More funny stuff from James:

"Bought the tree ... and was heartened to see they had names on every tree. For years I’ve named our trees, a tradition stretching back to 1988, and one that was starting to seem teeth-grindingly precious, to be frank. I don’t think I named it last year. This year’s tree was named Whitey. (I looked around for trees named Cracker and Ofay, but no luck.)"

"Genius flames and dies, but amiable competence can live forever."

"I always wonder why they don’t have these things the rest of the year. What, are people hungrier in December than June? Do we expect they’ll just graze in the summer months?"