Lights, Camera

Tis the season. Our local Tacky Christmas Lights Tour is gearing up for some big nights, and I can smell wood fires burning in the 'hood when I walk my dog at dusk. Tis the season for lights garish and warm, subtle and... well, not so subtle. What with the cheap cost of electricity and urban sprawl, we hardly feel the fall of night, much less its long intensity midwinter any more. But our lizard brains know it, and we celebrate St. Lucia Day, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, and Christmas with the awed delight of our fire-dependent ancestors. So, welcome the dark and let there be light!