🌊 A Tale of Two Christmases

Is a .16 Blood Eggnog Content (BEC) normal?

Asking for my Uncle Gary who spent most of our family Christmas party explaining how the New Jersey Drones were sent by the Clintons as revenge for Atlantis. We don’t know how Atlantis got in the mix, but maybe our tap water really does have too much fluoride.

Today is the four-year anniversary of the very first 20 Questions! Here’s today’s edition, and here’s to many more years of 20 Questions.

–Max and Max

KEY STORY

Passenger Jet Crash Lands

Russia was accused of shooting down an Azerbaijan Airlines jet that crashed in Kazakhstan, killing 39

• The jet was traveling from Baku, the Azerbaijani capital, to Grozny, in the southern Russian province of Chechnya

• Russian media reported that the plane hit a flock of birds, forcing it to make an emergency landing, or that it couldn’t land because of fog. But Ukrainian authorities and some independent analysts said the plane was likely shot down by Russian air defenses

• On Friday, Reuters reported that Azerbaijan’s initial investigation revealed that the plane had been struck by Russian anti-aircraft fire. Russia warned against such “hypotheses”

Dig Deeper

• Unable to reach an airport, the plane made an emergency landing in a field. At least 29 of the plane’s 67 passengers and crew survived, although many with injuries

• On Wednesday, the day of the crash, flight-tracking service Flightradar24 reported the use of “GPS jamming and spoofing” equipment in southern Russia. Such gear is often used near war zones to defend against drones and didn’t necessarily cause the crash

• Also Wednesday, Chechen news outlets reported drone strikes in the area and said that all enemy drones had been shot down. What, if any, of that is true remains unclear

KEY STORY

Trouble Brewing in Syria

In a sign of growing unrest in Syria, at least 14 police working under the newly-formed rebel government were killed by loyalists to the Assad regime

• The 14 were killed in an “ambush” by forces loyal to Assad, the Syrian government said. Loyalists also wounded at least 10 police in the same region

• The rebel government said the attackers were "remnants" of the Assad regime and vowed to eliminate "anyone who dares to undermine Syria's security or endanger the lives of its citizens"

• Elsewhere in Syria, police imposed curfews amid protests by members of the minority Alawite – Assad’s sect – and Shi’ite Muslim religious groups. This comes days after a a Christian-majority town had its Christmas tree torched, raising sectarian tensions

Dig Deeper 

• The unrest is raising fears about a potential civil war in Syria. One way Assad garnered support was by promising to protect the country's minorities from the Sunni majority. Now, that majority is running the country and minority groups fear persecution

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KEY STORY

Tsunami Memorials

Countries around the world held services to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, which killed 220,000+ people and was one of the worst natural disasters in history 

• The tsunami – on December 26, 2004 – included waves traveling at hundreds of miles an hour, some exceeding heights of 100 feet. There was no warning about the impending disaster, and within minutes, tropical beaches became death traps 

• It killed over 170,000 in Indonesia, including 100,000 in a single province, Aceh. Mourners paid their respects at a mass grave that houses 14,000 tsunami victims

• Memorials were also held in Thailand, Sri Lanka, Somalia, and India, all of which were also hit by the tsunami

Dig Deeper

• The tsunami is the deadliest natural disaster of this century so far. Last century, only four disasters – two earthquakes in China, a flood in China, and a typhoon in India and Bangladesh – were deadlier

KEY STORY

The Spending Split

US consumer spending was up 3.8% from November 1 through December 24 compared to the same period last year, however, that jump was driven mainly by higher-income Americans

• By various indicators, the US economy has performed differently for higher- and lower-income Americans in the last year: Higher-income households – typically defined as earning $100,000+ a year – have been spending more; lower-income households have been spending less, something that has been attributed to the high toll of inflation

• The chief executive of Newell Brands, which makes blenders and other household goods, said this week that they’re seeing strong growth for $100+ items and weaker growth for cheaper items. High-end companies like Williams Sonoma have also reported strong results

• Discount and other dollar stores, meanwhile, have been struggling, citing less disposable income for lower-income households, while big box chains The Container Store and Party City both filed for bankruptcy protection this month

Dig Deeper

• A regular economic survey by the University of Michigan found substantially worse sentiment among lower-income consumers: “Those in lower-income and some in middle-income brackets just don’t feel like they are thriving,” the survey’s chief economist said

• Despite that, all income brackets have reported improved sentiment since this fall

Community
20 Questions!

