A Few Thoughts on Episode 3 of Season 4 of TED LASSO

WARNING: THESE ARE AS I TYPED THEM, I WILL NOT BE EDITING THIS SHIT, TOUGH LUCK LOSERS

The show sure loves those audio openings where we can't see what's happening but it's a noise
Why would Rebecca be opening the door when they were just having sex and she wasn’t fully dressed, and the guy was a whole room away? Was she running out the door while getting dressed?
I don't wanna be super woke but would people really stand up and walk out when they mention the women's team at this shareholder meeting? With visible, utter contempt? Really?
My prediction is at some point this season Rebecca is finally gonna snap at Keeley and to be honest I thought it was gonna happen last season.
Oh God it's the fucking kid ugh
You know I love to see Phoebe with Roy but it’s not like when she was a kid with that you know big round head kids have that make them look hilarious, she's great I'm rooting for her but it's not the same
Is this the first time seeing Roy Ken sister?
Oh no is the whole conflict between Coach Chilton and this friend of hers gonna be because of romance? Really? Can’t be any other reason two women could dislike each other? Zzzzzzzzzzzz
Danny Rojas sister a female version of Danny Roja yes please
I knew that Dany Rojas thing was gonna be a joke but I'm bummed, I wanted her to be really great
I have another prediction: it’s ghonna turn out the twins on the team are actually triplets their sister’s gonna show up so it'll be like “slap shot”
I was wrong about Brexit is like “she loved the sea” in mad men , hilarious
I'm not feeling the Rebecca/Matthias saying
Even for Keeley this pro team doesn't have uniforms in time for the beginning of the season? like did they just start the season 10 minutes ago?
Keeley’s report from Roy - she doesn't look at the second page? just one page and shut the binder, that’s it?
You show up for a sexytime romance dinner with Rebecca the owner of a Premier soccer league team at some fancy restaurant and you have a long sleeve T-shirt on?? 😡 No wonder Rebecca never wants to show up at one of your dates. You aint THAT good looking.
I'm really liking Coach Chilton now she's kinda funny, has a great reaction face for a show like this
So in the end Keeley Jones of “woman on top” was saved by a man, a Neanderthal man?

Moi Say Moi

People who celebrate the absolute obliteration of our long history of career bureaucrats at every level of government who've always done the actual grinding work that’s absolutely necessary for any functioning government to exist much less function need to watch this scene from Mad Men to remember oh yeah if someone hadn’t thought to call up Joan their entire venture would’ve lasted about 10 fucking minutes, if that.

Cheers to the Guy Who Plays Pete Campbell in MAD MEN

Much has been made of Pete's "not great Bob!" moment, and rightfully so since it's totally earned its genuine hit meme status.

BUT - I'd argue it's not even Pete's funniest line of the episode, which comes in this scene as he & his brother are faced with what a "no expense spared!" policy would actually cost them vis-a-vis finding their mother who'd apparently fallen off a cruise ship. 🤣🤣🤣🤣

Is My MAD MEN Moment Upon Us?

I was renewing my passport & it turns out I didn't realize you had to mail your old one in; ever since losing my driver's license in the bushes after an office after-after Christmas party a decade ago my passport has been my only real official photo i.d. so now I'm kinda wondering hmmmm if this thing gets lost in the mail can I pull a Dick Whitman & just become someone else? 🤔

MAD MEN Questions. I Have Them.

...so did Peggy REALLY make it through the entire 1960s with NOBODY finding out Pete was the father of her baby? 🤔🤷‍♂️

INteresting...CURious, Even...

One funny thing about Mad Men is they tried so hard sometimes to make Megan appear so French and yet not only was spaghetti with jar sauce the only food she ever made, she also seemed to have a passion about it that belies the requisite skill level & surely would make any French person gag with its earnestness.

Xmasime 10 Years Ago Today

Tuesday, March 11, 2014

Questions. I Have Them.

Has anyone ever made the connection between Don Draper/Dick Whitman of Mad Men and Clyde Griffiths from An American Tragedy?

Stick the Landing

On one hand, I'm thrilled about The Ringer's Andy Greenwald doing a new podcast, Stick the Landing, all about tv series finales. On the other hand he's already done Mad Men, Friday Night Lights, The Office and now Girls so now I'm like wait, how soon into the show's run are we gonna run out of shows I love and would be looking forward to hearing about on the podcast? 🤔 🤷‍♂️

On this morning's episode about Girls they talked about about how upset everybody was about the lack of diversity there was in the show's first season, with everybody being white.

