Monday, December 23, 2002
Not to shit on everyone’s Christmas spirit, but it just seems like no one is making an effort anymore. All year long I look forward to gathering up the toys and, quite frankly, busting my balls to get all the stuff to everyone and there doesn’t seem to be much reciprocation on everyone else’s part.

I’m not going to name names, but let’s just talk about what some people are leaving under the tree. It used to be cookies and milk, and boy, does that ever get boring after the thousandth house, but at least they were homemade cookies and milk. These days I’m lucky if I can get some half-broken Oreos and a juicebox. I’m not saying the kids are to blame, they’re probably the reason I get the Oreos, but somebody out there is just not giving a damn anymore.

You know what I want for Christmas? Well, since you ask, a big fat plate of babyback ribs sitting under the tree would be nice. Just one house, you know, not everywhere. I realize it’s more of a hassle than you’re used to, but at least in neighborhoods can’t you get together and work something out? These cookies are going to give me a heart attack, it’s really too much sugar. I have a family history of diabetes, you know. What I basically need is something high-carb ‘cause I lose a lot of energy moving from house to house with a finger aside my nose. That burns calories.

And all you construction workers out there, you’ve got to start making the roofs a little flatter. I can’t handle those 45-degree angles anymore. Or just build a deck or something. I’m not worried about the lack of chimneys and the locked doors and security systems—they haven’t built a house that can keep me out. But you build a house with a pointed roof and then put satellite dishes and all sorts of shit up there, you’re just begging me to skip your house.

While we’re on the subject of making my life just a tad easier… kids: Get into something a little easier on St. Nick, will you? Those goddamn Playstation 2s and video games by the ton are not only impossible to make, but they’re starting to seriously do some damage to the ol’ back. It would be a real crying shame if some of you got into sports again, just asked for a football or a baseball glove or sneakers or something—hardly any of you are in great shape, you know. It wouldn’t kill you to go outdoors once in a while.

Oh, and you know what really pisses me off? All those kitschy adults who think it’s so funny to write a Christmas list to Santa with their friends. Some group of half-baked intellectuals or cutesy-ass yuppies hang out at Starbucks for a half-hour penning some dumb-ass request for Gap clothes and S.U.V.s and you think it’s so funny. Well, you know what? I’m legally obligated to answer all of those letters in some fashion. Yeah, the price-capping laws make it so I don’t have to bring you the S.U.V. or anything, but what really pisses me off is that you’re wasting my time when you’re going to go out and buy the S.U.V. anyway. I have serious business to tend to, real kids who need real Christmas shit, I don’t need your jerk-off Christmas lists cluttering up the naughty/nice ratio.

Whew. Sorry. Just bugs me, a lot.

It’s not so bad, I guess. Despite everything, all the complaints, I realize I got a pretty good job. I spend about four months driving the elf workforce in the toy production, but they can basically run that themselves, then I bust my ass (and I really do bust my ass) one night a year, which basically leaves me with about eight months to just chill, do nothin’. And for that work I’m celebrated by children everywhere, more than their parents, who do at least half the work I get credit for. Yep, in some ways, it’s the sweetest of gigs. Merry Christmas, everyone.

If I Were a Carpenter I Would Build You a Home Out of My Heart
Perhaps I could live on an artificial heart. Artificial, like William Shatner’s hair. I understand people can only live so long on artificial hearts, so I definitely would have to work fast. It would be a rush job, this heart house, but I’d get it done.

I Challenge You to a Race Around the World
We shall carry only that which fits on our back, Nuttley, eat when we can catch food, drink when we can lay hands on water. It is a test of will as much as speed, endurance as much as swiftness. Of character even more than rate of travel.

I Just Wanted a Card That Said “Sorry For Kicking Your Grandma in the Kidneys”
Is that too much to ask? Apparently so. Time and time again Hallmark has left me high and dry to draw up my own cards of one stick figure putting the boot-stomp on another, or a cat getting sucked into a lawnmower.

Ode to the Debunker
Without debunkers, the conspiracy theorist population would grow wildly out of control, regenerating exponentially and savaging the natural cultural landscape. The beautiful diversity of nature would quickly and unceremoniously be destroyed, like a bedwetting puppy that was a gift from your ex-wife.