Hi everyone,

Welcome back!  How are you?  Things are good at Clutter Headquarters at the moment.  The heat is working, the sunsets continue to get later, and yours truly had a good annual physical yesterday, so it looks like we're closing out 2017 on a positive note.  The one downside is that we can't see out of most of the windows because of the frost.  However, when I mentioned that to BDH and Little Buddha, they said, "That's fine, because we have everything we need inside, including coffee!"  Can't argue with that.  Speaking of which, the guys made you a fresh pot, so help yourself to a nice medium DD, and let's clear out some Friday Clutter! 

It was sweet of Peter Capaldi to write a letter to a young fan who was dreading the 12th Doctor's regeneration on Christmas.  Capaldi is a good man who did a great job with this role.  We look forward to supporting him in other projects.

Look at that, the Boston Celtics fought back from a 26-point deficit to beat the Houston Rockets 99-98 last night.  This Celtics team loves playing with fire with these comeback wins.  That feels like a looming problem for the playoffs, but it certainly makes for entertaining stories right now.

The Boston Red Sox still haven't made a big-name free agent signing this off-season, but no matter how that plays out, it's clear that there will be a lot of pressure on Xander Bogaerts to have a better year in 2018.  The shortstop played for much of the 2017 season with an injured hand, so hopefully it's just a matter of keeping him healthy.   The Sox seem to be banking on better offense coming from their current roster, and Bogaerts is at the top of the list of  players who need to bounce back.

WBUR has a fun piece about longtime Red Sox organist Josh Kantor.  Side note: Kantor has a terrific Twitter account, and he takes song requests during games, so if you're not already following him, you should correct that mistake right now.

New Patriots linebacker James Harrison took to Instagram to respond to accusations from his now-former Pittsburgh Steelers teammates that he disgraced himself by signing with New England.  We're quickly growing to love Harrison.  Who knows what he's got left in the tank, but anyone who wants to take on the Steelers is fine by us.

Welcome to New England.  We hope you enjoy your stay!  (pic via nbcsports.com)

Roy Moore's lawsuit challenging the Alabama Senate election outcome was tossed out by a judge, and the results were certified by Secretary of State John Merrill.  Apparently claiming fraud because African-Americans turned out to vote isn't a solid claim for overturning a democratic election.  Who knew?

The Clutter investment team could have predicted a great year for the stock market in January, and actually, they may have in a handful of conversations at the start of the year.  We'll need to check the tape.  After all, the foundation of the GOP platform is economic policies that generate extreme short-term benefits for the top 1%, that inevitably crash at some point, to which Republicans always have one solution:  more tax cuts!  Given that the GOP currently controls the legislative and executive branch, and doesn't even bother to pretend to care about "fiscal responsibility" anymore, this year's run is no surprise.  Republicans have one more year to try to squeeze every last dollar of profit out of Wall Street before the 2018 mid-term elections arrive, and a blue tidal wave washes over them.

Let's see what Matt Inman has going on at The Oatmeal right now.  Hey, here's a tip about how to improve unpleasant situations that looks like it might be useful.

Okay kids, that's going to do it for now.  We were recently watching The Chew at the gym (hey, you do whatever it takes to pass the time while you're doing cardio), and they had country singer Sara Evans on as a guest.  We only know Evans for one tune, and it's not one of hers.   It's this live performance of 3 Doors Down's, "Here Without You," which also happens to be today's, "Song of the Day."

Thanks for stopping by, everyone.  It was great to see you, as always.  Wait, hold on a second...BDH and Little Buddha want to make sure you know you're all invited to come back later to hang out if you like.  We might just watch the Doctor Who Christmas Special again, or the guys would be happy to read to you from their new books.  Just a FYI.  Otherwise, enjoy the rest of your day, stay warm, and we'll catch up again for more fun soon.  Until next time, that's today's Clearing out the Clutter, and we are outta here.