Nick's Picks 12/7/2009

Not really sure why but "The Beautiful Ones" by Prince and the Revolution always makes me think of Christmas...sort of shocked that Barry Larkin has retired from baseball...was anxious to try Five Guys Burgers and Fries until I saw their sign, which looks like the signage one would see for a failing bagel shop in late 1988...trust me: the Republicans are going with Palin/Tebow in '12...the older I get, the more tolerant I become of people telling me shit I've known for months as if it were brand-new information...is this Girl With the Dragon Tattoo book really anything at all?...Art Brut deserve the Nobel Prize for the line "Why don't our parents...worry about us?"...Putin strikes me as a wily character...was excited when my close-to-day-job Kroger added their ultra-modern olive bar, but they don't stock the pickled garlic that the other stores do, so they can suck it...if I had time, I would write something else about Dash Snow...if we're going to succeed in Afghanistan, they'd better send in ED-209...bet you didn't know that Frances "Six Feet Under" Conroy is the chick living in Martin Landau's boyhood home in Crimes and Misdemeanors...a new broom really does sweep clean...