This will be Nashville’s first “real” White Christmas since 1993. I remember that ‘93 Christmas because I was twenty-one years old and working at a movie theater. I had to work Christmas evening and it took me forever to drive from my grandmother’s house twenty miles to the theater. The snow was so thick, it took all I had in me to focus on the searing, red taillights of the vehicle in front of me to use as a guide through the storm. It sucked. But man, was it beautiful.

I don’t want to have a pity party or anything, but it stinks when half your family is on one side of the country, your girlfriend is on another and you have no one to spend Christmas Eve with. A nice, hot cup of cocoa. A crackling, warm fire. Bah humbug.

Oh well. There’s always alcohol.

The snow is snowing, the wind is blowing
But I can weather the storm!
What do I care how much it may storm?
I’ve got my buzz to keep me warm.

Paraphrasing.

Thanks, Irving Berlin!

I wrote this blog entry back in January of this year but never got around to posting it. After coming home yesterday to an overpowering, nearly coma inducing stench, I decided this entry needed to be resurrected.

I always know when my cat Charlie has had a disturbingly large poop. First of all, he never covers it up. He just drops his load and walks away from it like a deadbeat dad. I’d have to drag him onto Maury before he’d claim that poop.

Secondly, after Charlie takes a mad poop, he always reacts to it in one of two ways. He’ll either run out of his litter box like he’s a terrorist who just slipped an incendiary device under the mounds of soiled litter. I mean, he tears out of there like friggin MacGyver! Or, he walks away from his litter box and stops mid-stride to stare at me. And he’ll stare and he’ll stare. He does it just long enough for that mad poop smell to hit my nostrils. Then, when I grimace, he tears out of there like friggin MacGyver!

Every now and then, Charlie will poop and walk away from his litter box with his head hung low, his eyes unwilling to meet mine. It is as if he is embarrassed about the fact that he created such a monstrosity and I have to be the one to clean it up. That’s rare, though. Usually his attitude takes on the tone of, “I just took a dump, dad. How bout waddling your dumb ass in there and scooping it out while I lay on the clothes you laid out for work tomorrow and rumple them up so much, people will think you’re a functioning alcoholic?”

Nothing smells worse than cat poop. The only thing that may smell worse is death. But honestly, the first thing most people say when they walk into a room where someone has died is, “Did a cat just take a shit in here?”

I love my cat. He makes me smile more than he makes me grimace. But man, does his doo doo stink!

His interpretation of “I’m in the Mood For Love” alone places James Moody in the canon of Jazz Giants.

Without Mr. Moody, I never would have known about King Pleasure and his great vocal take on Moody’s interpretation. And for that, I will be eternally grateful.

well-fed and comfortably employed politicians how they feel about the extension of the Bush tax cuts, why don’t you talk to the 2 million people who would have lost their unemployment benefits at the end of this month and the 2 million more that would have lost them in February. This isn’t about having enough money to buy the kids Christmas presents. This is about being able to keep the heat on and food on the table for those kids during these cold winter months.

I hate that Obama had to give in and give the Republicans what they wanted, but I honestly feel like he did not have a choice. Sure, he could have stuck out his chest and said, “I’m not giving in. If you want to be stubborn and let the benefits for the unemployed expire, go ahead.” But in the end, if those benefits had in fact expired, all fingers would have pointed to the president. Furthermore, any talks about the DREAM act or the START treaty or DADT would have been swiftly swept under the rug as the battle over tax cuts raged on.

All of these people who feel betrayed by the current administration over this issue are blaming the wrong people. Obama was placed in a no-win situation and I, frankly, think he made the right choice. It’s just unfortunate that in two years, when he will be running for a second term, this issue will once again rear its ugly head. And again, it will be a no win for him. If the economy improves and the unemployment rate dips, Republicans will claim it was due to the tax cut extensions and declare that the cuts need to be made permanent. If the unemployment rate is still in the upper stratosphere, Obama will be seen as a failure when it came to getting Americans back to work. A lose-lose situation all around.

Like Tom Hagen said in the Godfather, “Roth played this one beautifully.”

DREAM Act…
Middle-Class Tax Cuts…
Extension of Unemployment Benefits…
Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell Repeal
START treaty…

thanks Mom