I recognize that these items might have been more appropriate last week, but in hopes that the Christmas spirit lasts all year . . .

REINDEER ANTLER GIRLS

Did you know that reindeer are caribou and can run 48 miles an hour?  (“Reindeer” because, unlike caribou, you can put reins on them and they pull your sleigh.)

Someone sent me a photo taken just a week ago of a reindeer buck with a full rack of antlers.  This was disappointing, because I had bought into the notion – which even Snopes does not entirely dispute – that Ruth and the others are all girl reindeer.  (On Donna!  On Blitzanne!)  And yet here was this photo, taken December 21, 2009, virtual moments before the big night’s work, of a buck with impressive antlers firmly in place. Plus, as Snopes notes, Santa’s team may be steers, not bulls, which is to say all bells and no b—ls, castrated for just this purpose.

So now, frankly, I don’t know what to believe.

HOW HANDEL ORCHESTRATED A CLASSIC FINANCIAL PORTFOLIO

My very talented pal took 8 minutes to explain last week on The News Hour.  (Did you know that “handel” means “market” in German?)

GREEN LIPPED MUSSELS

I have zero idea whether this stuff could get a grandparent’s joints moving less painfully, but I thought ut was worth asking – have any of you tried it?  (I suppose if you tried it and it killed you, you would not be able to warn us.  But any less severe side effects?)  Does it work?  (I saw just one review on WebMD.)

MOXIE

Word Warp, the free iPhone app that consumed most of my summer and fall, has the advantage of being mindless.  You can actually play and win as you watch the news or listen in on a conference call.  Unless, of course, you switch ON the “alternative word list,” which every fifth or sixth turn will come up with a sub-Saharan Sixteenth Century shrub, now extinct, which requires complete concentration and still you lose and go back to Level One.

Moxie, on the other hand – also free, but I quickly sprang for the 99-cent deluxe edition – is completely absorbing and likely to consume all of 2010 if I allow it.  Words, yes, but it’s all about strategy.  And while I am yet to land a place on the all-time high-score roster, I did clock in at #107 in the entire world (out of 108?) who had been playing in the prior 24 hours (as they returned home with their loved ones from a lovely Christmas dinner).