5 THINGS: Christmas Edition!

Huzzah! You probably won't even read this, because it's Christmas and all, but just in case you don't celebrate, or really need to kill some time before ripping open that packaging to get to gifts...

Here are the Five Things for Sunday, December 25, 2011:

1. It is known universally that the best Christmas special is Charlie Brown's. And the best part of that is Linus' speech. Thanks to YouTube, you can watch it anytime, here. If you prefer something a bit less religious-y, then my personal favorite is the great Yukon Cornelius. He has his own montage here, because he is awesome.
2. Want some sass and snark along with your holiday appreciation of Charlie Brown and Linus? Then my favorite would be the Saturday Night Live TV Funhouse take on the issue, which is here. WARNING: Some mild adult issues discussed, and worse, there is a clip of Kathie Lee Gifford singing.
3. Did you know that there are plenty of famous people born on December 25? I suppose they just had a knack for timing, even coming out of the womb. You can find the complete list (meaning, it's from Wikipedia) here. Notables are Jimmy Buffett, one of the Isley Brothers, Oakland Raiders great Ken Stabler, Karl Rove, Annie Lennox and Rickey Henderson. And since it is Rickey Henderson's birthday, that gives me an excuse to link to one of Rickey Henderson's greatest web pages, and one of the greatest web pages on the Internet, Rickey Henderon's Top 25 quotes by Rickey Henderson.
4. Speaking of professional sports, remember how like a bunch of professional basketball players sat out most of the off-season and the first two months of the season for no real good reason? You know, it was kind of like the writer's guild strike, except that it didn't cause you to really miss that much, since you still had college basketball around. Well, those pro guys are back, and the Celtics play at Madison Square Garden against the Knicks today at noon. The game is on TNT. Also, Paul Pierce might miss the game because of an injury, meaning Sasha Pavlovic could be your starting two-guard. The NBA, it's fantastic!
5. And finally, because I'm already stretching for content on, not just a holiday, but a holiday falling on a Sunday so almost everything is closed anyway... Here is Keyboard Cat. Or, if you prefer, Spaghetti Cat. Or Top Cat. Whatever! Speaking of all this cat chat, our second story of the day will be a second blog entry from my cat Dante. He's starting an advice column, and you can send any last minute questions to narragansett@patch.com. You can read his initial blog .