Each Thursday, Needcoffee.com's staff of whackos will wrack our brains to give you interesting and new things to do over the weekend. Books, movies, whatever. We'll throw them out, you do with them what you will. And hey...if you have something you want to recommend--whatever it is--drop us a line.

Incidentally, we've provided links where we can for you to buy the stuff or find out more if you're interested, courtesy of those Amazon types. Hey, come on, we can't be totally selfless in this, can we?

Oh, and this is our Xmas-themed episode. Some bits are obvious why they're here--some are a stretch. Just work with us, okay?

December 21, 2001

Book of the Week: The Five Gospels: The Search for the Authentic Words of Jesus by Funk, Hoover & The Jesus Seminar. Well, might as well figure out a little bit more about the guy that this holiday pays lip service to, right? A nice eye-opening experience, the Jesus Seminar tries to examine the words attributed to Jesus in the Gospels and figure out exactly what he said and what has simply been put in the man's mouth.

Graphic Novel of the Week: Preacher: Until the End of the World by Ennis & Dillon. Well, we've already had the first trade of the series on the Recommendations list--but honestly, what says Xmas more than a brawling preacher who can make you do anything by just using the Word, who's off to find God and hold Him accountable for His creation? The continuing story of Jesse Custer, and one of the best series of the 90's.

DVD of the Week: Scrooged. The best Xmas comedy in quite some time, it's Bill Murray in this skewering of Dickens. Favorite factoid most people miss: Murray's character name is Frank Cross. And in his exercise room, across the top of the wall, are the words: "Cross. n. 1. A thing they nail people to." Gotta love subliminal sickness.

Off the Beaten Path VHS of the Week: Muppet Christmas Carol. Not out of print, luckily. Michael Caine as Scrooge squaring off against Kermit's Bob Cratchit? And Statler and Waldorf as the Marley ghosts? Nice merriment and Muppet mayhem. And of course, the people who own the home video rights are fascists and haven't released the damn thing on DVD yet. Sigh.

CD of the Week: Hymns, Carol and Songs About Snow by Tuck Andress. There's nothing worse at Xmas than the crappy, overblown, tired Xmas music that your family puts on while you're all around the table eating. Guitar genius Tuck Andress (one half of Tuck and Patti) has the cure. Pop in his collection of Xmas classics and everybody will be happy. Not only is it holiday-oriented, but it's not annoying and in fact is rather choice. Highly recommended.

Beverage of the Week: Coffee Eggnog. The next two recommendations are recipes, since we couldn't find something exactly in the Xmas spirit that was still in keeping with the thrust of the website--keeping you up. So first up--not a big fan of the stuff myself, but I figure that eggnog spiked with caffeine can't be all bad. Give this a shot and let me know what you think.

Candy of the Week: Espresso Chocolate Chip Shortbread. There's nothing quite like shortbread cookies. And there's nothing quite like espresso. So it seems only natural that somebody came up with a way to combine the two and go nuts. We'll definitely be giving this one a good before the holidays are over. Num.