Save 80% now and get $25 gift certificates for only $2. Plus, for a limited time, get a FREE $10 Restaurant.com gift certificate with every order! Just use coupon code CHEER at checkout for your 80% off!
And, they’re doing this cool thing where you can do a gift certificate of the month club. If you choose the 12-month gift, for example, with all of the deals and discounts, you end up getting $350 worth of gift certificates for only $24!!!
Of course, if you shop through Ebates (and why wouldn’t you?), you get an additional 15% cash back!
This amazing offer expires December 31st, so hurry! — Michele Pyle of Hey, Check This Out!
As 2009 draws to a close, travel pros are sharing their data on what’s what in the travel industry. Here are a few of my favorite tidbits about the year:
For the first time, Antarctica ranked as the number one interest for would-be adventure travelers at iExplore.com.
The Vacation Deficit survey from Expedia shows that Americans took a mere 13 vacation days in 2009. On the other end of the spectrum, the French lead the world in vacation days, taking 36.
And rounding out the polls and stats, Newark Liberty Airport leads as the number one US airport for a hookup (Phoenix Sky Airport is the worst). –Jen Dennis
Shipping is usually pretty expensive at JC Penney. Here’s a great opportunity to ship a few little New Year’s gifts to friends and family!
To save at jcp.com, enter code HERES2U when prompted at checkout or call 1-800-222-6161 and mention the code.
Offer good through December 30.
*Ship your order for $.99 cents per item. Offer good on merchandise orders from jcp.com delivered within the contiguous 48 contiguous United States (excludes Alaska, Hawaii & Puerto Rico) by standard delivery to your home, office or a jcp.com Catalog Desk. The following purchases do not qualify for this discount: taxes; truck-designated items shipped to your home; express deliveries; prior purchases; orders currently being processed or in combination with any other discount. Some oversized items cannot ship to a store. —Michele Pyle from Hey, Check This Out!
Christmas Day is probably the biggest television night of the year in the United Kingdom. Since 2005, Santa has always delivered a brand-new “Doctor Who” special straight to telly screens on the other side of the pond . This year, however, is even more poignant since David Tennant, the tenth actor to play the time-travelling Doctor since 1963, will be handing over his TARDIS key in a two-parter entitled “The End of Time” (BBC America airs Part One in the States on December 26th at 9pm while Part Two airs on January 2nd at 8:30pm). Tennant’s Doctor will regenerate (the process by which the Doctor gains a new face and personality) into 27-year-old Matt Smith, but not before he deals with his greatest enemy – the renegade Time Lord known as the Master, played by “Life on Mars’” John Simm.
It’s appropriate that Tennant – probably the most popular actor to play the role since Tom Baker and his infamous scarf back in the 70s – takes his final bow in this year’s Christmas special, since he made his full debut in “The Christmas Invasion” back in 2005. When “Doctor Who” was revived in 2005 after a 16-year absence on the airwaves (not including a made-for-TV movie starring the sorely underrated Paul McGann), the show returned with well-known character actor Christopher Eccleston in the title role. When Eccleston decided to leave after just one series (or season), “Who” producer Russell T. Davies tapped the barely-known Tennant as Eccleston’s successor. Some fans were up in arms at the news, even before Tennant had shot a foot of film. “How dare this skinny unknown dork with big hair take over for an actor of Christopher Eccleston’s caliber,” was the basic gist. Tennant, however, soon erased any and all doubts. From the moment Tennant uttered his first lines (“New teeth. That’s weird.”), he absolutely owned the role.
And that’s the key to Tennant’s success in the role – you could tell he absolutely relished every moment of being the Doctor. Not only that, but he absolutely believed in the role and was 100% invested into the world and logic of “Doctor Who.” It’s not surprising. Tennant is the first die-hard “Doctor Who” fan to assume the role, having watched it as a child growing up in Scotland and, in fact, once wrote an essay while in grammar school about how his dream in life was to play Doctor Who. In every way, Tennant had been preparing for this role his whole life. When an actor is convinced of what he is doing, then the audience will follow. Of course, the fact that Tennant was and is a fantastic actor didn’t hurt, either – you don’t play Hamlet with the Royal Shakespeare Company because you’re a mediocre performer. Tennant’s Tenth Doctor was mercurial. He could go from charming to wrathful, as we saw in his initial outing when the Sycorax leader attempted to attack the Doctor from behind and the Doctor activated a trap door, letting the leader fall to his death (“No second chances – I’m that kind of man”). His Doctor believed in swift and vengeful justice, having seen his home planet and people die in a fiery inferno during a Time War against the dreaded Daleks. If there is one thing that Tennant managed to achieve with his Doctor is that, despite his alien nature, he is human. Probably my favorite moment in the entire run of the new series was the first time the Doctor sees his former companion, Sarah Jane Smith, in the episode “School Reunion” (Sarah Jane, played by the ageless Elisabeth Sladen, travelled with both Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker’s Doctors from 1973 to 1976). The look on Tennant’s face when he sees Sladen is so remarkably human, like an old boyfriend seeing his former love for the first time in a long while (Sarah Jane, naturally, doesn’t recognize the Doctor straight away, since he’s changed his appearance six times in the 30 years they had last met).
But Tennant’s most honest moment as the Doctor probably came in the mini-episode “Time Crash,” featuring Tennant’s favorite Doctor, Peter Davison, the fifth actor who played the role from 1981 to 1984. Near the end of the scene, Doctor Ten is telling his previous incarnation how much he enjoyed “being” him because, as Ten says, “you were MY Doctor.” According to legend, Tennant wrote the monologue himself. I can pretty much promise you that, in a not-so-distant-future, another young Time Lord is going to be telling Tennant’s Doctor the same exact thing. So, thanks, David Tennant. Thank you for being OUR Doctor. –Ron Motta
