TOP DRAWER INK NEWSLETTER

 

Here's the latest issue of Top Drawer Ink, the newsletter written by author HL Carpenter that's chock full of humor and common sense information.

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December 20, 2003
Volume 1, Number 12
ISSN 1554-6330

In this issue:

1. Carpenter Country Essay

2. Top Drawer Article

3. Top Drawer Tips

4. Top Drawer Book Review

5. Top Drawer Satire

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CARPENTER COUNTRY

What's Happening in Our Neck of the Human Experience

Have you ever wondered what Christmas celebrations Santa sees on his trip around the world? We looked up a sampling, and found that customs vary less than we thought.

The French observe the holiday with food, drink and merriment. So do the Russians, but their festivities center more on New Year’s than Christmas.

Australians feast under a summer sun. Their December is like July in North America. Chinese Christians beautify the holiday with decorations. For non-Christians it’s the Chinese New Year, though without fireworks for Beijingers.

London sings in the Christmas season with carols in Trafalgar Square. In Germany the past is the present with recreations of medieval events in chilly ancient castles. In New York City, the Radio City Christmas Spectacular puts everyone in the holiday mood.

Perhaps the best scenes of all take place in small communities. In towns around the globe, people perform folk plays about the Nativity. Christmas lights garland houses. Front yards feature sleighs, reindeer and a fat jolly fellow, usually dressed in red. (Children the world over know him by more names than there are gifts in the sack he carries.)

Here in Carpenter Country the mood of the season is everywhere. From the colorful packages sitting under the brightly-lit Christmas tree to the scent of baking cookies and the sounds of the choir through an open church door, the magic surrounds us.

Wonderful, isn’t it?

Maybe one day soon peace will come to every village in every nation in the world. Then we can truly sing “Happy Holidays” – and a chorus will answer, “Happy Holidays to you.”

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TOP DRAWER ARTICLE

Christmas Gifting

by
HL Carpenter

‘Tis the season for giving. So, will it be cash, charge or pledge? An hour of your time or the clothes off your back? What about that older car or those appreciated stocks? Are you interested in helping an international charity or a domestic one? And would you like a tax deduction?

Just like when you shop for gifts for family members, you’re presented with plenty of choices – and decisions - when making charitable donations.

Read the entire article here

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TOP DRAWER TIPS
Topics and Tidbits

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TOP DRAWER BOOK REVIEW

by
HL Carpenter

The New Financial Order: Risk in the 21st Century
by Robert J. Shiller
366 pages; hardcover; $29.95
Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, 2003

Do you consider those Internet activity tracking devices known as cookies to be annoying privacy-invaders? If so, here’s some unwelcome news: they’re grade school stuff compared to what Yale professor Robert Shiller envisions for the future. He’d like information about every aspect of your life, from income to genetics to charitable intentions, to be maintained on a Global Risk Information Database, called a GRID.

Read the entire review here

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TOP DRAWER SATIRE

Wanted: Elves

by
HL Carpenter

Business owners, wake up and hear the bells: If you think the improving economy is making it tough to retain employees in plum positions at your company, you ought to try recruiting at the North Pole.

Unprecedented employee turnover there has prompted Christmas, Inc., the world’s largest overnight distributor of gift items, to sound a holiday 911 jingle for help.

Read the rest here