Happy Holidays

A quick note with best wishes for the holiday season, before I sign off, in all likelihood, for the remainder of 2009. I've dealt with my share of grinches before, and while I'm no fan of the shopping-industrial complex that Christmas has wrought, to say nothing of the travesty that is Christmas "music," I continue to maintain that a winter festival is valuable. It gives us, or should, anyway, an opportunity to pause and reflect on the cyclical nature of, well, nature, and the passing of time. So a happy and prosperous new year to everyone.