--EVERYWHERE THE STARS ARE RECEDING WITH NOTHING TO HOLD ONTO BUT THEIR OWN SILVER HEARTS

…Some company is using the song “Beth” by Alice Cooper in their ads and the song has been stuck in my head for days.  Not a bad thing, as I like the song, but I wish it would go away already.

…I sat “The Hateful Eight” last week.  It was a fun romp and definitely didn’t feel almost three hours long.  Not Tarantino’s best film, but certainly enjoyable, and Jennifer Jason Lee deserves an Oscar.  Poor woman.

…Today I’m heading out to see “The Revenant” with DiCaprio.  Should be great.

…And I’ve been watching “Fargo” via Netflix.  Great show.  Quirky.  Lots of violence and phenomenal acting.

…Here are some things I learned this week that you may or may not already know yourself: 

-The decorative lights seen around U.S. neighborhoods during the holiday season consume about 6.6 billion kWh of energy every year, according to the U.S. Dept. of Energy.

-A recent post from the Center for Global Development said that usage exceeds the national electricity consumption of developing countries, such as El Salvador, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Nepal, and Cambodia.

-A 2002 study by Robert Feldman of the University of Massachusetts found that on average, people told two to three lies in a ten-minute conversation. 80 percent of lies go undetected.

 -Vincent Van Gogh and Leonardo daVinci both sold only one painting during their lifetimes.

 -The average teen spends over 62 hours a week on a device of some sort.

 -China emits 6 billion tons of greenhouse gases each year.

 In 1985 production of Barbie dolls exceeded the entire population of the USA.

 -In George Washington's days, there were no cameras.  One's image was either sculpted or painted. Some paintings of George Washington showed him standing behind a desk with one arm behind his back while others showed both legs and both arms. Prices charged by painters were not based on how many people were to be painted, but by how many limbs were to be painted.  Arms and legs are 'limbs,' therefore painting them would cost the buyer more. Hence the expression, 'Okay, but it'll cost you an arm and a leg.' (Artists know hands and arms are more difficult to paint.)

-During WWII, U.S. airplanes were armed with belts of bullets which they would shoot during dogfights and on strafing runs.  These belts were folded into the wing compartments that fed their machine guns.  These belts measured 27 feet and contained hundreds of rounds of bullets.  Often times, the pilots would return from their missions having expended all of their bullets on various targets.  They would say, “I gave them the whole nine yards", meaning they used up all of their ammunition.