It seems from the media that the most appropriate thing to write about is how to deal with hangovers and how to keep your New Year's Resolutions for more than a week. Since it is the job of the media to deflect all the attention of those with the attention span of gnats from things that really matter I didn't think I would do that this year, though I have done it in previous years.

Vampires seem to be very popular nowadays. I thought that this little canter may interest people who have an unusual interest in blood, their own or other people’s.

I’m writing this on the 29th January 2010 which is the anniversary of the day I received the name Douglas Many Deeds from some non hostile Indians. We are close to the beginning of February, which means about forty days after Yule. The mother of the Celtic Sun god born again on the 21st of December, the Solstice, has experienced her customary forty days of purification after childbirth and is now entering her cyclical change into maidenhood.