fungus_files, 
libilover, mamomo, shiny_elfriend, tuilelindowen, beledibabe, scribblerworks, curtana, and forthright for the wonderful holiday cards and goodies!Grading is completed and the semester is finished. Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!
* Travis Prinzi's excellent new book Harry Potter and Imagination: The Way Between Two Worlds is now available at Amazon.com.
* GhostGirl11, whose fabulous Unique Boxes For Interesting People I use to store my Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab goodies (among other things), is now taking custom orders.
* io9 lists "The Most Amazing Book Covers from Pre-Golden Age SF," complete with illustrations, and "The T-Shirts Every Nerd Needs This Holiday."
* On January 3, 1892, J.R.R. Tolkien was born in Bloemfontein, South Africa. To celebrate this event, on this day each year Tolkien fans around the world are invited to raise a glass and toast the birthday of this much loved author. To make the Birthday Toast, you stand, raise a glass of your choice of drink (not necessarily alcoholic), and say the words "The Professor" before taking a sip (or swig, if that's more appropriate for your drink). Sit and enjoy the rest of your drink. It's time to sign up with the Tolkien Society to show your upcoming participation in the 2009 Birthday Toast!
"You darkness, that I come from,
I love you more than all the fires
that fence in the world,
for the fire makes
a circle of light for everyone,
and then no one outside learns of you.
But the darkness pulls in everything;
shapes and fires, animals and myself,
how easily it gathers them!—
powers and people—
and it is possible a great energy
is moving near me.
I have faith in nights."
- Rainer Maria Rilke, On Darkness
