Jonathan writes:

Since I first moved to the vanished city where I picked up--nay, purchased--a Village Voice each week to read his column, Times fashion hound and sometime Talk contributor Guy Trebay's words have accompanied me along the borderlands between two New Yorks, the one I know and the one I don't yet.

Still braced by Emily's encyclical on the care that can add grace to regular communication at little cost, I was happy to see Trebay's declaration of faith in physical Christmas cards, be they inspired divinely (from a holiday fair at Brick Church on the Upper East Side), or Divinely (by John Waters). Trebay is one of six writers in the Times identifying "The One Luxury I Won't Do Without" this year (illustrated warmly by Greg Clarke, who has done at least one lovely New Yorker cover that I know of).