It's kind of like watching your favorite band blow up and become huge. You feel like you're entitled to them for yourself because you found them first and no one "gets it" like you do.

But that business about the palm trees-- I couldn't agree more. I knew I wasn't the only one who felt this way when new neighbors from California moved into my childhood neighborhood in Everett. They planted palm trees along the street in front of their house and in the middle of the night shortly after, someone sawed cut them down. I wrestled with "that's awful" and "that's hilarious" for awhile before hilarious won.

My only gripe about the palm trees is that the lights they put on the tall ones for Christmastime should have gone all the way up to the top. They look cooler that way.

I hope he can comprehend and warm to the idea of unemployment.

Christmas lights on palm trees are wrong. Those tacky rope lights seem like a better choice.

Anyway, having recently visited Southern California, white lights on the trunk and green lights on the leaves looks a lot more stylish than just white lights on the trunk (which is what the Top Pot palm trees were decorated with).

Another Christmas decorating idea I saw in Southern California that I have yet to see here: hanging lights, wreaths, etc. on the electrical wires that cross your street, and on the streetlight poles.

Why, Kevin Nash and Scott Hall, of course!