New Year

It's traditional to do an end of year post, so here is mine before the activity of New Year's Eve cuts in. Hope everyone has a great New Year and that 2010 contains all that you hope for and nothing that you fear.

As usual, I am dividing this into the good, the bad, and the ugly, otherwise it resembles one of those ghastly Xmas round-robins in which I reveal that little Genevieve has won a Nobel prize in music and the cats have gained a cordon bleu standard in cooking.

The good: writing-wise,...