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December 07, 2012 | | THUMPETY-THUMP-THUMP How many times do we have to hear about those roasting chestnuts and little drummer boys? The Daily Beast’s Malcolm Jones tunes out the crummy carols and offers a checklist of classics to make your holiday merry and bright, from Spike Jones’s subversion of “The Nutcracker” to Handel’s “Messiah”. HAPPY DAYS Happy holidays, everyone. The U.S. economy added 146,000 jobs in November, causing the jobless rate to drop to a four-year low of 7.7 percent. The better-than-expected numbers surprised economists, who had expected a bleak report due to Hurricane Sandy. But the news wasn’t all good: economists said part of the reason for the drop was that people gave up the search for work. Also, the numbers for September and October were revised downward to show that 49,000 fewer jobs had been added than previously reported. NOT FUNNY Two Australian DJs who fooled a London hospital by pretending to be the Queen and Prince Charles—and got passed through to Kate Middleton’s nurse—have resigned after the receptionist who took the call apparently killed herself. The Daily Beast’s Tom Sykes reports. Egypt Egypt’s political crisis continued to escalate Friday as 10,000 protestors broke through a barbed wire barricade, guarded by army tanks, outside the presidential palace. Despite Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi’s offer to hold talks between all major political factions on Saturday, Egypt’s liberal-activist opposition showed no signs of backing down. Morsi’s adversaries insist that he first withdraw his November 22nd decree, an unprecedented power-grab that sent the nation up in flames. The “all out fight for Egypt’s future,” will likely continue for another week at least, until the new Constitution is up for a nationwide referendum on December 15. Homecoming Khaled Meshaal, the political leader of Hamas, returned to Gaza on Friday for the first time since leaving after the Six Day War in 1967. He entered Gaza through Egypt, beginning a three-day tour of Gaza, which a Hamas spokesman described as “a fruit of the victory of the resistance over the occupation.” Meshaal is expected to address a huge rally in Gaza City on Saturday and to discuss reconciliation with the Fatah movement, which now controls much of the West Bank. Upon his return, he said in a statement, “I consider this moment my third birth, and I pray to God that my fourth birth will be the moment when all of Palestine is liberated.” Hamas says in its charter that is committed to the destruction of Israel. | | 
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