Programming note: This Monday morning I'll be starting the week behind the Golden EIB Microphone for three hours of substitute-host-level Excellence in Broadcasting on America's Number One radio show. The fun starts at 12 noon Eastern/9am Pacific. Hope you'll dial us up either via the iHeart Radio app or on one of over 600 stations across the fruited plain, such as our old friends at WNTK New Hampshire, where you can listen to the full show from anywhere on the planet right here.
Later I'll be swinging by "Tucker Carlson Tonight", coast to coast across America at 8pm Eastern - and tomorrow I'll be hosting another Clubland Q&A taking questions from Mark Steyn Club members live around the planet. Not sure what's up for discussion on Rush, Tucker or Q&A, but do leave any suggestions you might have for topics for in the comments below.
~Late last week there was a stir of movement in the constipated bowels of DC justice: as many of you know, Mann vs Steyn et al is now in its seventh year - over a 270-word blog post about Michael Mann's ludicrous climate-change "hockey stick". I will have more to say about this tomorrow. The short version is that it will be another five years at least before this rubbish comes to trial, and more like seven or eight. Seriously.
~With judicial folderol certain to consume my remaining time on earth, I thank those of you who've been cruising the aisles at the Steyn Store this Christmas. If you don't know what to give the global warm-monger who has everything, you could always give him a helluva shock on Christmas morn and send him one of our two climatological bestsellers - Climate Change: The Facts and the above-referenced "A Disgrace to the Profession": The World's Scientists - in Their Own Words - on Michael E Mann, His Hockey Stick, and Their Damage to Science, Volume One. There are also my solo bestsellers, or indeed my bestselling cat album and Christmas album.
Alternatively, you could splash out on our Steynamite Christmas specials - or two on the aisle for the first ever Dennis Miller/Mark Steyn tour. (There's also a chance to meet me and Dennis after the show.) And there's a stateroom with your loved one's name on it waiting on the second annual Mark Steyn cruise (following our sell-out inaugural voyage in October).
~Exactly one week ago, I noted that #NeverTrumper Max Boot of the Council of Foreign Relations had become the first American ever to be damned as a "cockwomble". Also in that cockwombling column, I addressed the ructions at the newly merged CRTV and TheBlaze, from which soi-disant "conservative powerhouse" two top hosts immediately departed:
The most plausible explanation for Cary Katz, the owner of CRTV and a former Jim Jeffords donor, is that he's a put-up job by George Soros to destroy American conservative media from within. If so, he's doing a grand job.
Is Katz a cockwomble? Well, he's a litigious cockwomble who sues over everything. On the other hand, if Max Boot is the first American in history ever to be called a cockwomble, it'd be kinda fun to be the first guy to be sued for calling someone a cockwomble...
That was Monday. On Friday, I did indeed become the first guy to be sued for calling someone a cockwomble. By Katz, naturally. Say what you like about the cockwombling wanker tosspot, but he's assuredly the speediest thing in American litigation.
~Anyway, last Monday's cockwombling provided all the pretext necessary for me to play "We Wish You a Wombling Merry Christmas". After which I was rather stunned to find so many other Wombles aficionados among our readership. From Australia, Steyn Club member Kate Smyth writes in praise of the Wombles' debut hit - notwithstanding her tenuous grasp of the lyric:
The Wombles of Wimbledon... common are we (as I understood it at the time).
Across the Wimbledon Commonwealth, from the senior Dominion, my compatriot Laura Rosen Cohen prefers their follow-up:
My brother and I loved 'Remember You're a Womble' and we sang it all the time. REMEMBER-MEMBER-MEMBER WHAT A WOMBLE WOMBLE WOMBLE YOU ARE. I can't remember what the B-side was.
I can't believe you don't remember-member-member what the B-side of "Remember You're a Womble" was: "Bungo's Birthday", of course. My own personal favorite was the third single:
Although now I think about it, there's also something to be said for "Wombling White Tie and Tails". Maybe it's time to launch Siriusly Wombling.
~We had a busy weekend at SteynOnline starting with the second of this year's festive Tales for Our Time - my serialization of a Conan Doyle Christmas classic with Holmes, Watson, a London ne'er-do-well, and a Yuletide goose: The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle. Click for Part One and Part Two. Our Saturday movie date was a round-up of Christmas-ish movies, and our Sunday song selection celebrated the seventieth birthday of "Blue Christmas". If you were too busy doin' all right with your Christmas of white this weekend, I hope you'll want to catch up with one or three of the foregoing as a new week begins. Oh, and on this lively comment section they were swatting it back and forth for days on end.
A one-year Christmas Gift membership in the aforementioned Mark Steyn Club is the present that lasts all year. This festive season it comes with a special personalized Christmas card from yours truly and a presentation set of three of our most popular Tales for Our Time.
Membership in the Steyn Club does come with other benefits, too, including:
~Our above-mentioned nightly radio serial Tales for Our Time (the latest of our seasonal tales airs this Friday);
~Exclusive Steyn Store member pricing on over 40 books, mugs, T-shirts, and other products;
~The opportunity to engage in live Clubland Q&A sessions with yours truly (such as tomorrow's);
~Transcript and audio versions of The Mark Steyn Show, SteynPosts, and other video content;
~My new series of video poetry;
~Advance booking for my live appearances around the world, including my upcoming tour with Dennis Miller;
~Customized email alerts for new content in your areas of interest;
~The opportunity to join me and my guests on that second annual Mark Steyn Club Cruise;
~and the chance to support our print, audio and video ventures as they wing their way around the planet.
Catch you on the radio in an hour or so - and do give me a call.
