Welcome to I Found This - a weekly competition between two old friends, your hosts, James and Keith. Here each week, you’ll decide who’s find made your eyebrow raise higher.

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 Happy Monday!

Jingle All The Way?

Where were you when you found out the inconvenient truth about Santa Claus? Well, brace yourself, because you’re about to face the sting of that disappointment all over again when I tell you the chilling truth about…. Jingle Bells.

James Lord Pierpont penned the song, likely inspired by sled races in Medford Massachusetts around the year 1857. But there was no Yuletide glee behind the lyrics at all. Worse yet, the “sleigh” in the song has no connection to a certain sleigh that allegedly travels to every chimney on earth on Christmas Eve.

I’ll just come right out with it, “Jingle Bells” wasn’t actually written for Christmas. It was written for a Sunday School class to sing… at Thanksgiving.

So the next time that snotty nosed nephew of yours insists on commandeering the TV for your entire Christmas Vacation, just remember you now have two ways to crush his dreams. “Santa’s not real, kid. And Jingle Bells is a Thanksgiving song.”

Boring Colored Cars

While Keith was busting myths about Christmas carols, I came across a rather depressing article this week about humans preference. And no, I’m not talking about choice paradox with jams - something much more meanginful. In 1909 Henry Ford had a conversation with a salesman who wanted to add seven colors to the product line(at the time Ford only sold cars in black). Mr Ford replied “The customer can have any color they want, as long as it’s black!” LINK today we roll our eyes because we know people drive a variety of different colors. Or do they?

LINK

So as we approach 2024, maybe Ford was wrong. He should have been selling in white!

- James