I have so many distinct memories of driving to High School. The feeling of freedom and excitement, the way my 1984 Celica took almost the entire freezing cold ride to school to start warming up (and the way it had no front wheel traction in the snow). Picking up my best friend, and stopping at Bess Eaton for a pumpernickel bagel and a Tank of iced coffee with approximately 112 sugars. Feeling like somehow, for about 15 minutes, that I was free as a bird. And of course that feeling was strongly assisted by my 17-year-old's penchant for blasting the radio and letting it take me away. There are a handful of songs that, to this day, bring me right back to those late 90s mornings, with an open road in front of me and a friend beside. Semisonic's Closing Time is one of them.

Several of my friends have shared this on Facebook today, and it's completely blown my mind. Turns out it wasn't an aspirational anthem about how awesome life would be when I went away to college: in fact, it was pretty much the opposite.

Dan Wilson of Semisonic performs "Closing Time" at his 25th reunion at Harvard's Sanders Theatre. Before and during the tune he tells a funny story about what the song really means. He won a Grammy for the song in 1999.

Discovered via this sweet article.

Happy Friday, friends.

This is kind of a cop-out on a Friday Find, but I am just SO EXCITED that this season is officially upon us! This is a post I wrote and originally posted on FoodLush a few years ago. I've edited and modified it.

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Thanksgiving is over! It's time to be unapologetically full of THE OTHER HOLIDAYS.

I have an obsession with Christmas, and Christmas music, and Christmas food, and also regular food. And maybe you've noticed, but they overlap. In the obvious ways, sure, but have you noticed how often food is sung about in holiday songs? Because I have and I want to talk about it.

Let's examine some favorites shall we?

1. Sleigh Ride.

Obviously the only good version is sung by Johnny Mathis. Give it a listen and just try not to feel jaunty and festive. Personally, it makes me want to dance like Kristen Wiig, which is high praise in my book.

If you've never heard Johnny Mathis's Christmas albums, get thee to iTunes and get thee some of that retro crooning. It's perfect.

My favorite part of the song is where they talk about passing around the coffee and the pumpkin pie.

a) Pumpkin pie is delicious (so is coffee) and b) It seems kind of rebellious as pumpkin pie is clearly a fall food, not a Christmas food. When I hear that lyric, I always wonder if people do eat pumpkin pie at their winter celebrations post-Thanksgiving. Do you? It certainly would seem that Johnny is in good company, given that pumpkin pie is also mentioned in Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree.

2. My Favorite Things.

I am partial to the Barbra Streisand version on her Christmas album, which is aptly titled "A Christmas Album". I didn't know this was a Christmas song, but it must be if it's on that album. Here we have crisp apple struedel, and schnitzel with noodle.

Again I am confused. Apple struedel? Really? Admittedly I do not know how the Von Trapps and Fruelein Maria did things in Austria, but aren't apples more of a fall food? How DID this become a holiday song anyway? The lyrics also mention rain. As we all know, the only festive precipitation is snow, so I continute to be confused all around by this song.

3. The Christmas Song.

Bold and daring, this song puts it all out there right in the title. This is THE Christmas song. Therefore I'm willing to accept at face-value anything it claims. The chesnuts are roasting on an open fire. "Everybody knows, a turkey and some mistletoe..." Bam. Suddenly turkey isn't just for Thanksgiving.

4. The 12 Days of Christmas.

Pear trees, partridges, maids-a-milking, geese-a-laying. So many foodstuffs I can hardly count....count. Eh? Ehh?

5. We Wish You a Merry Christmas

Figgy Pudding! A fictitious Christmas food only available in classic Charles Dickens stories.

6. Baby It's Cold Outside.

A problematic song featuring drinks, and a woman wondering what a man has put in her drink as he doesn't accept no for an answer. I hate this song. Every time I hear it I think, oh, it can't be THAT bad, then, nope, it just keeps getting worse.

7. Let It Snow.

He or she brought some corn for popping! Festive!

8. Frosty the Snowman.

He has a corncob pipe, so.

9. The Hannukah Song.

There aren't many Hannukah songs, but this one is really in it to win it, with it's love for gin and tonics. There's also mention of the Carnegie Deli, and I think we can agree a pound of pastrami with a piece of bread perched precariously on top makes a damn good sandwich.

10. Marshmallow World.

The entire song revolves around corny food jokes. It's a marshmallow world, a whipped cream day. I get excited every time the Target commercial featuring this song is played.

11. Here We Come A-wassailing.

According to Wikipedia, which quotes Readers Digest: "the Christmas spirit often made the rich a little more generous than usual, and bands of beggars and orphans used to dance their way through the snowy streets of England, offering to sing good cheer and to tell good fortune if the householder would give them a drink from his wassail bowl or a penny or a pork pie or, let them stand for a few minutes beside the warmth of his hearth. The wassail bowl itself was a hearty combination of hot ale or beer, apples, spices and mead, just alcoholic enough to warm tingling toes and fingers of the singers"

It doesn't get more festive than pork pies, warm spiced alcohol, and begging British street urchins.

God bless us, every one.