Questions roasting on an open-source blog...

I've always liked Little Drummer Boy. I'm a sucker for the ba-rum-bum-bums.

Little Drummer Boy was my mom's all time favorite. It makes me really happy to hear it. I love all Christmas music, but I'm partial Sleigh Ride and God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen.

There's way too much use of Christmas music to jolly people into buying stuff. But I can bear some of the religious stuff that's played less often, like Adeste Fideles -- but only in Latin, so you get the mental exercise of trying to translate it.

I memorized In the Bleak Midwinter for choir about fifteen years ago, and it is still rattling around in my head.

The entire Mariah Carey Christmas album :) From the midnight mass days, I'd go with O Holy Night based on difficulty points.

Funny.  I used to loudly sing along with that "what if god was one of us" song, substituting the word "Bob" for "god," in protest.  But I love Christmas songs.  Somehow I was OK with the religiousity there because I was able to see it as some sort of homage to the way people felt when the songs were written -- more of an historical, cultural appreciation than a religious one.  My favorite is Good King Wenceslas; but I could easily rattle on for hours listings others that I love.

Usually, the lights only go on the tree. But if I'm having an idustrious year, I'll put them up around the windows on the inside. Christmas decorations go up after Thanksgiving and come down on New Year's Day. Unless, I'm hung over. Then, they come down the weekend following New Year's Day. This year, I have a tree up, but only becase my roommate put it up. I haven't been able to muster enough spirit to decorate at all for the past couple of years. I have to admit, it is nice to come home and night and sit in a room lit only by the soft glow of the Christmas tree.

We had Red, Blue, Green & Yellow lights, and my Dad had us maintain them in his particular order throughout. I did outdoor lights until someone took them off the low bushes.

This pretty indicative of Staten Island Christmas decoration techniques. We do it tackier!

Sometimes you need the eyesores to appreciate the simple beauty. My fave house in the neighborhood was a gingerbread house and every year they just wrapped the house with a big christmas bow down the middle. Really wish I took a picture because the house got sold and taken over by the over-decorators.

Hanukkah was pretty lame in our household. The whole eight days of gifts thing is way overrated. I'm sure I got better gifts than this, but for some reason Mike Tyson's Punch Out video game stands out as the one hanukkah gift I remember - probably because that year I remember searching through my mom's closet to try and see what she got and feeling really guilty about it for days afterward.

I always got good gifts. When I was in first grade, I got a sled. The radio flyer, wood slats/red metal steering bar kind. But before Christmas I was playing in my mom's room with a friend who looked under the bed and then got me to look as well. Being the honest kid that I was, I told my mom what I'd seen. She then gave me the choice: tell my step-dad or act surprised on Christmas. Even at 7, I knew I wasn't a good liar, so I told him. I didn't get in trouble (because I was honest), but it sort of ruined Christmas morning. I never went looking for gifts again--I love being surprised.

The best morning was Christmas in 5th grade. I wanted a stereo so badly. But none of the boxes under the tree were stereo-sized. I was pretty despondent for the weeks leading up, waiting for that big box to show up. It never did. Then, as we were opening presents on Christmas morning, my mom handed me a medium-sized box. I opened it. It was a toaster oven. I looked perplexed, my parents started cracking up, and my step-dad gets a big box that has my mom's name on it and says, "This one must have been mislabled." Oh, how I loved that stereo.

We each got pedal-powered red Mustangs.

So hard to choose! Either my strawberry shortcake bicycle, my Cabbage Patch Kid, or the Michael Jackson Thriller and Grammys dolls (which judging from prices on ebay I should never have opened).

Assuming I can't get an Iphone on T-mobile, I think I'd like someone to buy me the apartment I live in. Or maybe massages for every week of the year.

10 more hours in the day and a big flat screen TV

Honestly, nothing material. I've been trying to loosen my addiction to stuff. I would like someone to publish my novel though.

And I don't want world peace, smarty-pants. I want world intelligence. Willfully stupid people suck.

My own 50 meter indoor pool.

Arrested Development movie please.

I think my imagination may be too wild for the dagblog community, or maybe I actually do have a modicum of shame, so for now I'll just say threesomes.

a woman

Batteries.

Can't complain.

I'm a recovering Catholic, so I'm going to really go out on a limb and hope for eye contact.

The parade, fo shizzle. I live right by the Thanksgiving Day parade route and have yet to see it, which is just stupid. The one year I was in NYC I overslept. I love walking by the floats when they're stationed on 81st St. the night before.

I'm too claustrophobic for the Times Square thing. wouldnt mind being there if I could be in one of the office buildings in the area.

My old company was right on Broadway in the 50s and we were on the 3rd floor - eyelevel to the balloons. Every year, we'd have Thanksgiving Day parade parties and breakfast. The best part of the parade was being inside, having a great view & drinking hot cocoa while everyone was freezing their asses off outside. :) You have to do NYE in Times Square once in your life to say you've done it. And only once. Never again!

In my head, I make a couple, usually. This is the most cliched of all resolutions, but I really would like to get back to the gym on a semi-regular basis. Ive been so bad this year. Also, I'd like to start wriitng fiction on the side again.

Write a book

Publish a book.

Book here, too. And, as soon as the streets are clear of snow again (probably late April), get the bike out of the basement and explore the dozens of kilometres of bike paths this island is blessed with. I tried the gym route a couple of times but simply lack the willpower.

Get back in my swimming regimen.

Wow. who knew blogger was just a code word for aspiring (failed? wannabe? eternally procastinating?) novelist??? i guess its true what they say, everyone has a book in them wanting to come out! maybe one day we'll publish a book of dagblog short stories.

By the end of next year, unemployment will have hit 9-plus percent at some point. Gold will once again bust through old highs, surging past the $1000 level as inflation becomes a problem again near the end of next year. You will hear about the collapse of interest rates constantly at the beginning of next year, as the new bubble developing in government bonds reaches its peak sometime in the middle of next year, before interest rates start exploding to the upside. We will end the year on the Dow at 8500 or below, but at some point we will hit 10000 again.

Obama will become the next President

I think we'll have high(er) unemployment, stagflation and a alternative energy, or cleantech, bubble.

You tip the hairwasher?

My hairdresser is my hairwasher.

I've increased my dinner tipping from 20% to 25%, although I rarely eat out. My hairdresser is a theatre buddy, but I tip him all the same.

I assume that it's the same sort of function that attracts people to crowds. That is to say, if a pigeon sees a bunch of other pigeons on the ground, it's going to fly over to see what's up.

Related: Why do people feed pigeons? Like all wild animals without predators, pigeon populations expand to an area's carrying capacity. So feeding them might make a few pigeons happy, but those pigeons will make baby pigeons, and then there will be too many again, at which point even more pigeons will starve.

It's a collective survival strategy, Deadman. The birds have figured out that some wackos poison pigeons, so they wait to see if the amount of bread crumbs being distributed is worth the risk. If so, they draw lots, and the losers fly down for some taste-testing. If after a couple of minutes those early birds are still alive, the rest join in. Everybody knows that.

But who decided bread crumbs were pigeons' favorite meal? I bet they'd prefer pizza.