Procrastinating when I should be cleaning the house on the eve of my stepson’s return to the hearth, here are few items that may be of interest:

• Conrad Black’s Christmas is obnubilated. But he remains blissfully sanguine: although lacking enough friends at this point, I suspect, for a compurgation, he promises a vigorous deraignment. Over to the US Supreme Court.

• Cathoholism: how did the Church “fair” in 2010? Lord Black delivers a fulsome encomium, and an objurgation to the sceptics. Readers are encouraged to confute his vicarious rodomontade.

• The Ottawa police have hired a PR firm to refurbish their battered image:
  
  Police will also pay Face Value Communications $40,000 to provide “strategic communication and issue management advice.” Police said the contract would be paid for with money left over in its 2010 budget.
  
  Here’s some real advice, guys, and I’m offering it free as a public service. Want to fix up your blemished operations? 1) Fire the brutes who turned your cellblock into a species of torture chamber, and the managers who either turned a blind eye to it or actually encouraged it; 2) Call for a system of public accountability that allows accessible and effective third-party civilian review of public complaints; 3) Pay Stacy Bonds the full $1.2 million, and make similar offers to other victims of your brutality.
  
  And 4), Revoke that stupid contract that my dollars are paying for. We don’t need “strategic communication” and “issue management advice,” two fancy phrases whose synonyms are “spin” and “damage control.” We need plain dealing and quick resolution, not yet more temporizing and prevarication.

Well, that’s quite enough vilipending for one day, and I hope that readers will forgive me my uncharacteristic peevishness. I promise to return with a cheery Christmas message shortly.