Last Christmas is my go-to karaoke song for this time of the year. It's easy enough to sing.

Oh, man - don't try to throw the kids a bone. I did that and I'm not allowed within 500 yards of any school, playground or recycling center.

Growing up in NYC, I remember Hanukkah being at least a moderately big deal, but that might have been a part of the overall December holiday creep of the times.

It's hard not to pay attention when the foam seeps out of their waistbands. And you're right - I have a hard time staying friends with people who rely on Fox for information.

Quicker than not smoking, but probably slower than smoking cigarettes - you don't inhale them, so less of your body is affected, too. They're in no way healthy for you, physically, but out of all the ways to 1)self medicate and 2) avoid feisty family members, it's my favorite.

It's almost exactly the same as the piano riff at the beginning of Jungleland, just a bit slower. Roy Bittan was the pianist for both of them, so he probably had a bit of influence on it. (I tested it on my kids, who aren't familiar with either - they thought that R&J was a guitar cover of Jungleland until I took…

We never put on the news channels at our (as opposed to my parent's) house, but it's one of the reasons we decided to go without cable here, too. We weren't getting enough out of it to make it worthwhile, and when friends and family visit, there's no Fox (or other non-stop 'news') channel to veg out in front of.

In fairness, we had been bombing Iraq non-stop since we 'finished' the first gulf war. We were conducting air strikes to enforce the no-fly zone. It' s one of the reasons we went back in - we were going to have resources tied up there until we finished things anyway, and if we 'brought democracy' to both Iraq and…

When we were in Korea, one of my housemates used to tell women he met at bars that his name was 'Rick Venus'.

It's terrific. I should dig up a copy - my kids are big Dr. Who fans and they might enjoy seeing a much younger Time Lord.

Jack Johnson is great - Is it his name? His hobby? Could be both.

Start smoking cigars - you can sit outside for a good two hours.

Cool - I'll have to look for that. I enjoyed her cover of Pilot and don't doubt that she'd do a good job with the rest of the album.

I stand by it. The sax line in 'Your Latest Trick' is great, Local Hero is all kinds of amazing, Private Investigations and Brothers in Arms don't get nearly the play they should for songs as good as they are. But Romeo and Juliet has his most powerful combination of lyrics and music.

Oh, I do. It's one of the reasons I get us out of the house and away from the TV when I visit the folks.

My Fox-news watching friends have hit the Benghazi Kool-aid pretty hard. It's the sort of thing that gets them all foaming at the crotch.

Ah. I don't think I've heard this before either. Almost 2 decades of living overseas leads me to think that every band I don't know is the Spice Girls, though.

No, but I don't know much Mandy Moore outside of, of all things, Drop the Pilot. But Bruce's speech about stealing Badlands straight from We Gotta Get Out Of This Place makes me think she probably had the right idea anyway.

I liked John Cougar so much more than any of his other incarnations. He was a lot more fun before he added the Mellencamp back in.

"Romeo and Juliet" is the best thing that Knopfler ever wrote. It's one of the few songs that make me stop whatever else I'm doing and give it my full attention.