you better be good FOR GOODNESS SAKE!

I was musing over that line, in one of my more uhh, muse-over-stupid-shit moments, and I figured we can't possibly be meant to take that bit of "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" literally. I mean, the whole gist of this song is about how this Santa fellah has constant surveillance over all the kiddies out there, he is making notes on your behavior and rewarding the good kiddies with beau coup loot. Fair enough. Me comprende. But then they hit this line in the chorus "you better be good for goodness sake!" That's right--be good just for the sake of being good, kids, not for the copius mountains of toys it'll net ya. Just ignore that whole Santa Claus/ giant bribe thing I mentioned and just behave because you ought to. Truly, the holidays are the very best times to get your kids all fucked up puzzling over ethical complexities. Can't just leave them to their sweet dreaming-of-sugar-plums naivete.
Ok, ok, ok-- yeah I know the "-for goodness sake" part is a purely rhetorical, tacked on there because it works syllabically and is kind of, in a way alliterationesque (not exactly, but you know what the hell I mean--with the "good" & the "goodness") But you know, occasionally you'll get a kid that's a real deep thinker like myself (oh yes, they ARE out there..in fact my eldest niece Chloe shows signs of being a kindred tortured genius) a kid that will ponder the core message of the song, and that li'l turn of phrase is going to perplex them. Maybe then, these songwriters should not have sacrificed meaning for the sake of assonance. I have a substitute phrase to propose...how 'bout "you better be good you little shits"? A trifle crude maybe, but it works syllabicly. Definitely is not so ethically perplexing, that's for sure...

So have been staying with the folks lately. Since my dad's been outta the hospital (hip replacement surgery back on Dec 5) we've had one of these booster potty chairs in the bathroom...

although the one presently @ my parents' casa is not attached to the toilet. You can put in onto and take it off of the toilet as needed. Really, I ought to take the thing off and move it everytime I go....but I don't. Gives the task a whole new spin when you let the bidness fly from, like, 5 feet above target. Different accoustics, or something I guess. Sorry to be such a hogger but I'm trying to exhibit my multi-facetedness here. I can be goofily clever (paragraph 1) and then do a total persona-pivot and do toilet humor (literally). I have such RANGE. It's, like, phenomenal how much range I gots, G.

I am monumentally vexed that I missed Thursday night's eppy of The Office. And I've not verified it in the TV listings, but there's probably 3 or 4 weeks before they start in with new episodes again. Grrrrr.