Welcome Yule!

And so the Shortest Day came and the year died
And everywhere down the centuries of the snow-white world
Came people singing, dancing,
To drive the dark away.
They lighted candles in the winter trees;
They hung their homes with evergreen;
They burned beseeching fires all night long
To keep the year alive.
And when the new year's sunshine blazed awake
They shouted, revelling.
Through all the frosty ages you can hear them
Echoing behind us - listen!

.................................................

All the long echoes, sing the same delight,
This Shortest Day,
As promise wakens in the sleeping land:
They carol, feast, give thanks,
And dearly love their friends,
And hope for peace.
And now so do we, here, now,
This year and every year.
Welcome Yule!

© Susan Cooper, part of every Revels show since their inception.  Yes, it's now an annual tradition to post this.

The new Harry Potter book has its title now

you can go to jkrowling.com and play hangman to see it, or( click here )

Still no official publication date.

it's a sad state of affairs...

...when the best thing that ESPN could come up with for my lunchtime entertainment was a bunch of pro football players playing Madden Challenge in a tournament being treated like a reality show / inside the nfl documentary.

"Sports" has never been ESPN's real forte, has it?

the down side of the dark side...

Always remember on the winter solstice: cold as it is, you're as close to the sun as you'll ever get.

New Headline: Borders Books Spoils the Game

They just sent an email to their distro lists naming the book right off the bat, so if you wanted to actually play the game and find out through the web site, well, bleh on you if you're on their mailing lists.