Once upon a time there were two songwriters in Tin Pan Alley. One was called Haven Gillespie and the other went by the name of J Fred Coots. (I think of them mainly because I like the conjunction of their names.) Haven was a Harvard man backed up by loads of old money and Fred came up from the gutter but was gay, promiscuous and pretty enough to be accepted everywhere. They sat in their seedy office on Forty Second Street celebrating with bourbon the success of the song they had recently written. It was called "You Go to my Head" and contains some of the best lyrics ever written. Then they wrote the song that ended their collaboration in spite of its success as it was so awful. This one had nothing to do with the elegant sophistication of their other effusion but it was called "Santa Claus is Coming to Town." That partly explains why I am thinking about it in the middle of the night and although it is a ridiculous jingle it helps to shut out all thoughts of the horrors that are being perpetrated all over the world - at least for the next few days of goodwill and gluttony.
Happy Christmas to you all.
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