"But Xmastime", you say in the voice of Craig “Ironhead” Heyward from those soap commercials (RIP), “didn't you - rather controversially at the time, I might add - land on Lena Dunham's side of things on this subject back in 2013?"

Sigh. Yes I did, faithful readers, YES I did:

The HBO Show du Moment Girls is getting some shit for being so "white." On one hand I'd love to pounce on this as another reason the show sucks; on the other, I have several pockets of girl friends here in NYC, and I'm not sure any of them include a black woman in their circle. So then the question becomes well, is it MORE offensive for Lena Dunham to do the ol' "look I'm so diverse, I have a black friend!" than simply ask us to live with what may be natural for a quartet of 24 year-old white girls in NYC?

All my years growing up in Virginia and even during a brief stay in Mississippi, I had plenty of black friends. Yet here I am in New York City, the melting pot of melting pots, and I don't have a single black friend. Isn't that something.Living in NYC doesn't automatically turn your hipster loft into a post-racial mix of diversity any more than living in Bumfuck, Iowa automatically makes you a white supremest.

Good Writing

The glass was still on the table and I swept it across the room, hearing it rumble in the dark.

I'm finally finishing Invisible Man after stalling for weeks, thinking I was magnanimously waiting for my nephew to start reading it when it turns out he sprinted past me and finished weeks ago, and was pleased to see this otherwise throwaway passage wherein Ellison resists the urge for some dramatic "the glass shattered into a million pieces!!" nonsense that happens in writers' heads but isn't remotely realistic.

"But Xmastime", you say in the voice of Craig “Ironhead” Heyward from those soap commercials (RIP), “didn't you point out a similar thing about a Mad Men episode back in 2015?"

Sigh. Yes I did, faithful readers, YES I did:

Must say, I dig the way they handled Peggy's coffee cup dropping. Usually on tv dropping a mug means it shatters into a thousand pieces, but not here. Nice touch.

"Xmastime gets me."

YES PLEASE du Jour

The Office meets Mad Men meets The Shining.

Calling Matthew Weiner

With great characters just sitting there ripe for the picking like Burt Bacharach, Neil Diamond, Goffin & King, Greenwich & Barry, Marvin Hamlisch, Mann & Weil, Lieber/Stoller & Phil Spector as the cast & the countless stars they worked with coming in & out, how's there not been a Mad Men-era tv series about the Brill Building?

LOOKING FOR INVESTORS, PEOPLE!

We Love You Doggie!!!

 

1:27 Dog just tried to say "Colorado." After three fly-bys, finally just plowed thru it "Carararro." Sounds like a Chinese guy ordering Sammy Hagar’s tequila. Ugly. - XMASTIME

I love Mad Dog with all my heart so I'm okay laughing like hell with him on this 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣

Mad Dog Russo botches EVERY name. 😂

[Via the great 'Morning Men' crew on SXM] https://t.co/N8XnIRJoHT pic.twitter.com/6DNDGxcU2I

— Funhouse (@BackAftaThis) June 3, 2023

Thank You For Not Asking, II

The folks over at The Ringer have a list of the best tv series finales of the 21st century; here's some thoughts on a few that I was all geared up for at the time (mostly). You're welcome, Earth!

GIRLS - I’m sure it was fine but to me the most memorable moment of the ending arc was the scene with Adam & Hannah at Kellogg’s Diner in the penultimate episode (yes, the HOPEFULLY NOT SOON TO BE CLOSED KELLOGG’S DINER).

CATASTROPHE - Rob’s dad stole the show with his ridiculous yellow jaundiced makeup but I for one was never one of those fans who wondered if Rob & Sharon committed suicide in the end.

SEX AND THE CITY - don’t really care other than as soon as it was over me and Rrthur (YES, ladies, THAT Arthur!) recorded what had to be the worlds first ever podcast. Haven’t listed to it since and I’m sure its lost forever but we’ll just assume I was laugh out loud funny af.

FREAKS AND GEEKS - isn’t the thing about F&G that they never actually had a finale?

THE WEST WING - fantastic, of course.

VEEP - this was a kinda awkward sendoff because after years of absolutely crushing it every episode they ran into the buzzsaw of Trump being in office, therein rendering any political satire superfluous. Also, the extended insult lines that were so great for so long just seemed to lose their fastball this season, each one dragging on a half-beat too long.

