Time Magazine calls The New Yorker's post-election cover, by Bob Staake, the best magazine cover of the year. "Simply spectacular," they say. Curiously, NBC's Domenico Montanaro points out that Barack Obama appeared on 48 percent of Time's covers in 2008, albeit sometimes in the "skybox," that cute folded-down corner that previews a secondary story in the issue—I didn't know that's what it's called!

Call for entries: As the Irvin-mad Emily noticed the other day, the 2009 Eustace Tilley Contest is under way! Send in your depiction of Eustace Tilley by January 15, 2009. Françoise Mouly will curate a slide show with the top entries.

The Aurora Theater Company of Berkeley, California, is putting on George Packer's Betrayed in January. I've seen it, and it comes recommended. The play is about the failure of the American authorities in Iraq to support those courageous Iraqis who risked their lives by collaborating with the occupying forces. Here's the original article from The New Yorker. Now that Iraq is a bit out of the headlines, I'm curious whether the play feels dated in any way—a perhaps inevitable fate for material as "newsy" as this.

Tom Spurgeon of the Comics Reporter blog reviews Booth, a 1999 book about legendary New Yorker cartoonist George Booth. Hey—we're fans.

The New York Public Library has a fairly random picture of William Shawn, which kind of thing always cheers me up.

Oh, and here's a 2003 article by me about the connections between A Christmas Carol and It's a Wonderful Life. I think it's good. Merry Christmas!