December 30 2007, 11:50 AM Flinging Loot

It used to be that nicest thing about the holiday with the tree was receiving gifts; the world has turned a bit, now, and I can say (most likely again, and still) that these days by far the better deal is giving them. There is always an element of toe-tapping sweat to this, silly as it is: questions linger as to the use and fitness of the surprises one selects for those one cares about. I am pleased to report that this year was a smashing success all around in both directions.

The rule of the Stuff Violation goes something like this: if the house is full, don't bring in any more stuff. This made things a little difficult with regard for our parents, who have been busy trying to pare down the merry clamor of things in their home for quite some time now, further exacerbated by the new kitchen, where (and I do not disrecommend this) for the first time in a long time order was able to descend and everything had a proper place. The issue here is that, with a place for everything and everything in its place, new things tend to upset the nutmeg cart a bit.

That said, after the fact of sitting by the tree and carefully collecting colorful paper, my brother and I went in on a cheese grater for them. Aaron Sorkin reference aside (which I do not think anyone else caught) this was a wild success. It is not that they do not have cheese graters: they do. It is good, though, to have good tools, and now in one small corner of a drawer they have a better tool than they had, and in kitchens little things like this can make for big differences. Now something else has to leave the kitchen to make room for it, but that's alright: there is an obvious candidate.

For myself, I now have a worked piece of brass and iron that does a commendable job of making things flat in ways that I was not quite able to make things flat before. It is good to have good tools.