“Weird Al” Yankovic, Christmas at Ground Zero. Duck and cover with your Yuletide lover.
…Don’t we know archaic barrel…
John Legend and Stephen Colbert, Nutmeg. Ladies, Mr. John Legend wants to nog your egg.
…alley-garoo!…
Louis Prima and Keely Smith, Shake Hands with Santa Claus. Wishing you the swingingest Christmas ever.
…cauliflower…
Bob and Doug McKenzie, The 12 Days of Christmas. May Santa leave a two-four of stubbies under your tree. And doughnuts.
…Swaller dollar…
…Nora’s freezin’ on the trolley…
Nick Lowe, Christmas at the Airport. Sometimes you have to take Christmas where you find it.
…Walla Walla, Wash., an’ Kalamazoo!…
Paul Kelly, How to Make Gravy. Continuing our theme of Yuletide incarceration.
…with Boston Charlie…
John Prine, Christmas in Prison.
The searchlight in the big yard swings around with the gun
And it spotlights the snowflakes like the dust in the sun.
Deck us all…
Robert Earl Keen, Merry Christmas From the Family. Almost certainly the only Christmas song to reference AA and tampons.
Truth decay
With politics around the world increasingly characterized by lies, fear, and anger, Frontline, on the U.S. PBS network, is looking at how Facebook has been used to drive voters apart.
John Doyle reviewed the show in the Globe and Mail and offers this observation:
At the core of the matter is one key discovery about social media that’s not new any more: Fear and anger create ‘greater engagement’ online and therefore more advertising value.
Think about that for a minute. Irrational garbage isn’t an unintended consequence of social media — it’s part of the business model.
