Wes Phillips

Well, if you're tired of being jolly, you could go see No Country For Old Men, which will counteract any amount of Whooville saccharine. John Patterson has a good time with the Coen brothers.

The Beeb censored Shane MacGowan's "Fairytale of New York" for its use of a slur. Sam Leith argues that Auntie mistook a slur for a swear-word—an unforgivable sin in the maidenly world of journalism.

That'll cure what ails ya! Angela Hartnett says real comfort food is the way to recharge that candle you've been burning at both ends.

MTV published an end of the year review of the music business on December 17, "Madonna Ditches Label, Radiohead Go Renegade: The Year The Music Industry Broke." Month by month, it's a litany of bad tidings for the biz, from January 14, 2007, the day the Dreamgirls soundtrack hit number 1 on Billboard's pop charts with a scant 60,000 copies sold (lowest #1 ever) through December 3, 2007's announcements that Def Jam and EMI were laying off employees and Warner Music Group would cut executive bonuses (awww).