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Santa and his foot-soldiers are sad, so have a heart, and maybe even get it tattooed on you in the spirit of the season

Santa had to waylay his tattoo shop experience, but there are still Nutcracker soldiers, and BBQ and ice cream loosely combined, not to mention the typical ugly sweaters to be seen.
— This seemed like a novel holiday offering, a Santa visit to a tattoo parlor. However, just days before the event was to take place, that Santa, one of the main ones who does such a portrayal locally, suffered a heart attack and needed to cancel, I was told by a worker at Ink Factory Tattoos downtown. (I was informed the other day he’s probably going to be all right, just lay off the fruitcake and candies). So Jay, the shop owner, ended up scrambling to take down signs around the heart of Hudson that had advertised the offering. The guys at Ink Factory seemed a bit bummed out by this turn of events and it shows that its not only the kids and family types who get into this type of family fun. But there is a still a remnant, the dozen or so Nutcracker themed soldiers in the great big window that leads into the Ink Family establishment.
— Is this a case of BBQ meets DQ? The shuttle bus for Big Guys Roadhouse BBQ has been parked outside the Dairy Queen often at nights. Is there a merger in sight? A different take on Mexican-style deep fried ice cream, with in this case a BBQ fried twist?
— The ugly sweater party season got going early with a Dec. 2 gig at the Hudson Bowling Center, as they are trying to reach out to a broader audience of patrons. Although with the way some of those outfits looked, it could be considered a “strike” against them? Just kidding …
— Recent winds have blown over some of the holiday-themed glowing characters on peoples’ lawns late at night, as they just just weren’t big enough to withstand near gale force. Reminds me of a local bar patron who throws the best holiday parties and always has a larger-than-life figure of Homer Simpson as Santa in his yard. Seems appropriate that Homer would get blown over.
— A patron at Dick’s said that she’d been on a pub crawl in the Twin Cities and “it was a drunk fest since 4:45.” Hey it’s got to be 5 O’Clock, or close, somewhere. To which the bartender said he’d never really consider such indulgence, when off duty, until around midnight. And another 5 p.m. reference follows. A big vehicle with a long arm was putting the sign in place for the coming-soon Rio Loco at right around that time during a recent Friday. So it’s obviously not just the Santa lightup night that occurs at that time.
— Two women came all the way from Webster to watch one-man-bander Jeff Loven play at Dick’s rather than the venue at which they are used to seeing him, called Whitetails. That was enough for them to score free drinks. And another relative newcomer won the trivia contest, her name was Tally, (I hope I spelled that right), and I gave it that spelling because it means her “tally” of such victories now stands at one. And up the block, there was another play on words involving spelling, as the Agave Kitchen’s marquee brought to the forefront a frequent theme involving their family atmosphere: “Spelling test tomorrow, Wensday.”
— One more Back in Black reference, and we’re not only referring to the AC/DC guitarist who died, Malcolm Young. A balloon flying late-night on a downtown parking meter said about Black Friday, “Happy Thanksgiving, shop small.” Would that mean patronizing one of the nearby bars and purchasing a shot, (small drink), since they are small businesses too?

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