Past the shortest day

As the world prepares to celebrate the miracle of Jesus being born just a few days after the winter solstice, and before everyone's blog reading time gets consumed by more important matters, we'd like to wish our readers a Happy Christmas and New Year -- and for those not observing or caring about one or both, the best of luck in taking advantage of the side benefits (extra sport on television, less work etc). Posting might be a little light but we expect that the news is not going to take a holiday, and therefore there will be excuses to post next week.