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Merry Christmas, and here’s your present! From the Underground Bunker, with feeling

Christmas presents piled underneath a christmas tree.While we continue our year in review, we have a great interruption that we weren’t expecting — a gift to the Bunker community from one of our best, The Hole Does Not Exist.

She sent us a sound file, and we threw together some familiar Bunker images for it that we hope resonate for our loyal readers. Can you identify everyone in them?

What a great surprise present! Thank you, THDNE, and Mr. Hole, and L. Wrong, for putting something so fun under our tree.


 

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And by request from our commenters, here are the lyrics…

Hunkered Down in Bunker Town

By The Hole, December 2013

Just another stormy night, just gettin’ settled down
Down in the ‘Underground Bunker,’ where the fringe all gather ’round
It’s late in New York City, coffee’s on in Sydney
California’s catchin’ up — damn, this blog is gettin’ busy

Now I’m hunkered down in Bunker Town again, again, again
To witness history, ride the storm
Wait to see a reckoning and the day they all come home
But I’m Hunkered down in Bunker Town again, again, again
Yeah, I’m hunkered down in Bunker Town again

Turned the lights down long ago on something dark and cold
Never thought I’d dive back in that sea of haunted souls
But then a friend who knew me when called me out to say
‘Been down in the Bunker, dear?’ and threw a link my way

Now I’m hunkered down in Bunker Town again, again, again
To witness history, ride the storm
Wait to see a reckoning and the day they all come home
But I’m hunkered down in Bunker Town again, again, again
Hunkered Down in Bunker Town again

 
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When Jenna and Dallas were in New York in February, we got to see the whole family

When Jenna and Dallas were in New York in February, we got to see the whole family

Scientology’s 2013 in review: The winter of Miscavige’s discontented niece

If February was a chilly month for Scientology, three words describe why: Jenna. Miscavige. Hill.

But there were plenty of other things happening during the year’s shortest month besides Jenna’s publicity onslaught. And we were there to capture it all.

February started off with some fun — we found a video of Andrea Doven, former assistant to Tom Cruise, gushing about Scientology at a graduation. It’s always fun to see how Scientologists talk to each other about the woo.

On the 2nd, we started a new weekly feature with Scientology historian Jon Atack. We had always held his book, A Piece of Blue Sky, in the highest esteem, and we could hardly believe our luck that he agreed to help us examine myths about L. Ron Hubbard and his creation.

On February 3, Scientology paid for a 30-second Super Bowl ad in some local markets around the country. (Buying local kept the cost down, and press reports that Scientology had paid millions for the ad were incorrect.) We live-blogged the game, and then collected reactions to Scientology’s spot.

Jenna Miscavige Hill’s memoir, Beyond Belief: My Secret Life in Scientology and my Harrowing Escape, came out on the 5th, and that’s when we posted our review. It’s a gutsy book. We were impressed that Jenna had the sand to portray her uncle, Scientology leader David Miscavige, as a gutless bully.

On February 8, we reported that the Patrick Desmond wrongful death lawsuit in Georgia had been settled out of court. But writing a big check didn’t make all of Scientology’s problems at its Atlanta-area drug rehab center go away.

In only our third installment of Scientology Mythbusting with Jon Atack, we got some help from legendary writer Harlan Ellison. What a treat!

On the 21st, we revealed that there was a new whistleblower calling bullshit on Scientology’s drug rehab network Narconon. It was former Narconon executive Eric Tenorio, who would go on to appear on Rock Center.

On February 26, we brought you one of the more heartbreaking stories of the year — a look at Mario Fenninger, a musician with a long loyalty to Scientology, who was finding out how much the church values older people.

And finally, on the 27th we reported that the indefatigable Lori Hodgson had appealed to Scientology’s ‘spin doctor,’ Michael Sitrick, to help her get back in touch with her two adult children, who have ‘disconnected’ from her after she chose to leave the church.

It was another eventful month, and 2013 was still just getting heated up!

 
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Posted by Tony Ortega on December 25, 2013 at 07:00

E-mail your tips and story ideas to tonyo94@gmail.com or follow us on Twitter. We post behind-the-scenes updates at our Facebook author page. Here at the Bunker we try to have a post up every morning at 7 AM Eastern (Noon GMT), and on some days we post an afternoon story at around 2 PM. After every new story we send out an alert to our e-mail list and our FB page.

 

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