Home Again

10 Lessons Learned from the Greatest Christmas Movie of All-Time on Its 25th Anniversary

By: Jeff McDonough

My love for the Christmas season and loathing of Christmas things before Thanksgiving are equally potent. It’s for that reason that I’ve been pleased to see some stores have announced they are taking a stand against the recent trend of Black Friday sales creeping into Thanksgiving Day, and will remained closed that Thursday. The sales can wait ‘til Friday. Let retail employees have Thanksgiving off! Nordstrom has gone further saying they won’t even put up Christmas decorations until after Turkey Day. All of this is to say that it goes against a hardline stance I have to write this column, but the 25th anniversary of one my all-time favorite movies is a worthy exception.

Home Alone hit theaters on November 16, 1990. How old do you feel? It’s my assertion that this is the best Christmas movie there is. Yes, the story of a boy, who was left behind when his family goes on vacation for the holidays, fending off two zany burglars by using household items as deadly weapons. Talk about holiday cheer! I don’t think my family has ever gone a year without watching this move. It’s tradition. But it’s not just us. Home Alone remains the highest-grossing live-action comedy of all-time, earning about a half a billion dollars worldwide during its theatrical run. When you consider the drastic raise in tickets prices, the upcharges tacked on for 3-D and just general inflation — I mean, we’re talking about before I was born here! — that is a remarkable feat. If you look at the Top-50 films in box office history, after James Cameron’s Top-2 of Avatar and Titanic, every film remaining is either a cartoon or a blockbuster that’s part of an action-adventure franchise. So for a family Christmas comedy to have the run it had is telling. The film has of course lived on with home video and several TV channels playing it many times every Christmas season.

So I know I am not alone in my love for Home Alone. But what made this film so great? Why did it stay with so many of us all these years? For those answers, let’s get to the list!

From Xfinity to Beyond

There’s Finally Reason to Fear the Turtle Once Again

By: Gavin McGuire, @GavinMcGuire31 on Twitter

The last time the Maryland Terrapins basketball program began a season with such high expectations and national recognition, the year was 2001. Pluto was a planet, Destiny’s Child was atop the charts and I was right on the cusp of puberty. Fast forward to now and Pluto is a “dwarf planet,” a solo Beyoncé runs the world and adulthood still eludes me. As for the Terps, they enter this season as the #3 ranked team in the country.

It has been a long — and often frustrating — journey since 2002. Maryland basketball won its first and only National Championship that year, but has since failed to maintain the lofty standards it had set and has been mired in relative mediocrity until last season. While it may seem the Terps’ basketball program has come full circle, its biggest tests still lie ahead as this year’s Terps prepare to build on last year’s surprisingly successful campaign. If Head Coach Mark Turgeon, star point guard Melo Trimble and company are able to do that, Maryland basketball will find itself in the same position it was heading into the 2003 season. The college basketball world will be their oyster.

But for shucks sake, let’s crack this preview open, add some lemon and hot sauce and slurp down some hot takes! (Note: There will be more bad puns later, you’ve been warned.)

The Mortality of Localities

The Death of Sports Joy in the DMV

By: Jeff McDonough

It is said that the majority of people die within 50 miles of where they were born. I don’t think I can verify the statistical validity of that claim, but the takeaway is resounding. Where we’re born and where we grow up has a huge determination on the rest of our lives. Even for those of us who actually do leave their birthplace, we carry our hometown with us wherever we end up. A big tie-in with our hometown attachments is often a devotion to the local sports teams — and you’ve come to the Sports Addict, what other angle did you expect?

When the local teams lose, a cloud of despair is cast citywide. Also, sometimes they riot. When the local teams win, the whole area is abuzz. Just look at Kansas City. The Royals won their first World Series in 30 years on Sunday and on Tuesday they held their championship parade. The turnout was an estimated 800,000 people, which is even more astounding when you consider the city’s population is only 470,000. The pride of fans is never more on display than after a championship victory. Also, sometimes they riot. Here in the DMV — for those of you that don’t know, that is an acronym representing the Mid-Atlantic region of DC, Maryland and Virginia — times have been rough lately. Like really, really rough. We are currently mired in a six-month stretch of misery that no sporting fanbase should have to endure. It all started back on the dark night of May 13, but I’ll get to that later. I am going to postulate that every single major local team is some combination of bad, embarrassing, disappointing and/or heartbreaking chokers.