MAD MEN - I’m sure it was fine but by then there was so little office stuff I think I was fine with it ending the way it did.

FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS - I’m sure I’ve seen it a hundred times and I’m sure I loved it but all I remember is that ball in the air at the end and then “oh they’re starting over in Philly okay whatever” and it was all fine. Oh wait it turns out I did write about it in real time, including noticing I hadn’t realized it was the series finale in the moment.

THE SOPRANOS - I ripped the show during its ending in real time, less for the ending itself and more because I think I was just fed up with everyone claiming the show to be the greatest thing since sliced bread. Over time I’ve softened on this stance.

It's not from this century but these people know how to throw a goodbyeee party for a brilliant show.

I DId Not Know That du Jour

According to the #1 tv critic in the land, Alan Sepinwall:

"Mad Men did the Dick Whitman story early on — a story, by the way, that AMC loosely suggested to Matthew Weiner, rather than something that was in his initial pitch"

Mad Men du Jour

Say what you will about Henry Francis but I love that motherfucker's scary creepy house.

A Few Thoughts on The Absurdity of Mad Men's Don Draper

I thought so at the time the show was on the air but assumed I didn’t know what the hell I was talking about, but the more & more time since the end of Mad Men passes & the more I rewatch it, along with over a decade "in the biz", the more I come to terms with the fact that exactly nothing about the 1960s career arc of Don Draper, Genius Creative Director, remotely makes any sense or would’ve happened in the real world.

We’re led to believe that as creative director of a small agency in NYC he is not only “famous” within the industry, but openly feared. That's right: feared. None of that is plausible, but even if it is we’re supposed to believe this he just stays put at Sterling Cooper while fending off bigger companies with the kind of sexy clients he’s always bitching about wanting to work on. Jim Hobart is constantly showing up to beg him to accept the keys to a money truck & come work with him on the biggest, sexiest clients possible but Don always rudely dismisses him as if anybody’d be crazy to give up working on Glo-Pro bathroom products for McDonalds.

And then we’re supposed to believe that after his meltdown with Hershey he crawls his way back on his hands & knees, doing whatever it takes to get back to the top of SCDP or whatever it was called by then. Writing taglines, coupons etc, and oh yeah all this under the now-glaring eye of his mentee, a woman for whom only a few short years the job of copywriter was impossible to dream of, much less creative director or whatever title she is by then. None of this would happen on Planet Earth. Oh sure it’s explained away with some talk of non-compete clauses and such, but this is a multi-millionaire who has people like Jim Hobart throwing hookers through his bedroom window & who would be THRILLED to pay whatever legal fees it took to get “famous!” “feared!” Don Draper over to McCann Erickson. But no no, we watch Don bow and scrape to Lou Avery instead (don’t get me started on the TOTAL absurdity of Lou Avery being the CD there). I mean, really - Don has to sit at his desk like a child because Lou won’t let him leave to catch a flight? Really? Millionaire, famous & feared Don Draper?

And I guess towards the end we’re supposed to feel glad Don gets what he wants, which is…working for McCann? As just one of 20 creative directors, when at any moment in the 10 years before if he batted his eyes at Jim Hobart he’d be the King of the Beach at McCann? Really?

Ugh. I'm sure there's tons more but I'm tired of even thinking about it for now; I still love the show and always will but I mean come on already with this shit.

"Yeah sure but have YOU seen Joan walk into the office after getting caught in the pouring rain?"

No Big Whoop...

...it's only Mad Men legend Ted Chaough liking one of my Tweets 😜🕺

All the Dramz

Not sure why but I made a point of telling my boy BayonneMike what my favorite tv dramas are so I guess I'll share them now with you peple you're welcome!!!

