I know it’s a somewhat limited demographic, but if you’ve had a prefrontal lobotomy during the past few weeks, finding appropriate Christmas TV fare can be a challenge. You want something light, so as not to distract you from the absorbing task of managing your drool. Well, RTE has just the programme for you–Celebrity Jigs ‘n’ Reels. Responding to a huge upswell of indifference among the Irish public, the programme “returns this year for the New Year’s Eve party to end all parties with seven willing celebrities box-stepping and jigging their way to midnight all in the name of charity.”

Yes, it might be mindless garbage, but it’s for charity–which means all involved don’t really have to make an effort to be any good.

On the other hand, if you have more than basic brain-stem function, I recommend for your holiday delectation the following elevating material:

James Meek explains how to boost your scrabble score; Caleb Crain discusses the implications of the decline of reading; Malcolm Gladwell tells us why IQ tests tell us more about the society that sets them than the people who take them.

And to end the post on a festive note, here’s another Malcolm, Malcolm Middleton with, for me, the Christmas song of 2007: We’re All Going to Die: