Kate Hudson's Pivot Answers

1. a great sounding word, cloud. for meaning, sex.
2. moist (she was preceded with this word only by Drew Barrymore, whom she played in an SNL sketch with Will Ferrell as Lipton and her as Barrymore)
3. this is so cheesy, but life
4. lies
5. my son's laughter
6. truck beeps, the backwards beep, beep, beep thing
7. the one I use the most would be fuck, the best sounding one as a mother you don't want to say it. the best curse word to me is cocksucker
8. I think I'd be a pretty good lawyer
9. anything that had anything to do with milk product. milk makes me gag.
10. "Congratulations, you might not have to do that again." or "Your family's in the other room."

"And that makes everything right"?

Gene Autry wrote "Here Comes Santa Claus." I like Elvis' version, but my favorite might be Willie Nelson's. Regardless there's a line I've puzzled over, sometimes admiring the ability to blend the commercialism of Santa and gift giving with "the Reason for the Season," sometimes appalled at that same fact.

"Santa knows that we're God's children; that makes everything right."

That was the line that jumped out at me, though most all of it is a mash-up of Santa and God. I guess part of it hearkens (I wanted to type "harkens" but the dotted red line says no.) to the Saint Nicholas of Christmas lore, and a Conservative audience, but it seems odd considering what Christmas has become. I think I've unburthen'd myself of Christmas song musing for a while anyway, so thank you for your forbearance. For some reason, like those that place great authority in the printed word, I treat songs/lyrics as the gospel truth. Because it is in a song, it must be so. Though the reality of the matter is setting me up for some serious reckoning.

In other news, unlike last year when I tried to do a twelve baking days of Christmas, this year I just want to make some things I haven't before. One of those things are truffles, another is a créme anglaise (maybe for my annual figged bread pudding), and a third might be a roasted bird that isn't a turkey (maybe some Cornish game hens, like my newlywed couple friends do for Thanksgiving, or a duck; goose is too expensive--I couldn't touch a frozen one for less than 50 bucks.).

I was looking up varsity in one of my bedside dictionaries (British shortening of university) and stumbled across vegete. It is an archaic word that means full of life. I found this interesting considering "vegetable" is now an adjective for the exact opposite.

Robert Downey Jr.'s Pivot Answers

1. print
2. spelunker
3. spit balling
4. motives
5. uncontrollable snorting laughter
6. custom ringtones
7. sonofacocklovinwhore
8. inventor
9. trespassing paparazzi
10. "Boy did I have a ball with you."

And Crack We'll Take the Lead!

I think I've used this space before to wonder what a bobtail nag "two forty for her speed" means. Regardless, I really like the Jingle Bells song. My three favorite renditions of the song are from Bing Crosby and the Andrews Sisters (they have a wonderful breakdown near the end [1:39] with Bing singing over the Sisters with some "Ohwe'llhavealottafun." Plus, that part is followed up with that beautifully warm clarinet.), Sammy Davis Jr. (my favorite part [1:24] is when he's going all out with some "JING-JING-JINGLE IN THE MORNIN'"), and Frank Sinatra with some men's choir that starts the song with "I love those J-I-N-G-L-E Bells (yeah). Those holiday J-I-N-G-L-E bells (yeah). Those J-I-N-G-L-E B-E-Double L-S."

Other Christmas songs I can't bear the season without are Elvis' Blue Christmas (Porky Pig has a version I haven't heard forever), Elvis' Here Comes Santa Claus, and not necessary but kitschy fun is this one.

I'll leave you with the naughtiest Christmas song lyric from Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller sung by Elvis in the song Santa Claus Is Back in Town:

"Hang up your pretty stockings
And turn off the light,
Santa Claus is comin'
Down your chimney tonight."