The White Shadow
The West Wing
Sopranos
Mad Men
Friday Night Lights
ER
Spartacus
True Detective
The Crown
Shameless
Treme
My So-Called Life
Freaks and Geeks
Six Feet Under
Oz
Boardwalk Empire
The Newsroom
Vinyl  

Things I Like

Every day, I’ll add one thing to this list:

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, toast with butter, Apollo 8, Garfield, the "slightly pull the car up while someone's trying to get in" gag, dogs with their heads sticking out car windows, wood paneling, pork egg foo young, rain, Roadrunner (Modern Lovers), the green type in Hulu’s search bar, Marah, Without Feathers, hour 3 of a wedding reception, French women, Rob Brydon, Indiana high school basketball, whenever anyone else cancels an appointment, The Star-Spangled Girl (the play not the movie), Cheaper by the Dozen (the book not the movie grrrrr), 1995, Camille Claudel, the perfect pen, hotels, witnessing the slow-moving car crash of when some guy replies to "I'm ______ and I'll be your waitress" with "I'm ______ and I'll be your customer!", The Red Green Show, dinner parties at 100 Metro, Robert Kennedy, the first warm sock out of the dryer, the #7, honest waiters, Russell Edson, Rankin/Bass animation, Soup (the books not the “food”), Queen Elizabeth II (sorry, I),"Bobby Jean", my orange bear hat, Ball Four, The Steven Banks Show, French Vanilla anything, Porridge (the sitcom not the disgusting "food"), a paperback with the perfect floppiness to it, oranges, Downton Abbey, shag carpet, the first 3 Ed Burns movies, peas, knowing it's about to rain, Paul McCartney, Peter Tinniswood, Cheerios, the Starbucks mobile ordering app, any toaster with more than two slots, bears, watching car tail lights crossing a bridge at night, refrigerator ice machines that work, nodding & saying "fellas" whenever I walk by two dogs together, rye bread, That Thing You Do!, Martin Short, Square Books in Oxford Mississippi, Hayday, my feet in the grass, Jeff Lamp, the thrill of an upcoming rest stop with several great fast food options, women, 7/06/1957, vintage 1970s Pizza Hut, Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares (obviously the UK one and not the awful US version), kids who actually try to be funny, The Replacements, great straws, "What's Happening!!", Rocco DiSpirito's "The Restaurant", Christmas lights, Carol Burnett, The Turkey's Nest, thunder, "Only Fools and Horses", the fries at the bottom of the bag, the first "Mad Men" office, the Williamsburg Softball League 2003-2012, Coach Bobby Finstock, "Animal Farm" by The Kinks, London Fog, cloth couches, DT & the Shakes, Norman Lear, taking the train, a sportcoat you don’t want to take off, frozen waffles, Bill Russell, Stove Top stuffing, the mingling of generations at weddings, carpeting, BritBox, front porches, Stephen Merchant, sheepdog drone work videos, Ralph Malph, canceled meetings, the word “shenanigans”, the first time I ever pulled off saying “bodega” after moving to Brooklyn, my friend Riley, Joy Garden, David Spade doing his impression of Dennis Miller calling him "Spudly", Bob Uecker, when a sitcom pairs off two unlikely characters, "Uncle", the first Autumn issue of "The New Yorker", Johnny Hart, Doritos & peanut butter, Joe Strummer, people who don’t always pretend they have better things to do, Teen Wolf, Dancing On My Own (the song not the activity), mushy peas, St. Paul (the sandwich not the city)(sorry city I've just never been), Car Wheels on a Gravel Road, R.E.M., old men only too happy to give their thoughts on the