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NPR News Nuggets: Purple Lights, Christmas Cheer & Top Selling CD Of 2016

One family, known for their Christmas lights, is honoring the late pop icon Prince with their display this year. The family lives about 10 miles from Prince's estate, Paisley.
Kristian Dowling
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Getty Images for Lotusflow3r.com
One family, known for their Christmas lights, is honoring the late pop icon Prince with their display this year. The family lives about 10 miles from Prince's estate, Paisley.

Here's a quick roundup of some of the mini-moments you may have missed on this week's Morning Edition.

Holiday Spirits

Denver Broncos linebacker Von Miller gave every member of the AFC West a bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon for Christmas this year.
Rich Polk / Getty Images for Sports Spectacular
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Getty Images for Sports Spectacular
Denver Broncos linebacker Von Miller gave every member of the AFC West a bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon for Christmas this year.

Raise a glass to Denver Broncos linebacker Von Miller. In the spirit of the holiday season, he decided to spread some Christmas cheer. Miller gave every member in the AFC West a bottle of wine, Morning Edition host Rachel Martin said on Tuesday. Each bottle of a 2014 Cabernet Sauvignon came with a thank you note that read, "It's an honor to take the field and compete with you twice a year." Miller also encouraged his fellow NFL players to "appreciate those who have helped you get this far and start working towards your next childhood dream." Cheers to that!

Purple Rain

There's a lot of light coming from one town in Minnesota — and it's purple. Each year, a family in Chaska, Minn., decorates their home with a Christmas light show, and this year, it honors Prince. He died in April. As Morning Edition host David Greene said on Wednesday, the family never went to one of the late pop icon's shows — they consider themselves casual fans. But they live close to Prince's Paisley Park estate, and they said they know how important Prince was to the community, so they decided to do their part.

Wolfgang Wins

And the top-selling CD of 2016 is from ... Mozart? Sorry, Beyonce. Granted, 2016 isn't over yet, but the top selling CD of 2016 isn't likely to change in the next few weeks. Billboard reports that 1.25 million CDs in a box set have been sold. But as Morning Edition host Steve Inskeep said on Wednesday, only a few thousand people have bought the Mozart box set. It all comes down to Billboard's counting method. Each CD in a box set counts as a separate sale. So when the entire box set contains 225 CDs, it's bound to add up. Time to go listen to Symphony No. 40.

Gaming Granted

After 61 years, pinball is finally legal again in Kokomo, Ind. The city council there ended a ban that stretched back to 1955. In those days, the council said pinball worked against "peace and good order." Wives, Morning Edition host Steve Inskeep said on Thursday, were exasperated as husbands gambled away their entire paychecks while playing the game. That being said, it looks like the law had been ignored in recent years. So now it's official: Pinball for all!

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Wynne Davis is a digital reporter and producer for NPR's All Things Considered.