It’s that time of year - so from my homestead in chilly Western Massachusetts Happy Holidays and all the best wishes for the New Year 2010!

It’s also the end of a decade: the “00” decade, nobody knows what to call it, but everybody knows what it was: a veritable stinkfest (for once, something Americans can agree on). It’s probably not a coincidence that in Germany, the “00” symbol stands for the toilet.