It's The End Of The Year As We Know It

Actually, for most of us, it's work as usual. Those in retail will be working additional hours; those serving in Iraq and Afghanistan will get no breaks. But for the pundit class December 3 signals the end of the working year. The last three weeks of 2004 will be filled with corporate-subsidized feasts, lobbyist goody bags and foreign vacations. The white mens' burden will be braving the traffic between Chris Matthews's Nantucket home and Tim Russert's Nantucket home while celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ. Year-In-Review columns penned in September and updated in mid-November will be downloaded or e-mailed to syndicates by personal assistants. The paeans to George Bush are already penned.(Unavoidably, some television must still be done, as self-promotion never rests and there's always someone else who wants what's rightfully yours.) Every other article will be "The Best Books Written By Our Friends" or "The 100 Best Things That Our Advertisers Sell." The newsfotainment programs will be filled with merchandising tie-ins that make the product placement on The Apprentice look virginal.

Who are we to question the divine order of things? It's what God wants.

And keep rowing. You're lucky you've got a job.