A lot of people, maybe most people, can speak and understand foreign languages better when drunk! Something about the insecurity and the self-consciousness melting away.

I have already printed out "Figure 1: Welcome Bear" (as Jeff Koons, or maybe Damien Hirst, would no doubt call it) and will be displaying it proudly on my front door the day of our Holiday Party.

One of my happiest holiday party memories is when a gang of us went to a trendy NYC restaurant for New Year's Eve and I STARTED a conga line and the wait staff joined in! I was not entirely sober (and I doubt the wait staff was either) but I guess I was sober enough to remember this.

The holidays really are the most wonderful time of the year.

Did your friend get to travel a lot at least? It's my impression that the certain choreographer is like the David Hasselhoff of his field, held in much higher regard abroad than he is here in the States.

You most certainly should not feel embarrassed or ashamed. You're fairly young, aren't you? Like a college student? That doesn't really matter but I was once a young gay college student.

Tom Hanks' daughter went.

I guess Mr. Jephson wasn't wandering my part of America in 1981. Seemingly overnight many young and not-so-young women dyed their hair blonde and got Diana's hairstyle. But yes, she was this obscure young British preschool teacher so what was all that fuss about?

Oh, she'll be a Princess soon enough. Traditionally the first born son of a reigning monarch becomes the Prince of Wales, so if and when Queen Elizabth ever dies Charles becomes King and they'll be an Investiture and Wills will get to be Prince of Wales, and Katie gets to be Princess.

Thank you! And how did I miss this? I love your writing and try to keep up but this Gawker/Kinja/Blogs/Sub-Blogs/Have Your Own Kinja Blog/Have Your Own Conversation Thread thing is a little overwhelming. And I say this as someone who started reading Gawker right around the time it launched, 2003 or 2004 I think?

Do you happen to know why we tip in America and it's not really practiced outside the US? I mean, why servers everywhere else get a higher wage and at the end of the meal you just leave change or a couple of bills on the table? I'm just curious about how this became an American thing.

Replying to myself:

The grand jury probably didn't vote to indict because the prosecutors have leeway in what charges are brought and what witnesses are called. There are many things Pantaleo would have been indicted for, had the charges been more tailored to what the entire world saw in the video and had the witness pool been a little…

One of my favorite scenes in Downton Abbey is when Lord Grantham reluctantly assents to renting a radio so they can listen to a speech by King George V and they all stand up for it. I also liked the scene where Rose was presented at Court and no one said to His Majesty, "You speak English flawlessly, with hardly a…

LBJ used to famously receive reporters and members of Congress in a White House bathroom while he was on the toilet. It was a power move ("You want to talk to me? Well let's talk about this!")

It looks like he's "wearing it to the right" in that uniform.

"Upper West Side" is code for Jewish people, but this chef is teleporting himself from the 1980s.

A friend of mine had a boy and named him Reuben and I asked, "After the Reuben Kincaid character on The Partridge Family?" (No, after a beloved relative who had recently died. Awkward.)

They don't have bathrooom attendants in the private airport lounges, or at least not for American Airlines and at least not for men. Which is a relief, pardon the pun.

You really need to see her in action: