Greetings from tropical Portland!

White Christmas here in a big way. Yep, it's snowing again in Portland, breaking all previous records for consecutive days of winter wonderland (though not for amount of snow; you have to go back to the 1880s for a record to beat). So it's a quiet holiday around my neighborhood; no going over the hills and through the woods to Grandmother's house this year, not unless your vehicle has chainschainschains....

Right now the snow's coming down in a dense cascade of of big, gloppy, wet flakes that look exactly like stage snow -- the stuff that falls from the rafters at the end of A Christmas Carol, which never fails to stimulate applause. Here at home, we're a bit past applauding. Oh, it is beautiful. But the weather seers promised us rain today -- the much-maligned, much-missed winter rains of Oregon that we now want to wash away this postcard Christmas.

Well, in the spirit of the holidays I offer you a different postcard, received of Algis Griskevicius, a Lithuanian artist whose work I love. Check out his photography in particular, which has a sense of movement and narrative about it that makes me wish he would photograph theater.

Happy Holidays, everyone. Oh -- the snow just turned into sweet, blessed rain! We're saved! Hoppy, Hoppy Gnu Yr!