Goodbye

That's it for me until around Australia Day next year.

I may post a few things over the break so I know where to find my ammunition for a column, but comments will be off to spare me any moderating duties.

Thanks very much indeed for your support this year, which has been so overwhelming that we've averaged only just under 2 million page impressions a month for the first 11 months of the year, despite my taking six weeks off. I'm as grateful as I'm surprised.

And have a great Christmas and wonderful New Year.

Many readers tell me they love this version, and I'm not surprised:

But I think this one might last me a few years longer (and so does Uncle John Whiteside):

And then, of course, there's the great, great Jussi Bjorling:

But if you are reading this after Christmas, with a new year before you, and want to feel like you could touch the very sky… or, even, rake it, grab it, with your hands…

Then there is Mario del Monaco.... I watch this and see life intensified almost unbearably. I see the greatest possibilities.

Just listen to del Monaco deliver that last line, and know, too, what he sings:

O giovinetta bella,


d'un poeta non disprezzate il detto:


Udite!


Non conoscete amor,


amor, divino dono, no lo schernir,


del mondo anima e vita è l'Amor!

Oh beautiful young lady,


don't discredit the words of a poet


Listen!


You don't know love.


love, a divine gift, don't scoff at it,


the life and soul of the world is love!

The full lyrics, so moving, are here.