I am not sure this qualifies as a Christmas song, but it is played a lot during the season, and it has Christmas in the title, so, eh. If Die Hard gets to be a Christmas movie, this gets to be a Christmans song. It is a slow, contemplative song whose joy is more about…

Each day until Christmas, I am going to write briefly about a Christmas song I enjoy. Because I can, that’s why. And I am an unabashed corny dork. I feel the title of this song is a little misleading.  It is not a story of a Snoopy helping Woodstock find the true meaning of Christmas,…

Waymo put out a report that claimed it as six times safer than human drivers. I don’t think that it is impressive as it sounds. Before getting into the details, though, we really should acknowledge that Waymo is doing this the right way. They are using public data, though there are limits I will discuss,…

Each day until Christmas, I am going to write briefly about a Christmas song I enjoy. Because I can, that’s why. And I am an unabashed corny dork. Because we have reached the point of the holiday season where we all dream of murdering our more annoying relatives. Or is that just me? Anyway, Elvis…

Rudy is another mawkish song, but that’s okay. Sincerity is often seen as mawkish, and the best of the values that the Christmas season purports to propagate are sincere. Good will to people and peace on Earth are not, at their core, held ironically. And this song by the Be Good Tanyas is certainly sincere…

Each day until Christmas, I am going to write briefly about a Christmas song I enjoy. Because I can, that’s why. And I an unabashed corny dork. A classic.  It has been argued that one of the reasons that Christianity spread through the Roman Empire where other mystery cults struggled was that Christianity offered a…

Each day until Christmas, I am going to write briefly about a Christmas song I enjoy. Because I can, that’s why. And I an unabashed corny dork. This song single-handedly made a mediocre movie (Meet Me in St. Louis) a classic.  It, and Judy Garland’s performance of it, are that good.  I suspect that the…

This is not a political newsletter, not in the traditional sense.   Yes, obviously, I have political opinions, some of which are not hard to find in this newsletter.  And I don’t mind owning them.  But they are generally expressed through the lens of how writing and technology interact with society, because I fond those…

Each day until Christmas, I am going to write briefly about a Christmas song I enjoy. Because I can, that’s why. And I am an unabashed corny dork. Okay, this is a very mawkish song.  And okay, there are very few good versions of this.  Everyone seems to want to lean into the pathos of…

Each day until Christmas, I am going to write briefly about a Christmas song I enjoy. Because I can, that’s why. And I an unabashed corny dork. This is a beautiful song, full stop.  I have hardly heard a bad version of this song, and there have been hundreds if not thousands recorded.  It is…