The Holidays May Be Over

But this Steve Martin bit from, I believe the late 1980s, I have always loved. Just thought I would share, so enjoy.

One Day Early, But

A Happy Festivus to All! I hope you took your poles out of the garage, have thought about what grievances to air, and been limbering up for the feats of strength.

This will likely be my last post of 2006 as I will be incommunicado for much of the remainder of the year. It has been a pleasure, and hope to see all of you (yes, the two of you who read this) in 2007.

The personalized holiday card

Back in my youth, I used to go door-to-door in my neighborhood, shilling holiday cards from a catalogue. I made brisk sales, as these cards could be personalized with a message and the senders' names. This was a rare option at the time, as the only other choice was to go to a store and buy boxes of cards, filling everything out by hand.

Now, of course, the internet has changed all that, allowing people to not only personalize their cards, but also upload photos to put on the cover of those cards. The result is that about half of the cards I receive have personal photos on the front of them.

For the most part, these are cute. Pictures of little kids? Cute! Pictures of furry kids? Cute! Pictures of two adults, somewhere between the ages of 25 and 50? Totally not cute.

I have a number of friends without pets or children who somehow think I want to see photos of them. I don't. If these photos were tongue-in-cheek, like those I see yearly from a family friend who puts herself in strange places (dressing up as Elvis; sticking her face in a Keira Knightly cut-out, between a cardboard Orlando Bloom and Johnny Depp), I could get behind them. But two 30 year olds in front of a Christmas tree? A 45 year old smiling next to Santa? A couple of 28 year olds skiing? It's not cute, it's not witty, and I have absolutely no interest.

Am I a Scrooge? Or being totally reasonable?

The Perfect Gift For the Holidays

This week's SNL was fairly funny with host Justin Timberlake. (Calling him JT is almost as bad as calling any football player LT other than Lawrence Taylor.) The Barry Gibb Show is one of those rare SNL skits that remains extremely funny each time it is done, and it is an even rarer skit in that Jimmy Fallon is very funny in it. (I don't know where he finds the time, but he manages to return whenever Timberlake hosts.) But the skit that is getting all the buzz is this digital short, a worthy successor to last year's Lazy Sunday. WARNING: THIS IS THE UNCENSORED VERSION OF THE SKIT! THE ONE THAT AIRED ON NBC WAS FILLED WITH BLEEPS.

Do You Know It's Halloween?

Since I've been too old to trick or treat, I haven't been much of a Halloween fan, and I view the recent trend of adults celebrating Halloween with dismay.

That being said, this song is sort of awesome.