Christmas party

Cockburn will come to your Christmas party

Cockburn woke up bleary-eyed, splashed water on his face and took stock of his calendar this Black Friday. It is already filling up with events from embassies, magazines and cautious frenemies. He spent his Thanksgiving down South, practicing grounding techniques and avoiding stirring pots, except for the pot of cranberry sauce. It isn’t easy being Washington’s nosiest socialite – and even Cockburn needs to get away from the swamp once in a while. However, the time for wholesome family fun has ended. Your disoriented correspondent will be on a plane headed back to Reagan before all the decorations are up in the White House.

Wishing you a joyless and guilt-ridden Thanksgiving

Elsewhere in the world, they just call Thanksgiving “Thursday.” But in the addled minds of some on America’s progressive left, it’s something far worse. Joy Reid aired her “Thanksgiving message to MAGA trolls,” in which she discussed her “alternative” Thanksgiving idea for those who voted for Donald Trump: “Make your own dinner, MAGA, make your own sandwiches, wipe your own tears, troll among yourselves with Elon and leave us alone. You’ve got your heart’s desire: the president you dreamed of, and worship instead of Jesus.

How to host the perfect Christmas party

Cool guests, hot food; cool music, warm hostess: the recipe for the perfect party, and the motto of Perle Mesta, one of the most successful postwar Washington hostesses. Good King Wenceslas, a model host of even greater status, lived out this motto in legendary style centuries earlier. His guests were cool, if not downright frozen; their host was warm of heart (and sole, as the page discovered on treading in his footprints). The food was hot, for the king ordered up pine logs along with the flesh and wine. As for the music, the rude wind’s wild lament must have been on the cool side — though jollier tunes would surely have prevailed once the king and his fellow diners made it back to the royal fireside.

Christmas

Gavin Newsom, wife guy

Thursday night saw a clash for the ages between the governors of the twin territories that sustain America’s pornography addiction. It’s hard to determine a winner of the video nasty on Fox News between Gavin Newsom and Ron DeSantis: DeSantis endorsers claim that their man won, Trump supporters and Democrats call it for Newsom.One tidbit from NBC suggests that the Florida Man did a better job of getting under his opponent’s skin: the governors were potentially set to run longer, but Newsom’s wife Jennifer Siebel Newsom intervened after DeSantis pointed out that her parents had moved from California to Florida.Per Dasha Burns and Nnamdi Egwuonwu, Siebel Newsom “came into the debate room on at least two occasions to raise some objections.