You shouldn't modify the word “unique,” but if you could, you could say that singer Baby Dee is one of the most unique performers you’ll ever encounter ... The Day-Lee Foods World Gyoza Eating Championship ... Rabe wades into the LA County Arboretum's Baldwin Lake, which is in big trouble ... Film historian R-H Greene takes a new look at a long neglected late film by Orson Wellles, “Chimes at Midnight,” now in the Criterion DVD collection.

We go to Wilson High School in El Sereno to talk with students in the brand new firefighter magnet school ... The destruction of the Summit Inn hits one community especially hard: the hot-rodders who traditionally stopped at the diner on the way to and from the Bonneville Salt Flats ... Advice for the new LA Rams from linebacker Roman Pfifer, who moved with the Rams from Anaheim to St Louis in 1995 ... Brains On, the science podcast for kids, takes some kids into a glass factory to see how the odd substance is made ... And why you should go to the Huntington right after you see “London Calling” at the Getty.

Piper Laurie on Paul Newman and Ronald Reagan; Pepe Aguilar's musical legacy; What is God?

Too much rich food and drink for the holidays? We help you recover with more work from outsider photog Vivian Maier, good news about Rubel Castle, and some Coals for your empty stocking.

We work out our Feliz Navidad earworm issues, hear an all-star cast read "Night Before Christmas," listen to the Hollywood Park bugler, and talk about kids who see numbers as colors.

Merry Lepper broke the rules and, in Culver City, became the first US woman to run a marathon. Shifting ground broke the Baldwin Hills dam; we talk with a woman who has never told her story before.

David Dean Bottrell's Crafty Christmas, counting pools in LA, a man who hates Christmas songs, and Jonathan Gold on the impact of King Taco.

"Walking Out of History," John Rabe's documentary about Ernest Shackleton's remarkable Endurance expedition.

Aja Brown's vision for Compton, CalTrans' houses, Matthew Bourne's "Sleeping Beauty," Dylan Brody's Thanksgiving, and Marv Gross' Thanksgivingkuh. Yes, we're possessive.

New documentary "Dear Mr. Watterson" ... Roz Wyman remembers plotting a JFK fundraiser that had Sinatra singing on the diving board ... Mark Twain is getting much better at writing his memoirs