bowl of ice cream they’re eating, Bulleit bottles, Wally my cat friend, asking "what if it's a puppy?" whenever anyone gets a box in the mail, saying the word "mouse", saying “mousey mousey”, the 1995 PBS doc on rock & roll, sausage wheels, Monopoly, provolone, very old monarchies that are without actual power but still are charming enough to let you believe just a little bit in magic, oranges, Steve Jones, chicken planks from Long John Silver's, ivy, green, Love in Vain, Wayne Federman, Magic Shell, the off-off Broadway classic La Cocina, a classic barn jacket, The Great Brain, funny raccoon pictures, raw onion, every time Principal Ava on “Abbot Elementary” walks into a scene, Mr. Submarine, whatever it is I think 1970s architecture looks like, The Clissold Arms, The Wonder Years reboot, my first cronut, podcasting, Teenage Riot, Liev Schrieber narrating anything, brown, any kind of "melt" when they can still keep the mayo/tomatoes cold, Bloom County, Baby Come Back (The Equals not Player), Geoff Esper, a party mix with as close to zero pretzels as we can get at the moment, Derry Girls, John Lennon chewing gum onstage, a trail mix with as close to zero raisins as we can get at the moment, Cheez Whiz, October baseball, Lou Reed's "New York", funny Karl Mueller, The Vacant Lot, Saturday, notebooks, novels that go into great detail about what murderers on the run eat at roadside diners, Rick Sebak's "A Hot Dog Program", Arthur Nersesian's "The Fuck Up", crinkle-cut fries, "Gavin and Stacey", Graham Linehan before he lost his mind, Alison Steadman, Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein", candy corn, Father Ted, day drinking, The Killer, the Hallmark Christmas Channel's refusal to spend more than a dime on fake snow, Young Frankenstein, "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown", Revolver, WIA (the show not the actual address), the first time of Fall when dead leaves fall like rain, “Planes, Trains and Automobiles”, “Clerks”, Dave Attell, being the only person on an entire corporate floor, Chuck Klosterman, the podcast "Let it Roll", stumbling onto terrestrial radio while in a cabin in the woods, Cardinal Point Winery, hash browns, seeing the first Christmas tree of the season, the mid-late 1990s, free office coffee no matter if it's shitty or fine, coming in from the cold, The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society, thinking "wow that's the hardest I've laughed in forever", Bedford & N 7th, Tony Shalhoub, 15 years of Xmastime, rubbing dogs’ butts, the first “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” hearing of the season, recliners that swivel, the constant blizzard of fat jokes in any episode of "What's Happening!!", when kids make cookies, Catherine Reitman, luxuriating in bed, "Le Morte d'Arthur", "Wonderful Christmastime" by Paul McCartney, Irish stereotypes about horses, tater tots, the unrelenting rock & roll of Peter Buck, "Magic & Bird: A Courtship of Rivals", orange, brake lights afar in the dark, over-the-top reenactment actors, reading books, Take My Teenage Head, writing books, the first bad weather of winter, Jon Lovitz, Alex P. Keaton, Dunkin' Donuts grilled cheese sandwich, Ralf Little, closing the work laptop to start a long vacation, Christmas Eve, basements, lasagna soup, funny sharks, crunchy Raisin Bran, Frank's West Italian Restaurant Pizzeria, Graceland (the place not the album), flannel shirts, "Suicaine Gratifaction", Thursday night, "Bored to Death", Ken Marino, my college girlfriend, 

