We’ve had a cold snap in New Orleans, which means that some locals are absurdly bundled up and others are in shorts. They’re both show-offs as far as I’m concerned. Should that concern me? Discuss amongst yourselves.

The end of 2025 is a relief. Project Dictator was pushed hard by Team MAGA. The pushback has been ferocious. The billionaire class may love the idea of a dictatorship, but few others do. The cult of personality is still around but its grip is weakening, even rabid Trumpers don’t like the idea of masked men snatching people off the street. It just goes to show how out of touch the likes of Steven Miller are; sadistic too.

Thanks to everyone who congratulated me on my twenty years as a blogger. Keep those comments, DMs, social media likes, emails, and texts coming. Uh oh, I just said something positive about social media:

This January, I’m pairing one-word song titles with Edward Hopper featured images. I’ve done this before and worked quite well for me at least. I dig short and snappy titles combined with enigmatic imagery. Nobody did enigmatic better than Hopper.

Let’s hop to it and talk about our theme song. Passenger was written by Phil Lesh and Peter Monk for Grateful Dead’s 1977 album Terrapin Station.

We have two versions of Passenger for your listening pleasure: the studio OG and a 1978 live version from Madison, Wisconsin; home of First Draft alums Jude and Scout.

There are few songs with passenger in the title. These are two of them:

Time to duck out of the rain and into our second act.

Dave Barry’s 2025 Year In Review: What would year’s end or beginning be without wacky commentary from Dave Barry? This annual piece used to appear in the WaPo but it now debuts on Substack. Click here and prepare to giggle, chortle, and guffaw.

I realize that I promised a full-blown Odds & Sods post last Sunday. It looks like I blew it. What can ya do?

The Vacant Lot? Holy terrible band name, Batman. No wonder I’d never heard of them. They still got the last word of our second act.

We begin our third act with our favorite stolen feature.

Separated At Birth Casting Edition: Let’s celebrate America’s upcoming 250th birthday before the Insult Comedian makes a mess of it. I know Sam Adams would look askance at Trump’s attempts to crown himself king. The beery Adams was played by Danny Huston in the marvelous 2008 HBO series, John Adams:

I wonder if the Adams cousins ever went on one of these:

Probably not. Sam was Mr. Homebrew, after all.

Your Basic Basie: This week, a doubleheader beginning with a duet by Ella Fitzgerald and Joe Williams backed by the Count Basie Orchestra; followed by an instrumental version of this swinging show tune.

Have I told you lately how much I love Count Basie?

Best Of TCM: Some cinematic heavy hitters died last year. Here’s how TCM remembered them.

Saturday GIF Horse: Careful, Wile E; it’s a Roadrunner crossing. Meep, meep.

That GIF requires a soundtrack. Let’s Bo there:

Toon Time: The Guardian’s Ella Baron rang in the New Year with two disreputable presidents.

Let’s close down this virtual honky tonk with some more music.

Saturday Closer: The New Orleans Saints have a running back named Audric Estimé. He had a great game last week. Every time he touched the ball, I’d exclaim Estimé Prophet. Here’s why:

That’s all for this week. The last word goes to New Orleans as seen from the West Bank on NYE: