Tis the material and nonmaterial season

Everyone's talking about cutting back on holiday shopping, which is good for the soul. But for the economy? Not so much. In my household we're doing our best to stretch our gift dollar by doing most of our shopping at Seattle's Archie McPhee, home of the Freud Action Figure and The Cubes.

Another area where a lot of people are worried about cutbacks is gifts to charity. Philanthropic professional groups and journals are trying to reassure charities about the bad economy. The conventional wisdom is that people find a way to keep giving to charities, and some experts say giving tends to stay flat during recessions. I'm not so sure this is an accurate picture; 'surveys of the field' reflect averages. I don't see how every charity sectors can avoid reduced contributions, especially those reliant on foundations whose investment portfolios have taken it in the shorts.

Germs

November, for all the joy the presidential election brought, ended up being lost time for me. I spent much of it flat on my back with pneumonia.

Based on average incubation times, I figure the nasty little bacteria took up residence in my lungs on or about Halloween. A big reason for the lengthy recovery was that it wasn't until the second week that I stopped treating it as the flu, and got my hands on some serious antibiotics.

I spent the second week musing about how and where I picked up the bacteria. The odds were pretty low that it happened at home. Not that I'm a cleanfreak -- my partner used to be a surgical assistant and workplace OSHA supervisor. She set up some simple procedures around the house that allow us to easily avoid things like cross-contamination in the kitchen.