No links today.
Just popped on to say, hope it's a great 2004 for all of you. And (especially if 2003 hasn't been that great) here's my wish for you.

Sometimes

Sometimes, things don’t go after all,
from bad to worse. Some years, muscadel
faces down frost; green thrives; the crops don’t fail,
sometimes a man aims high, and all goes well.

A people will sometimes step back from war;
elect an honest man; decide they care
enough, that they can’t leave some stranger poor.
Some men become what they were born for.

Sometimes our best efforts do not go
amiss; sometimes we do as we meant to.
The sun will sometimes melt a field of sorrow
that seemed hard frozen: may it happen for you.

~ Sheenagh Pugh

Now get off the net, finish whatever it was you were pretending to work at, and get out and party. If you're drinking, don't drive, ok? Or fly.

Did you know that Google was powered by pigeons? (Link shamelessly lifted from Oh Google, how do I love thee? by Pauline Masurel, online pal, on trAce.

An interesting statistic in this article[*] on NYT (reprinted in yesterday's TOI, Mumbai edition) on safety in automobiles: "Outside stimuli — billboards or accident scenes that inspire rubbernecking — accounted for almost 30 percent of crashes; adjusting the radio or CD player, 11.4 percent; talking with passengers, 10.9 percent; adjusting climate control, 2.8 percent; eating or drinking, 1.7 percent. Cell phones accounted for just 1.5 percent of accidents, the study found."
Hm, you know, chaps, perhaps all those creative hoardings telling people not to use their phones when driving are not having quite the desired effect!

If you're dropping by today, you need a life. But for your trouble, here's a funny link stolen from FOTB, The Babu at Kitabkhana. Thank you, Hurreeji.
A very happy Christmas to all of you. And may the spirit of the season last all year through.
Hm. The fact that i'm posting today - what does that say about me?

A Christmas Poem by Dave Barry (First published in the Miami Herald in 1995) over at his his blog.

The difference between men and women - one more take in the letters column at 2blowhards, which is well worth a visit anyway.

For all among ye who are slaving away on the the next Booker winner, here's a list of other awards. Just in case. Oh, and the site's for sale, by the way. Mail jac@literature-awards.com if you want to take over.

Did you know of the existence of the Indian Digital Library?

Ah. Someone's exhibiting and selling Raja Lala Deen Dayal prints. Even if you don't want to spend US$30 per B&W 8x10 to get one of that 19th century wizard's works on your wall, drop by. Viewing them on your monitor is free. And while on photography, do wander by this Henri Cartier-Bresson collection, and this lovely set of Annie Leibovitz portraits, from her book, Women. And there's another set here, which include some famous shots of music icons. More music - photography jugalbandi, closer home: Farrokh Chothia's wonderful Jazz Images are well worth the loading time.

Chortle for the day: this piece by Nilanjana S Roy, [FOTB].