What better way to usher in the holiday that celebrates munificence, family, warmth and generosity than with two videos of Woody Allen discussing death and the meaninglessness of life. For somebody who thinks that nothing ultimately matters, Woody has certainly been prodigious in his output. In fact, it could be said that he’s worked his ass off like no other artist of his generation and has been doing so for more than sixty years. I’ve grown up (and old) with Woody and his work ethic has always been an inspiration to me. His death thing, though, has always left me puzzled; the certainty of morality should be a relief to somebody who’s miserable and worries constantly about it, right? I do love his observation that “every hundred years it’s like somebody flushes a giant toilet and everything starts over again.” It’s true–look back one-hundred years and you will find a dead civilization with perhaps a couple of innovations for which we may be thankful. In our case, the 1920s brought us the first experiments in air-conditioning as well as movies in which you can hear the actors speak. I am deeply thankful for both, though if forced to choose one over the other it would be the A.C. by a long mile. There. I managed to connect Woody, death, movies, A.C. and thankfulness. Enough said.