WHAT PART OF UNINTERRUPTED DO YOU NOT UNDERSTAND? (via The Mother Judd):

Log: The Directors’ Cuts (ALESSANDRA STANLEY, 12/24/08, NY Times)

It seems like cheating, or bad karma, but it’s possible to have a yule log crackling on the television screen anytime, even several days before Christmas — or on Halloween or Presidents’ Day, for that matter.

With titles like “Ambient Fire” and “The Happy Holiday Hearth,” yule log DVDs offer a dizzying array of flaming options, from stately baroque plumes to crispy, woodsy campfires. There is even a soft-core porn Christmas log: on “Yule a Go-Go,” dancers like Ms. Tickle and Bunny Love perform tassled, spangled burlesque-style stripteases to Christmas carols in front of a roaring fire. (Actually, those flames are quite subdued, for perhaps obvious reasons.)

There used to just be one yule log on television. Viewers had to wait for it, and it didn’t come with naughty features or special effects. The WPIX Christmas yule log was first shown in New York in 1966, in black and white, and for several uninterrupted hours, apartment dwellers could stare at flames flickering in a hearth as Christmas songs played in the background. Later, other stations around the country began offering yule logs, but in New York the WPIX log, a kitschy tribute to television as the family hearth — not just metaphorically but literally — became a fiercely cherished local tradition, like the Biltmore clock or egg creams.

Gotta watch the live telecast.

Posted by Orrin Judd at December 24, 2008 8:19 AM