The original ETA Hoffmann story on which The Nutcracker is based is a strange, strange thing - like pretty much everything that Hoffmann wrote - and was radically pared down for the ballet. You have to drop SOMETHING to make way for prancing, and the multiple frame storytelling of the original, with its nested system of curses and duty shirking cats, was the victim.

We are fast approaching the New Year, and as the whole New Year's Eve To New Year's Day nexus is more or less the most unavoidably depressing thing ever, steps have been taken to be-rad-ify it, Empire style. I was sucked into the world of Star Wars miniatures a while ago, and as it combines universe/narrative creation with world sculpting with tactics with collectible things that come with cards, it sunk its teeth in deep, so I try and drag Geoff and a small cohort of others over once every three months or so to run through a new scenario. So far we've been from Raxus Prime to Corellia to Yavin IV, but January 1 we'll be doing it up Hothwise, and it will be glorious. Because if rebels aren't heroically dying in the snow, it's hardly New Year's.

- Count Dolby von Luckner