…on December 31, which will feature an overflowing bag of virtual presents for people and things New Yorker for the coming year, from a special band of guest contributors. Just a few more days and it’ll be up! Soon after that, I’m happy to report, there’ll be a brand-new Ask the Librarians column, which is always a thrill. Two years—who’da thunk it? For now, my strength and stamina are limited to these little snippets, presented in disjointed-paragraph form:

Lillian Ross appeared on NPR; clever Jason Kottke concocted a witty Nintendo game for New Yorker nuts (via G’ker). Unrelated: A reader crowed at knowing a thing or two (or at least a thing) more than the magazine. I’ve neglected to link to the very engaging Huffington Post blog by Matt Diffee, especially his three-part interview with Bob Mankoff, but it’s really worth reading for a look inside the cartoon department’s selection process; the Washington Post also features Diffee and Mankoff in its own take on this always welcome if now becoming-slightly-repetitive story. Another reader ponders the “palettes” of modern movie critics, including Pauline Kael and Anthony Lane. What would E.B. White have thought of the new Charlotte’s Web movie, asks Ty Burr of The Boston Globe? Today, it turns out, is a notable day in New Yorker and Beatles history. I just happened to land on this New York Times Public Lives profile of Alice Quinn from 2001. Finally, if you’re buying a new subscription to The New Yorker—and why wouldn’t you be?—Consumerist counsels us all to shun the charlatans at magsforless.com. Happy holidays, everybody, and see you at the end of the month for the big birthday party that happens in your head, and mine.