January is a time for conviviality, for turning inwards with congenial company and shouldering out the cold. Some will tell you it is the time to detox, but it is always the time to detox, and your liver and kidneys are busily obliging as you read. No: January is the moment to remind ourselves, after the forced closeness of Christmas, what we like about other people, particularly those to whom we are not related.
You have just lived through a season of insanity, where even anti-capitalist atheists find themselves celebrating the birth of a human deity via a Sinai-size stack of presents; it is time to break out the punchbowl and knock yourself up a potent toast to your survival.
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