Once again, Times-Dispatch columnist Bart Hinkle proves himself to be an acute observer of the human condition. Today he writes:

The Hinkle household is a blended one, which is to say that half the management is male and the other is female. This usually works out fine until around Christmas, when certain politically incorrect gender stereotypes exert themselves.

At the time of the merger several years ago, the male half’s holiday décor consisted of whatever Christmas cards came in the mail. Pick out a festive one, tape it to the front door, and voila! — you’re done. The female half of the enterprise came with several large storage tubs filled with tree trimmings, lights, stockings, garlands, advent calendars, ribbons, bows, wreaths and so on. This admittedly amps up the holiday atmosphere by several notches, but somebody has to haul it all out and put it all up. So the male half of the household hauls it out and then waits for instructions.

That is exactly the way it works in the Bacon household. Bart left out only one thing. When Christmas is over, the work isn’t. Holiday detritus must be taken down, put back in boxes and hauled back to the attic.

As a consequence, I’ll be out of action for a few days. Aside from the unpacking and repacking of Christmas decorations, the Bacons will be traveling hither and yon,visiting with relatives, eating a lot of food, drinking a lot of eggnog, cleaning a whole mess of dishes and taking long snoozes. I will return to Bacon’s Rebellion as soon as humanly possible.

Happy holidays to all!

— JAB