range (so what) wrote in message ...

(How's that for a screeching left turn off topic, and then back on in
the last line?)

So, where ya going for Christmas vacation?

Nawlins, dahlin'. As usual. And they don't have pine or fir trees in
the swamps, just sweet olive and banana trees in the courtyards. No
plastic santas, no plastic red wreaths (when the proper liturgical
season's color is purple, anyway.) Closest to commercial schlock is
one balcony with a light display that spells out, "Happy Yule, Y'all."

Oh yes, to keep on theme of the ng, I take with me a nice journal book
with removable pages, and instead of comercial Xmas cards, I write,
with fp, personal letters while sitting outdoors in a sidewalk cafe,
drinking chicory coffee and eating beignets. (So if you get a letter
from me with powdered sugar on the page, it's really a new form of
dusting sand to blot the ink.)