You're not alone, Jeneane, grueling work and the holiday rigmorole have been a deadly combination for me this year. "No patience for reason, no time for truth" has been resonating all month. Also resonating in a more positive key, though, has been proof (?) that the gonzo model could work even in my own stodgy old profession, the legal one. As an appellate lawyer, I and my ilk tend to long unrequitedly for ways to forge genuine connections with our core audience - the judges who decide whether our clients deserve to win the cases we present. Do judges have passions too, that have nothing - yet perhaps everything - to do with how they go about their daily grind of administering justice? Boy howdy yeah, who knew? Here in my neck of the woods they seem to be downright taken with Winston Churchill (scroll down to "Local and National" and read on). Unsurprisingly, Sir Winston has a number of loyal fans here at The Firm, as well. Hmmm.... Further proof that gonzo lives in unexpected places is a wildly witty column that one of these Churchillian jurists produces every month for a local bar association magazine and Web site: A Criminal Waste Of Space. Bill Bedsworth clearly needs a blog.

Keep the Visine and egg nog close at hand and all will be well.