Ladies and gentlemen, the Weeknd.

In honor of the fourth anniversary of the first-ever edition of 20 Questions, we are going old school with an OG, open-ended edition today. We've asked you all over 4,000 questions in the last four years, some of which were serious and some highly practical ones (see last week's "Would you rather fight a chimpanzee once a year (you have a machete) or have to kill a chicken every time you get in your car?").

Here's to many thousands more questions! Have a great weekend!

Here is the link.

Last Week’s Responses

These are the averages from your responses to last week’s “Would You Rather?” edition of 20 Questions.

Listen to only Taylor Swift music the rest of your life - 31.3%
Watch only The Office on TV the rest of your life - 68.7%

Eat a tablespoon of mayo - 86.1%
Moisturize your face with Frank’s red hot - 13.9%

Be an ugly genius - 82.2%
Be a hot imbecile - 17.8%

Go barefoot for a month - 70.8%
Only eat bananas for 30 days - 29.2%

Eat 50 wings in a sitting - 70%
Sit in traffic for 6 hours - 30%

Have a tail - 70.6%
Have no taste - 29.4%

Fight a chimpanzee once a year (you have a machete) - 64.6%
Have to kill a chicken every time you get in your car - 35.4%

24 hours of listening to Baby Shark - 54.9%
Swim in Lake Michigan for 30 minutes right now - 45.1%

Spend one month in 1880 America - 51.3%
One month in 2080 America - 48.7%

Be able to instantly cook any food to perfection - 72.4%
Change what food is the moment it hits your stomach - 27.6%

Replace your skin with sandpaper - 25.6%
Replace your hair with spaghetti - 74.4%

Be a Barbie/Ken in Barbie world - 22%
Be a wizard/witch in Harry Potter world - 78%

Get slapped by a different random 12 year old every morning at 7 AM - 56.1%
Slap a random 7 year old every night at 11 PM - 43.9%

Drink a Red Bull at 10 pm every day for a month - 25.8%
Live in Dave & Buster's for a month - 74.2%

Shadow Paul Blart for a day as a mall cop - 33.5%
Shadow Ron Burgundy for a day as a TV anchor - 66.5%

Wear a CNN hoodie for a week - 68.4%
Use syrup as shampoo for a week - 31.6%

Receive $5M now - 65.7%
Wait ten years for $50M - 34.3%

Eat Gordon Ramsay's cooking every day - 87.2%
Receive a motivational talk from David Goggins every day - 12.8%

Eat a piece of paper right now - 50.3%
Sing "All I Want for Christmas Is You" in front of your dentist - 49.7%

Great weekend - 89.7%
Good weekend - 10.3%

ROCA VIDEO
The Side of Appalachia the Media Doesn’t Show You

In case you missed it from 12/24…

The story of Christmas is about a bright light shining forth in the humblest and most unexpected of places. That story reminds us of what we saw in a small Appalachian town in Ohio this fall, an experience that left us so inspired that we surprised them with the annual Roca Community Christmas gift.

–Max and Max

EDITOR’S NOTE
Final Thoughts

We hope you all had wonderful Christmases. Year after year, it amazes us how much our audience has truly become a community. You should see our inboxes: Hundreds of our readers have wished us and the other Roca readers Merry Christmases, Happy Hanukkahs, and Happy New Years. Thank you all.

We’ll be back on Monday. We hope you’ll enjoy a long weekend until then!

–Max and Max