Oh Fuuuuuuuuudge.

In addition to the traditional celebrations that come along with this time of the year as well as the not-often-enough spiritual meditation that I get to do around the mind-blowing nature of the Incarnation, there are some lighter things that come along this time of the year which bring a smile to my face. And one of those things, my friends, is the annual 24-hour marathon on TBS of repeat showings of "A Christmas Story".

For those of you who have somehow been deprived of this gem, "A Christmas Story" is a warm and funny flick about a boy named Ralphie wanting nothing else than an "official Red Ryder, carbine action, two-hundred shot range model air rifle" otherwise known as a BB gun, told from the perspective of a much older Ralphie reflecting back on that special Christmas . I can't give justice by describing it a blog post, but there are numerous hilarious moments, including his fantasies about defending his family from hoods with his gun, a fantasy of a Pulitzer-quality term paper which earns him the adoration of his class (and presumably the moral high-ground to get his gun), the common deflating response of "you'll shoot your eye out" from those who hear of his wish, Christmas at a Chinese restaurant, and the mishap during changing of a flat tire leading to the title of this post.

But what might be the epic moment in the movie is a schoolyard dare that goes terribly (but hilariously) wrong, where Ralphie watches a friend dare (with escalating levels of "dares") another friend to stick his tongue on a a freezing cold flagpole, testing the theory around whether the tongue will freeze and stick. I won't give away what happens, put it usually leaves the audience in stitches, so to speak.

Apparently not everyone has watched this film, or at least this part of the movie, as some kid in Boise, Idaho apparently tried to duplicate the feat. I can't get too down on the kid, I have to admit that I'm at least curious. Maybe I'll get one of my kids to try this.

Fa ra ra ra ra, ra ra ra ra!