The great Yuletide consumer potlatch has been a distinctly muted affair in our understimulated, recession-battered economy. The Elmos and Wiis of flusher times seem to mock us, in that garish mechanical way of theirs, from across the chasm that we created, when all that was solid-not least the multileveraged roofs over our heads-melted into air. And all that's to say nothing, of course, of the high-end dosh that, in a perfect world, would punctuate another productive year of giddy pelf-procuring. So how best to honor the complex holiday mandates of pecuniary display in such a chastened new order? High-end-shopping Financial Times blogger Lucia Van der Post has just the thing: [...]

From time to time, we like to check in on the advanced mating competition that is the London Review of Books classified ads Personals section. Recently, the elaborate attempts to meet and dally have reached dizzying, mysterious new heights. We have three recent favorites! Now let us present the awards for best man-seeking-woman, best woman-seeking-man, and best homo.