Things I Like

Every day, I’ll add one thing to this list:

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, toast with butter, Apollo 8, Garfield, the "slightly pull the car up while someone's trying to get in" gag, dogs with their heads sticking out car windows, wood paneling, pork egg foo young, rain, Roadrunner (Modern Lovers), the green type in Hulu’s search bar, Marah, Without Feathers, hour 3 of a wedding reception, French women, Rob Brydon, Indiana high school basketball, whenever anyone else cancels an appointment, The Star-Spangled Girl (the play not the movie), Cheaper by the Dozen (the book not the movie grrrrr), 1995, Camille Claudel, the perfect pen, hotels, witnessing the slow-moving car crash of when some guy replies to "I'm ______ and I'll be your waitress" with "I'm ______ and I'll be your customer!", The Red Green Show, dinner parties at 100 Metro, Robert Kennedy, the first warm sock out of the dryer, the #7, honest waiters, Russell Edson, Rankin/Bass animation, Soup (the books not the “food”), Queen Elizabeth II (sorry, I),"Bobby Jean", my orange bear hat, Ball Four, The Steven Banks Show, French Vanilla anything, Porridge (the sitcom not the disgusting "food"), a paperback with the perfect floppiness to it, oranges, Downton Abbey, shag carpet, the first 3 Ed Burns movies, peas, knowing it's about to rain, Paul McCartney, Peter Tinniswood, Cheerios, the Starbucks mobile ordering app, any toaster with more than two slots, bears, watching car tail lights crossing a bridge at night, refrigerator ice machines that work, nodding & saying "fellas" whenever I walk by two dogs together, rye bread, That Thing You Do!, Martin Short, Square Books in Oxford Mississippi, Hayday, my feet in the grass, Jeff Lamp, the thrill of an upcoming rest stop with several great fast food options, women, 7/06/1957, vintage 1970s Pizza Hut, Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares (obviously the UK one and not the awful US version), kids who actually try to be funny, The Replacements, great straws, "What's Happening!!", Rocco DiSpirito's "The Restaurant", Christmas lights, Carol Burnett, The Turkey's Nest, thunder, "Only Fools and Horses", the fries at the bottom of the bag, the first "Mad Men" office, the Williamsburg Softball League 2003-2012, Coach Bobby Finstock, "Animal Farm" by The Kinks, London Fog, cloth couches, DT & the Shakes, Norman Lear, taking the train, a sportcoat you don’t want to take off, frozen waffles, Bill Russell, Stove Top stuffing, the mingling of generations at weddings, carpeting, BritBox, front porches, Stephen Merchant, sheepdog drone work videos, Ralph Malph, canceled meetings, the word “shenanigans”, the first time I ever pulled off saying “bodega” after moving to Brooklyn, my friend Riley, Joy Garden, David Spade doing his impression of Dennis Miller calling him "Spudly", Bob Uecker, when a sitcom pairs off two unlikely characters, "Uncle", the first Autumn issue of "The New Yorker", Johnny Hart, Doritos & peanut butter, Joe Strummer, people who don’t always pretend they have better things to do, Teen Wolf, Dancing On My Own (the song not the activity), mushy peas, St. Paul (the sandwich not the city)(sorry city I've just never been), Car Wheels on a Gravel Road, R.E.M., old men only too happy to give their thoughts on the bowl of ice cream they’re eating, Bulleit bottles, Wally my cat friend, asking "what if it's a puppy?" whenever anyone gets a box in the mail, saying the word "mouse", saying “mousey mousey”, the 1995 PBS doc on rock & roll, sausage wheels, Monopoly, provolone, very old monarchies that are without actual power but still are charming enough to let you believe just a little bit in magic, oranges, Steve Jones, chicken planks from Long John Silver's, ivy, green, Love in Vain, Wayne Federman, Magic Shell, the off-off Broadway classic La Cocina, a classic barn jacket, The Great Brain, funny raccoon pictures, raw onion, every time Principal Ava on “Abbot Elementary” walks into a scene, Mr. Submarine, whatever it is I think 1970s architecture looks like, The Clissold Arms, The Wonder Years reboot, my first cronut, podcasting, Teenage Riot, Liev Schrieber narrating anything, brown, any kind of "melt" when they can still keep the mayo/tomatoes cold, Bloom County, Baby Come Back (The Equals not Player), Geoff Esper, a party mix with as close to zero pretzels as we can get at the moment, Derry Girls, John Lennon chewing gum onstage, a trail mix with as close to zero raisins as we can get at the moment, Cheez Whiz, October baseball, Lou Reed's "New York", funny Karl Mueller, The Vacant Lot, Saturday, notebooks, novels that go into great detail about what murderers on the run eat at roadside diners, Rick Sebak's "A Hot Dog Program", Arthur Nersesian's "The Fuck Up", crinkle-cut fries, "Gavin and Stacey", Graham Linehan before he lost his mind, Alison Steadman, Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein", candy corn, Father Ted, day drinking, The Killer, the Hallmark Christmas Channel's refusal to spend more than a dime on fake snow, Young Frankenstein, "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown", Revolver, WIA (the show not the actual address), the first time of Fall when dead leaves fall like rain, “Planes, Trains and Automobiles”, “Clerks”, Dave Attell, being the only person on an entire corporate floor, Chuck Klosterman, the podcast "Let it Roll", stumbling onto terrestrial radio while in a cabin in the woods, Cardinal Point Winery, hash browns, seeing the first Christmas tree of the season, the mid-late 1990s, free office coffee no matter if it's shitty or fine, coming in from the cold, The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society, thinking "wow that's the hardest I've laughed in forever", Bedford & N 7th, Tony Shalhoub, 15 years of Xmastime, rubbing dogs’ butts, the first “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” hearing of the season, recliners that swivel, the constant blizzard of fat jokes in any episode of "What's Happening!!", when kids make cookies, Catherine Reitman, luxuriating in bed, "Le Morte d'Arthur", "Wonderful Christmastime" by Paul McCartney, Irish stereotypes about horses, tater tots, the unrelenting rock & roll of Peter Buck, "Magic & Bird: A Courtship of Rivals", orange, brake lights afar in the dark, over-the-top reenactment actors, reading books, Take My Teenage Head, writing books, the first bad weather of winter, Jon Lovitz, Alex P. Keaton, Dunkin' Donuts grilled cheese sandwich, Ralf Little, closing the work laptop to start a long vacation, Christmas Eve, basements, lasagna soup, funny sharks, crunchy Raisin Bran, Frank's West Italian Restaurant Pizzeria, Graceland (the place not the album), flannel shirts, "Suicaine Gratifaction", Thursday night, "Bored to Death", Ken Marino,