Christmas simply never ends around here: I just received a phone call from Amanda Tree, the mysterious New York dog-walker who showed up twice in the New York Times. Amanda was more than eager to assert her existence and, after I said that I was sure she was a real person and that Gawker was just having a little fun with the situation, she proceeded to tell me a lot of things. Like her life story. Gee, thanks Amanda! The highlights:

· Amanda has held a lot of jobs. She's "just trying to survive." She's a model for the illustrators at FIT and walks dogs and performs and does everything under the sun.
· Amanda is also a singer/songwriter who's been "compared to Nina Simone." She claims her manager was Michael Jeffrey, the man who also managed Jimi Hendrix. When Michael died, Amanda had to babysit to make ends meet until she got a job painting ships at the South Street Seaport.
· Amanda has recorded an album that has been passing through multiple labels. I won't tell you what those labels are.
· Amanda thinks this whole Times business is funny because she once wrote a song with the following lyrics:

Sitting on the back stairs
Playing on my guitar
Writing a song about you
I don't know how the words come so easy
I don't even read the New York Times

I know this because she sang the entire thing to me over the phone. And no, I didn't ask her to do so.