As a Montaignean skeptic, I "know" there are very few things in this world that I can be sure about. One of my absolute certainties, however, is that it's pointless to write much during holiday Internet lulls, the longest of which is Christmas through New Year. For that reason, I am cutting today short. There are fresh posts below, products of disordered thinking from what seem like three hours of sleep in the last four days. (I won't expand on the reason for that — partly out of decorum, but mostly because you can so easily guess the reason, which, happily, has been extended into today.) See you tomorrow.