Positive Presents For Negative Christmases*

(*I didn't have that negative a Christmas... but given everything that's going on again, we can hardly call it a positive one, can we?)

Alyson shared some of her family's Christmas presents in a recent post, tempting me to do the same. This may be of zero interest, but I was fascinated by her presents, and I'm sharing the ones that I'll particularly want to recall when I'm reading this post back in 20 years time. (Elderly Rol is always my target audience.)

Above is the bag that Louise got me to replace the one that died on the day before I left my old job at The Bad Place. Twin Peaks fans might recognise the badges I stuck to it... the tiny red and blue one reads "Save Ferris". 

Louise also tends to buy me a Shining-related gift every year or so. Previous gifts include an Overlook Hotel doormat and a framed poster of a typewriter typing "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy". This year, it was Lego Jack Torrance, who is currently guarding my Elvis Costello CDs.

Finally, another Stephen King-related gift. Not the novel, which is by Garth Risk Hallberg, a present I specifically requested as it's set in 1970s New York City, a time and place I find endlessly fascinating. (That said, I didn't know it was that thick! At my current reading pace, I won't have finished it by next Christmas.) No, I'm referring to the bookmark, which you might have to click on to make bigger... it's a library card from Derry Public Library, dated November 1963. Fans of It will get the reference... I'm sure Martin will dig that gift.

Here's the best song about giving gifts that I can think of today...