Yesterday I narrowly averted ushering in the “official” holiday season by leaving the room just as Springsteen’s unholy three-hour live rendition of Santa Claus is Coming to Town came on; today I managed to escape a similar fate. On hold with a major retailer, the echoey synthesizer lead lines of Paul McCartney and Wings’ (Simply Having) A Wonderful Christmas Time started over the wait music and was fortunately quashed by a kindly operator. I’m trying not to think about the poor fools waiting in the queue behind me who had to endure the song along with the standard DNA-altering radiation from their cellular or cordless phones. I would say that I was saved, but the seeds have been sown and A Wonderful Christmas Time is beginning to spread through my consciousness and will soon occupy all my waking thoughts until around Three Kings Day.

See if you can get through the video without blacking out:

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