advertisement
FYI

The Wrong Number That Launched The Santa Tracker

“They had one digit wrong, and it was my father’s top-secret phone number,” Shoup’s daughter, Terri Van Keuren, recalls. “So now the phone is ringing off the hook.”

The Wrong Number That Launched The Santa Tracker

By External Source

When the dreaded red phone rang inside the Continental Air Defense Command (CONAD) operations centre on the last day of November in 1955, the mood at the nerve centre of America’s nuclear defense grew nervous. At a time when the Cold War raged and Soviet fighter jets routinely buzzed dangerously close to Alaskan airspace, U.S. Air Force Colonel Harry Shoup knew that a call over the top-secret hotline wouldn’t be good news.


Anxious that the caller might be the president or a four-star general warning of an atomic attack on the United States, Shoup steeled himself as he answered the hotline that was directly wired from his command post in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

advertisement

“Yes, sir, this is Colonel Shoup,” he answered in his finest military cadence. Met with only silence, he repeated, “Sir, this is Colonel Shoup.” Still nothing. “Sir, can you read me alright?” Shoup asked before he received a most unexpected reply from the soft voice of a child.

“Are you really Santa Claus?”

Continue reading here

advertisement
William Prince

William Prince

FYI

Music News Digest: William Prince Announces National Tour, Abigail Lapell & Julian Taylor Amongst Folk Music Ontario Award Winners

Also this week: 11 music industry associations from across the country converge for Come Together in Toronto , The Trews launch a new album with an intimate event and more.

Juno-winning Indigenous roots singer/songwriter William Prince has just released a new album, Further From the Country, and announced a cross-Canada tour for early 2026. That trek begins in Saskatoon on Feb. 28, closing out at Toronto's Massey Hall (his third headlining appearance there) on March 21, then followed by an April 25 homecoming show at Winnipeg's Centennial Concert Hall. Support act on the tour is Boy Golden, who produced Prince's new record. Tickets go on sale Friday (Oct. 24) here. On Nov. 18, Prince, Boy Golden and Whitehorse play Canadian label Six Shooter’s Cosmic Country Night at Brooklyn's Union Pool.

advertisement

keep readingShow less
advertisement