The Neighbors Might Think

My favorite holiday song has got to be "Baby, It's Cold Outside." I feel a little mixed about this. The song is basically a man pressuring his date to stay at his apartment against her better judgement because it's too cold to go home. He uses mystery drinks and guilt ("what's the sense of hurting my pride?") as his tactics of persuasion. As a self-professed feminist, the feeling of anticipation that this song gives me comes with a guilt of its own. I think that what I love about it IS its retro political incorrectness. If this song came out now, I'd be horrified, but imagining it in the 40's with a couple who wear fedoras and cloches and go dancing is somehow... charming. It's like watching the movie Sixteen Candles. Jake Ryan pretty much offers up his girlfriend's poon to the geek, saying that she's too drunk to know the difference between the two of them. We can only enjoy this because it's in retrospect (although that movie does make me a little squirmy). Maybe the lady-half of "Baby, It's Cold Outside" is using a couple persuasion tactics of her own, like a feigned naivete. I mean she is a smoker and drinker, so I think seducer is the natural next step. In that sense, our little snow vixen is quite empowering (yeah, I'm grasping at straws).



I've been on a holiday roll lately. I watched Elf the other day, last night was my family's holiday dinner, and tonight I'm going to my work's holiday party. I work with some awesome people, so I'm very excited and am gonna throw on a fancy dress. Wisconsin is not ignoring the winter spirit either. It's already snowed about 35 inches and, remarkably, I'm not about to stick my head in an oven. We'll see how long that lasts. Cue weather complaints in 3, 2, 1...