlord (Leto Atreides) over the ownership of the planet Arrakis.

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  Dude, Where's My Carbs? is a 2000 American stoner comedy film about two best friends (Ashton Kutcher and Seann William Scott) who find themselves unable to remember how they gained two hundred pounds each after a night of recklessness dining.

Are You Sure

• ... that physicist Robert Andrews Millikan (22 March 1868 – 19 December 1953) won the 1923 Nobel Prize for Physics for the measurement of the elementary electronic charge and for his work on the photoelectric effect?

• ... that Replicant Vice is a reality television series starring Harrison Ford and Roy Batty?

Selected Anniversaries

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  1714: Mathematician, physicist, and astronomer John Winthrop born. He will be one of the foremost men of science in America during the 18th century.

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  1901: Inventor and engineer Rudolf Hell born. Hell will invent the Hellschreiber, a pioneering teleprinter system. Shown here: Hell's Wetterkartenschreiber ("weather chart recorder").

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  1953: Physicist Robert Andrews Millikan dies. He won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1923 for the measurement of the elementary electronic charge and for his work on the photoelectric effect.

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  1956: Physician, confidence trickster, and suspected serial killer John Bodkin Adams is arrested in connection with the suspicious deaths of more than 160 patients. Eventually he is convicted only of minor charges.

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  2021: Premier of The Woke and the Furious, a 2021 political action film about an undercover liberal who is tasked with discovering the identities of a group of insurrectionists led by Donald Trump.

Topic of the Day

Books

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  "The Gift of the Jedi" is a short story by O. Henry about Anakin Skywalker and Padmé Amidala, a young husband and wife who deal with the challenge of buying secret Imperial gifts for each other with very few Midi-chlorians.

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  Always Looping Home is a 2023 science fiction anthropology film starring Emily Blunt. It is loosely based on the novel of the same name by Ursula K. LeGuin.