And on the subject of Downloads...

Continuing its inexorable march toward the tar pits of extinction, the dinosaur that is the old-fashioned physical-product music industry suffered a whopping 20-percent decrease in sales between Thanksgiving and Christmas, 2007, compared to 2006, according to the Nielsen Soundscan numbers reported by Variety, though to read about the bright side — the increasing acceptance of paid digital downloads as a Christmas present — you had to surf over the outstanding tech blog, Ars Technica.

Still, as my buddy Charles pointed out, if you’re in any way feeling sorry for the old-school CD-slinging record biz, please note that the bestselling album of the year, with more than 3.5 million copies sold, was Josh Groban’s “Noel,” which is dreadful enough to make anyone with any taste toss their eggnog toot sweet.