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3C's
December 03, 2007
Decorating is a bore. Shopping for gifts is a chore.
There are only three things about Christmas I really enjoy�the three �C�s:
Carols. It�s pretty obvious that I listen to a lot of holiday music.
Cards. I actually do enjoy sending Christmas cards. I even signed up for the opportunity to send extra ones this year. I�m kinda funny that way.
Cookies. My husband is a lucky guy this time of year, because he�s a Cookie Monster, and I get a big itch to bake cookies this time of year. Any other time of year? Forget it. I don�t really care for cookies, unless they are chocolate chip. And of all the things you can bake, nothing is more tedious than pan after pan of cookies. But for some reason, Christmas makes me want to bake Spritz and Pfeffernusse and gingerbread men and sugar cookies, and make peanut brittle and fudge and those little clusters with the chow mein noodles in them.
I�ve been making microwave peanut and cashew brittle every few weeks since before Halloween, because it keeps getting eaten. I started the cookies right after Thanksgiving, with a big batch of rolled sugar cookies sprinkled with red & green sugars�same thing. They are all gone. Yesterday, I made another batch of peanut brittle, and a batch of peanut butter cookies with Hershey Kisses stuck in them. Goodness knows how long they�ll last. If I make Spritz this week, I�ll hide them in the deep freeze so we have some left for the holidays!
I watched the Rickles thing on HBO last night. I enjoyed it, but I wish it had touched on why Don does the type of comedy he does, and a little more on the impact his career may have had on his family. I never finished his book, and I was hoping the show would answer questions. It was less history and more Valentine, as far as I could see. I was glad Landis kept coming back to the dramatic acting talent; I�ve never seen Don Rickles in a dramatic part that didn�t come across as anything but completely authentic.
Another thing to consider with Rickles is that his humor doesn�t travel, because he doesn�t tell jokes. His humor is performance. He takes a situation and performs a reaction to it. It isn�t improv, because he has a list of material he uses again and again. But it is performance. Now, when Don does it, it is brilliant. But when a bunch of talking heads try to repeat the words, it doesn�t seem funny. And given the kind of things Rickles says in his act, it�s almost painful. Marty Scorsese laughing hysterically at the memory of a Rickles routine that sounds unfunny and tasteless in the retelling was hard to watch. As was the constant return to the theme of �Vegas was better when the mob ran it�. That�s a whole different documentary, if you ask me. Put the focus back on Mr. Warmth!
Some of the cutting was baffling, too. Talking head, cutaway in the middle, back to talking head. Point, please? I found it unsettling. Yes, it was flawed. But it was Rickles, so I loved it. Flaws and all.
I�m going to keep it short�I wanted do my non-exchange Christmas cards, and I had some other futzing around to do, on the PC and off. But I spent most of the evening on the phone with the 'rents, gabbing with Mom and providing tech support for Dad.
Reading: �Upstairs, Downstairs, Volume I�, by John Hawkesworth.
Listening: The Royal Guardsmen on Youtube--the Snoopy songs.
At Random: click here
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