Saturday 9

(Link in meme-roll)
Paint It Black (1966)
Not familiar with this week's song? Hear it here.

1) This song was chosen because yesterday was Black Friday, the traditional day of sales. Have you begun your Christmas shopping?

I started, in a desultory way, last winter. I spent today getting ideas, but realistically Beast and I dropped a bomb on the trip we're taking over New Year's, and Sparky's going to Hawaii in January, so I suspect we'll be getting Hershey bars and socks under the tree.

2) Are there any Thanksgiving leftovers in your refrigerator right now?

Hell yeah. We made 15 lbs. of mashed potatoes, a large bag of bakery stuffing, and a 23.8 lb. turkey...for 6 people. Plus all the other fixins. People took some stuff home, but holy shit we have tons of turkey left! Not so much potatoes.

3) AAA says Thanksgiving is a big travel weekend. Did you venture far from home for your holiday dinner?

Nope. Right here in my house, 10 years in a row.

4) Keith Richards likes France but, alas, the French authorities haven't always been fond of him and his criminal record. Have you ever been to France?

Nope. I'm the diametric opposite of Keith: not interested in going, and yet free to visit any time.

5) Mick Jagger jokes that, to be polite to fellow hotel guests, he always finishes trashing his room by 10:00 PM. What kind of hotel/motel guest are you? Are you rockstar rambunctious, or are you quiet? Are you neat? Have you stolen any towels, bathrobes, etc.?

I'm very quiet, probably medium-neat, and I don't steal. They aren't usually worth it.
OK, yes, I take the toiletries for the homeless. Otherwise, no stealing.

6) Mick Jagger got his financial savvy as a student at the London School of Economics. Are you good with money?

I'm less careful about spending than I used to be, which is disappointing. If forced to keep to a budget, I absolutely CAN do it, but I rely on Beast to tell me to cool off when we're tight these days.

7) In the early 1990s, a then little-known actress named Angelina Jolie appeared in a Rolling Stones video ("Anybody Seen My Baby?"). Name an Angelina Jolie movie.

Mr. and Mrs. Smith is the only one I've seen. I think.

8) In the early 1960s, the Stones nearly avoided tragedy when their tour bus skidded off a bridge. Tell us about a near miss you're thankful for.

About ten years ago, I slid off a wet road going way too fast listening to the radio loud on a 90-degree turn. I careened through a farmhouse's front yard, avoided head-butting a hundred-year-old oak and somehow slid back onto the road safe and sound. I was running late, on my way to pick up Sparky from school, and Beast was out of town, so had I crashed it would have been a complete cluster. I've only been on that road once since then, and found they'd installed giant (car-sized) rocks where I plowed through. Nice. I'd be dead if I did it now.

9) In 1966, when this week's song was popular, CBS telecast How the Grinch Stole Christmas for the first time. What's your favorite Dr. Seuss story?

Oh the Places You'll Go. Or maybe the Cat in the Hat books. Or Thidwick...I like most of them, really.