Warmest greetings at this most special time of the year. I hope you are doing well. Still keeping up with the Pilates? Has Mrs. Claus caught up on her Coronation Street yet? It must be difficult being behind the new episodes! Please give my best to Rudolph and the rest (and please let Blitzen know that he can borrow any of my books whenever he wants — it’s not a bother at all, the old silly!).

I would like to apologise for my sister. She’s likely very busy — I’m assuming that is why she didn’t have time for any of the expected social niceties. She truly is a good person at heart. I hope you won’t be too hard on her and exile her to the Naughty List for life. Rather, I hope you will see fit to merely place her on a three-year probation.

Well… it’s “that” time of year. You need my list. So, I’ve thrown together this little collection of trifles that would warm my heart and tickle my fancy. I hope it meets with your approval. (You’ll probably notice a few similar items — maybe I should start issuing theme lists!)

• Battlestar Galactica (2003 Miniseries)
• Battlestar Galactica - Season One (2004)
• Battlestar Galactica - Season 2.0 (2005)
• A Feast for Crows, George R.R. Martin
• iTrip mini
• Batman: The Dark Knight Strikes Again
• Batman: Year One
• Batman Begins
• leather wallet
• sweater
• Flashflight
• wool hat with ear-flaps
• leather gloves (but not frou-frou ones)

Please remember — I trust your judgement implicitly. These are simply suggestions. This is your area of expertise and I wouldn’t dare tell you how to do your job.

Well, I must be off — duty calls! All my best to you and yours. I remain your devoted friend,

Jason

P.S. Two more things I thought of!

Internal DVD Burner
External Harddrive

That is all.

• Washington Post: “Tight Constraints on Pentagon’s Freedom Walk” (via Atrios)

Organizers of the Pentagon’s 9/11 memorial Freedom Walk on Sunday are taking extraordinary measures to control participation in the march and concert, with the route fenced off and lined with police and the event closed to anyone who does not register online by 4:30 p.m. today.

The march, sponsored by the Department of Defense, will wend its way from the Pentagon to the Mall along a route that has not been specified but will be lined with four-foot-high snow fencing to keep it closed and “sterile,” said Allison Barber, deputy assistant secretary of defense.

The U.S. Park Police will have its entire Washington force of several hundred on duty and along the route, on foot, horseback and motorcycles and monitoring from above by helicopter. Officers are prepared to arrest anyone who joins the march or concert without a credential and refuses to leave, said Park Police Chief Dwight E. Pettiford.

…

One restricted group will be the media, whose members will not be allowed to walk along the march route. Reporters and cameras are restricted to three enclosed areas along the route but are not permitted to walk alongside participants walking from the Pentagon, across the Memorial Bridge to the Mall.

From dictionary.com:

free·dom
n.

1. The condition of being free of restraints.
2. Liberty of the person from slavery, detention, or oppression.
3. a. Political independence.
   b. Exemption from the arbitrary exercise of authority in the performance of a specific action; civil liberty: freedom of assembly.

4. Exemption from an unpleasant or onerous condition: freedom from want.
5. The capacity to exercise choice; free will: We have the freedom to do as we please all afternoon.
6. Ease or facility of movement: loose sports clothing, giving the wearer freedom.
7. Frankness or boldness; lack of modesty or reserve: the new freedom in movies and novels.
8. a. The right to unrestricted use; full access: was given the freedom of their research facilities.
   b. The right of enjoying all of the privileges of membership or citizenship: the freedom of the city.
9. A right or the power to engage in certain actions without control or interference: “the seductive freedoms and excesses of the picaresque form” (John W. Aldridge).

i·ro·ny
n. pl. i·ro·nies

1. a. The use of words to express something different from and often opposite to their literal meaning.